How to: Newborn Baby and Red Skin Tones

[Andy]

OK the topic is, Newborn Baby!

Yep - those very first shots, in the hospital, available, mixed lighting, and you're the new Dad, with a new dSLR, and you want to do your best with in-camera jpgs so you can get the shots, upload to SmugMug, and share.

This shot is from a SmugMug customer (and new Dad!)... right from his camera (Nikon D70, sRGB mode, available light no flash).



We actually color-corrected a batch of 100 shots by hand (we meaning Baldy - who's seen thousands of cases of off-color, and was nearly stumped with this job) and sent them off to our printer - for sure they're an improvement but of course, the objective here is to see if this can be avoided by Mr. New Dad in the future!

Baldy has discussed the near-infrared issue in his blog and there's also a great section on skin tones and why they're too red in the smugmug help files. These are great resources for fixing the problem in post-processing, but how about when we want to get it as right as possible in-camera?

Now newborn babies are tough - they fresh 'n red and plump and juicy and cute - and all of that combined with typical poor available light in the hospital room - makes for very difficult shooting circumstances. So c'mon you experts - let's hear your ideas

And thanks to our anonymous new Dad, for allowing us to use these pics as a learning experience (he'll be watching, and he wants to learn, too!).

Enjoy (newborn baby) photography,

[DavidTO]

OK, so here's a 5 minute or less fix. On my laptop, no mouse, talking to the kids, no promises.

Basic outline: in curves, set the gray point on the sheet. Convert mode to LAB. Use Shadow/Highlights on the L channel only. Add a curve, apply the A channel to create a mask. Use levels to make the mask useable. Use the curves to pull back the magenta in the face. Duplicate that adjustment layer and double clicked the curves, reset them to start from scratch, and then used the L channel to lighten slightly in the face and especially on the red parts of the face.

If you need more detail, I can do it later...it ain't perfect, but gives an idea of what's possible...(like I said, laptop, no mouse, kids, yada yada...)

[pathfinder]

Shoot the baby by window lighting and set the camera white balance for shade, or use the flourescent setting on the camera white balance for hospital flourescent lights.

Or do what dave suggested, if you understand it ( I think I do) but I venture most new father's with a brand new digital camera probably do not understand layers and LAB channels like Dave does.

[DavidTO]

Originally Posted by pathfinder

Shoot the baby by window lighting and set the camera white balance for shade, or use the flourescent setting on the camera white balance for hospital flourescent lights.

Or do what dave suggested, if you understand it ( I think I do) but I venture most new father's with a brand new digital camera probably do not understand layers and LAB channels like Dave does.

Yeah, they're pretty bad destructions, but it would take me much more time than I have now to make them clear. I'll post them later.

[Shay Stephens]

Well a couple of things come to mind.

1) Getting a good exposure from the beginning will help with the over-saturation (reds looking redder) you can get when you adjust the brightness in post. So pay attention to the exposure firstly.

2) Make sure the white balance is appropriate. It looks good in this photo.

3) Have realistic expectations of the result. If the skin is really and truly reddish, as it is here, you can't expect something different to be in the photo. You won't be getting a model babies skin in a situation like this (curse the movies and TV for giving this unrealistic view hehehe).

4) If the color temperature of the ambient lighting is just too hinky, use flash to help give a normalized output that can be dealt with easier. You can modify the flash output anyway you see appropriate (color, softness, etc)

Originally Posted by Andy

.. but how about when we want to get it as right as possible in-camera?

[gtc]

i dont want to dampen anyones enthusiasm for photoshopping baby but i have found that baby usually takes about two or three weeks before they are suitable for a photograph.

by then the skin colour starts to stabilise eg redness and blotchiness fades,the weird skin stuff clears up,cradle cap etc and the eyes are open and alert.

its usually daylight too and babies features are more recognisable.

so,anonymous baby shooter,dont despair if photoshop cant work miracles-wait for nature to take its course.

Originally Posted by Andy

OK the topic is, Newborn Baby!

Yep - those very first shots, in the hospital, available, mixed lighting, and you're the new Dad, with a new dSLR, and you want to do your best with in-camera jpgs so you can get the shots, upload to SmugMug, and share.

This shot is from a SmugMug customer (and new Dad!)... right from his camera (Nikon D70, sRGB mode, available light no flash).



We actually color-corrected a batch of 100 shots by hand (we meaning Baldy - who's seen thousands of cases of off-color, and was nearly stumped with this job) and sent them off to our printer - for sure they're an improvement but of course, the objective here is to see if this can be avoided by Mr. New Dad in the future!

Baldy has discussed the near-infrared issue in his blog and there's also a great section on skin tones and why they're too red in the smugmug help files. These are great resources for fixing the problem in post-processing, but how about when we want to get it as right as possible in-camera?

Now newborn babies are tough - they fresh 'n red and plump and juicy and cute - and all of that combined with typical poor available light in the hospital room - makes for very difficult shooting circumstances. So c'mon you experts - let's hear your ideas

And thanks to our anonymous new Dad, for allowing us to use these pics as a learning experience (he'll be watching, and he wants to learn, too!).

Enjoy (newborn baby) photography,

[Mitchell]

I have to agree with Greg. For the first 2-3 weeks, most babies will have red, blotchy skin. Take some pics as memories but don't expect much.

I always turned to B&W during this time with a little softening. The moms usually love them.

[Andy]

Hey, everyone, thanks.

If you read carefully my post, though, you'll see that I'm looking for discussion around IN-CAMERA techniques (at shoot) only. There are plenty of ways to fix the shots after the fact. Thanks again!

[Mitchell]

Originally Posted by Andy

Hey, everyone, thanks.

If you read carefully my post, though, you'll see that I'm looking for discussion around IN-CAMERA techniques (at shoot) only. There are plenty of ways to fix the shots after the fact. Thanks again!

Sorry about that, Andy.

When shooting portraits with the D70, I found the sReala version 2 custom curve to be very helpful. It really seems to work nicely with skin tones. If he doesn't have this, he should try downloading it into the D70 to see the difference.

The link can be found here http://www.digitalkb.com/nikon/d70/t...a/version_two/

[Andy]

Originally Posted by Mitchell

Sorry about that, Andy.

When shooting portraits with the D70, I found the sReala version 2 custom curve to be very helpful. It really seems to work nicely with skin tones. If he doesn't have this, he should try downloading it into the D70 to see the difference.

The link can be found here http://www.digitalkb.com/nikon/d70/t...a/version_two/

now that's what I'm talkin' about! Thanks Mitchell