I'm stumped on colors.
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Sometimes it’s right there in front of you. I was sitting in the living room playing with my camera and flash, and when I looked up I saw what I thought was a good photo opportunity.
The camera setup
Nikon D50
Focal Length: 100mm
Optimize Image: Custom
Color Mode: Mode II (Adobe RGB)
Long Exposure NR: Off
2006/10/12 09:11:36.6
Exposure Mode: Manual
White Balance: Auto
Tone Comp.: Medium Low
Compressed RAW (12-bit)
Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern
AF Mode: AF-S
Hue Adjustment: 0°
Image Size: Large (3008 x 2000)
1/125 sec - F/8
Flash Sync Mode: Not Attached
Saturation: Normal
Exposure Comp.: 0 EV
Sharpening: Normal
Lens: 70-300mm F/4-5.6 G
Sensitivity: ISO 200
The flash
SunPak 383 Auto, set at Full power and angled up at 75°.
The first picture was converted using PSE4.
I set WB to flash, and adjusted both Exposure while pressing the Alt-key and adjusting so there was just a few dots showing where the reflections from the brass tacks are on the sofa. Did pretty much the same with Shadows, only a slight loss in the upper right corner. I opened Levels and using the eye-droppers I set the White using the white of the babies eye, and the Black using the dogs pupil. I then applied PSE4’s auto skin tone correction by clicking on the babies forehead – I noticed very little change. USM (65/1.5/2) and resize and save.
Both my Daughter (the babies mother) and my Wife like this photo. I like this photo too, but I think it might be a little too saturated, too something?
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This is processed through Adobe Lightroom. Again I made sure WB was set to Flash, and then I clicked on the Auto key. I’m thinking that this might actually represent a better rendering of the true colors, or is it too blue?
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Anybody have any comments or thoughts?
The camera setup
Nikon D50
Focal Length: 100mm
Optimize Image: Custom
Color Mode: Mode II (Adobe RGB)
Long Exposure NR: Off
2006/10/12 09:11:36.6
Exposure Mode: Manual
White Balance: Auto
Tone Comp.: Medium Low
Compressed RAW (12-bit)
Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern
AF Mode: AF-S
Hue Adjustment: 0°
Image Size: Large (3008 x 2000)
1/125 sec - F/8
Flash Sync Mode: Not Attached
Saturation: Normal
Exposure Comp.: 0 EV
Sharpening: Normal
Lens: 70-300mm F/4-5.6 G
Sensitivity: ISO 200
The flash
SunPak 383 Auto, set at Full power and angled up at 75°.
The first picture was converted using PSE4.
I set WB to flash, and adjusted both Exposure while pressing the Alt-key and adjusting so there was just a few dots showing where the reflections from the brass tacks are on the sofa. Did pretty much the same with Shadows, only a slight loss in the upper right corner. I opened Levels and using the eye-droppers I set the White using the white of the babies eye, and the Black using the dogs pupil. I then applied PSE4’s auto skin tone correction by clicking on the babies forehead – I noticed very little change. USM (65/1.5/2) and resize and save.
Both my Daughter (the babies mother) and my Wife like this photo. I like this photo too, but I think it might be a little too saturated, too something?

This is processed through Adobe Lightroom. Again I made sure WB was set to Flash, and then I clicked on the Auto key. I’m thinking that this might actually represent a better rendering of the true colors, or is it too blue?

Anybody have any comments or thoughts?
0
Comments
I used to date a girl who lived in Lemon Grove
My take, the first one is too orange (red and yellow) and the second is a bit too magenta and looks a little flat.
The shot is a bit on the hot side (over exposed). That blankie is blown out in places and the baby's face is a bit too bright for my taste. But, you did a great job exposing her beautiful eyes
I did a quick edit and came up with this. Basically just got the red and yellow out and tried to reduce the brightness just a bit. Also added some curves for contrast. You might want to bump the saturation a bit
This link may help some :-)
Steve
Thanks for looking. The original didn't appear to be over exposed when I looked at the histogram, if anything a bit under exposed, but that was before ACR. Unfortunately I don't know how to make the original NEF version available, but I did convert it to JPEG using View 6 with no adjustments, then converted from Mode II to sRGB and resized with PSE-4. I wish I had the NEF file available, because I would love to see what someone could do with it. Here is the more or less unaltered JPEG looks like.
Yeah, I think you need to play around more during conversion. This jpg was much easier to correct, than the 1st one. A Levels layer mask using the brighest edge of the blanket for the white point and a touch of curves.
Steve
http://www.chrislaudermilkphoto.com/
I'm beginning to understand Levels but Curves are still pretty much a mystery to me. I've bought Scott Kelby's book for digital photographers and was surprised to find he doesn't cover Curves, guess I'll have to look elsewhere.
YER I AGREE THE LAST ONE LOOKS GOOD WITH THE SKIN TONES.
BUT IM ONLY LEARNING
Anyway... Here's the video. (BBIAS to comment on the photo.)
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom/video/
(Watch the "basic correction" video to get an idea....)
www.tippiepics.com
I created a small vignette around this and then adjusted curves. I wasn't too fond of the onesie (yeah, it's cute in real life, but not as great for photos!
This is what I did:
www.tippiepics.com