Beginner needs CC please!

[paigew]

I notice a big difference in the colors when you click on the photo. that is very strange! I would suggest using an image hosting site (I use both flickr and picassa) then you can use the image code to post it directly. So you would type:

 

[HopePan]

OK, so then what is your CC? From Charlie's edit and others saying it was good, I am doubting the calibration on my monitor. No offense towards Charlie, the help is much appreciated

 

[HopePan]

any suggestions on how to fix blown out whites? I have LR4, but decreasing the highlight slider just makes it worse IMO

 

[paigew]

I also edit in lr4 what I did was lower exposure down to -.90. It was way overexposed and making the lighting look very flat and bright. I also adjusted the wb warmer so I added yellow and magenta both to +7. I added contrast +9 added clarity +4. sharpened and added contrast in the curves panel. I also used a brush and lowered the exposure in his shirt even more. I never dress my kids in white for this exact reason. I did brighten his eyes, but looking at it now I think they were fine before. Not sure what the blueish tint is on the top of his head...

 

[HopePan]

Still too cool?

[/URL]
Rylan-1-3 by HopePan, on Flickr[/img]

 

[The_Traveler]

You are posting in ProPhoto RGB on the web.

That generally causes a color shift.

Web photos need to be in sRGB color space.



You need to read about color spaces and how to manage color - and don't use an on-camera flash.

Lew

 

[Ysarex89 83]

Lew has identified most of your trouble. I see your last photo posted is sRGB, you're making progress. Your other photos were tagged Pro Photo.

I was just preparing and illustration for you when Lew beat me to it. Here's the illustration anyway.

The first photo is what happens when the forum software creates a low-res of your Pro-Photo image to place in the post. It doesn't convert from the Pro-Photo color space. The second image is what you were hopefully seeing and in the third I adjusted the WB for you and also the tone response. Use Pro-Photo when you're converting raw files to RGB. Then immediately convert to either the sRGB or Adobe RGB color space (sRGB is what you should use and all photos that you place on the web should be sRGB).

If you look at the histogram of your original you'll see it has no black. The graph falls far short of the left corner. That was a big problem as well as the WB. The color is tricky because as Lew also noted you were using an on-camera flash and so you had mixed light. Paige was wondering about the blue on the top of his head -- that's the mixed light. Listen to Lew and never use a flash again that is physically part of or directly attached to your camera -- only bad happens. You can also blame the on-camera flash for the burned out tee shirt. Your last version of the photo was much better.

Joe

 

[HopePan]

Thanks so much!
Question 1 - My latter post was from flickr, I didn't personally do anything to the RGB to sRGB. How do I change that?
Question 2 - when you say histogram, are you looking in photoshop? LR?

 

[Ysarex89 83]

Thanks so much!
Question 1 - My latter post was from flickr, I didn't personally do anything to the RGB to sRGB. How do I change that?
Question 2 - when you say histogram, are you looking in photoshop? LR?

I looked at your last photo in Flickr and then downloaded it. It's tagged sRGB as it should be. I don't know how you did that but you did the right thing. Maybe you selected "Save for Web" from the Photoshop File menu.

When I say histogram it doesn't matter whether it's in LR or Photoshop; it's the same histogram. I always double check a photo's histogram when I see a problem. I opened your original photo in Photoshop. I believe in your original post you used the word flat. A flat photo typically has a compressed histogram and yours did. It was far from reaching the left (black) corner.

Tell us your processing workflow.

Joe

Edit: In Photoshop from the Edit menu select Convert to Profile. There you can change the ICC tag to sRGB.

 

[bianni]

I don't think there is anything you can do about blown out whites. Maybe paint with light gray.