Color cast in harsh sunlight

[Inklingforsake]

I had nice shady location options but found the spring blooms (in harsh sunlight) more interesting for BG or FG. I knew that I would have trouble editing white balance but I did not anticipate it being this difficult!

I did not have reflectors/diffusers and had to do without it.

Also, she had strange contacts on (contacts that have a blue-ish rim tinge) - this made it so much more difficult to keep her cornea white!

Any advice on this would be great! Plus, overall C&C welcome too.

Camera - Nikon D3400
Lens - AFS Nikkor 50mm f1.8G
Settings - f2.8 1/250 ISO 100

 

[Derrel]

Wow, what a beautiful subject she is! I especially like the expressioin she has in photo #2. You did okay using OOF foreground bokeh in shot # 2.

 

[Inklingforsake]

I was waiting for your feedback, Derrel. Thank you!


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[ronlane]

#2 for the win.

 

[Derrel]

I was very tired last night and only had time for a quick reply. As far as advice on this...the light is indeed harsh, and without a diffuser to cut the light down, or a reflector to bounce light into the shadows and thus reduce the lighting ratio (lower contrast), you're left with this high-ratio light, where the highlights are quite a bit brighter than the shadows. My advice would be to avoid blowing out the whites; they are a bit blown in these shots, but still not too ugly in appearance due to the ethereal,light, feminine feeling of the subject and the location (the spring blossoms). Second bit of advice is to look for a spot at the outside edge of the tree, where there is softer light...often times at the very EDGE of a large tree's own shadow, there's a narrow band where the light is actually relatively soft! In close, under the limbs and close to the trunk of the tree, the light can be harsh, but as you get 4,5,6,7 fet outside of the limbs, there's this amazing, small zone, where there is what is sometimes called 'open shade', where the tree itself casts a shadow that is subtle, yet "there".

This would be the biggest piece of advice I could ever give you: look for the areas at the "outside edge"of trees and buildings, where the shadow of the object is, and where there is light mostly from the SKY: skylight, not sun-light, not the rays from the sun; Look at her ears/face, where sun-light hits them: those can over-expose easily. If you start looking for the open, shaded zone, where SKY-light exists, you'll have nice eye catchlights too, from the large expanse of sky-lighting!

 

[Inklingforsake]

This would be the biggest piece of advice I could ever give you: look for the areas at the "outside edge"of trees and buildings, where the shadow of the object is, and where there is light mostly from the SKY: skylight, not sun-light, not the rays from the sun; Look at her ears/face, where sun-light hits them: those can over-expose easily. If you start looking for the open, shaded zone, where SKY-light exists, you'll have nice eye catchlights too, from the large expanse of sky-lighting!

Such great advice, Derrel! Can't wait to go check this zone out. I hadn't paid attention to that. Thank you!

 

[DanOstergren]

Are you familiar with using adjustment layers in Photoshop? For color corrections and adjustments I tend to use a selective color adjustment layer. You can usually control skin tones with the red and yellow ranges.

 

[Donde]

Challenging lighting for sure. I like her face in number three. Pretty girl.

 

[Inklingforsake]

Are you familiar with using adjustment layers in Photoshop? For color corrections and adjustments I tend to use a selective color adjustment layer. You can usually control skin tones with the red and yellow ranges.

I have just about started learning how to do things on photoshop. I will look up selective color adjustment layers. Thank you for the suggestion, DanOstergren!