Newb white balance and editing help

[Robin Usagani]

p!nk.. you love to show off like Ocho Cinco .. Nice edit

 

[mrpink]

p!nk.. you love to show off like Ocho Cinco .. Nice edit

Child Please. (common #85 saying.)

That edit was nothing special, tweaked the WB, set the black point a bit higher, over saturated the orange to give some color (didn't have the RAW image to work with). Some skin softening and a bit of leveling.

I would recommend trying Lightroom 3 for editing, they have a 30 free trial.





p!nK

 

[KmH]

I have a white balance lense cap that you shoot through, but only for my kit lens. Would that work ok to set custom white balance and then switch to the 50mm 1.8?

If it's bigger than your 50 1.8 just hand hold it in place on the 50.

That type of white balance tool makes a lot of money for the guy that sells it, because people wind up with 3 or 4 of them to fit differnt lenses.

 

[franfran]

Awesome editing mrpink! The beautiful little girl just pops in the edited pic.

 

[a_mattison]

I still just can't believe how your little bit of editing changed that picture! How do I learn how to edit photos? From what you described you did to the pic, it sounds like one of my downfalls will be that I'm trying to edit with iPhoto and should try a real photo editor?? I don't know that I can saturate specific colots in Iphoto, for one.

Thanks again!

 

[mrpink]

IMG_45101110-2 by Matt Francosky, on Flickr

I did not adjust the WB at all in this edit.

I still just can't believe how your little bit of editing changed that picture! How do I learn how to edit photos? From what you described you did to the pic, it sounds like one of my downfalls will be that I'm trying to edit with iPhoto and should try a real photo editor?? I don't know that I can saturate specific colots in Iphoto, for one.

Thanks again!

Honestly, the best way to learn how to edit is to do exactly what I am doing here for you- find photos that can be improved and spend some time doing so, in turn, gaining knowledge and experience. It is the old "practice makes perfect" adage. I have found my personal editing times have been cut to almost zero, any errors I may have made in camera I know how to fix in post because I have done it so many times.

Never used iPhoto. Lightroom 3 does everything I need it to do, I have Photoshop Elements 7 installed if I need to go further or fancier.

Just make sure people are alright with their photos being edited before doing so.






p!nK

 

[GeorgieGirl]

In iPhoto you can't.

Its Aperture, Elements, LR, PS or who knows what else....

I already have Aperture, Elements, LR and want CS5 for X-mas. Even with all of them I still will have no clue. I need a person to sent this stuff out to, like laundry, to get the job done. :lmao:

 

[clanthar]

Hi,

You actually have a difficult condition here. The color cast (white balance failure) that you're seeing isn't uniform in the photos. That makes them hard to correct. iPhoto can only dig you deeper into the hole your camera started. Start planning to dump iPhoto -- if $$$$ is an issue then consider GIMP.

If you assume the background is white and use that to white balance the photo then the skin tones will turn yellow and head toward green. (You mentioned a green printing problem. That's another issue. How did you get prints made?)

Your photo needs asymmetric color correction. The skin tones in your original are actually pretty close to correct. In the example below, the color on her right check is exactly the same in both photos.

How was the problem created in the first place? Your camera did it.

Take Care,
Joe

 

[Dominantly]

^^Well played Sir

 

[mrshaleyberg]

I always set a manual/custom white balance against a grey card before I shoot with lights. Always.

:thumbup: +1.

And every time you move the lights, you need to shoot another custom white balance.

The best gray card available today is from Digital Photography - RawWorkflow.com - WhiBal Certified Gray Card for White Balance.

For portraiture I also use X-Rite: Get exactly the color you need, every time, anywhere in the world..

I was looking to buy a grey card! Thanks for the link!

 

[a_mattison]

Well, I downloaded the trial of Aperature and love it. I've been able to fix these up enough for the Christmas cards. In the future I'll be more carfull about getting the camera set up with the lights better. Thank you for your help!