Generations - No Flash

[Eegs]

Hi all, it's been a while! I just had a baby girl and this is her being held by her great grandpa.



I'm still having a hard time getting the right settings for indoor, artificial light shots, so I messed with levels and brightness on this. It still seems too dark to me, and too yellow, but I'm not sure how to fix it. Any suggestions welcome.

*Edit*

I matched color to another shot from the same room that had better lighting...hopefully this is better:

[aakash_vakil]

You are right, the image has a strong yellow cast to it. Did you shoot in tungsten light (incandecent light)? What white balance you selected? Try changing the color temprature and white balance in post and see if you get any improvement.

[Eegs]

So, do I choose tungsten as the WB setting when shooting in incandescent light? What about the amount on the tungsten setting? Sorry, very new to all of this still!

[aakash_vakil]

I will share with you what I know. If the prominent light source is tungsten, then select that as the light source instead of keeping it on auto.

If you have the option to shoot in RAW and if there are multiple light sources in the scene, then you can shoot in auto and then correct the white balance in photoshop or likes.

Once you decide on the white balance, next decide on the exposure. This shot looks a bit under exposed and soft on my monitor.

Once exposure is set and you like it, then change the color temprature and adjust the levels and curves.

I guess these are the few basic steps which will give you control in post processing.

I too am learning this so would love to read what others have to offer.

Regards,
Aakash

[Eegs]

Is this better?

[aakash_vakil]

Yes, it is. The white dress is looking white. Great !
Now try playing around with the "contrast", "unsharp mask" filter to sharpen the picture just a bit.

She is a very cute girl :-)

Regards,
Aakash

[mhuk05]

It's a nice photo but I'd have preferred the baby in focus rather than the hand. There's an alternative USM: high pass filter.

[Nathan deGargoyle]

To h*** with the technical stuff! Congratulations on a beautiful new baby!

[bigdoggold]

Something that might help..is to set your cameras ISO to Auto ISO, then use the program mode to see where the camera is setting the shutter and f stop to, then you can see the settings that you might want to use in the future for the same type of situation

Also always check your white balance!!!!!!

Happy "Snapping"

[FrankenPengie]

In mixed lighting sources, or anytime my LED just doesn't look like it's showing colors right, I ask for a clean 8 1/2 x 11. My camera has a manual WB setting so I just select the set WB, aim the camera at the white page in the light and press halfway. This ensures no matter what, my WB will be right.

Edit: That is a bit better as far as brightness but I think the greens and yellows are too prominent. I hope you don't mind me giving it a shot. I tried to record everything but after a few different versions I got lost. basically in CS3 I adjusted Levels slightly to bring the white outfit up. Then I went up and down all the bars in Color Balance in High, Mids and Lows and found a happy medium to bring the colors as close as I could. Then I did a little hue adjustment. Brighten slightly with a little contrast. Unsharp mask, then another after lassoing the baby's face with a 40 feather to bring it some focus.