Please help me fix this...

[MikeGauthier]

I do event photogrpahy, which means I often have to make the best of available light. I seem to do ok most of the time, and I use Lightroom to tweak exposure, fill, contrast, and saturation when necessary. I was taking some shots last night in a school corridor, with overhead flourescents. I used a Nikon D5000 with an 18-200 zoom lens, on Aperture priority, set at f/6.3. I set the ISO to 400, had my SB600 on the camera, pointed at the low, white ceiling. White balance left at auto, and the shutter speed came out as 1/60th. The result was as dull and plain as I have ever seen, and the image did not respond favorably to my usual minimal tweaking. My question is - what specific work would you recommend to salvage this photo? Lightroom tweaks would be most valuable to me, as I am not terribly comfortable beyond the basics I mention above. Items such as the tone curve, and specific hue, saturation, and luminance are still black magic to me. Thanks!
Michael Gauthier

[Alefeb07]

You could try warming it up a bit to give the skin a little more color, and maybe blur the background a little more. The doors are not the best looking background around. Other than that i don't think the image is that bad.

[irishmuth]

I think overall it's a pretty good image as well - just a tad cool on the skin colors, but depending on where you're from, the girls just might not be sporting the best of tans in the middle of winter.

[MikeGauthier]

Thanks guys - it was indeed the pale faces that concerned me most. And, yes, we are snow-bound and cold right now, so tans are rare.

I also stumbled upon something else that certainly helped - in the Lightroom Develop module, way down at the bottom is something called Camera Profiles. It apparently reacts specifically to the camera used for the current photo, and makes different color profiles available, other than the standard Adobe one. Profiles that are designed specifically for your camera! I didn't see much difference until I hit Camera Vivid, and wow, it brightened up my photo considerably. This seems like something that probably should be used all the time.

Michael Gauthier

[daddyoproductions]

I struggle with skin tones as well...especially on my twins, who are little Caspers! I often end up masking their faces, because otherwise the rest of the shot is too warm. +1 on the other suggestions.
~C

[SandeeWig]

Hi Michael,
Overall I think it's a nice shot also. Nice and sharp. The first thing I noticed though is that it's not level. Is this cropped at all? If it's not, then straightening the verticals on the doors behind them might cut off some of the girl on the right, but if there's more room to work with, I'd try to straighten them out.

It's a bit of a nitpick I know, but my eye was drawn to it so thought I'd mention it.

[irishmuth]

Is there something similar to this in Photoshop?

[QUOTE=I also stumbled upon something else that certainly helped - in the Lightroom Develop module, way down at the bottom is something called Camera Profiles. It apparently reacts specifically to the camera used for the current photo, and makes different color profiles available, other than the standard Adobe one. Profiles that are designed specifically for your camera! I didn't see much difference until I hit Camera Vivid, and wow, it brightened up my photo considerably. This seems like something that probably should be used all the time.[/QUOTE]