Coloring off - suggestions?

[Frizzy]

Hi there. I am a newbie -- literally! I'm just learning how to use my first DSLR, and this is my first post.

I was experimenting with depth of field when I took this shot. I achieved my goal of making the background blurry so the subject (my son) would stand out, but his coloring is a little unhealthy looking, especially on the left side of the picture. I took the shot when the sunlight was pretty harsh, which I'm sure didn't help. I also did some minor fiddling with the software that came with the camera, but I'm pretty inept with it yet and wasn't able to make much of a difference.

I'd love suggestions on what I could have done to get a better shot in the first place and/or if there's anything I can do after the fact to make it look better.


DuncanOct2010 by [url=http://www.flickr.com/people/frizzy35

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS
Exposure 0.033 sec (1/30)
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 55 mm
ISO Speed 800

[NgaiHill]

Welcome to DPS. Nice shot of your son, I like the composition. Others may have better advice but if this was my shot I would open it in Photoshop and adjust the levels, then look at the hue and saturation, particularly in the reds to bring up some warmth into his face. I tend not to fiddle too much with colour settings in camera as they give pretty good results anyway. Just a little enhancement PP should do it.

[deck]

Hi Frizzy,

Welcome welcome to DPS! I hope you're enjoying your first DSLR!
First of all the composition is good, and the exposure is ok, but the color as you said is kind of off, what caused it was the reflection of the light from the leaves I guess, one way to avoid this during a shoot is to have the subject always facing the sunlight and adjust exposure accordingly.
What you can do after the shot is to adjust the colors in it using either color balance or selective color tools in post processing, take note of the whites of the eyes (or any white), it helps you gauge the correct color of the photo

[RLucas]

Hi, and welcome! You may want to check your white balance settings first. If you are very new, set it to auto, and see what it does to the image. This looks like it was shot with the WB set to incandescent, which will give a blue cast on images when shout outside.

When you are more confident, you can start adjusting yourself, by setting a custom white balance, or adjusting in post if you shoot in RAW. The .jpg can be corrected, but it is a little more work.

[Frizzy]

Thanks all, for your tips. You've given me some really practical things to try, and I really appreciate it!

[scootermcq]

Like Ngaihill says.... levels.

I hope you don't get offended... I have deleted this image already from my computer, but I played a bit for you.

This is levels adjustment, some vividness, contrast & eye sharpening (they were a little out of focus). Here is a before and after. Please bear in mind, this is a two minute edit, and not a huge make over.

[DelCan]

That's the absolute beauty of digital photography. You can make those little adjustments and save an image. Sure beats the dark room days...

[Frizzy]

Originally Posted by scootermcq

Like Ngaihill says.... levels.

I hope you don't get offended... I have deleted this image already from my computer, but I played a bit for you.

This is levels adjustment, some vividness, contrast & eye sharpening (they were a little out of focus). Here is a before and after. Please bear in mind, this is a two minute edit, and not a huge make over.

Thanks! This is really helpful -- it was nice of you to take the time!