White balance question

[kristenh]

Here's a photo i shot this morning at the crack of dawn (curse you, time changers!). THis is my youngest. he's sitting on the bed next to a very large and low window- so dawn light is coming in from his right from no more than 2 feet away. and there's a lamp switched on behind him and to the right. i'm kind of struggling with the white balance- i shot it in aperture priority mode and had the WB set to cloudy (i usually leave it there and forgot to change it). does it look too yellow? the room is painted yellow, plus his hair is frankly kind of yellow....



exif data:
nikon d5000
focal length 35 mm
aperture 1.8
iso 640
shutter speed 1/60

TIA!

[WVCoalMiner]

If you look at the white on his clothing it looks pretty much spot on or maybe just a small tad bluish but I think the yellow look is just from the background wall.

[edbayani]

it looks very nice. doesn't bother me at all. but it is really hard to 'white balance' if you have two different sources of light. but i'm sure you can correct this in pp.

[SusanH1970]

The natural light vs the lamp light definitely wreaked havoc (been there, done that!). It's really hard to fix in post processing....but I felt this particular adorable photo would be lovely in BW. I also did a slight crop to bring his eyes into the ROT. For the conversion, I did a gradient map in CS2, a quick levels adjustment, the a color balance layer at +6 yellow, +6 red, just to warm it up a touch....I love a warmer BW for little ones. I can take it down if you like, just say the word.

He's beautiful...I love his gaze, the bit of shadowing, and you got gorgeous catchlights in his eyes.

[jeader]

The difference between the light doesnt bother me at all. in fact, i think it adds to the photo! I think you lose the warm cuddly just woke up feeling when it goes b and w.

[NicoleScraps]

You know what? This is an absolutely adorable photo, color or b&w! Love it!!

[zona5101]

Originally Posted by SusanH1970

The natural light vs the lamp light definitely wreaked havoc (been there, done that!). It's really hard to fix in post processing....but I felt this particular adorable photo would be lovely in BW. I also did a slight crop to bring his eyes into the ROT. For the conversion, I did a gradient map in CS2, a quick levels adjustment, the a color balance layer at +6 yellow, +6 red, just to warm it up a touch....I love a warmer BW for little ones. I can take it down if you like, just say the word.

He's beautiful...I love his gaze, the bit of shadowing, and you got gorgeous catchlights in his eyes.

lovely edit.

[carlyfan]

Gorgeous photo Kristen! I love the catchlights! I think the color looks great as well.

[kristenh]

Originally Posted by edbayani

it looks very nice. doesn't bother me at all. but it is really hard to 'white balance' if you have two different sources of light. but i'm sure you can correct this in pp.

Ed, i'm sure YOU can correct this in pp. your pping is always beautiful. not me. my level is using the little dropper thingie in picasa i do have elements though and have this in raw format- and i've got a book- so, baby steps, right?

Susan, i love the b w conversion you did. and i did consider the recrop- just that i hate to cut off his cute hair to include more of his pjs!

Carly, Nicole, jeader, coalminer, thanks so much for your compliments. i wasn't even really going for the lovely portrait- i was trying out different ISOs and apertures and shutter speeds so i could maybe learn a thing or two

[edbayani]

kristenh, i tried processing with cs2, here is the edited version. hope you like it. if you want, you can send me a larger file.