Color problems?

[luxaeterna]

Hi there,

this is my first post, but no reason to be gentle :-)

Just ignore composition and the busy background. My problem here is with colors.

I sometimes get photos looking like the one I attached here. It looks kind of "bland" to me, and I'm wondering if it has color problems. I'm having a hard time putting my finger on the exact problem, and was hoping that someone could help me identify it? Is it not saturated enough? Or am I using the flash incorrectly? Or maybe there's nothing wrong with the colors at all? Thanks!

EXIF:
Camera: Canon EOS 500D
Exposure: 1/60
Aperture: f/4
Focal length: 50mm
ISO: 800
Flash: yes

[RichardTaylor]

As far a the colour goes it looks rather warm to me (orange/yellow).
are the walls (or his under shirt) really that colour.

Have you tried adjusting the white balance?

[Ridgetop]

As Richard pointed out, this is a white balance failure either due to the camera's choice or by your settings. Check your camera's settings. Make sure the balance is set for flash. But, there may be another problem here. Your flash may not be overpowering the ambient, warmer light in coming from the surrounding light fixtures. If this is the case then you'll get orange warmth to everything. Was this shot in RAW originally? If so, the Canon software makes it very easy to quickly check the white balance settings and also to change them around a bit to experiment and see what works. Try setting the white balance to tungsten and see what happens.

[Rentham]

Setting the white balance to Tungsten will make the background and ambient go neutral, but the guy will turn blue. In cases like this you need to gel your flash with a 1/2 or full CTO which will bring everything into balance.

[luxaeterna]

First of all, thanks for the quick replies!

RichardTaylor, yes, the walls are yellow, and the light source that you can see in the background doesn't exactly improve on it...

I usually shoot in RAW, but this one is shot straight to JPEG. I really forgot all about adjusting my white balance for the flash (which I bounced off the white ceiling), and this was probably my biggest mistake. Also, if I had shot in RAW, it would have been easier to correct the white balance afterwards.

I didn't do any white balance corrections to the photo, I just adjusted curves if I remember correctly.

It seems that I forgot some of the lessons that I learned earlier on. Maybe I got lazy...

[luxaeterna]

Rentham, thanks for the CTO gel suggestion! I will definitely look into that.

[luxaeterna]

Here's an edit of the original JPEG. I basically set it to auto white balance in Lightroom, increased the temperature a little, added a slight amount of fill light and increased blacks slightly as well. Please be generous and let me know how it fares color-wise.

I personally think that it's a big improvement. The skin tone actually looks like skin tone now, but are my edits sufficient, or does the photo still leave a lot to be desired?

[luxaeterna]

The skin color is a little blueish. I guess it could use a little more warming.

[JFSanders]

As was posted above this is a white balance problem and Rentham's suggestion of a full CTO is a very good one. Also, there is a hot spot on his forehead and this will cause problems when trying to adjust white balance and color correct in post. If you look at your edit and look at the wicker piece in the background over his right shoulder you will see it has a pink cast. This tells you that your reds are out of balance.

I have post processed this and color corrected for the pink cast and reduced the brightness on his forehead. What do you think? If you wish I can remove the image.

[luxaeterna]

Wow, good job with the edit.

I noticed in particular that you brought out the natural color of the wall, including the rest of the room and his shirt. It did nothing good to his face though, especially the forehead, which you also pointed out :-)

It's becoming subjective now, but I liked the warm touch of the subject from my own edit better, but with the background from your edit.

It's interesting that you pointed out the cast of the wicker piece, I would never have thought of looking at it. It shows me that I should look for something concrete in the photo when I judge the colors, not just settle with the fact that I have "a general feel that something is wrong". Thanks a lot for your advice.