CC on the color please?

[aRad82]

I put my son in a decent shirt yesterday and took him to the backyard to snap some shots (mostly to give to grandparents, cause I wasn't pleased with his school picture! ugh ).

He is VERY pale and also, my monitor is not calibrated...so it makes it really difficult to make sure the color is on. Wanted to see what you guys thought about the coloring, any other CC welcome too. Thanks!

Manual
f/2.8
ISO 640
SS 1/320
50mm
No flash

[Rentham]

I don't see any huge problems with color on my monitor. It is a little cool, but not outrageously so. What white balance are you using? Setting it to cloudy or shade will warm it up a bit. Overall I think it is a nice shot, but I feel like the eyes are a little soft. Anyone else getting that?

[aRad82]

Thank you Rentham! My wb was set to cloudy - he is just that pale! I also thought his eyes looked soft - I didn't notice how soft until I saw my post once published. I manually changed my focus point to his eyes as well...thought that would do it (combined with an f/2.8)...but I guess not

I guess if you don't mind...I should ask as well then, which do you think favors better focus?...center focus point and recomposing the shot or manually toggling focus points?

[Rentham]

I manually toggle my focus points 99% of the time. I think the only time I use center point is when I'm in very low light and the other points are struggling to lock focus. When shooting wide open you need to be very careful about recomposing. Even a slight shift changes the sensor plane in relation to the subject. When working with very shallow DOF that tiny shift can be enough to miss focus.

If I feel like my focus-recompose technique is being a little too touchy on a given shot, I'll shoot a bit wider than necessary and lock the focus point right on the eye. I then get the crop I need in post.

[Doug Sundseth]

Depending on the camera you're using, you might have access to what Nikon calls 3D continuous autofocus. You use single-point autofocus to choose the place to focus on, then when you recompose, the camera will move the autofocus point to keep the original focal point in focus.