Need Serious Help!

[ali1977]

As a favor to a friend, I went and did the team pictures of her son's basketball team. The pictures are fine (these little team pics are not expected to be masterpieces), but I think they are hideous. I am just a hobby tog, so maybe that makes me more of my own worst critic/perfectionist. Whatever. Anyway- they suck
Since I am no pro, I don't have studio lights or anything else. I didn't use a flash either. Just the crappy gym lighting. I tried to get in the gym early so I could do some test shots and figure out my settings and such, but I was told that couldn't happen (elem. school gym- rules, etc). I guess I did the best I could.
The coach insisted I do these in like 2 seconds. He also did not listen to me when I made suggestions as to where the kids should stand, etc. He made them stand in front of this awful bright red old nasty gymnastics mat that was mounted on the wall. The uniforms were a dark brownish burgundy. The majority of the kids were African-American boys. (don't know if that affects any editing, PP or not. If not, it makes no difference).
I'm posting one of the pictures. I blacked out most of the face as these are children and they are not my children.
Any suggestions? Recommendations for an action? Anything would help! Thanks!!!!
Oh yeah- this is mostly untouched. Cropped, white balance adjusted, etc...


Exposure: 0.125 sec (1/8)
Aperture: f/5.0
Focal Length: 32 mm
ISO Speed: 800
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: No Flash

[equilution]

First and most obvious comment...if you HAD a flash, you should have used it. Otherwise, there would have been some trial and error required to adjust the white balance for the indoor lighting. I don't think there's much PP you can do except for to play with them a bit for some artistry, versus a true portrait.

It might very well be worth converting to B/W and boosting the contrast.

My 1/50th of a dollar....

[Nicole]

Just popped this over to the Post-Processing technique area so you can get some suggestions / hints / tips for fixing the shots.

I had a quick try at adjusting the colours without any luck, but there are others much more skilled than me out there. Converting to B&W, like Jim said, might be a good option in this case.

[peeperita]

jim's on the right track with suggesting a flash.....

it could even be your onboard flash if that's all you have.....since that background color overwhelmed you as well.....you could have dropped your iso.....underexposing the scene a bit and then lit the children with your flash....that would have solved your white balance issues in their skin tones and uniforms with the normal daylight balance your flash has........and take the punch out of that background....

working with this image briefly in post, i found i could make some headway with the color by moving the blue midpoint slider to the left in a levels adjustment....it pulled a lot of that yellow out of the scene......since, i get the impression you might not be able to reshoot, i thought it might help you salvage what you have....

peeper

[ali1977]

Are they really that bad? I didn't use the flash because my stupid photography teacher always told us how awful the flash was. She was a moron. I don't post here often, but usually when I do I always talk about what an awful teacher I had. She was, however, a photoshop wiz, and I am pretty advanced in that arena. I do not think the parents want BW shots. I wish that was an option.
Thanks for your help!

[luvthes]

Could you move them to a different background maybe themed? Like a Basketball sports card?

[ali1977]

ok- well, I spoke to my friend (son's on the team & dad is the coach), and she said that the parents might like a BW. SO, here's the picture with color and some more help- thanks for the suggestions of moving the blues- and with BW. Obviously- the BW looks better, but the color (if the parent doesn't want BW) isn't as bad as it was, right?

[autofocus]

Originally Posted by ali1977

Are they really that bad? I didn't use the flash because my stupid photography teacher always told us how awful the flash was. She was a moron. I don't post here often, but usually when I do I always talk about what an awful teacher I had. She was, however, a photoshop wiz, and I am pretty advanced in that arena. I do not think the parents want BW shots. I wish that was an option.
Thanks for your help!

I think they can be improved with a little post processing...I played a little, hope you don't mind. Basically, some levels adjustment with the white and black point eyedropper, a lens blur on the background, a crop, and finally unsharp mask

[Dima]

Open Photoshop, go to

1)image > adjustments> curves (or Ctrl+M), and then choose Green, and pull it down, it will fix the wite balance,

2)Image> Adjustments>Hue/Saturation (or Ctrl+U), and set the saturation to -20.

Hope i helped

[private]

Did you happen to shoot in RAW? And AA american skin is MUCH harder to deal with, (at least its harder for me) especially when there is so much color... I think the B/W is the best one... Lemme see if I can play...