Help with skin color in post

[Stina3246]

I shot these photos on RAW so can tweek them quite a bit. The original photo made her skin look a little yellow to me. I messed around a bit and can't really decide what looks most natural. I'm not looking for a critique on the shot......just want help making her skin look natural. I used my D50 with my 18-55 lens.
ISO was 400,
white balance was auto.
shutter speed 1/60
F5.6
First is the original


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Then the color corrected on which looks a little more natural but maybe a bit on the blue side. Any suggestions?



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[edbayani]

i actually like the first photo. it looks more natural. the whites look white. it is a bit dark, you can correct this using levels and move the left output slider to the right th lighten it a bit but not affect the whites. then use he and saturation and desaturate a little bit.

[Rentham]

The second version is way on the cold side. You probably need to be somewhere between the two. When in doubt, I err on the side of warmth for shots of people. Something that may help you in the future is a grey card. You can get a simple one for like $20 bucks. It will help you figure out a good starting point for your color balance.

[Stina3246]

Originally Posted by Rentham

The second version is way on the cold side. You probably need to be somewhere between the two. When in doubt, I err on the side of warmth for shots of people. Something that may help you in the future is a grey card. You can get a simple one for like $20 bucks. It will help you figure out a good starting point for your color balance.

Thanks to both of you. You are right....the second one loooks "cold" I'll check into getting a grey card (and learning how to use it) too

[Rentham]

Originally Posted by Stina3246

Thanks to both of you. You are right....the second one loooks "cold" I'll check into getting a grey card (and learning how to use it) too

The most basic application is to have your subject (or anyone) hold the card in the first frame. Then, when you are in post, you can use your White Balance tool and click on the card. That will be "neutral grey". You can then adjust the color temperature and tint from there to fine tune. Mine is very simple, its just three small plastic cards (white, grey, black) on a lanyard.

The image on the left is my preset Flash white balance. The image on the right is after using my White Balance tool to click on the card. Hope that helps.

[Stina3246]

Originally Posted by Rentham

The most basic application is to have your subject (or anyone) hold the card in the first frame. Then, when you are in post, you can use your White Balance tool and click on the card. That will be "neutral grey". You can then adjust the color temperature and tint from there to fine tune. Mine is very simple, its just three small plastic cards (white, grey, black) on a lanyard.

The image on the left is my preset Flash white balance. The image on the right is after using my White Balance tool to click on the card. Hope that helps.

looks very simple!! Thanks

[SusanH1970]

You can also use the grey card to set your white balance in-camera. Put the camera in manual focus (it won't autofocus on the card because there is no contrast), fill the frame with the card (in the light you'll be shooting in), and take a shot of it. Then use that image to set your CWB. That way, little to no color tweaking in post-processing.

[SusanH1970]

Stina - one more thing. Just for fun I brought the original image into CS2 to play with the color. I normally don't use any of the auto controls, but just for the heck of it hit "auto color" - and was pleasantly surprised! The color looked perfect. You may want to try it yourself and see.