How to keep colors bright when there is action blurrrrr

[buttershug]

Hello my DPS friends.

I've recently rekindled my love of photography, so please be kind! But, I can't wait to hear your comments!

I love this shot, but get frustrated that the colors are muted. I did a bit of post-processing, but would love some thoughts/tips on what caused this issue...if it's as big of an issue as I think it is...etc.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

[SamFTracey]

IMO (as a newbie), I don't think the muted colors are an issue. In fact, I love this shot! The focus is fantastic, and I love that the little girl is not only the only person who's not blurred, but she's the only one with any color at all. Very cool shot!

[GadgetRick]

I don't see a problem with the colors. Under the artificial light, you're going to get those kinds of colors. You can do various things to make colors pop but there aren't a lot of colors to work with to begin with. Although I'm sure you could do something cool with the nice pink jacket. Others are better- versed in this than I am.

[buttershug]

Thanks SamFTracey for sharing your thoughts! It is cool that she's the only one with color. Good point.

And GadgetRick, I think you're spot on about the artificial light. It is what it is. I tried to do more with the pink jacket in PSE but it just started to look false, which isn't something I'm interested in.

Cheers

[curmudgeon_01]

I like it as it is. I like the pink surrounded by the greys. The same for her being surrounded by motion. But if you want to make her stand out a little more try making her a separate layer and reduce the saturation on the rest a very little bit. You can make her (jacket) appear more intense that way. But as you have noticed, it is easy to go too far and make it look artificial.

[minimidge]

I think it's great as is, but if want to mess with the saturation I'd go with curmudgeon_01's method. That way you're only changing the relative saturation between the girl and rest of the image, and you wont adversely affect image quality.

Other than that the blur is perfect and it's a great shot.

[buttershug]

Thanks for the suggestion of reducing the saturation of the background - I have thus far only thought of doing the reverse. Excellent.

Also, thanks for the encouragement.