White balance on darker skin (African American)

[kiem]

It seems like i have to adjust the lower temperature on every photos I shot on this person. I dont know if you do the same thing - I'm mainly trying to for the skin tone - are they too blueish? Here are two photos. Both of them had to be lowered by about 500K.

[R. House]

I did a bit of Selective color, Saturation and levels adjusting plus lightening on her skin. On my monitor the image had too much of a yellow bias.

[kiem]

Thanks R. House - I used LightRoom on a Mac, the 1st photo didnt appear that dark, then uploaded to this site is another story. It is indeed lil bit of yellowish. Besides the darker skin, I had to use the flash sometimes and it changed the white balance completely, that's the second factor.

[camrajoky]

Have found that following this method of shooting the image with the custom white balance works every time PhotoVision: Product List

[kiem]

Originally Posted by camrajoky

Have found that following this method of shooting the image with the custom white balance works every time PhotoVision: Product List

Thanks for the link. I dont know about having to manual adjust the exposure and white balance each time I shoot - it may be a good practice but I dont see myself doing it.

I mainly shoot with Aperture priority and trust my camera's metering system enough to not worry about that part.

I'd probably invest on the gray card and include it in each series of shot and probably use it in the post processing as the video showed.

[camrajoky]

Originally Posted by kiem

Thanks for the link. I dont know about having to manual adjust the exposure and white balance each time I shoot - it may be a good practice but I dont see myself doing it.

I mainly shoot with Aperture priority and trust my camera's metering system enough to not worry about that part.

I'd probably invest on the gray card and include it in each series of shot and probably use it in the post processing as the video showed.

as the video reveals, your in-camera meter can be fooled...hence why you are having problem with your color adjustment. Doing a custom white balance for the situation will limit the amount of post production work. In studio we use this system to calibrate our camera at the beginning of the day and then shoot all day with the settings and it really does minimize the post production work.
Another part of your problem is working in direct sunlight. This will shift your colors as well.

[ohenry]

If you're not going to be shooting with a custom WB, shoot in RAW so that you can easily adjust your WB in post processing. Ideally, you would have at least one shot that includes something that is either neutral gray or white to use as a reference point. If you can get true white or neutral gray, the rest of the colors follow suit.

The custom WB is your more accurate method and really isn't as time consuming as you might think, unless you're in rapidly changing light conditions or changing locations on every shot. One custom WB is good for the same lighting conditions and you'll only need another when it changes.

[kiem]

Originally Posted by camrajoky

as the video reveals, your in-camera meter can be fooled...hence why you are having problem with your color adjustment. Doing a custom white balance for the situation will limit the amount of post production work. In studio we use this system to calibrate our camera at the beginning of the day and then shoot all day with the settings and it really does minimize the post production work.
Another part of your problem is working in direct sunlight. This will shift your colors as well.

You're right - if shooting in studio, I'll take my time to try this. I'm mainly concerened with outdoor environment. There's a lot of factors involved and I try to minimize as much as possible during the on-location shoot.

With LightRoom, the Sync function is awesome - only take couple clicks to convert the WB, I dont mind to do the post production work for this at all.

[kiem]

Originally Posted by ohenry

The custom WB is your more accurate method and really isn't as time consuming as you might think, unless you're in rapidly changing light conditions or changing locations on every shot. One custom WB is good for the same lighting conditions and you'll only need another when it changes.

Very true, I need to get into the habit of it.

I have the tendency to shoot outdoors in the late afternoon, yes - the lighting condition changes rapidly, every 5-7 minutes there is a different color temperature.

[camrajoky]

Originally Posted by kiem

Very true, I need to get into the habit of it.

I have the tendency to shoot outdoors in the late afternoon, yes - the lighting condition changes rapidly, every 5-7 minutes there is a different color temperature.

Even more reason to either use RAW or a custom white balance. One thing that would reduce the change, avoid having direct sunlight on the face of the subject. In your examples above, half the body is in sunlight and the other half is in shadow. Now if you are using auto aperture and auto white balance....what are you going to choose to meter off?

[Ed Shapiro]

Once your white balance is adjusted for the color temperature of the light you are shooting under, everything should fall into place and/or can be tweaked with a simple color balance adjustment in post production.

The photographs you have posted probably have exposure and/or contrast problems that are causing a lack of shadow detail and therefore a darker image. Believe it or not, black skin is easier to photograph that white skin, especially in digital photography. The darker skin tones will usually yield beautiful diffused and specular highlights and will not tend to burn out even with very slight overexposure.

First establish a good custom white balance for the quality of the light, the time of day and other such factors. Make sure that contrasty lighting situations are aided with a good fill source such as just the right amount of off camera flash lighting or a well placed reflector. Check out your results at the back of the camera screen and make a few bracketed test exposures. Once you have arrive at a good exposure, you can make a series of images without any further major adjustment until the lighting condition or the location is altered or changed.

If readjustment would be required for every shot; portrait, fashion and sports photographers would be driven crazy and would miss peak action and expression while they were fiddling about too much with their cameras.

Being an old film guy, I allways try to put a correct image on the negative or transparency so that too much manipulation, after the fact,is unnecessary and I still do that with digital work. Why spend a few hours on an assignment and then spend days trying to resurrect a bunch of failed images. That is not cost or time efficient and the results are never as good as images from a clean file.

Another tip about correcting color on you computer screen, providing is is properly calibrated"; Never "creep" making small corrections as you go along. It is better to "jump", that is, overshoot the correction and then come back a bit for a final adjustment. On this post there are images that are too yellow and too blue but noting spot on in between.

I hope this helps. Ed

[camrajoky]

I too shoot out doors a lot, and I use fill flash to work as my main light. The ambient light then becomes my fill. I get studio quality lighting with one light outdoors and you can have better control over the conditions as your main light is constant and just the fill is what is changing.
You are the one that chooses to be the one in control. Choosing to work in direct sunlight will cause you to have the variations in your images. Simple adjustments in how you are working can save you so much post production work.

[poloman]

Once you have handled your white balance issues check your skin ratios. Adding a little magenta and cyan on the skin may be helpful.