Tangoed! rather orange TKD shot

Matra

Matra

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49
Name
Lesley
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi Guys, would really appreciate some pointers.

I decided to take the camera to my sons TKD competition. So set the camera to manual, tried out a couple of WB settings and settled on what i thought looked best. Anyway they have all come out very warm / orange. I shot them in RAW so fiddled away with them but i couldn't get anything that looked half decent. In the end i converted to B&W. I have posted the shot straight from camera & the B&W one.

Any advice on where I'm going wrong?

#1

SFC by LesleyBrockie, on Flickr

#2

Matthew high kick Nov 12 by LesleyBrockie, on Flickr
 
If the lighting is static and it probably was I am assuming no flash allowed; you can take a picture at the begining of a grey card. You can buy grey cards or simply use something which approximates, inside of a Lowepro bag for instance. You can then set the camera white balance to manual and use the whole grey picture as a reference. It may not be perfect but it would be closer than pure guesswork. When you have the pictures in the the Canon software use the pick / eye dropper on the "grey image" and register it in one of the 3 registers and you can apply it to the pictures also, this gives the same effect.
If you already have the pictures try using the dropper on one the dark areas in the photo, the top thigh of the lady in the background, I have taken pics in a theatre where the lights are always changing, I sometimes use the stage floor which is black to get an approximate WB, and usually its not far out.
 
Hi Lesley.

You should be able to remove almost all the colour cast using the RAW files. Situations like this are made for RAW shooting.

Even a quick play with the jpg you have posted in Photshop removed most of the colour.

Tell us what you did and with what software and perhaps we'll be able to point you in the right direction.(y)

David
 
Thank to both Mike & David for taking the time to comment. Firstly i should advise that my pp skills are very poor....

David, I fiddled with such things as the exposure, brightness and saturation - pretty much removing most of the yellow & orange. However this made the photo look very flat. I spent an age, with no real improvement!

Mike, i often see references to grey cards but have never tried it out. I think some research is perhaps the way forward on that one.
 
Hi. Too much yellow, usually add blue, so perhaps a Tungsten white balance (the light bulb) might have been a good starting point. These halls always have such crappy lighting. The BW conversion solves a lot of the problems, well done.
 
Hi Lesley,
Almost certainly a WB problem, this shows all the hallmarks of a tungsten colour cast.
A grey card will only help you exposure not white balance, please let us know which PP software you are using.
 
robahob said:
Hi Lesley,
Almost certainly a WB problem, this shows all the hallmarks of a tungsten colour cast.
A grey card will only help you exposure not white balance, please let us know which PP software you are using.
Click to expand...
Hi Robahob, I'm using photoshop CS5, a pretty good programme I believe but my pp skills and understanding of CS5 are pretty rubbish!!

ecniv said:
Hi,

On the white balance section if there is a white point, drop it on what should be white on the picture (boys outfit?).

Or if it allows you to choose presets, change them until you are close, the slide the cooler/warmer slider toward cooler...



BnW conversion is very good! :)
Click to expand...
Thanks Ecniv, I think I need to read up more on white balance!! I am quite happy with the B&W copy so thanks for your kind comments.

Photodiva said:
Hi. Too much yellow, usually add blue, so perhaps a Tungsten white balance (the light bulb) might have been a good starting point. These halls always have such crappy lighting. The BW conversion solves a lot of the problems, well done.
Click to expand...
Thanks Photodiva, I 'think' I did use Tungsten white balance because I did think this might compensate for the orange/yellow but I can't be sure......Thanks for taking the time to comment!
 
robahob said:
Hi Lesley,
Almost certainly a WB problem, this shows all the hallmarks of a tungsten colour cast.
A grey card will only help you exposure not white balance, please let us know which PP software you are using.
Click to expand...

If you use the grey card to meter your exposure you can also use it to set a custom white balance in your camera,this will get your exposure nearer to the mark
 
Mike, I stand corrected, only as I never use a grey card for white balance, I do realise it can be done that way.
My first thought to Lesley, was to open the original (Raw) in CS5 and to only adjust the white balance towards the blue end of the scale, as I don't think this can be much more than a "Tungsten cast". The exposure is pretty spot on given the tonal range in the B/W image, also Lesley if you are able to check the exif information attached to the image it should show you which white balance setting you used at the time of shooting.
 
Hi Lesley

Junior sport photography is what I do for a living and with events like your sons you have to grab what you can when you can as its all fast action.

So what do we do? Take a young enthusiastic individual with the white gear on stand a distance away in the area that you will be taking the picture fully fill the frame with the youngsters white top exposed correctly and then take a picture, now go to the cameras WB settings and choose the option "set white balance with existing image" ( don't think that is the exact wording but something similar lol) then choose the image that you want to choose and you should get a 90-95% happy shot then just a little tweak in PS and you should be there.

On my Canons we just go to WB settings and choose "record and register" image for white balance and it does the rest for you.

What you must remember to do is set your camera to the correct white balance setting to correspond to the taken image.

All sounds very high tech but if you do a bit of reading up you will soon grasp the concept. Make sure you get the instruction book out and read up on the subject it can be very daunting but persevere

Hope that helps?
 
I shoot martial arts quite a bit, so I just fill the frame with the back of someone's gi and use that as my custom white balance
works a treat, although it can be a bit too stark at times
 
Sportsnapper said:
Hi Lesley

Junior sport photography is what I do for a living and with events like your sons you have to grab what you can when you can as its all fast action.

So what do we do? Take a young enthusiastic individual with the white gear on stand a distance away in the area that you will be taking the picture fully fill the frame with the youngsters white top exposed correctly and then take a picture, now go to the cameras WB settings and choose the option "set white balance with existing image" ( don't think that is the exact wording but something similar lol) then choose the image that you want to choose and you should get a 90-95% happy shot then just a little tweak in PS and you should be there.

On my Canons we just go to WB settings and choose "record and register" image for white balance and it does the rest for you.

What you must remember to do is set your camera to the correct white balance setting to correspond to the taken image.

All sounds very high tech but if you do a bit of reading up you will soon grasp the concept. Make sure you get the instruction book out and read up on the subject it can be very daunting but persevere

Hope that helps?
Click to expand...

Thanks Sportsnapper, you have explained that perfectly!

DizMatt said:
I shoot martial arts quite a bit, so I just fill the frame with the back of someone's gi and use that as my custom white balance
works a treat, although it can be a bit too stark at times
Click to expand...

Thanks Matt for taking the time to comment.
 
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