Color Problems

[Legend87]

Is anyone else having trouble getting good skin tones with this camera? I have used it in the studio for a month or so now, and I cannot get good color in my skintones.
Often times, the highlight areas will take on a pink, powdery cast - where it almost looks like the subject is wearing makeup. I have checked levels and images are not overexposed. I have tried JPG and RAW mode, AutoWB and CustomWB.

Anyone else having this problem? Better yet, is anyone getting good skin color? If so , what settings are you using?

Thanks a bunch for any info!!!!
L

[jbfocus]

I am very happy wih the skin tones I get they seem very close to Fuji NPS 160 film I use org-org-hard and set my WB to dalight.

[jeffinkansas]

What I read about the org setting is that it is only to be used for commercial manipulation and printing. Therefore I have not experimented with it. Do you really find it superior?

thanks

Jeff

[jbfocus]

I have found if you photograph people the org-org-hard setting will give a very natural skin tone. the higher saturation of the STD-STD settings I feel is what gives most digital cameras the "DIGITAL" look I think you owe it to your self and your investment to photograph some people and not judge the photo by what you see on your monitor but have a 8x10 or larger printed and in my opinion you will see the org-org-hard setting will look the most like Fuji NPS 120 film plus with the hard setting you will have no need to sharpen your photos and in most cases you can print the file from your S 2 with no adjustments if your careful with your exposure.
Try it you'll like it. look at my web site 95% of the photos are from the S 2 at the org-org-hard setting. www.jbfocus.com

[jeffinkansas]

thats really interesting! Thanks for the tips, I will certainly try your settings.

Jeff

PS

your web site looks great

[Tom V]

In my studio situation, I set my camera to DAYLIGHT white balance. I use heavy duty Speedotron strobes (with UV corrected tube covers). My results are normal, just as I would expect.

If you shoot RAW files, you can change the color balance when the image is processed in RAW File Converter EX to whatever you wish.

Make sure all your lens filters match in color to avoid color shifts every time you change lenses. In other words, don't have an 81A on one lens, a UV on another, and an A1 on a third - none of those will produce the same color. Heck, sometimes even lenses from the same manufacturer have different color casts.

Other things that can influence your color are overly bright ambient room or modeling lights (especially when shooting with strobes at reduced power settings), or longer shutter speeds. Different color backgrounds or reflectors can tamper with your color balance. Softboxes or umbrellas of different manufacture, age, material, etc. will affect the color of the light. Home made diffusers are notorious for messing with color if the material you chose has fabric brighteners that fluorese unseen by the eye, but visible to the film or sensor. (Checking your cloth diffusers with a black light can give you a hint if they have fabric brightners in them.)

For those of you using white seamless paper, realize that their are commonly two types of white paper. One type is made to look neutral on color film. The other type is brighter, and looks nicer on black and white film, but can have a cool cast when shot on color film.

In the digital world, our images' colors are now subjected to the wrangling of computers' video cards, fading monitors, software or hardware color calibrators, ColorSync, 4-, 6-, & 7-color inkjet printers, web colors, differing gammas between PC platforms, driver software, ICC profiles, color management systems, and bad luck. Supposedly, if you have everything set up correctly, your color will predictably be perfect every time. It is amazing we all don't just go back to film sometimes.

[Legend87]

Thanks for the info...
I"ll give the org settings a try!!!
Larry