Please help me figure out this colored fringe around a picture

[mkothare]

I took this picture of a little girl at the Fort Worth Japanese Gardens, today. The picture shows a green fringe around her curls.

It is not just out of focus grass behind her. The green color of the grass behind seems to have been picked up by the lens and created a fringe. Tried Googling. Found some references to "chromatic aberration".

Can anybody help me understand what may have happened here and possible ways to avoid it in the future.

The attached picture was shot with a 70-300 Sigma lens on a Canon 5D. ISO 200, Shutter 1/100 and aperture f/10.

Any thoughts, please? Thanks.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Dude you caught her "aura"!

I just think that it was a random occurance- try post producting it into B+W and see if the pic is accetable if this was a client.

[bondarnes]

Since her light hair is semi-transparent the strong colors in the background show through. In one area in the upper left her hair is blue so it has nothing to do with just the color green, but just the background color showing through her hair.

[abril1127]

I had some problems with funny "auras" when using a UV filter.

[cooltouch]

I agree with Don. At the level of magnification shown here on this web page, any visible chromatic aberration is negligible.

However, something that bothers me far more is that the whites of her eyes are quite blue. And the shadows in her shirt -- which appears to be white -- are purple. I'd concentrate on trying to correct these colors more than a tiny bit of green bleed through in the hair. Getting rid of the blue in the eyes will give the image a more yellow cast, and getting rid of the purple in the shadows will add to a green tint. The result may or may not be better than the original, but I'd at least give it a try.

Oh, sorry -- almost forgot to mention. I really do like the photo. It's an excellent capture.

[mkothare]

Thanks Paul, Don, April and Michael for your input. I'll watch more carefully for bright backgrounds.

April, I had no filter on my 70-300 like you mention. Michael, I'll try your suggested edits.

[abril1127]

here's a quick edit using the tips that were given. The eyes still have some blue in the whites but you get the idea.
I used the curves and used the dropper to set the black, white and gray points, same with the levels.
Then I lightened up some of the shadows under her eyes (they were made her look sad to me) and I painted in some white and turned down the opacity until it looked pretty natural.

Hope that helps. She is a pretty little girl!

[abril1127]

There's an action called portrait pop that might really help her eyes...but my computer crashed so I don't have it anymore...and the website seems to be down at the moment.

[cooltouch]

Well, I figured I'd put my money where my mouth was. I prefer starting with a RAW file for manipulation, and am not used to using jpgs for manipulation, but such is life. Here's my version of this cute little girl:



I wasn't able to get rid of the blue cast in her eyes, and I've come to the conclusion that her shirt is actually pink, and not white. I think the blue cast in the eyes is due to the likelihood that the photo was taken in open shade, which always tends to lend a blue cast.

My goal was to balance the colors a bit better and to open up the shadows. I'm not totally happy with the results, but I think that it is a bit of an improvement, at least.

I usually don't use Photoshop. I have an older copy -- v7 -- and while it's very capable, I'm much more comfortable using Paint Shop Pro X2 Ultimate. It does most everything I need. As for what I did, well . . . all sorts of stuff. I loaded it into PSP's Express Lab to adjust the color, then used its Smart Photo Fix to open up the shadows (even though the SPF suggests it's an automated process, it isn't -- I have to manipulate the values). Then I adjusted the contrast slightly, added just a touch of saturation, and subtracted a bit of yellow (by adding blue).

I showed these three images to my daughter, who is a very talented artist, and who is a whiz with Photoshop. She liked April's image the best because she thought the original and mine looked "creepy" because the eyes were too, I dunno, real looking, or something. Anyway, so of course, I told her that if she could do better, prove it. Well, here's her version, which is mostly just a manipulation of mine. She used PS7 and went in and worked on the eyes some to reduce the level of "creepiness." She also got rid of the blue tint. Believe it or don't, her version of this photo has 10 layers. She used 9 layers just on the eyes. What? Okay, okay, I'll admit it. Her version looks better than mine.

[mkothare]

April and Michael, its so nice of you to work on my image to show what could be done with it to improve it.

To begin with the base image is a tad underexposed and was shot without any fill. Overcast yet 11am when the sun was quite high. This was a hurried shot; a case of the little one strutting up and down the bridge.



I quickly asked the father if I could take some pictures. Then as I took pictures she rested on the railing, turned to me and gave me this beautiful smile. Had to take the picture then. All refinements had to wait for post processing. Its very possible, Michael, that her shirt or dress was actually pink.

My processing is a little blue cast. April's is tending to a more balanced mix. Michael, yours may be a little warm. Both Michael and I may have tended to "overpop" the eyes. The ladies (April and Michael's daughter) knew where to stop. I was sensitized to this by a model whose pictures I posted in an earlier thread (Xochitl). She laughingly asked me why her eyes in some pictures looked like a vampire. She was asking me to go easy on the lightening of the pupils, I guess.

Thanks again guys for helping me with improving my image.

[cooltouch]

Originally Posted by mkothare

Michael, yours may be a little warm. Both Michael and I may have tended to "overpop" the eyes. The ladies (April and Michael's daughter) knew where to stop. I was sensitized to this by a model whose pictures I posted in an earlier thread (Xochitl). She laughingly asked me why her eyes in some pictures looked like a vampire. She was asking me to go easy on the lightening of the pupils, I guess.

Yeah, I definintely tried to warm it up because of the blue cast. Sometimes it's hard to know when to quit. I find that when I'm processing images, that it is not unusual for multiple edits to look completely different from each other. Many paths to follow. The above was my second attempt. I liked it a lot better than my first.

My daughter's specific complaint regarding the eyes was that they were too glassy looking, so she got rid of some of the reflection and brushed in some more color. She also didn't like how thin the line is formed by the edge of the upper eye lid, so if you look at her version, you can see that she made the dark lines of the edges of the eyelids a bit thicker.

[mkothare]

Thanks, Michael. Dont know if I will ever get the discipline to check out the many intricate details of a photo that got discussed in the thread above. But it sure pays to know about it and something comes in handy every time. Appreciate all the feedback.