Odd Raw issue.....colors do not look right

[keripayne]

Okay so my brother gave me the Canon 50mm f1.4 for my birthday today. I know! He's awesome! But anyway, the light was really pretty this afternoon and my niece was outside playing, so I grabbed some pictures of her.

Normally, I'd have probably shot it in jpg, but I had been out shooting this afternoon for a commercial client (with a different lens) so it was on Raw. So I download all my images tonight and the ones of my niece are funky-colored!! They look fine on the back of my camera, bit they're greenish-red and almost impossible to fix in Photoshop. I've never had this issue before. Usually things look the same in-camera and on the computer when I shoot raw.

What shows up on the back of your camera anyway? The raw version, or the jpg version (whether or not you shot raw+jpg) or not? And also, when you have personal settings for contrast/sharpening set in your camera are those taken into account in your raw files?

I swear, I thought I had this all figured out but this weirdness today just threw me for a loop!

[ramblinray]

I believe it is the jpg that shows up on the screen on the back. Need some more information before we can hope to help. When opened in camara raw, what is the color temperature? In what kind of lighting were you shooting for the client? What white balance were you using? Autolevels doesn't get you close?

[billbunton]

What shows on the LCD is the jpeg that's processed and put in the raw as the preview. That jpeg has all the settings applied to it. The only settings that affect the actual raw are shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. (And possibly some of the NR settings, but that's another issue...)

[Phototx]

If you have Photoshop open the image in camera raw and adjust the white balance or the color tempature settings to your liking. Either method adjust the overal image color balance. Since you shot the image in raw it can be changed without comprimising the image quality. If you dont have photoshop see if you have the software that came with your camera. It can deal with raw images.

Glen
www.phototx.net

[keripayne]

Hey Glen,

That's what I did, but for some reason a couple of pictures just cannot be fixed. I think it's her skin. I think I've noticed this before with her. Like, I can make the entire picture look great and her skin will be greenish. Maybe it was the light-it was yesterday afternoon with that weird blueish cloud cover against some of that really green winter grass. I shot on auto white balance, which I've never had a problem with. Could it be color-cast from the grass? She's only 4 so she's pretty low to the ground and she was sitting in the grass.



I finally just got it as close as I could and then ran a 70's vintage action on it and it's okay.

[keripayne]

I guess my issue is that I've never had the experience of an image being so completely different from the back of the camera to what showed up when I opened it in Raw. Guess I'll shoot raw+jpg from now on!

[Phototx]

Originally Posted by keripayne

Hey Glen,

That's what I did, but for some reason a couple of pictures just cannot be fixed. I think it's her skin. I think I've noticed this before with her. Like, I can make the entire picture look great and her skin will be greenish. Maybe it was the light-it was yesterday afternoon with that weird blueish cloud cover against some of that really green winter grass. I shot on auto white balance, which I've never had a problem with. Could it be color-cast from the grass? She's only 4 so she's pretty low to the ground and she was sitting in the grass.



I finally just got it as close as I could and then ran a 70's vintage action on it and it's okay.

It's possible that it's a reflection but if that was the case it should have affected all of the images from that set. Try getting the best possible color balance and then adjusting only the green channel.

Glen
www.phototx.net

[linque]

Grab a grey card, or calibration target the next time you shoot her and have her hold it up to her face. Snap the pic, and either set a custom white balance, or use it to fix during post processing.

[toverman]

Another thing affecting the camera's LCD is the brightness setting; it can make a properly exposed image look too bright or too dark, depending. If you're still using the a 30D, that's a 2.5-inch LCD that isn't high-def like the 50D and others after it (and that could affect the accuracy of the color). I generally will chimp to check composition and eyeball the exposure, but can't really trust it. I've been shooting RAW-only for about three years.

[Hogleg 44]

Just a thought...
I presume you are converting the images to sRGB color space. If not, perhaps that is what's wrong.