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Nikon D3s Color

PDH7981PDH7981 Member
in Nikon
I shot in RAW format with a Nikon D3s and usually keep my white balance set to Daylight.  It seem that when I get back to edit I always see too much blue and too much green in my images.  Not a great color for my model/subject. This happens whether my subject is standing in green grass or on a grey sidewalk.  When attempting to correct for this in LR, it just seems difficult to get my skin tones correct.  At times, I've used a White Balance card in the color checker but even after clicking on the WB card with the WB tool in LR, it still seems to be overly green/blue.  Could anyone offer a suggestion on how I could correct for this in camera so that my White Balance issues can be resolved. 
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Comments

  • PDH7981PDH7981 Member
    Here's a before/after LR adjustment.  This first image is SOOC.
    image
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  • PDH7981PDH7981 Member
    This is after fooling with it in LR.
    image
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  • SkipperlangeSkipperlange Member
    How long have you been shooting with this camera, how long has this been going on? I haven't shot with D3s but on my D700 you can adjust the amber-blue scale within WB settings along with your regular WB setting i. e. daylight. On my cam you hold the function button and turn one of the dials (forget which one). You probably knew this. Also, on the D700 and probably D3s there's an in-camera color adjustment grid with which you can fine tune the strength of each color in yr photos. You probably knew this too but if not it should be under the menu somewhere.

    Your 'before' photo does look a tad blue and green to me but it also looks low saturation.
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  • PDH7981PDH7981 Member
    I do have those grids you speak of.  I've never adjusted WB with those.  I just don't know if this is normal with the D3s.  The D3s seems to always have this blue/green cast to the skin tones.  Maybe I need to Custom WB... wondering if that would correct it.  It just seems like I always have to adjust the WB and Tint.  Tint usually anywhere from +20 to +50 to get something close to being correct. This particular image was adjusted from AS SHOT 5100K/+10 to Custom 6150K/+24.

    Yes, the SOOC is somewhat desaturated.  I forgot to mention that my import does that with the Red's and Orange's to tone down skin tones.  Could that have something to do with it? 
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  • PDH7981PDH7981 Member
    As a test, I reset the import into LR to remove any import presets.  I'm still getting that same color cast... so I don't believe the import skin desat had any effect on the color cast.
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  • SkipperlangeSkipperlange Member
    Have you tried resetting to factory settings and starting from scratch? 

    The amber to blue scale on the D700 is not a grid per se (the other color adjuster is a grid as you know). The A-B scale is a + or - scale in increments, +1B, +2B, +1A, for example. You see it on the top window (where you see shutter speed, aperture, etc….). I was wondering if your camera is on +B at all. Doesn't sound like it. 

    I went on Nikonians.org and someone was asking about adjusting color in the D3s and this was one response: It is in shooting menu, picture control, which brings up 4 options starting with neutral.

    Then right press on the AF selection button to bring up the saturation and hue options.

     That person was complaining about skin tones being too red/orange.
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  • PDH7981PDH7981 Member
    No everything is set to default (zero).  I also have a D700 and I've noticed the same/similar color tinting on that camera as well.  I am starting to believe it's just a Nikon thing.  Really was wondering if other Nikon users saw the same thing.  I only bring it up as I've started noticing it more often lately.  I am going to recalibrate my monitor as a next step and see if anything changes there.
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  • SkipperlangeSkipperlange Member
    My faces tend to be too red but I always assume it's my fault. I don't know.
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  • TrevTrev Moderator
    Dave,

    I have found with the D3s to shoot in Kelvin Manual around 5600-5800 in daylight, gives nice warm tones, skin colour, etc.

    It just seems to give a better control rather than just selecting 'Daylight' mode.

    Have you read this post I did also regarding Camera Profile for Nikon files:  NIKON CAMERA RAW PROFILES

    Also, black hair has a tendency to pick up blue from sky above anyway.

    I edited the jpeg, but in Camera RAW I warmed up the Temp by +20 (jpeg of course)

    Trev


    image
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  • PDH7981PDH7981 Member
    Thanks Trev... I read your Nikon Camera Vivid Post and tried it.  I do believe there's an improvement and I may start using the Vivid Calibration setting moving forward.  I'm using LR rather than ACR... So, I found that moving the contrast slider to about 10 made an improvement to my image plus moved the temp to 5801... but it will take many more images to prove that out. Thanks for the tip.  I have been using Adobe Standard and I'm finding I don't like it.
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  • PDH7981PDH7981 Member
    I tried to upload one of the RAW files for you to play with but it won't let me upload that file format on here.
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  • TrevTrev Moderator
    Zip and upload to say MailBigFile

    email address for me: fstop_87_2@internode.on.net

    zip/drop the file onto the 'placeholder', put in my email address and yours from Sender and let it upload, I will get an email with link.

    If your ISP provides large size files, I can take up to 24Mb for an email so you may even email direct to that address.
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  • PDH7981PDH7981 Member
    I just emailed you.
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  • TrevTrev Moderator
    Done, sent back, but for those who were curious, there is nothing wrong with the 'colour' of the D3s, it was merely a question of WB when shooting, as the file read Temp 5100/Tint +10 so when bumped up to a nice warm 5600 Temp, it was good.

    Here is the edit.



    image
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  • PDH7981PDH7981 Member
    Thanks Trev... made some great images yesterday with the D3s, B1 and utilized the color checker.  I also took your suggestion and set my LR calibration to Camera Vivid.  The images look outstanding.  You can view a subset of the image results here if your interested: http://www.mydavidhall.com/p263350399
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  • TrevTrev Moderator

    Really great looking shots David, colour is perfect to me.
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