Green colour cast - weddings

[Alan W]

Getting the B&G into the shade on a bright sunny day can often mean photographing under trees, the downside being that I am getting a green cast on the skin tones. This can take quite a bit of tinkering to sort out and can be time consuming so I was wondering whether anyone had a quick fix for this? I have seen three different 5D's exhibit this so I know it isn't my camera.

[cosworth]

Shoot in RAW and get Lightroom to globally assign a white balance to the under tree shots. Stack them, then find the neutral grey, assign, and see if you like it. Salt to taste.

Maybe carry a whi-bal card and get the bride to hold it for one shot. Explain to them what it does as you go along in simple terms and they will feel very comfortable knowing they are working with a pro.

[picturecrazy]

I think I know what you are talking about. It's not a green cast that covers the whole scene which you can fix with a white balance... you get green hues mostly on parts that are facing downwards towards the ground... the green grass. I find this happens most with available light shots in open shade. A lot of light reflects off the grass and it is inevitably green. Meanwhile, the rest of the body is lit and is not green.

This is why I still use flash even in open shade. I knock down the exposure about -2/3 and then use flash to fill them up. This puts the green glow over a couple stops lower than your flash so it pretty much gets drowned out and overpowered.

As for fixing photos with this problem, all you can do is white balance for proper skin tones. It'll still leave green parts on them, so you can open it up in photoshop and play with layers and the green saturation slider and paint/mask it out. Quite a pain, but hopefully you only have a few to do.

[cosworth]

If it's foliage reflection then you need to use a diffused flash perhaps. Maybe a light gel on it.

Or just fix it in CS3.

[sando]

/\ What they said. :)

I know exactly what you mean. The problem is that when you're in the shade of a tree, by definition, the sun is shining through the leaves and is going to cast a green shadow onto skin tones.

Do what's mentioned above, or move to a new location. In the shade of a tree that is in the shade of another tree is a good idea.

[Alan W]

Yes this isn't a white balance issue as white balance goes from cold (blue) to warm (red). The tree canopy is acting like a big green filter or the grass as a big green reflector. The human eye doesn't see this because it automatically compensates - but unfortunately the camera does see it. But when it is bright and sunny and the shelter of a tree is the only refuge what can one do?

[JMW-Photo]

check out a little plugin for Photoshop from PictoColor called iCorrect EditLab >HERE (http://www.pictocolor.com/editlabpro.htm)<

[picturecrazy]

... But when it is bright and sunny and the shelter of a tree is the only refuge what can one do?

do what I told you to do above. turn down ambient and turn on flash. it's a plain standard proven photography technique. nothing amazing or complex.

[Alan W]

Thanks for this Mr Picture Crazy, I will give definately give it a go. I always use flash outdoors to 'lift' my images anyway but by turning down the ambient and depending on the flash more does this tecnique not end up with correctly exposed subjects and an underexposed background? Also, if you are photographing a 'deep' group could this not result in the people at the front correctly exposed and those at the back under because of light fall off? I am not doubting the technique but those are the thoughts that are popping into my head...

[picturecrazy]

For a two row group it should be fine... you'd be hard pressed to notice the falloff. three rows? How many people are in this grouping?

A slightly underexposed background is nothing new... people do it very often. You can even use the fill slider in raw processing to bring it back. In any case, I'd much rather get the people right and deal with the background later (easy) rather than get the background right and deal with the people later (hard).

[CyberPet]

Post an image, I migth have a simple solution to this.

[paul33]

Here's one from the weekend that proved difficult to correct ...... happy to see your best efforts / magic tricks !!!

Shot in shade of high conifers on full-sun day (we do get them every now and then !!!).

The image has been converted from RAW but has not been post-processed in any way.

http://www.nenedigital.co.uk/images/green.jpg

[Visual Bride]

To me the white balance is incorrect. That white shirt on the little boy is blue.

[Visual Bride]

Here is the picture colour corrected. Its a very quick edit. But I feel it looks passable. With a RAW file the conversion will be more accurate than my Photoshop Curves adjustment.

The image is warmer. That may be all it requires. Warming up
http://www.visualbride.co.uk/personalpictures/greencast.jpg

[CyberPet]

There's a few issues in this image. It's underexposed an as you've already pointed out, has some color shift. So what I did was to first of all do a "digital fill-flash" to bring out the exposure more in the family. Then I adjusted to remove the green (or rather blue) in their skin tones. I also increased the contrast and saturation.

http://the-halls.se/edited/green.jpg

I recommend buying a DVD by Ray Prevost, who's made a tutorial DVD and Actions to fix many of these issues quickly (I used at least 2 of them for this image). The DVD is called Photoshop Fitness and is really worth investing in (he do ship outside the US).
http://www.photoshopfitness.com/

[colincapurso]

Everyones having a crack, well this computer isn't calibrated correctly so i'm just gonna use numbers. Might come out a little destaurated.

-= What i did =-
* Fixed up the exposure/fill light
* Fixed up colour temperature (needed to be warmer)
* Fixed up tint (needed to be less yellow)
* Used a rough mask (i really do mean rough) and then "replace colour" to get rid of green reflections. Neutralised the kid's white shirt with this as well.

my skin tones are way off, but you get the idea.

[colincapurso]

bah.. forgot to attach