Noobie needs some DPP help

I apologize, I know all about the search function, but I need some personal help here. Fortunately, it's likely pretty easy for you 'pros'. I appreciate any help you can give.

I've been reading about using curves and I've gone to the photoshop canon lesson on DPP, but my monitor isn't calibrated and I simply get goofy results when I try to change things and then print. Hence the need for help.

I shot about 100 pictures yesterday at a Christmas party with WB set to Tungsten and using the built-in flash on my 350D. They all have a bluish tint, of course, but they are all the same, so I know any correction can be effectively applied to the whole batch.

Trouble is when I tried to fix a self-photo of me using DPP earlier, when it looked fine on my monitor, I looked like a steamed lobster in print. I'll never know if what I do to these is 'right' until I get monitor calibration software. If anyone can give me a simple recipe that gets 'BadShot' a little closer to 'GoodShot' that I can apply to this group as a batch in DPP, I would be very, very grateful.

I will buy monitor calibration software, I promise. And while it may be fun for you to play with, I don't have PhotoShop, nor am I planning on buying it in the near future, at least, so PS help will not be, um, helpful. I'm sure I'll graduate to it eventually, but I can learn to walk on DPP before I learn to run on PS, I think.

Photos attached. All the bad shots were done at ISO of 400 or 800 with Tungsten WB, using the built-in flash. The good shots were when I selected the Portrait Basic Mode, evidently, and they look pretty good.

John

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Um, they aren't labeled.

Top shot = GoodShot

Bottom shot = BadShot


But then, if you needed this pointed out to you, you're likely as 'all thumbs' as I am with DPP. No need for you to post help.

Thanks all!

John

This won't help you right now - but, if you shoot in RAW, you could then use Raw Shooter Essentials (which is free) to work out the correct colour temperature for one shot (and print it out to make sure), and you can then apply the same colour temperature to all the shots in one go. I'm afraid I don't shoot in JPEG, so don't know how to set the same colour temperature across a batch of images.

John, have you run the Adobe Gamma that came with photoshop? That's a place to start.

I assume these are jpgs not raw.

KAC

Hey, guys, thanks, I guess. I know about shooting in RAW, but since I didn't, as you've pointed out, not much help. And I clearly stated I don't have or intend to get photoshop anytime soon.

DPP stands for Digital Photo Professional which came bundled with my Digital Rebel XT. Somebody has to use it out there? Anyone?

Thanks. Failing help here, I guess I'll have to get some calibration system for my monitor. Don't mean to sound ungrateful, guys, but

any help WITH DPP? I need a recipe from someone, not advice at this point. thanks.

John

Although a hardware-based calibration system works best, often you can get pretty close without it. There are several web sites with gamma targets and that sort of thing, and I have found them to be very effective with a CRT. All of those sites have been discussed previously here.

---Bob Gross---

One last plea for help. I've been playing with the red/blue curves in DPP for two days and I'm ready to toss my computer out the window. Need some DPP help. I don't know if it's possible to save a 'recipe' and send it to someone else, but I really need some expert help with fixing these. I have about a hundred shots that were done with the built-in flash while using tungsten WB and they're blue like the blue one below. I got two shots of the same people (good one done with the Portrait basic setting, so it was right) to make matching easy.

I don't have Photoshop, and I didn't shoot RAW. I have JPGs and DPP version 2.03.7. I don't have any other resources and won't have in the near term. Can anyone playing with these two shots help me get the blue ones close to the other one in DPP and help me get that recipe so I can batch process it to the other 100?

Thanks in advance for DPP help, and nothing else about how you'd take care of it in Photoshop will be of any use to me. If it's not possible for someone else to cook up a DPP recipe and get it to me, please let me know. I'm very new to this and don't know what's possible.

I apologize if I sounded cranky earlier, but "you shoulda done this" doesn't help and I'm tearing my hair out right about now.

John

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To adjust the white balance of the "bluish" pictures, click on the "Click" button that's just above the histogram graph. Then go to a part of the picture that is neutral in color like something white (white shirts or table cloths) or gray and click on it with the eye dropper. If what you selected is really neutral, your white balance should come out looking good. You can then copy the recipe to the other pictures with the wrong WB.

Here's what I did in photoshop in a coupla minutes:
Cyan-Red +60
Magenta-Green +26
Yellow-Blue -55
I have no idea how these would correspond to/in the Canon Digital Professional Pro

KAC

OMG! I can't believe how much better that looks! I don't have Photoshop, but at least you're helping me move the colors in the right direction.

Thanks, PacAce, I didn't know what the click thing was. I'll try that. The white stuff is blue, now, but if I understand you, DPP will know that I'm trying to 'tell it' to make the blue stuff whiter. I'll report back.

Wow, I can't get over that fix! Looks completely natural.

John

John, I never tried this with dpp, but using leo's advice above and my numbers from photoshop here are the two pics "fixed up" I can email you the "recipe" or you can just try it yourself, the DPP curves have a grid and I just pulled the curves (r, g, b) up or down in the middle to do these:

Well, mine doesn't look as natural as Kenyc's (guess I need to buy Photoshop), but PacAce got me pionted in the right direction. While I might get a little better, I'm happy enough with this 'fix' and it will do. My fixed isn't quite as warm as the Digital Rebel XT's Portrait Basic Setting renders, but I'm a lot happier with it than the blueish goofed shots.

I guess there's a reason Photoshop is an expensive program. You get what you pay for, I guess. Thanks, fellas. Below are the camera settings and the 'goofed'.

John

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And here's my 'fixed'.

It will have to do. Not horrible. Gotta pay more attention to the camera settings. I learned one thing, though. I much prefer shooting JPG to raw right now, if I get the shot settings right. When I'm a digital photo genius, like you guys, I'll switch to Raw.

Thanks again!

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No bad at all, just play with the settings a bit and you can save the Recipe and then apply it to all of them.

KAC

And saved the recipe and applied to others. Wow! Check these out! Thanks again, guys!

John

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