What is wrong with this photo?

Hi, I am new here. I am new to photography and processing photos so most of the time I really have no idea what I am doing. I used to lurk here but put photography on the back burner for quite a while.

I really like this photo of my golden retriever, but something is off with the color. I can't quite put my finger on it. Too blue? Too yellow? Is it the lighting conditions (overcast and in the shadowy woods)? I would like to accentuate the color of her coat but tone down on the grass. I shot this in raw and have been toying with it for a few hours and this is the best I could come up with. I am using Lightroom. Please help me.. it's driving me nuts.

Do you have Lightroom? I just tried the 30 day demo and it will let you control colors.

Is that a leaf on the dogs left eye? I'd shoot some more.

Yeah the leaf kind of ruins it a little.

I am using Lightroom but the problem is I can't decide what is wrong with the colors. I just know it doesn't look right.

I like the photo (too bad about the leaf). I'm wondering if the blacks are clipped a bit too much causing you to lose some shadow detail? If that's the case by correcting it the grass will lose some "punch".

In LR it's really easy to tone down the green without affecting the dogs coat too much. In the Develop module under HSL/Color/B&W, select the "Saturation" tab. Then, in the top left corner under the word "Hue" click the little circles that look like a bullseye (an up/down arrow will appear). Just move your mouse into a really green area of the grass then left click and drag downwards to reduce saturation of just the grass color. When you're finished just click the bulls-eye again.

Thank you for your help Bob. I took your suggestions and (I know this is probably the wrong way to say this but --) I put the black back in the photo and reduced the saturation according to your directions. It took some of the yellow out of the coat as well, but I think it looks better overall. Is there anything else I should fix? Is the photo too warm?

I like the last version you posted. How warm you want it is a creative decision. To me the grass looks more natural and I can see more texture in your dogs coat.

First version looks good to me. It looks like you've used Adobe RGB on the web, which isn't ideal, it should (or must) be sRgb. If you don't really, really understand color, use sRgb everywhere.

The image is a little bright.

Seems like you could paint the dog with a brush, and lower the exposure a bit on the dog. But leave the grass the same way it is in the 2nd pic

Both images you posted are tagged as sRGB, which is correct for web viewing.

I liked both images and I dont see much wrong with the first in terms of color.
I'm wondering if what you are really looking for is the lighting.... it's a little flat.

If anything the image just lacks some creative lighting. Maybe doing this when the sun is starting to set and you can get some golden rays on the grass and pup.

But overall I like it all right.

abbypanda wrote in post #16014226
I liked both images and I dont see much wrong with the first in terms of color.
I'm wondering if what you are really looking for is the lighting.... it's a little flat.

If anything the image just lacks some creative lighting. Maybe doing this when the sun is starting to set and you can get some golden rays on the grass and pup.

But overall I like it all right.

Yes, I think it is ultimately the lighting that's bothering me about this photo.

Thank you all for your advice!

sws1 wrote in post #16013486
Seems like you could paint the dog with a brush, and lower the exposure a bit on the dog. But leave the grass the same way it is in the 2nd pic

I presume you mean in the photo, rather than paint the real dog?