Skin tones - about to drive me nuts!

Body: 5D
Lens: 70-200L 2.8
Flash: 580EX with "A better bounce card" diffuser
Location: Outdoors in open shade
File format: RAW
WB: Auto

I never have accurate skin tones, straight out of the camera. Then, during post processing, using Canon DPP and Lightroom, I can't seem to get accurate skin tones even when I do a "click to set white balance". After much tweaking in RAW format, I'm having to export a JPG to Photoshop and adjust the HUE to get somewhat accurate skin tones.

Can someone please advise here? Is this normal? Is there a way to RESET a 5D (in case something is screwed up with the firmware?)?

Thank you for any help you can offer.
Thanks.
Danny

Are you sure your monitor is showing you the proper color? If you are having to adjust Hue to get what you believe is a good skin tone my guess is that you may not be getting the results you think you are.
Can you post an example of a bad skin tone and one you have adjusted with Hue that now looks correct to you?

Gey your subject(s) to hold a White Balance card like a WhiBal or X-Rite ColorChecker Passport, take a reference shot and use that to set your white balance.

snyper77 wrote in post #10303171
Body: 5D
Lens: 70-200L 2.8
Flash: 580EX with "A better bounce card" diffuser
Location: Outdoors in open shade
File format: RAW
WB: Auto

I never have accurate skin tones, straight out of the camera. Then, during post processing, using Canon DPP and Lightroom, I can't seem to get accurate skin tones even when I do a "click to set white balance". After much tweaking in RAW format, I'm having to export a JPG to Photoshop and adjust the HUE to get somewhat accurate skin tones.

Can someone please advise here? Is this normal? Is there a way to RESET a 5D (in case something is screwed up with the firmware?)?

Thank you for any help you can offer.
Thanks.
Danny

5D reds are really overpowering. In LR, dial down the red saturation, some orange saturation, and some magenta saturation, and then try to white balance.

picturecrazy wrote in post #10303435
5D reds are really overpowering. In LR, dial down the red saturation, some orange saturation, and some magenta saturation, and then try to white balance.

+1 on this, noticed the same thing on my 40D

What picture style are you using?

+1 for the xrite passport. It will develop a profile for your camera in the light in which you are shooting. This will solve your problem.
Calibrate your monitor if you haven't.
Do a custom white balance when you shoot. Use an accurate white balance target when you do this.
Do not include a saturation adjustment in your work flow.
If you use levels (as I do) set the blend mode to luminosity. Otherwise, you are affecting saturation.

windpig wrote in post #10303614
What picture style are you using?

No picture style selected... so I guess it would be "Standard" or "None".

No, my monitors haven't been calibrated yet, but it's a pair Dell 2209WA's. I have a EyeOne Display 2 and plan to calibrate this weekend.

I don't think that is the problem because once I get the skin tones pretty close on my monitor, my final prints match it also. So, it's not like the monitor is showing me false bad skin tones. Prints and monitor match fine.

It's just -hell- trying to post process it enough so that the skin tones look real (neutral). They always seem too "yellow/green"

Someone mentioned 5D's are overbearing with reds.... I could be off here, but it doesn't seem like a red problem... many times the photos are too "cold", then when I do a "click white balance" (on something white or gray in the photo), the picture gets very yellow. Yuck.

I appreciate further input as well, thanks!

snyper77 wrote in post #10303171
Body: 5D
Lens: 70-200L 2.8
Flash: 580EX with "A better bounce card" diffuser
Location: Outdoors in open shade
File format: RAW
WB: Auto

I never have accurate skin tones, straight out of the camera. Then, during post processing, using Canon DPP and Lightroom, I can't seem to get accurate skin tones even when I do a "click to set white balance". After much tweaking in RAW format, I'm having to export a JPG to Photoshop and adjust the HUE to get somewhat accurate skin tones.

Can someone please advise here? Is this normal? Is there a way to RESET a 5D (in case something is screwed up with the firmware?)?

Thank you for any help you can offer.
Thanks.
Danny

It may not work for some people but I found it easier to set the WB to daylight at all times while in Neutral style. Then, when open RAW file in ACR, I just tweek the color temp for the skin tone and bring into my PSE6 for PP.
Most of my people shoots are with flash(es). And yes, to get your monitor calibrated is essential

vincent_su wrote in post #10304086
... I found it easier to set the WB to daylight at all times...

I have been doing the same since some time.

That way, a series of shots taken in the same lighting will require the same WB tweak (copy/paste from the first one adjusted) while with Auto WB the required adjustments may vary slightly from shot to shot.

poloman wrote in post #10303618
If you use levels (as I do) set the blend mode to luminosity. Otherwise, you are affecting saturation.

Thanks for that tip, poloman.

It's easy to miss the saturation change with small amounts of levels correction (and perhaps wonder later).

Get an actual gray card to be sure what you're clicking on is really gray.

http://www.lallyphotog​raphy.com/store/

Also make sure you are not dealing with underexposed photos. They can masquerade as poor white balance when really they just need to have the exposure increased and the white balance comes around.

As others have mentioned, it's probably your monitors. You'll probably be quite surprised after calibration. Remember to use the profile generated from the first monitor the calibrate the second - that way they'll look about the same.