D800 Coloring Problem, HELP!

My wife saved for over 2 years to get her new D800. Now that she has it she hates it! And it's past the return time that we could take it back so she has to make due with it. Her problem is this:

1 - The majority of her photography is of people doing portraits. She can not get right flesh tone of people!! All of her pictures come out with people's skin color looking very grey and unnatural.

2 - Also she's used to very bright colors that "pop" She's having a very difficult time getting the colors she wants to pop as well

She previously used a D80 for about 5 years and still prefers that over the D800.


Can anyone help me?! Is it white balance or some other settings? She's a self-taught photographer with no formal training so it's been very frustrating. Thanks!

Off the top of my head it sounds like someone has gone from shooting JPG to shooting RAW without knowing/understanding the need for post processing when shooting RAW. I would confirm first that her files are indeed RAW. If they are, she'll need to learn how to post process those shots to get the color and sharpness she's used to because her D80 was doing it for her when she shot JPG. When you start shooting RAW you take control of those aspects but it requires a new skill set. It's a joy when you learn how to post process and I don't think anyone would want to give up shooting in RAW once they get a grip on how to post process a shot, but again there is some additional learning required.

There a lot of articles an tutorials that will explain the difference and how to post process RAW files. Here are a couple to get you, or your wife, started in the right direction:

RAW vs JPG: The Ultimate Visual Guide

The Basics of RAW Files and What to do With the Darn Things

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Thanks Horoscope Fish, that's very helpful info.

So in your opinion it's not a camera or settings problem but an issue with post processing?

I have a D800 and am absolutely with Horoscope Fish. Out of the camera the D800 RAW files can look rather flat depending on what you're reading them into. Lightroom will at least apply whatever camera profile you were shooting in so they should approximate what you see in the jpeg preview on the camera. If no profile is applied at all then all you have is the RAW information, and there's a lot of it. But you should be able to tweak that fairly easily in post-processing to get to where you want to be.

If she's shooting in a controlled environment a lot then I suspect that she will be able to come up with a set of presets that could be applied as a universal starting point on the photos, either during import or immediately afterward, which would save some time.

You're also going to want to learn how to properly set the White Balance at shooting time, even though it can be fully manipulated in post. If she doesn't have a grey card to use to set it a great, and quick way to choose the best preset WB is to put it in Live View, hold down the WB button on top of the camera and use the back data wheel to cycle through the presets until you find the one that works best.

Out of curiosity, what is she using for post processing now?

RDEMMER said:

Thanks Horoscope Fish, that's very helpful info.

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You're welcome. I hope it helps iron out the situation.

RDEMMER said:

So in your opinion it's not a camera or settings problem but an issue with post processing?

Click to expand...

At this point I'm absolutely thinking "Pilot Error". It could be a settings issue but that too, really, is pilot error when you come right down to it. I'm 99% sure what's needed here is education. The jump from a D80 to a D800 is freaking monumental and, in my opinion, you (meaning your wife) really should have anticipated a certain learning curve would be involved. It sounds like she didn't and this is probably the source of her frustration. She's on the shore of a whole new land and while she's got the language down, she going to need to learn to speak the new dialect, if you follow.

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Thanks

Thanks Jake! she's using Lightroom right now but again it's all self taught so there may be some features she's not utilizing that may help with post processing

I absolutely follow you on the learning curve! And she anticipated it but she didn't think it'd take this long. She taught herself everything about the D80 but maybe there are some more things for her to look into on the D800 that can help her along. Again, I appreciate the help!

I would recommend that she tries one of the color profiles on Lightroom like "Vivid" as a starting point and tweak the "Basic' module settings afterwards as needed. The color rendition and dynamic range of the D800 is beyond stunning and I came from the D7000 which is no slouch in that dept! Julianne Kost from Adobe has some really good and free training videos online as well.

I agree with your and your wife's observations 100%! I upgraded from a D80 to the D800 last summer and have found the skin tones coming out of the D800 to be absolutely horrendous, regardless of whether I was shooting RAW or JPEG! I routinely shoot in JPEG because it is my personal goal to get everything right in-camera to minimize the amount of post-processing required later, so please let's not get into the whole RAW vs JPEG debate

Anyway, on the D800, I noticed unusual pink/gray skin tones, particularly under mixed lighting. When I used the built-in flash or hot-shoe flash, the skin tones appeared more natural. However, the skin tones looked off even under natural i.e. outdoor lighting.

Using the default Picture Control settings, I was unable to get satisfactory results. I scoured the Internet and found a little mention on Ken Rockwell's site about modifying the PC settings and which settings he uses. I decided to try his settings out and have seen much improvement. You can read more about it here and make any necessary adjustments that suit you.

Hope this help!

​Chris

Those are Ken Rockwell's setting I wouldn't go near them with a ten foot pole.

​Like I mentioned to RDEMMER, his wife can start there and "make any necessary adjustments". It's a starting point for getting the skin tones she's looking for. I had my D80 for five years and shot nearly 20,000 pictures with it -- all in manual mode -- before upgrading to the D800. The learning curve was not that steep for me at all, but the skin tone issue was baffling. I posted a help request similar to RDEMMER's on another Nikon user forum and, although no one was actually able to solve the problem (the camera had only been out a few weeks), I did get several leads. When I came across Ken's page, I decided to try out his settings and immediately noticed a marked improvement in skin tones. From there, it's just a matter of tweaking the settings to your liking.

BTW, what's with all the Ken Rockwell bashing I see in these and other forums?

​Chris