D-Lux 4 color and white balance.

[houtan]

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Hi,

 

I'm new to D-Lux 4 and used to be a Canon user before. Dunno if I made the right decision to switch or not. Anyhow, this is a photo that I took in a snowy day in P mood with AWB and auto iso on. I'm not really happy with the colors in particular the red. Dunno if I'm doing something wrong or is this the way the camera is.

 

thanks

Houtan.

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3443/3266945934_9e0d9b9658_b.jpg

[bill]

Hi Houtan, and welcome.

 

You have picked a good camera - the D-Lux 4 is capable of superb images. But like many small digi compacts you have to take it off auto to get the best from it. I was shooting in the snow myself last week and set exposure compensation to +1 ish to get decent results. Remember also that there is a "Snow" scene mode, and that you can also set your own white balance.

 

When I get some time I shall post some results in the Photo Forum and link them back to this thread.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Regards,

 

Bill

[farnz]

Hi, Houtan, welcome to the forum!

 

I wasn't there of course, but the colours look pretty good to me; the snow is white, not grey, the carlsburg green looks right and the skin tones look okay.

 

The only reds I see are the bobble hat on the guy on the right and the face on the bloke in the middle - although that may be 'naturally' enhanced by the cold or fuelled by alcohol.

 

If the red bobble hat isn't red enough then you could increase saturation in post processing and change to the Vibrant colour setting on your D-Lux 4. (Is your monitor calibrated btw?)

 

I've got to say that it's a very life-like picture.

 

Pete.

[kalina]

It looks like a decent picture to me. I'd probably knock it up in color saturation by +5 in Photoshop, but that's about it.

[mino]

Hi,

 

I'm new to D-Lux 4 and used to be a Canon user before. Dunno if I made the right decision to switch or not. Anyhow, this is a photo that I took in a snowy day in P mood with AWB and auto iso on. I'm not really happy with the colors in particular the red. Dunno if I'm doing something wrong or is this the way the camera is.

 

thanks

Houtan.

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3443/3266945934_9e0d9b9658_b.jpg

 

I have noticed that too - DLux 4 has a tendency to give skin a slightly "pinkish/reddish" tint that is not easy to remove. (Canon gives usually a "yellowish" tint to the skin). In PP I found that by adding a little bit of yellow and reducing the saturation does the job, but it might throw the other colors off (like snow). It looks to me like the middle person face, being in the shade has the worst red color. Maybe slightly underexposed faces shows reddish tint more. Now I am experimenting with other modes like Smooth, etc. It is not easy to figure it out as sometime I am getting good skin color (shooting RWL, or jpg does not make any difference in my experience). Maybe a slight overexposure might be the right solution.

 

mino

[ho_co]

Houtan (and mino as well ), welcome to the forum.

 

The picture looks good to me. The girl's flesh tones look great, and the guy on the right looks good if a bit flushed--and that looks more like the effects of the cold than anything else. The fellow in the center looks to be the happiest, but he's in the shadow of both of the others, so he's not getting as much light.

 

I like the D-Lux 4 a lot, but it sure has enough different modes to play with. To avoid letting it take over and start to become "fiddly," I generally use the same settings as you mentioned, Program, AWB and AutoISO, unless there's some special thing I want to do.

 

The picture you posted is a very difficult situation for auto exposure, because you've got both the dark clothing of your subjects and the bright illumination of the snow. I think the camera did a good job, but you can tweak it a bit in your post-processing software just by brightening it a bit.

 

As Bill said, rule of thumb when you're shooting this kind of contrast is to dial in about a stop more exposure.

 

Overall, I think the camera did about as well as it could have, keeping the flesh tones pretty well, not turning the snow gray (not an uncommon problem), but letting the clothing go a little darker than I would like.

 

But you're right, different brands have different colors and different looks to them. I don't know whether you're using the D-Lux 4's RAW mode, but RAW does give a lot greater opportunity for adjustments after the fact.