Is it me or the camera?

[Optical]

I went to a childs pool party on the weekend. It was very cloudy and then the sun came out then went in again. The pool area was quite shady so I had the white balance in "shade". I have noticed that my images have come out quite red (very red). Would the white balance made the photos too red or is there something else I should have done? I'm still learning the ins and outs of the camera (obviously haven't learnt enough) and would appreciate any feedback good or bad. The camera I had used is a Nikon D60 and the lense 55-200mm. No flash used. Thanks.

[ricktas]

Does look like a white balance issue. Did you shoot in RAW? cause if so you can fix it in your RAW converter.

[Optical]

No I just shot in fine (high) JPG. I've stopped shooting in RAW as I cannot seem to open the RAW files in my version of photoshop CS3. I did manage to take back the red by adjusting the image through the Hue/Saturation, but don't want to do this to every photo - I did take over 200 shots. I would like to get it right the first time through the camera.

[Fantasyphoto]

It would appear that the white balance selection of "shade" was probably not the correct choice, at least for for the first two images.

You could divide your images into a few groups (based on the amount of excess red) and then batch process each group.

[Optical]

Hi Fantasyphoto
Thanks for that. I was actually thinking of doing that. I've heard about batch processing but haven't learnt how to do it yet..... guess what I will be doing later.

[ricktas]

You have a D60, so the RAW files should be ok with CS3, Do an update in CS3 and it will find all the updates available including ACR and then you should easily be able to use your RAW files with CS3

[wideangle]

Like Rick has said it looks like it would be a WB issue there. Shooting in RAW is going to give you the benefit of being able to adjust the white balance in post processing. You can still do this with a JPG but not it's not as good as doing it through RAW. If you are having trouble with opening your RAW images you can always give Raw Therapee a try, or download a trial version of Adobe Lightroom or Bibble RAW.

Cheers

[Optical]

Excellent... thanks Rick and Wideangle. Rick I never thought of doing an update. Will definitely give it a go. Wideangle, I will have a search for the trial version of lightroom, I hear it is pretty good.

[Hamish McHaggis]

You can download the beta version of lightroom 3 (http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom3/) and use it free till April 30th next year.
Colin
ps it is a beta, so possibly not the most stable and not really recommended as your primary package. But, a good chance to evaluate and give feedback to Adobe

[Optical]

Thank you Hamish.... muchly appreciated.

[clm738]

As you shoot in jpeg does the Nikon have a picture style where you can set the saturation to defferent settings in your camera. If so it may be set too high. You will have to check the manual.

[Optical]

Thanks Carmen, I will have a look.

[ving]

hmm... why did you choose the WB? I'd have left it on auto. auto WB should give you the results you are after.

[Optical]

Hi David (ving)
I thought it being a cloudy day that it would be better. It is a good lesson to learn though.

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

[jev]

It's not just the WB... you pumped up the saturation in the camera too. That makes things worse...

[mongo]

Mongo agrees with Jev. your saturation setting could be too high. If that is so and you have WB set to cloudy, you will intesify the redish effect.