Color Saturation Problem and other "issues" for D60

[RBennett]

Ok, I know we are more of a "show 'n tell" type group so I will start off by apologizing that I don't have an example. I have a friend that has recently got into photography (and yes it IS a friend, not me) and she has a recent problem that I am trying to help her figure out. She is using a Nikon D60 and she said that she took some pictures of her kids at a hotel swimming pool, and when she looks at it on her laptop everything looks PERFECT! However, when she printed it out as a 4x6 the water was more navy blue, the wave "marks" are too dark, the kids' lips are too red, their skin is too white, their hair too dark, etc... She said that the background color does not seem to be as affected though. She said she went back and tried to edit them and reprint the pictures and did not see any difference. Does this sound like a post-processing problem or more of a settings issue?

She had one other problem that she mentioned to me that was strange also. She said that she was taking some family dinner shots and the people closest to her are in focus but then she described the people inches behind them as "grainy or filmy". Do you think this is a depth of field problem, a focusing problem, or something else like ISO? I asked her to email me one of the pictures that she is least happy with so I can look at the exif and see what settings she is on, since she lives some hours away from me.

Like I said, I know this is difficult without having a shot to look at but it doesn't sound like the digital copy would show us any problems; it's just the printed copies. Any ideas/thoughts/suggestions would be appreciated!

 

[wenrob]

Did she have them printed or did she print them herself? Either way she should try to print somewhere else as a test. Most likely it's PP. There could be all sorts of things happening especially if she's printing at home, her program and printer profiles could be clashing. Also, people tend to oversaturate (I know as I was one) without realizing it trying to make someone's baby blues pop and they're turning lips purple etc. Bottom line, I don't think it's her camera but PP or her printer. Tell her to print a pic that hasn't been processed and see how it comes out.

As for the second, I'm betting it's shallow depth of field combined w/underexposure. She's probably trying to bring the people up in the backround and it's introducing noise.

I'm just guessing of course but those are what I'd look into. It sounds like a whole lot of trying too hard with PP. Again this is personal experience, doing the same thing before I realized less is more.

edited to add: A lot of people are going to recommend monitor calibration and while that 100% valid and should be done, if things are THAT off it's more likely user error IMHO. Again personal experience and lessons learned, lol.

 

[Chikabowa]

Problem 1) If she is editing on a laptop that is NOT calibrated, then there is absolutely no way to gauge if her color space matches her prints. Additionally, most consumer print shops (like Walgreens, Wal-Mart, Ritz Camera) have color bias which can also effect how prints turn out. So, she needs to calibrate her monitor (which on a laptop is really hard - desktops in a light controlled room are more accurate), run some test prints with a better lab and see if things match up at that point. Then once she matches her lab prints with her laptop, that is when she'll have a good match on color space.

Problem 2) Most likely what is happening is she has a high ISO while shooting indoors. High ISO noise is more visible in the underexposed areas of the photo. So while the people in front are in focus and have a good exposure (thus the noise not being prominent) the more underexposed areas of the photo are showing that noise.

 

[annnewjerz]

I'd say for the first issue, it could be what Wen said---or it could be that her monitor is not calibrated. I know that when I look at my own pics at home, they look great and then when I look at them at work---all of the colors are darker, almost to the point of looking way underexposed. From what I understand, in order to get the colors the most accurate when you are post-processing, your monitor should be calibrated. I have no personal experience with this issue---but did have the Nikon D60 up until a few months ago and have never experienced this issue.

Hopefully you can get some pics to post, because I have not a clue at all of what the second issue could be. Even when I boosted the ISO up to 800 or so indoors to get pictures of people, I never had a problem with them looking overly grainy (to me).

Good luck and hopefully she finds the help she needs!

Edited: Susan beat me to it, didn't realize that was posted while I was typing

 

[RBennett]

Thanks everyone! I believe she said at first she tried printing them from an on-line company and then secondly she tried printing them at a local store (Hy-vee, which is kind of like Walgreens/Kroger in one.) Both times, she said that she didn't care for the results. My first recommendation to her was pretty well what everyone else said: check the saturation in post processing. The only thing that concerns me is that she said after she didn't like the results she went back and edited them and could not tell a difference.

Secondly, again I agree: the family dinner photos sounds like it might be an ISO issue with DOF. My only wonder was if she is shooting at 10mp with the D60, that wouldn't cause a 4x6 to be grainy would it? I only shoot with a 6mp so I don't know.

I didn't even consider the monitor calibration. I guess it makes sense if you try and make a picture look good on something that is not showing a good representation, the printed picture will look different. I sent her a link to this thread so maybe she can look on here and get some ideas and if she wants to, chime in with some more information/issues. Thanks everyone! You're a HUGE help as usual!!!

 

[wenrob]

I was wondering, is she shooting in Vivid? Vivid is not a good thing for people shots. Again, lessons learned, lol.

I know that I've thought my pics looked "perfect" on the monitor and have gone back later and thought, "What the he** was I thinking?" I've deleted 100's of pics from my earlier days and gone back with a much lighter hand. I think if she posted the pics she's talking about we could get a better idea of what the problem may be. Also, printed pics will never look exactly as they do on our monitors, it's just not possible. However they should not be that off.