Better color

[Quadracer041]

Getting into sports photography and been looking at pics from other sports photographers. How do I get better color on cloudy days? Is it a white balance adjustment? Seems like sometimes if I use the cloudy white balance it just makes the colors warmer and the photo is too orange looking. Should I be using the color temps white balance adjustments to get my colors right? Would I need to bump up the saturation or contrast in the situations?

[freygr]

First if the arena is lighted with sodium lamps and it there on at game time it's is not practical to get good color. Also it would be easier to correct the color balance if you are using the RAW image setting. If you can't get good color balance with the RAW image files then you can convert to B&W images.

Also to get good photos as most of the time the games are during the evening you should use fast lenses F2.8 or better.

[Quadracer041]

I am using a Sigma 70-200 f2.8. Most of the time I will be shooting during the day on a motocross track. Dont really know much about shooting RAW and post editing. Seems like there is alot more work involved when shooting raw.

[Greg McCary]

Shooting RAW does give you more flexibility. But you still can push the colors, contrast and ect with jpegs if you have good editing software. Lightroom is about the best in my book.

[EOSThree]

It really all depends on your workflow. If you shoot a bunch of shots and plan on using them all, then JPEG is definitely easier, although you can always shoot RAW+JPG (which is what I do) and quickly send the JPEGs up to Picasa or whatever for sharing. But you still have the "Negative" of the RAW file to fix if need be.

If you shoot a bunch of shots with the plan of processing a select few then RAW is an excellent way to make sure you get the most out of your photographs. You can process to extremes without losing data, usually not needed, but when that special shot is not right, the extra latitude of RAW is not replaceable.

Shooting RAW is really no more difficult that shooting JPEG. There is the step of converting to JPEG for display, but that's just a button push away, or with LR simply exporting the file as a JPEG. The only drawback is that a RAW file takes up more space. The advantage is that you have a lot of latitude to "fix" files that maybe aren't perfect. At some point a lot of JPEGs are unfixable, but in RAW format the extra latitude may allow a fix for that same file, for me I always want that ability.

[freygr]

I shoot RAW + JPG like: EOSThree, also. The thing with RAW one it's the RAW sensor DATA and any change you make in: color balance, white balance or gama is saved as processing file like the data in JPG's EXIF. The RAW data has a 12 to 16 bit color depth and the file format is not lossy. Between white and black JPG has 256 sades of gray but a 12 bit RAW file has 4096 sades of gray and 68 gig colors compared to JPG's 16.7 million colors.

If you blow out the highlights editing a JPG and over write your original image file you will not be able to recover the image, but with a RAW file, the only change made is in the processing entry's and the image is recoverable. In fact the program I use does not let me save the edited file back to the RAW format.

For the best result when editing JPG files. Open the JPG file and if you not done editing save to a PSD, TIFF, or BMP file, You can edit all you wish with any problems as if you make a mistake, just reopen the original file. When you done editing you can save the image as a jpg file. One thing you do not want to do is to open a JPG then resave the JPG when you are done(you just want to close the file), as if you save the image is compressed again losing more color and image detail during the image recompression

[Asmarlak]

Getting into sports photography and been looking at pics from other sports photographers. How do I get better color on cloudy days? Is it a white balance adjustment? Seems like sometimes if I use the cloudy white balance it just makes the colors warmer and the photo is too orange looking. Should I be using the color temps white balance adjustments to get my colors right? Would I need to bump up the saturation or contrast in the situations?

From your question I could understand that you are talking "Out of camera" images, something which is very difficult under cloudy or odd/indoor lighting situations. Those images will not be perfect regardless of the camera or lens you use. Using Photoshop will take your images onto much higher levels where most expensive cameras and lenses won't dare to reach. Those photos that you said you see in sports magazine are all post processed to look the way you see them.
As the matter in fact, the more you become skilled in photoshop the less you relay on buying expensive equipment. It also gives you sense of freedom in controlling the image after shooting. It is time consuming though but when you reach your goal you'll feel that it is time well spent.

[Quadracer041]

From your question I could understand that you are talking "Out of camera" images, something which is very difficult under cloudy or odd/indoor lighting situations. Those images will not be perfect regardless of the camera or lens you use. Using Photoshop will take your images onto much higher levels where most expensive cameras and lenses won't dare to reach. Those photos that you said you see in sports magazine are all post processed to look the way you see them.
As the matter in fact, the more you become skilled in photoshop the less you relay on buying expensive equipment. It also gives you sense of freedom in controlling the image after shooting. It is time consuming though but when you reach your goal you'll feel that it is time well spent.

Thank you for all your reply's. I have Photoshop CS, but seems soooooo hard to use. Doesnt look user friendly at all. How is the best way to go about learning how to use it???????

[Asmarlak]

I have been doing it for many years and use Photoshop Elements, It is cheaper and simpler version of its big brother but very good program. The secret to learning is to spend as much time doing it as you can even when you think it is too complicated, don't stop trying. Keep in mind that many people are already doing it then why not you?.

[Quadracer041]

Thanks, I will keep working on it.

[freygr]

Thank you for all your reply's. I have Photoshop CS, but seems soooooo hard to use. Doesnt look user friendly at all. How is the best way to go about learning how to use it???????

I use a program called Thumbs Plus. It's a cataloging/data base/image viewing with thumb nails and has some editing built in. For most of my editing needs I do not need to leave this program, curves/color adjustment/resizing/cropping/rotation of the image and the most important rotate to line. For removal of dust, or objects Photoshop, Piantshop, Gimp or Elements is required with their step learning curve.