Ben O'Neal - WOW! Great advice and clearly illustrated. I, myself, will only sometimes let an image go a bit warm if it is an obvious sunset (evening) shot that has that warm evening feel to it. My own preference is to cheat a bit on the cooler side. The colors just pop more. Thanks for these wonderful examples.
Vinod Nanaiah - Thanks for the tips..it really helps!!
Carri Roman - Hooray!! Thank you for solidifying my thoughts that so much is much too warm. I am tempted to go that route but find myself feeling "uneasy" about it. Ha! Love this post!!
Truc - Another of your wonderful, informative posts! Thanks, Melissa!
Kari - Hi Melissa, thanks so much for your great FAQ posts. I absolutely love your style and photographs, and especially enjoy that you don't try to do anything extreme in post-production like so many photographers have started doing. Two things I'd like to bring up for future "how-to's": 1. I have Nikon's 50mm 1.4 lens and I'm terrified of shooting wide open. But I love the shots you have that have extremely shallow depth of field. I cannot achieve this while keeping the key part of my image in focus...how far away do you stand for such shots? Particularly in your photos of Michelle and Brent, there are two shots of them standing among a field of flowers and only they are in focus. Love it! 2. Do you ever use fill flash during portrait sessions? What about during a mid-day, outdoor wedding...do you just find some shade so you can do natural light photographs for the portraits? Thanks!
Tira J - Wonderful post MJ! I have been working hard on my skin tones and to keep them even. I shoot AWB, but have recently started shooting in neutral vs. portrait mode, upon a recommendation from a friend. So far, I am more satisfied with my images. Only time will tell. Of course, it all takes practice, practice, practice!! xoxo
Meredith Melody - Thanks, again, Melissa for another awesome post! Your earlier posts about this helped me tremendously. You asked us to leave you a comment about what we'd like to see more of so.... I'd love to learn more about how you get your couples/subjects to pose or how you get them to interact naturally to get the perfect shot. I've read your posts about this before, but more would be AWESOME! Also, any tips on which lens to use for which type of shot would be mucho appreciated.
Natacha Wilson - Thank you so much Melissa. Nice to be able to see how you tackle this. I too calibrate my monitor but if staring at the screen for too long it can all become a little confusing. Sometimes I just need to step away and when I return I see where I've gone wrong.
jacqui - Sometimes people come to this earth and never realise how they impact the lives of others, you are one of these people, you have made an impact on my life with your generosity that has changed my thinking and out look, thankyou for these posts Melissa.
Evie Perez - Thank you so much!!! This was just on my mind, thank for reading my mind. I have a hard time with this, but somewhat getting it down. Do you edit all your pictures in photoshop? Do you use Lightroom at all?
Lora Ayers - Thank you Melissa, I'm always trying to get the best skin tones possible, and this helps!
Vashti - Great post. Then again, there's the automatic white balance/skin tone perfection tool... aka B&W *smiles*
Sarah - Thanks for the post Melissa. I've been reviewing some photos recently and thought 'gee, not sure I got the white balance right'. I'm doing the same process as you've described, so perhaps I just need to train and get more feed back. Thanks. Loving these posts.
Alicia - I am sooo guilty. I'm an "overwarmer"--I leave the cookies in the oven too long and have baked (yellow) people when they come out of my editing process lots of times. Thanks for your tips! : )
becky Huff - You are a saint! I struggle in this area and I soooo need this post! Thank you!!!
Jamie Mink - Wonderful, helpful post. Thank you so much! Love your blog, it's part of my daily read. Love it!
Regina - Thanks for the great post. I just starte shooting in RAW and love it. These are so helpful.
Amanda - This is one of the most beneficial things I took away from the MJ2Day. I am extra aware of warm skin tones now! :)
Dennis Bullock - +1 to Mark's request. Good stuff Melissa!
Matt - Great post. Looking at the "too warm" image I actually like the tones and I am regularly aware that my images are too warm, but then as I pull the colour back I start worrying about "is this skin tone right/better" and only go half way to proper correction I think, looking at your "after" image I can tell I just need to get those sliders over more.
One thing abuot using auto-WB of course, the amount of corection being aplpied by the camera is going to alter from image to image, so making one correction over a spread of images may prove harder and therefore more time will be spent correcting one by one would it not? :)
Nicole Pfeiffer - It's nice to see this in action. I actually don't mind the first image being too warm. I like it both ways, but I do tend to leave images more warm.
Michelle - Thanks for the tips. It's funny how easy some things are to get right and how often I miss it. ;)
Holly - Thanks for this post! I use those two sliders a LOT too (but in Lightroom). I like how you mention that you rarely have to go from cool to warmer. I actually do that a lot though because my Nikon D700 tends to shoot cool. :)
Ronald - Great post, fantastic pictures. Congratulations.
Mark - Thanks so much for updating your FAQ. Now will you please do a FAQ on how you photograph in full sun, backlit and still get nice metered skin tones. Do you spot meter and how do you do that quickly on the run and gun of a outdoor wedding. Ur the best