The color BLUE might be ruining your photos.

Feeling blue? Let's teach you how to spot and put an end to the blues once and for all.
First time here? Hi, I'm Omar Gonzalez, a professional portrait and event photographer in the NYC/NJ area. On this channel, we talk cameras, lenses, and techniques to improve our photography.
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www.omargonzalezphotography.com
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[@ToddPangburn]

Thanks Omar! I'm sure this type of video does worse than gear focused videos, but I really appreciate the content. Focusing on the art and skills of photography improve ones photos much more than a new camera will!

[@akfisher7138]

Agree. Well said

[@raymart86]

Interesting! I feel like I tend to play with white balance rather than picking out the blue to adjust. Thanks for the tip!

[@brucekraft744]

This one is certainly timely for me! I printed what is probably my best waterfall photo a few days ago. I let the print dry for a couple of days before I went back to evaluate it critically. I saw a LOT of excess blue that I hadn't noticed prior. I will be going back to that photo to give it a heavy-duty "Omar" treatment. Thanks a bunch!

[@indigo1982]

I watched the video as this topic interests me too, but I am more peeved with the yellow-green in some pictures (e.g. the one with black bird) As for blue, I think that in some of your examples, blue is a natural component of the scene. Under sunny skies, the blue color reflects off of light surfaces. Hence the white t-shirts and the sidewalk tiles are bluish. It is fine to reduce it for artistic intent, but the bluish tone is how one will see it in real life (except our eyes have normalized the blue tone so it looks normal for daylight).

[@AtlanticPicture]

Nah, I like the blue sky! The bluer, the better. I like to double it and then quadruple it. But seriously, aside from that I like saturated, strong colors, it is true that blue can sneak up on you, and I sometimes remove it from certain property photos. However, at the same time, blue water, blue sky will naturally reflect on your surroundings. Removing the blue color (cast) from a white shirt makes as much sense as removing yellow/orange from a warm sunny day. At the end of the day, it's a question of preference and your artistic decision.

[@chbritton]

Great video as always. I love all of your videos but these educational ones are great. Please do more!

[@matteofogliata21]

Turns out I'm not the only one out there obsessed about removing blue tints in photos 😂 Good tips for quickly removing it, thanks!

[@gabrielmercier-blouin7478]

You just blue my mind!

[@nicocastillo2099]

I generally desaturate blues - especially if it doesn’t fit the general aesthetic of a particular scene.

[@dansouth2088]

Good stuff, thanks Omar! I thought it was just me .but I've recognized the blues while editing over the past year or so.....

[@oc2phish07]

Ah, always SO good to see a new video from Omar.

[@roberteasler821]

Hi Omar. Care to comment on why reducing highlights often makes whites appear more blue, even after some white balance adjustments? I notice that after the highlights are reduced in a RAW image, whites appear more blueish and I sometimes need to color correct to pull blues out of the whites after the highlight reduction. I haven't been able to find anyone talking about that or discussing why reducing highlights it happens. Not sure I understand why highlight reduction affects color like that.

[@jeroenmeijer19]

Omar, happy new year !! 🍷❤️ love you ❤️ greetings from the Netherlands 🌷🇳🇱🌷

[@thenexthobby]

For a while I had a camera's WB set two clicks over from middle on its grid editor, so that any image was automatically shot a little bit warm. No blue color cast. Didn't keep it because I didn't always want it, but it's an option like say, as a custom function if it comes up often enough so you're not always having to fix as much in post.

[@Arripa-777]

We like you Mr. Blue ! 💙💙

[@QuicknStraight]

Yeah, I notice the blue a lot myself, mostly in the whites. I often boost the whites at the same time as reducing the blue. And, yes, WB too.

[@FogelMedia]

Great eyes, buen corazón, thanks for sharing! Un abrazo desde Hungría😊

[@gaza4543]

TIP! did you know if you hold option (alt on PC) and click and hold on the colour you wish to adjust in the the colour mixer it will show you where that colour is and how much it affects the image. The option/alt key in Lightroom dose loads. Just stops you from having to swing the slider backward and forwards

[@sonholee5769]

great tip. I was just thinking this very thing on recent photos I took in Death Valley. Gonna have to go back into C1 today...

[@jjstarrprod]

Simple but efficient. I also sometimes tone the blue down just a tad bit when it's too obnoxious, but one reason why I susually keep it there is because it's natural lighting ! The sky is a massive source of light, second only to the sun, and since it's blue, it's only natural to have some blue bleeding into the white light of the sun. So I don't feel quite like completely getting rid of it, as it gives more "perfect" colors, but just not natural. But yes, fixing the color temp first is a must.

[@SwissNetHawk]

An Eyeopener!

[@dominiclester3232]

A good exercise, thanks! We should not take this too far though, since white does include all colours and objects under a bright blue sky should have a hint of blue (much of daytime brightness comes from the sky, especially when a cloud is covering the sun)...

[@-grey]

Oooh interesting. I typically shoot 4500 - 4800k in daylight, because I think it gives more authentic blue to the sky and light in general. As a painter I also like the coldness of shadows adding to the fresh feel of the scene. I find the colour I do this with more is green. Often I find skies too cyan, and whites too murky green. This is probably due to where I live not having the cleanest air or clearest skies, shout out to México City contamination regulations. 😂

[@rjbiii]

I always start with white balance. Not sure why but with a couple of my non-fuji cameras, they always want a white balance that is too cool.

[@martinsarre]

I have to do this with my yellows too! usually on grass.

[@richyoung89]

Love lessons like this keep it coming

[@Ian61432]

I'd been noticing this recently too! I was wondering whether Fuji cameras had a tendency to shift the auto white balance too far to the blue side, but perhaps it's an inherent 'obnoxious' property of the colour 😅 It's so hard to get the manual white balance adjustment right by eyeballing, so I'll definitely try the channel desaturation trick!

[@monsurepik]

A really tough situation is when you have an internal location with warm lighting but also strong light through a window throwing in a much cooler blue light across the scene.

[@SkandaTejasw]

One of the most insightful presentations in a practical aspect of color science! Thank you a ton!! 🙏

[@Argolich]

Since watching this video....I see BLUE EVERYWHERE! HAHAHA! Seriously, thank you, Omar! It's been staring me in the face and I just haven't seen it but now I can't unsee it! Your videos remain a staple of my photo journey. I love the gear videos you do but I agree with others who love this sort of content as well. So helpful and informative but also a hoot to watch and enjoy! Cheers!

[@notme9872]

As a Darktable users you can create a parametric mask, go to the hue tab and while howering over the sliders press "C" to show the pure colors in the image. To correct anything I dont like I personaly use the color calibration module.

[@JackieDElia]

Excellent video. Thank you, Omar.

[@barclayjb]

MIND BLOWN !!!!!!!!!!! Now I have to re-edit everything! (Okay,... I took a breath.... Thanks for the great info. I will use it.).

[@creativevisiongaming]

I see the blue in all the photos. I usually always fix my blues with white balance

[@forgedfromfreedom]

One of the best skills to acquire is Selective Color in photoshop

[@JHuffPhoto]

I learned this years ago. Took a shot of my daughter and granddaughter next to a black wooden fence. I was struggling to get it to look right so I started messing with the hsl sliders. Reduced the blue channel and voila the fence was black again.

[@PauloParreira]

I see the lady in red on a Portuguese sidewalk :-)

[@DigiDriftZone]

Why not just change the white balance? I find that gives more natural results than tweaking the blue separately. If the blue is off chances are it’s the white balance…

[@scottmarshallphoto]

Great video Omar, thank you. After hearing you say that you check for excessive blue on every edit, it made me think about other steps I could be missing. If you were to create a checklist for a new photographer during editing, what items would be on this checklist in addition to checking for excessive blue?

[@bertwilbrink2679]

Blue, blue, electric blue That's the color of my room Where I will live Blue, blue…

[@JunebuggMedia]

Thank you for this video. My Panasonic Lumix G7 tends to lean towards magenta for the white balance

[@alanbuckley6679]

I thought this was absolutely mind blowing! Thanks Omar

[@DaytonPruet]

Enjoy your videos. Around 11m26s into the video, I began to wonder. How many times did Omar say “blue” in this video???

Really a good video. Thanks a lot. I will definatly use thoses trick. Fuji is great but sometime it add unwanted color

[@jaym5938]

Great tips. Wishing Adobe's Sky selection tool was as clever as other applications. It tends to only select contiguous sections and leaves out non-contiguous sections of sky.

[@vic_the_roman]

Clicked on the thumbnail thinking it was the trailer for Megamind 2 😎

[@dirtysouthtiger]

Jackson Square 10:00 Whatcha doin in the Quarter? ⚜️📸

[@DavidDacaro]

The judicious use of cold blue reflected light in photographs can actually be the key to photographs that are magical. That's the real irony.

[@BojanBojovic]

Completely agree. What I do is warning up almost all the photos when white balance and adding back blues in the shadows, which often like great, but sometimes since photos ask for more realism so this method is even better. I use Astia for better skin tones, but the blue is awful really.

[@sklba632]

Man, I know someone spent good money on that Hulk statue. Give it a little love by giving it some light.

[@mikej9564]

This really gives me something to check on my photos. At time 12:40, the redwing bird on stainless, did the live scene show the blue sky reflected or not? For this scene, i concur that the blue stainless does look odd. Maybe chrome?

[@joerichard171]

Thanks for the tip Omar

[@DavidVelezPhotography]

Thanks, Omar! Very informative.

[@tomschenkenberg]

Thanks a lot Omar... Now I can't see anything but BLUE in all my photos! :)

[@Berry_N]

Great video. Lol, pro tip - turn off the comfort shield on the tablet when watching a video about colir 🙃

[@balazszsinkai9665]

In december I've done a photoshoot for my mothers friend in our home. We have a couple of grey walls. I already told my mother that the wall (which was our background) was looking somehow more blue, not like all the other grey painted walls we have. She didn't believe me just after I showed her in lightroom.. Btw I realized that it doesn't matter if the sky was cloudy, somehow the outside light that came in was still add blue to some things. I'm glad my eyes trained to see it somehow, but still I'm mad that now I have to correct it most of the time, even if I'm the only one who see it. Great vid Omar!

[@dhanarputra555]

This is why I subs and watch this channel. This particular theme is lit.

[@N.Sem.]

it's cool when the taste distinguishes all semitones over time

[@jakilahmoulien9070]

I try to make the whites neutral most of the time but I do desaturate the blues to get a more consistent colour scheme from time to time

[@AndrewBerube41]

I have a gray dog and it was so frustrating editing until I learned about blue.

[@markifi]

"ruining"? i think you blue this minor issue way out of proportion

[@daveed4475]

Thanks - super impactful!

[@daaknait]

Extremely helpful, thanks!

[@CanadaBlue85]

Thanks for this. The blues really had me down!

[@nitni0002]

Is it really blue? Or is the image just too cool slanted in the white balance?

[@MMPAspergerian]

Thank you Omar! Super helpful!!!

[@JenniferKlinger]

I like! Now I do not have the Blues anymore.

[@michaelshick4612]

I was going to go out and Shoot today, but I got the Blue's.😂

[@djstravels4828]

This was super helpful. Thanks!!

[@danielegiometti7631]

Ciao Omar, thanks for this video. Really enlightening 😊, now I feel I have to review all my post-production pictures and fix the blue balance ⚖️😂! In general in LR I use the W/B and resolve the majority of issues, but yours it's definitely an add-on ❤

[@natedagreat90]

Been doing this since forever lol so funny

[@ShadowravenPhoto]

A wedding dress on a sunny day can be a real pain to edit! 😅

[@bronzepodcast]

The Anti-Blue Alliance

[@71co0k]

Lots of blue plate specials in this one. 🥁

[@Ndpurc]

Great tip, o wise master 👍 and Happy New Year 🖖

[@akfisher7138]

Hey Omar whay are so many landscape photos purple? What are people doing 'wrong' ?

[@akfisher7138]

Any chance of a video about this? I guess it is over use of saturation, but what else?

[@Sabbra]

you had a great time in portugal...

[@Natzcape]

Thanks for the earworm.....

[@christopherrodriguez7223]

Hahaha this was my problem in my family photos recently. Thank you Omar!

[@Smoothnf]

You use the same settings in calibration on every photo?

[@niceyesplease]

Amazing video Omar! ❤

[@bamhamer]

BLUE! My archenemy!

[@yahyaettouil1784]

Dora: where is the blue ? 😂😂

[@geraldillo]

Still got the blues for you. 😂

[@Visualsofashmarr]

is jim carry your brother?

[@chaindrums]

Great tip! Thanks!

[@johnkosterimages]

Great video, Omar!

[@kennethnielsen3864]

Thanks for sharing.

[@mst311]

I've got the blues.

[@InstructorWest]

Great video! I find my blue problems generally stem less from reflected sky color but from mixed lighting- the shadow areas in outdoor pictures where balancing for sunlight makes shadow areas blue and balancing for cloud cover/shadows turns sunlit areas yellow. Interesting, the blue is far more acceptable than the yellow. Brushing in warmth the the shadow areas is the only way to balance the picture.

[@garykings5723]

I have a very similar process with greens. I live in the english countryside and the greens are very thick and dense and lush. In my images it's often overpowering, even looks fake. So I like to just hue them to yellow a bit and it makes so many of my photos better.

[@clsutherland331]

This popped up in my feed and half way through I subscribed. I HATE photo editing but this was eye opening. Thanks for the tips. Now I'll be more in tune to the blues. Seriously, thank you. 👍🏾👍🏾

[@KwyjiboVanDeKamp]

One of the best photography tips I've ever heard! So simple but so damn effective! Wow! Thanks Omar!

[@teeeeee]

Hey Omar, love your videos! Do you maybe have any tips on how to pick photos? What I mean, I'm a hobbyist photographer, and one of my biggest problems is I always end up with a bunch of images, and I can't seem to choose only a couple of them, although most of them are really similar. I just find something in each and convince myself I need to keep it. The problem however is, later when I look back at them, like a couple months later, I get lost in the plethora of images. Help!

[@alienmoondudes8071]

I would also like to see a video on this :)

[@joachimlehle2674]

Like John Sebastian sings: I'll paint Rainbows all over your blues. You did it!😉

[@nunes2video]

😮🇵🇹🙌

[@The_Algorithm_]

Oscar, I waited the entire video for a Blue Ba Da Bee reference, and I feel like it was all essentially just a buildup for the last 5 seconds. 🤣💙 Good info here!

[@MoeMorales]

Good talk.

[@ebouwens]

Interesting and I'm looking forward to Omar-check some files for sure. In the past I have been concerned, especially with shoots in green parks, of green invading the picture, and especially because skin tones have so much red, to negate the natural skin tones. Not making the people look green, but just making the skin muddy and blah. Sometimes I've placed a white scrim in front of the people so they don't pick up so much green from the grass, but it might also reduce blue. I'm going into some of those files an look more carefully. I also wonder about looking at the Blue-curve in curves.

[@leod1671]

Great tip on manageing the Blue. I do the same when photographing car shows in bright sunshine. Often decreasing the blue really brings out the true color of the cars.