I would really appreciate some insight because I've become very frustrated after days of trying to self-help my way through this. I feel like I know everything and nothing at the same time. This is for filming video, not taking still photos. While I understand 1:1 color accuracy is difficult to achieve, I can't achieve a look that isn't uncanny and off-putting to me. I'm very new to photography / cameras but will try my best to explain what I think looks wrong. (I set up a reliable mirror directly beside my feedback monitor to ensure that I'm not just thinking 'how i should' look and instead can compare exact lighting / positions from real-life to capture.) - Skin tone just looks bad. I think this is the main issue, as I have to try and balance everything around this. It's always too blown out by a single color, typically white. My skin looks weirdly pale and single-toned. The natural color, qualities / red-tones, and shadows of my skin do not come through at all on camera - white balancing attempts just feels like layering an orange filter on top of the image rather than something that actually changes particular tones to allow for a varied and natural looking skin tone. - In general, this leads to skin having this really unpleasant contrast to everything else in the image, especially hair. Despite skin often being far too white and single-toned compared to IRL, somehow hair is usually both darker and has too strong an orange tint. Orange tones in general feel very strong and blonde / pale blonde hair gains this ginger / dark-blonde tone. Hair in general just feels poorly reflected - the gradient from well-lit strands to strands that are darker due to shadow feels harsh and the lightning implies a more binary highlight on the hair than is actually showing in RL. - Contrast issue is present in other objects. Most testing has been done in a dark-blue shirt where the fabric detail is entirely lost to dark tones. Navy blue ends up looking like a very-dark blue, near blue-black in many cases. - It's very subtle, but there is also grain in my footage despite attempts to increase light brightness and lower ISO settings. I feel like I must be missing something obvious. I've tinkered with ISO, shutter speed, picture styles, white balance - but really just assume I know nothing at all because I'm lost. I just want a relatively close to RL color profile so I can begin simple videos but feel like I have to navigate some complex color grading journey first. It is not a horrible technical nightmare and may not be too noticeably awful without seeing the IRL comparison, but it is highly unflattering and frustrating. I have a single window open and film mid-day to early afternoon allowing some natural daylight. There is a ring light (adjustable brightness & warm / cool setting) close behind the camera and the room-light is turned on approximately overhead overhead in a small-sized bedroom. I'd greatly appreciate helping simplify this issue for me.
