[ithacaartist]

Rich,

All these pics look washed out, as you mentioned. They appear over-exposed, a well as lacking in saturation, and incorrect hue. Try setting the brightness down a bit to help the subject to not come out so ghostly. The color shift towards blue might be the result of white balance set to tungsten instead of natural light.

Suggestion for backdrop would be to use light grey paper or card stock from Staples. Almost 20 yrs. ago I scored a free remnant roll of grey seamless from a photographer who did studio work, and it works very well. Even a piece of a clean cardboard box might be an improvement over the red towel. Rather than drag out and set up a piece of the paper, one time I used a similar towel, with similar results.