How to get the best color?

[powers_brent]

I love to do macro photography, but I always feel that my images do not have enough color. What are all the ways to best ensure that I get the best color out of my photos. BTW, I am using an Canon XS. I do not have a macro lens yet, but I plan on getting one soon, as I just started recently using an SLR. So, if you have any suggestion for the best macro lens, let me know your opinions too please. Thanks in advance for all your help!

[L33t]

Canon EF 100/2,8 USM should work just fine and give you enough colors

[UK_Scotty]

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"]<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"]The canon 100mm F2.8 Macro lens is not &ldquo;fine&rdquo; it is a great lens, I had an efs 60mm which while good optically is just not long enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"] I also have a Tamron 90mm for my T90&rsquo;s and tried a new one on my 40D, but then borrowed a canon 100mm macro from a mate and that was it, I had to have one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"] I also had a go with the canon 180 macro, mind blowing optically but too big, too heavy, too expensive, and slow to focus.

[Alan]

Don, nice bugaboo on that Shooting Star.


Have you ever used the technique where you focus at one spot, then move the focus further down, etc., then stack the layers, and average them to get more of the flower in focus in the final blend?

[Ehcalum]

I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet, but monitor and printer calibration.

[Don Burkett]

Thanks Alan, I have recently started doing some focus stacking. But still use it selectively. In this shot, A) It was before I knew how to focus stack. B) I had to fight a persistent breeze even though I had the flower Plamped. C) Never saw the bug-a-boo until Post Processing. But, to your point, focus stacking if an great tool to have in your tool bag.

[Madison]

It *may* also depend on if you're shooting raw or jpg. If you shoot jpg and you have a neutral picture style selected things may be affected color-wise. The same thing goes for color space.

The lens mentioned above has beautiful colors. But camera settings and light also help. A lot.


If you're not shooting raw: shoot raw. You can postproces with less loss and tweak the colors to what you want them to be.

[Steve Eisenberg]

White Balance. Get yourself a Lastolite Ezybalance grey card, and take a picture of it under the same conditions as the other photos. Iwould shootRAW, and use that photo to pick the white balance with the dropper in post processing. You can also use "Custom White Balance" on the camera if you shoot Jpeg. Short of a grey card, pick a white balance setting in post processing that is most appropriate. In Digital Photo Professional you can choose Daylight, Shade, Flash, Tungsten, etc. The difference can be stunning!

[MVers]

Try this...


RAW, White Balance: AWB, Colorspace: sRGB (or Adobe RGB) and Picture Style: Standard. If your white balance seems off use DPP/lightrooom etc to correct it. You may also want to check to make sure your monitor is adjusted correctly as well.

[dmckinny]

Steve,


I just got a Lastolite Ezybalance recently. Do you use the gray side or the white side for setting the white balance? I've only had a couple of opportunities to use it and my results were less than impressive. I think I'm doing something wrong.





Thanks, David.