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

[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.

[Steve Eisenberg]

David,


I use the grey side. Are you using Custom White Balance for jpegs, or post-processing?

[I chase light]

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Gray-Card-Review.aspx


Bryan offersa great primer on the gray card here.


As far as color is concerned, I shoot in RAW and set one of the custom picture stylesto boost saturation. This in-camera saturation can be lowered in DPP and it seems to offer better (deeper, truer?)color than boosting"normal" saturation inpost processing.

[dmckinny]

I shoot in RAW and I am trying to get the custom white balance "correct" in the camera. However, I almost always seem to need to adjust it later in post. Even then, when I have used the white side of the card, it did not look right.


My last shoot was in and elementary school gym room, so the lighting was pretty bad industrial stuff that seemed to change colors over time. My daughter's white uniform actually gave me a better set point than the white side of the card.


Thanks, I'll try the grey side next time and see how it turns out.

[Don Burkett]

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!
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Your getting great advice on White Balance but I think your question is broader. Getting good color/contrast is first a function of having good light and then exposure. If you have a bright red ball, but the color is flat and dark it won't look like a bright red ball to your eye and neither will it look like a bright red ball to your camera. Bird photos are often the peril of this. I beautiful blue heron in flight may look dark or gray to your eye if side lit or cloudy and nothing more than a silhouette if back lit. And that is what your camera will record. So, assuming good lighting, good exposure is really the key. I shoot a lot of macros, and rarely do I use the default exposure readings from the camera. Mostly I end up being EV +/- 1 or 2 stops to get the right color. Sure, I could spot meter or use averaging or centering to get close but would rather use the histogram and the image preview to dial in the color. Mostly the histogram. Take time to learn that. In short order, the wider the histogram the broader the range of tones being captured and the higher the more of the tones are being captured. I won't get into the whole histogram process here but I think that's where your answer lies.


For example, in this image I used and EV -2/3 to accurately reproduce the reds in this shot.








In this scene, I was EV +2/3 in a relatively dark woods to get the right color in this Shooting Star.








And finally, I was all the way to EV -2 to dial down the whites in this mum bud on a very brightly lit day.








Hope this helps. Good Luck