how i got good jpeg colour

Thought this might help others.

I like to spend much more time taking photos than in post. I've been trying to get my D300 to produce good colour for a while, without success.

I see something that has lovely colour... I want to reproduce that, perhaps increase the saturation a little, then the D300 goofs the jpeg and I spend ages trying to remember and reproduce the subject's colour quality back at home.

Turns out the white balance needs serious amount of customisation. I've now got decent white balance configs for most situations by in camera white balance adjustment.

Here's a basic jpeg I shot this morning. I know the shot is unremarkable but the colour is just as it looked through the viewfinder!



BTW I have to make the white balance settings a lot cooler than default. My daylight setting is set to B5.

I know you can do all this and more by shooting RAW but for point and shoot I'd rather shoot jpeg.

Have fun!

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John

I have a D200, not a D300 but I'm sure this applies to both. Set your white balance by the Kelvin scale. It takes a bit of time of short out what is what but it's well worth it in the long-run.

Bruce

I didn't think you could tailor the white balance in the 200 like you can in the 300. I thought the 200 just allowed you to pick different color temps or descriptive settings. On the 300 you can move things wherever you want.
Can you do this with the 200?

Thanks Bruce, I wish I realised the white balance was the root of the problem earlier. I'd been struggling with yellowish/over saturated greens and reds, until now.
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John

RAL said:

I didn't think you could tailor the white balance in the 200 like you
can in the 300. I thought the 200 just allowed you to pick different
color temps or descriptive settings. On the 300 you can move things
wherever you want.
Can you do this with the 200?

Click to expand...

You can fine tune WB settings on the D200 (in steps from -3 to +3). You can also select degrees Kelvin directly as already stated in this thread.
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Kind regards
Kaj
http://www.pbase.com/kaj_e
WSSA member

It's about time we started to take photography seriously and treat it as a hobby.- Elliott Erwitt

But in the D300 can't you move it around any place you want to fine tune it like in the D90? That's what I thought you couldn't do in the 200. I just checked and answered my own question, no, you can't custom tailor it on the 200. Only pick at you say above.

http://www.digitalimageflow.com/ is always with me. in fact, it's attached to the camera's strap. since I never shoot JPEG, I have no problems with reproducing colors that I saw through the viewfinder when I took the shot. If I happen to forget my card, I use Live View to set the temperature using K.

Interesting, I recently started a thread on a similar issue I've been having with my new D90, yellows and greens are just too strong relative to the rest of the spectrum. Can you share any more specifics on what adjustments you made to get colors you were happy with?

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-Justaguy93