Colour problems on Sony A6000

iangl said:

I only work with jpegs, life is too short to correct pictures that should be much better first time, and it is only the end result colours that are wrong the details -tracking-focusing-speed etc are vgood.

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iangl said:

I have just returned my Sony A6000, because I was unable to obtain the colours that reflected what I could see!

I changed the saturation and various other settings to try and correct the colour ERRORS that were there, my Canon powershot SX700 gave much better colours!

I did notice that if a small part of the frame contained a tile red -it was near enough to being correct on the A6000 but if you zoomed in the red became much paler, as if the camera could have stopped down to give the correct light balance and did not.

In the mag. Camera Shopper in the colour error list the A6000 gave a figure of minus 1.44, if this means colours are flatter than norm -well I would agree.

If Sony could offer a online fix it would be great, the camera and its many functions are great, I only work with jpegs, life is too short to correct pictures that should be much better first time, and it is only the end result colours that are wrong the details -tracking-focusing-speed etc are vgood.

If someone from Sony reads this and can help please let me know.

I used to own a Sony RX100 1 and colours were near perfect, I had thought this caamera would have equaled or surpassed it, HOW WRONG WAS I!!!!!

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• Overexposure can wash out color, making it shift hue or turn white.
• Setting the camera to Adobe RGB can make colors appear to be desaturated if the software used on a computer is not color managed.
• The wrong Scene Selection, Picture Effect or Creative Style selection may harm colors.
• A poor choice of manual or preset white balances can harm colors greatly.

Skipper494 said:

Why didn't you shoot RAW, convert to tif and process to your color requirements?

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Roses said:

Also, auto white balance is not perfect on any camera.

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iangl said:

I did notice that if a small part of the frame contained a tile red -it was near enough to being correct on the A6000 but if you zoomed in the red became much paler, as if the camera could have stopped down to give the correct light balance and did not.

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walkaround said:

Roses said:

Also, auto white balance is not perfect on any camera.

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I'm sorry, but that's simply not true. I've done 2,000 frames with my Canon 70D so far, every last one on AWB. It's never missed, regardless of the lighting conditions. Interiors, zoos, subways, cloudy, sunny, fireworks, flash...

And I don't mean it's been close, I mean I've yet to touch white balance in post on a single photo so far.

Whereas my Sony NEX-5R was off about every third shot. Especially indoors.

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Leonard Migliore said:

Skipper494 said:

Why didn't you shoot RAW, convert to tif and process to your color requirements?

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Probably because it's the least effective way to deal with this issue. Correcting color in RAW gives you more latitude because you don't have to pick a color temperature a priori, as you would if you chose to generate a TIFF.

Now, shooting in RAW and correcting in RAW, that works fine.

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Roses said:

walkaround said:

Roses said:

Also, auto white balance is not perfect on any camera.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but that's simply not true. I've done 2,000 frames with my Canon 70D so far, every last one on AWB. It's never missed, regardless of the lighting conditions. Interiors, zoos, subways, cloudy, sunny, fireworks, flash...

And I don't mean it's been close, I mean I've yet to touch white balance in post on a single photo so far.

Whereas my Sony NEX-5R was off about every third shot. Especially indoors.

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I'm glad that it works for you. I've owned the 70D, and even reviewers say:

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/canon-70d/canon-70dA5.HTM

"Indoors, under incandescent lighting, the Canon 70D's Auto and Incandescent white balance settings struggled, both producing very warm red/orange color casts."

That has always been my experience shooting Canons, that they tend toward warm red/orange color casts in white balance. Because I shoot for a specific look at work, I frequently have to change the white balance a lot toward the blue spectrum.

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D Cox said:

Roses said:

walkaround said:

Roses said:

Also, auto white balance is not perfect on any camera.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but that's simply not true. I've done 2,000 frames with my Canon 70D so far, every last one on AWB. It's never missed, regardless of the lighting conditions. Interiors, zoos, subways, cloudy, sunny, fireworks, flash...

And I don't mean it's been close, I mean I've yet to touch white balance in post on a single photo so far.

Whereas my Sony NEX-5R was off about every third shot. Especially indoors.

Click to expand...

I'm glad that it works for you. I've owned the 70D, and even reviewers say:

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/canon-70d/canon-70dA5.HTM

"Indoors, under incandescent lighting, the Canon 70D's Auto and Incandescent white balance settings struggled, both producing very warm red/orange color casts."

That has always been my experience shooting Canons, that they tend toward warm red/orange color casts in white balance. Because I shoot for a specific look at work, I frequently have to change the white balance a lot toward the blue spectrum.

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This is common with many (or all?) cameras set to AWB.

I think the reason is that a correct balance in tungsten would need at least a couple of stops more exposure, which is not convenient in dim light.

If you are shooting still subjects with a tripod, you can put an 80A filter on the lens.

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andrewD2 said:

iangl said:

I did notice that if a small part of the frame contained a tile red -it was near enough to being correct on the A6000 but if you zoomed in the red became much paler, as if the camera could have stopped down to give the correct light balance and did not.

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This is just (mostly) auto white balance at work.
It seees red, it compensates by going cooler.
Lock down the white balance.
Tested 10 cameras in one night, they all did the same thing on auto exposure and auto WB when presented with solid blocks of colour.

Andrew

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Roses said:

walkaround said:

Roses said:

Also, auto white balance is not perfect on any camera.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but that's simply not true. I've done 2,000 frames with my Canon 70D so far, every last one on AWB. It's never missed, regardless of the lighting conditions. Interiors, zoos, subways, cloudy, sunny, fireworks, flash...

And I don't mean it's been close, I mean I've yet to touch white balance in post on a single photo so far.

Whereas my Sony NEX-5R was off about every third shot. Especially indoors.

Click to expand...

I'm glad that it works for you. I've owned the 70D, and even reviewers say:

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/canon-70d/canon-70dA5.HTM

"Indoors, under incandescent lighting, the Canon 70D's Auto and Incandescent white balance settings struggled, both producing very warm red/orange color casts."

That has always been my experience shooting Canons, that they tend toward warm red/orange color casts in white balance. Because I shoot for a specific look at work, I frequently have to change the white balance a lot toward the blue spectrum.

Click to expand...

walkaround said:

Roses said:

walkaround said:

Roses said:

Also, auto white balance is not perfect on any camera.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but that's simply not true. I've done 2,000 frames with my Canon 70D so far, every last one on AWB. It's never missed, regardless of the lighting conditions. Interiors, zoos, subways, cloudy, sunny, fireworks, flash...

And I don't mean it's been close, I mean I've yet to touch white balance in post on a single photo so far.

Whereas my Sony NEX-5R was off about every third shot. Especially indoors.

Click to expand...

I'm glad that it works for you. I've owned the 70D, and even reviewers say:

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/canon-70d/canon-70dA5.HTM

"Indoors, under incandescent lighting, the Canon 70D's Auto and Incandescent white balance settings struggled, both producing very warm red/orange color casts."

That has always been my experience shooting Canons, that they tend toward warm red/orange color casts in white balance. Because I shoot for a specific look at work, I frequently have to change the white balance a lot toward the blue spectrum.

Click to expand...

Incandescent lighting does produce a warm color cast. That is actually how the scene looks. The Canon AWB (and Olympus does this also) is smart enough to not "zero out" warm lighting like incandescent bulbs and sunsets. Or maybe you prefer dumb AWB?

I'm shocked (shocked!) that a reviewer did not understand how a particular camera works.

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• Incandescent: This type of lighting is gradually being phased out. The old standard in- candescent light bulb gets hot and uses too much energy. Most people don’t realize that the light output of an incandescent bulb is rather orange, or warm. If you are shooting under incandescent light, your images may be objectionably warm, with orange skin tones and whites that are not white. Test your camera’s auto white balance ability under incandescent light by shooting a picture of someone reading a book under an old-style light bulb. Look at the picture on your computer and see if the pages of the book look reddish or orange. If not, your camera does a good job with incandescent light. If the pages look orange, you can manually set the camera to the incandescent white balance setting and take another shot. You should see a big improvement.

Roses said:

walkaround said:

Roses said:

walkaround said:

Roses said:

Also, auto white balance is not perfect on any camera.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but that's simply not true. I've done 2,000 frames with my Canon 70D so far, every last one on AWB. It's never missed, regardless of the lighting conditions. Interiors, zoos, subways, cloudy, sunny, fireworks, flash...

And I don't mean it's been close, I mean I've yet to touch white balance in post on a single photo so far.

Whereas my Sony NEX-5R was off about every third shot. Especially indoors.

Click to expand...

I'm glad that it works for you. I've owned the 70D, and even reviewers say:

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/canon-70d/canon-70dA5.HTM

"Indoors, under incandescent lighting, the Canon 70D's Auto and Incandescent white balance settings struggled, both producing very warm red/orange color casts."

That has always been my experience shooting Canons, that they tend toward warm red/orange color casts in white balance. Because I shoot for a specific look at work, I frequently have to change the white balance a lot toward the blue spectrum.

Click to expand...

Incandescent lighting does produce a warm color cast. That is actually how the scene looks. The Canon AWB (and Olympus does this also) is smart enough to not "zero out" warm lighting like incandescent bulbs and sunsets. Or maybe you prefer dumb AWB?

I'm shocked (shocked!) that a reviewer did not understand how a particular camera works.

Click to expand...

http://www.graphics.com/article-old/photography-fundamentals-white-balance

• Incandescent: This type of lighting is gradually being phased out. The old standard in- candescent light bulb gets hot and uses too much energy. Most people don’t realize that the light output of an incandescent bulb is rather orange, or warm. If you are shooting under incandescent light, your images may be objectionably warm, with orange skin tones and whites that are not white. Test your camera’s auto white balance ability under incandescent light by shooting a picture of someone reading a book under an old-style light bulb. Look at the picture on your computer and see if the pages of the book look reddish or orange. If not, your camera does a good job with incandescent light. If the pages look orange, you can manually set the camera to the incandescent white balance setting and take another shot. You should see a big improvement.

You were the one who said that you had to do zero adjustments for your 70D auto white balance in any situation, implying that it is perfect. It's great that it works for you, but for many scenarios the overly orange/reddish color is not appropriate.

Click to expand...

walkaround said:

Roses said:

walkaround said:

Roses said:

walkaround said:

Roses said:

Also, auto white balance is not perfect on any camera.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but that's simply not true. I've done 2,000 frames with my Canon 70D so far, every last one on AWB. It's never missed, regardless of the lighting conditions. Interiors, zoos, subways, cloudy, sunny, fireworks, flash...

And I don't mean it's been close, I mean I've yet to touch white balance in post on a single photo so far.

Whereas my Sony NEX-5R was off about every third shot. Especially indoors.

Click to expand...

I'm glad that it works for you. I've owned the 70D, and even reviewers say:

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/canon-70d/canon-70dA5.HTM

"Indoors, under incandescent lighting, the Canon 70D's Auto and Incandescent white balance settings struggled, both producing very warm red/orange color casts."

That has always been my experience shooting Canons, that they tend toward warm red/orange color casts in white balance. Because I shoot for a specific look at work, I frequently have to change the white balance a lot toward the blue spectrum.

Click to expand...

Incandescent lighting does produce a warm color cast. That is actually how the scene looks. The Canon AWB (and Olympus does this also) is smart enough to not "zero out" warm lighting like incandescent bulbs and sunsets. Or maybe you prefer dumb AWB?

I'm shocked (shocked!) that a reviewer did not understand how a particular camera works.

Click to expand...

http://www.graphics.com/article-old/photography-fundamentals-white-balance

• Incandescent: This type of lighting is gradually being phased out. The old standard in- candescent light bulb gets hot and uses too much energy. Most people don’t realize that the light output of an incandescent bulb is rather orange, or warm. If you are shooting under incandescent light, your images may be objectionably warm, with orange skin tones and whites that are not white. Test your camera’s auto white balance ability under incandescent light by shooting a picture of someone reading a book under an old-style light bulb. Look at the picture on your computer and see if the pages of the book look reddish or orange. If not, your camera does a good job with incandescent light. If the pages look orange, you can manually set the camera to the incandescent white balance setting and take another shot. You should see a big improvement.

You were the one who said that you had to do zero adjustments for your 70D auto white balance in any situation, implying that it is perfect. It's great that it works for you, but for many scenarios the overly orange/reddish color is not appropriate.

Click to expand...

So these are two different issues: AWB accuracy, and artistic WB choices. I'm saying the 70D AWB is perfectly accurate, you're saying it doesn't match what you envision in "many scenarios". Isn't that why they include custom white balance on the camera?

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walkaround said:

Our eyes and brain make a wonderful partnership. Together, they automatically adjust the exposure of whatever it is we are looking at to achieve a balanced image. More importantly, they correct any colour cast so that anything white actually looks white, regardless of the ambient light.

Unfortunately, digital cameras are not so clever. They record the scene as they see it − within their limitations. This is why, in tricky lighting conditions, we have to set the white balance to ensure the result we want. It is also why, to get results of the optimum colour, we usually have to tell the camera the colour temperature of the light falling on to the scene.

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walkaround said:

You can use this setting as a default in most straightforward lighting conditions. Auto White Balance works by evaluating the scene and deciding the most appropriate white point in it. The setting works reasonably well if the colour temperature of the ambient light is between 3,000-7,000K. However, if there is an abundance of one colour in the image, or if there is no actual white for the meter to use as a reference, the system can be fooled, resulting in an image with a colour cast.

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