I have a canon 50D using both 18-55mm and 55-250mm lenses outdoors for sports action events (softball & football).
First keep in mind those are not "quality" lenses. They're useful for many purposes, but are intended to be cheap first and good second.
I have tried UV lenses, polorizing lenses (too dark) and also lens shields and I continue to have trouble with "washed" out colors and untrue colors (royal blue looks like purple).
Filters will not, in general, improve image quality. They perform very specific changes to the light entering the lens, but unless you need the effect you should not use them.
UV filters are as close to being useless as makes no difference.
If you meant lens hood when you said lens shield then that's good - always use the lens hood as it helps a lot with reducing unwanted flare and improving contrast a little. Typically filters have the opposite ( negative ) effects.
I am using the automatic sports mode since I am still a beginner and do not know how to use any manual modes. I avoid taking pictures into the sun to help but I am still discouraged by the lack of coloring and I don't like the effect of fixing all the pictures in photo gallery. Any suggestions?
Typically cheaper telephoto zoom lenses will have low contrast at the long and wide ends of the zoom range. It's one reason why people pay more for those expensive lenses. So the limits of the lens may be a problem. The 55-250 is one of those lenses which has reduced contrast at the long end of the zoom range, so there is a good chance this is a problem.
Low contrast like this can be corrected in post processing. You should have a copy of Canon's DPP application, and if not that are alternatives. You can try a simple correction like "auto levels" or the slightly more complex ( but more useful ) technique of adjusting the tone curves. Level would be a good place to start.
Exposure settings may be a problem. If you over-expose you might describe it as washed-out. Because you are on full auto the camera could be fooled by the conditions and be slightly over exposing. You can try adjusting "exposure compensation" to correct this. You manual will explain it more, but it's not complicated.
The "untrue" colours are most likely to be a problem with white balance. Again it's better to read this up in the manual. Briefly it mean the light sources are not matching the ideal daylight the sensor is designed for and the automatic white balance correction is guessing wrong ( which it usually does ) about how to correct that. Presets are often better, so start by trying those.
However, even with a perfect white balance setting there are some colours which NO camera will accurately reproduce. Those colours simply fall outside the range the camera can capture. The ability of the human eye exceeds that of all cameras in that sense. I suspect it's not this issue, but the much more common white balance and exposure issues you are seeing.
Almost finally many cameras now apply an automatic correction to images to brighten shadows and/or extend dynamic range. These can cause problems in some situations because what they do ( under the hood ) is adjust the tone curve ( which is a more sophisticated version of contrast and brightness settings ). This can reduce contrast in parts of the image as an unwanted but unavoidable side effect. You can usually disable these "enhancements" and I'd suggest you also try that.
And finally, finally, it's typically a combination of these things.
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StephenG
Pentax K100D
Fuji S3 Pro
Fuji S9600
