topic Re: 5D MIII Color in EOS DSLR & Mirrorless Cameras

5D MIII Color

RonS — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 22:47:42 GMT

Most of the photographs taken with my 5D MIII lack warm colors, but rather have a slight bluish tint. The setting for picture style is Auto....any suggestions to render more accurate colors?

Re: 5D MIII Color

hsbn — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 23:37:02 GMT

There are many things you can do to improve the color. But the easiest and most important one is White Balance. Set custom White Balance for most accurate color rendition. If you want a "warmer" color, use Cloudy or Shade WB preset in camera.
Here is a great but short tutorial about WB: http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/white-balance.htm

Re: 5D MIII Color

Skirball — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 23:39:44 GMT

Are you shooting RAW or jpg?

A bluish tint is most likely white balance. What is your WB setting?

Just as a general rule, if I'm not getting the results that I want I turn off auto-settings until I do. Auto can be great, but it's taking control out of your hands and giving it to your camera. While modern day cameras are decent data processors, they still can't read my mind. Only I know what I want.

Re: 5D MIII Color

TCampbell — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 01:44:01 GMT

If you want very accurate color, get a "gray card". These are very inexpensive.

You can watch this video (Mark Wallace for AdoramaTV - on color balance): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_78rLzrOEI

On your 5D III you adjust white balance by pressing the "WB" button on the top (left-most button in front of the top display). Use the rear-dial to select the white balance type.

Mark describes how to use a gray card for to set "custom" white balance. Custom white balance is the most accurate... when you pick a pre-set white balance mode the camera makes assumptions... e.g. there's a mode for "florescent" but what color temperature does a florescent light really have? They vary a LOT. With a gray card, it doesn't matter... the white balance is set for your actual lighting conditions. The camera can use the gray card as a reference to detect what sort of color cast is being imposed by the lighting because it knows the true color of the card is supposed to be a true neutral gray (equal levels of cyan, magenta, and yellow).

White balance is ONLY applied to an image if you shoot in JPEG. If you shoot in RAW the camera wont adjust color accuracy. But since you used a color reference target (such as a gray card), you can easily apply the white balance with your image adjustment software. It is not necessary to have the target in every image. Software such as Aperture, Lightroom, or Photoshop all let you copy the adjustment required for one image to as many other images as necessary.

Remember that custom white balance is specific to your subject's light so you do need to sample the light illuminating your subject. If you change lighting or move to a different location, you'll need to update your white balance settings (or if shooting in RAW, just take another frame with the color reference target in it.)

One last thing... the LCD on the back of a camera is not necessarily accurate (Nikon owners really gripe about the D800 have a green color cast). Your computer monitor wont be accurate either. You can calibrate your monitor by using a callibration tool such as an X-Rite ColorMunki or a DataColor Spyder. I've never had a computer monitor that was accurate without being calibrated. If you're thinking the image looks too blue based on an uncalibrated monitor, you may be in for a real shock.

True story: My own personal monitor was a bit blue but I didn't know it. I was adjusting white balance to make my photos appear correct (to me.) One day, a particular photo (of natural wood wine crates taken in candle light... which *should* look a bit on the amber side) got feedback from many viewers that the image look positively orange (not merely a hint of amber warmth.) I was confused and thought they were nuts. UNTIL... a friend showed me what my photo looked like on his computer. WOW... was I ever shocked. I bought a display calibration tool and never had a repeat of that embarassment again.

Re: 5D MIII Color

jprusa — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 01:59:26 GMT

I only shoot RAW, that way if I forget to change white balance I can always do it after I down load. You can also set up user defined picture styles .

Re: 5D MIII Color

RonS — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 02:09:11 GMT

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

Re: 5D MIII Color

JRock1058 — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 07:55:47 GMT

I'm also having problem with my 5D Mark 3. My photos appear to be greenish even though there's no reflection of greenish color in the surroundings. Anybody else having this problem?

Re: 5D MIII Color

Skirball — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 15:33:08 GMT

Are you shooting indoors? Flourescent lights are actually green, and the bane of mixed light photography. If the entire picture then it's probably your white balance.

Re: 5D MIII Color

JRock1058 — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:04:15 GMT

It doesn't matter where I'm at. Either indoor or outdoor, I'm still getting greenish skin tone. BTW, I shoot wedding so I have an idea how to control my camera.

Re: 5D MIII Color

hsbn — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:12:12 GMT

Are you shooting RAW or JPG? If RAW, what program you use to process?

Re: 5D MIII Color

TCampbell — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:36:48 GMT

While a green color cast might be a white balance issue (and usually is -- and white balance is easily remedied), there are other possibilities.

One fairly common issue is monitor calibration. It is fairly common for someone to think their camera is leaving a color imbalance in the photos, when the same image viewed on a calibrated monitor would appear fine.

It's also possible that the "picture style" settings in your camera are causing the camera to alter the image appearance.

"White Balance" and "Picture Style" are only applied to images if you are shooting JPEG. If you are shooting RAW, the changes are not applied (you would apply changes to the images after importing them to your computer.)

There are TWO DIFFERENT PLACES where you can set "White Balance" on the 5D III. One is the typical "White Balance" found on most DSLR cameras. The second is a menu called "White Balance Shift". You'll find that in the "SHOOT2" menu (Menu -> pick the red camera icon, 2nd page, 6th row.)

Note that "Picture Style" affects more than just color (it's just one of the things you can change). Canon's "default" picture style (Auto) indicates that it should apply in-camera sharpening, but not alter contrast, saturation, or tone.

You may have inadvertently changed a setting.

Re: 5D MIII Color

JRock1058 — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:38:45 GMT

I'm using Lightroom 4 & PS6.

Re: 5D MIII Color

JRock1058 — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:40:54 GMT

I shoot RAW too.

Re: 5D MIII Color

JRock1058 — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:41:55 GMT

I will try what you said. Thank you.

Re: 5D MIII Color

TCampbell — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:51:42 GMT

When you shoot RAW, settings which impact color are not applied by the camera (white balance settings are ignored for RAW images.)

This means a very real color cast would not be removed by the camera and must be removed by your computer (e.g. using Lightroom).

To correct white balance when shooting RAW, take a photo a "neutral" color calibration target. A "gray card" is the common target of choice, although there are many other options. The particular tone of "gray" is formulated to be color-neutral. Any level of RGB in which the "red", "green", and "blue" pixel values are identical will result in a "gray" pixel (something on the continuum from black to white.)

e.g. in an 8-bit color system (values of red, green, and blue can range from 0 to 255), an RGB color value of 127, 127, 127 (for red, green, and blue respecitively) would be a "middle gray" color. But if it were 127, 140, 127, then you'd have a gray that had a slight "green" cast to it.

To eliminate the color imbalance, you pick the white balance option in Lightroom, use the dropper to select a pixel in your image, and then click any pixel on "gray card" target in your image. The software, knowing the RGB values should all be identical, will detect which colors are out of balance (and how much) and will correct for the entire image based on that sample. You can then copy the color correction to all subsequent images (as long as they were taken in the same light.)

If you mouse over the gray card, but you software reports that the RGB values are all identical (or just extremely close) then this would indicate that the camera is actually correct... and it's your monitor adjustment which is causing the image to render images with a greenish tint.

Re: 5D MIII Color

JRock1058 — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 18:32:37 GMT

Got it. Thank you. I actually have a gray card but I very seldom to use.

Re: 5D MIII Color

diverhank — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 17:32:33 GMT

Great advices from everyone here. First and foremost, I'd get a color calibrator for your monitor. For persistent color shift, you can set the color offset for your Adobe RAW editor that applies to all pictures. I individually adjust color for every single shot so this is a non-issue for me. BTW, my 5DIII tends to be on the warm side, unlike yours.

Re: 5D MIII Color

JRock1058 — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 00:32:42 GMT

I have monitor calibrator too. I have 5D Mark 1, 2 & 3. I noticed Mark 3 is a bit greenish.