5D MIII Color

[RonS]

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?

[TCampbell]

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.

[JRock1058]

I'm using Lightroom 4 & PS6.

[JRock1058]

I shoot RAW too.

[JRock1058]

I will try what you said. Thank you.

[TCampbell]

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.

[JRock1058]

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

[diverhank]

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.

[JRock1058]

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