Assistance in Achieving Neutral Colors with Canon EOS R

[dzikrizz]

I am a jewelry photographer from Indonesia. I work for PT. Veronique Indonesia, a jewelry manufacturing company. For over seven years, I have been using the Canon EOS 7D paired with the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens to capture macro photographs of jewelry for our company.

Recently, we decided to upgrade our equipment to the Canon EOS R5 along with the RF100mm F2.8 L Macro IS USM lens. While we are impressed with the enhanced detail and overall quality of the images, we have encountered an issue with color accuracy. Specifically, the white tones in the photographs appear slightly reddish rather than pure white or milky white.

This color discrepancy is critical for us, as it affects the accurate representation of the jewelry's color, which is essential in our industry. In our photography setup, we use two external flashes, and the camera settings are as follows:

Shooting Mode: Manual
Shutter Speed: 1/6
Aperture: F14
ISO: 100
White Balance: AWB with White Priority
Picture Style: Standard
Despite using Auto White Balance with White Priority, the reddish tint persists, which is something we did not encounter with the EOS 7D. As a result, we have had to revert to using our older device for our photography needs.

I am confident that this issue is not due to any malfunction of the camera or lens but rather a matter of finding the optimal manual settings. I would greatly appreciate any advice, tips, or suggestions you guys could provide to help us achieve neutral colors with our Canon EOS R5.

Thank youCanon EOS R5

[shadowsports]

Greetings ,

I suspect this problem is with your flashes and / or camera settings.   Can you please tell us more about the brand and model of the flashes you are using and how they are connected to the R5?

Your shutter speed also appears to be excessively slow.  

[p4pictures]

When using auto white balance, the camera will evaluate the colours in the frame automatically and determine a suitable white balance for you. So if you photograph a red subject on a white background, and then photograph a blue subject on the same background you may indeed see different colours for the same white background since the overall frame is influenced by the subject colour. 

The white priority setting of auto white balance is to apply a more neutral white balance when the subject is lit with tungsten 3200K bulbs. Canon auto white balance sees the warm toned 3200K and would otherwise leave the subject a little warmer with auto white balance as this often makes for attractive photos. If the flash you use is a Canon device and triggered with a Canon radio trigger then with auto white balance the camera will invariably select flash white balance. 

To avoid colour shifts, you would should use a custom white balance, taking a reference photo from a neutral gray target to set the white balance from. 

Lastly as picked up by Rick above, the shutter speed set to 1/6th may mean that any ambient light in the area you are photographing in will probably affect the result and the colour. Using a faster shutter speed of 1/125th will avoid that potential contamination of the colour. 

[dzikrizz]

[kvbarkley]

I suggest you get a whibal as a neutral target.