Poor Picture Quality

[Lchitty]

I purchased an EOS Rebel T3 about 4 months ago after using a friends Rebel for several months. My new camera does not provide the vivid colors similar to the previous Rebel. The sky blues are murky grey, very little contrast, pictures just not vivid. My friend took a picture with his I5 phone and the quality was muach better than the same picture, at the same time, that I took with my new Rebel.

Is there a setting that is incorrect? I have tried various auto settings...auto, mountains, etc. There appears to be no change in the clarity. 

[cicopo]

At the size I'm seeing it the majority of it looks pretty good on my monitor. Have you taken the time to fine tune the things available to you?

[ScottyP]

You can set the camera to juice up your photo files as detailed above but by deviating from the more neutral palette you may make some shots come out better, but others will probably look bad with the same in cam mods.

Consider fixing your shots in post. You seem to have a computer. You will do much better adjusting each shot individually, as different shots need different treatment.

Not to mention you can't tell much about what your shots are looking like on the little 3 inch LCD screen.

Also try shooting in RAW. it will make your shots look even more bland straight out of camera, but it gives you all the data to work with, instead of throwing some data away to make a JPG in the camera before you get the chance to work on the image.

Also, I agree with Cicopo; your shot looks good to me. Maybe your friend had the "landscape" style selected or something, and it is throwing your comparison off. . I tried using that setting once, and the shots are indeed more vivid, but they look like they were colored by a kindergarten kid.

[Troyn2]

Cicopo do these fine tuning settings you do after the picture is taken or before? Thanks

[ebiggs1]

You make these settings before you shoot the photo. But as suggested above, post processing is by far the best if you want the utmost in realism. 

Did you look at the scene you were shooting at  the time? I mean really look at it? I bet the T3 made the imagine fairly closely to what it saw.

"... they look like they were colored by a kindergarten kid."     You don't want this to happen to your photos do you?  

This is exactly how most iphones do it. And it seems that some people expect all pictures to look that way. The iphone is a phone that takes pictures not a camera that you can talk on!  

At this point in your new hobby of photography, I would recommend you avoid RAW. At least until you acquire more working knowledge of post-processing.