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A700 colour issues

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 10:22 am
by Bluebear
I tend to shoot a lot of my images as JPEGS, partly because I don't have a lot of spare time to process RAW images. I also tend to use Adobe RGB as opposed to Standard, Neutral and the various other options available, but find that landscapes in particular don't record a true green - usually it is too yellow. I have to desaturate the yellow a bit in PS Elements. On a landscape course last summer I shot RAW images and found the same thing when my image was put up on screen alongside images from others using e.g the D300 (same sensor). Somehow my images looked less natural, which annoying C-n-k-n owners took pleasure in remarking on. :roll:

At my camera club last night we were showing images from various club walks during the summer; again mine came out consistently more yellow and saturated than those from other DSLRs.

Has anyone else noticed this, or is it just me? :? Is there a fix, as I'm sure it's better to shoot in Adobe RGB than Neutral!

Re: A700 colour issues

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 1:44 pm
by Dr. Harout
1- Are you using a filter?
2- What's the setting of your white balance?

Re: A700 colour issues

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 1:58 pm
by Bluebear
No filter, other than the usual UV. White balance is set to auto

Re: A700 colour issues

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 5:31 pm
by Winston
Try "Daylight".

Re: A700 colour issues

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 5:52 pm
by Bluebear
Thanks - I'll give that a try and post the result shortly.

Re: A700 colour issues

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 7:14 pm
by Dr. Harout
Try without the UV, too.

Re: A700 colour issues

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 7:39 pm
by agorabasta
As long as a display pipeline doesn't employ camera-specific colour profiles, it's absolutely impossible to display Canon, Nikon and Minolta/Sony files all 'close to reality'.

If such system displays Canon pix as 'realistic', there's no way it would display Sony pix properly.

And it's not Sony's fault - it's totally Canon's fault. Canon (and Nikon, though the latter is much better) never did capture realistic colours.

Re: A700 colour issues

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 7:49 pm
by Bluebear
agorabasta wrote:Canon (and Nikon, though the latter is much better) never did capture realistic colours.
I knew it!!

Re: A700 colour issues

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 8:50 pm
by David Kilpatrick
Generally, the in-camera JPEGs are pretty accurate. The A350/A380 have less of the tendency to emphasise yellows, which is certainly there in some conversions with all the other Sony models (not so much with the KM 7D and 5D). The worst culprit though is Adobe Camera Raw, which will produce an extremely yellow result if allowed to use the camera's white balance setting - it is usually necessary to drop this to below 5000K even for daylight shots where it should nominally be 5600K.

AdobeRGB will always look more yellow to an uncalibrated system such as, for example, the direct display capability of my Sony digital projector. The filename convention used by Sony - with an underline as the first character - automatically prevents EXIF Print II compatible devices such as card slot printers or projectors, or digital photo frames, seeing the file. If you shoot sRGB, these devices will recognise the file and use it; shoot AdobeRGB without renaming the files to remove this under-line-space, and they will ignore it because they are programmed to do so rather than display wrong colours.

However, the appearance should not be 'more saturated' - usually, it is flat in contrast. If you were to adjust an AdobeRGB image as seen on an sRGB only device (which includes many PC systems) to be 'right' it would appear oversaturated and contrasty on a colour-aware system - but the original aRGB file would look normal (identicable to an sRGB for all purposes).

The camera review screens are sRGB and this is why I shoot with my camera set to sRGB although I process my raw files to aRGB. sRGB gives a correct histogram and colour/contrast preview on the camera. aRGB shooting does not. You can check this out, just take identical shots in both colour spaces and compared on the camera.

Using almost any processor other than ACR or Lightroom will produce more natural WB results with the A700 - though selecting the latest Adobe camera profile will greatly improve colours too, compared to the old ACR 4.2 4.4 or whatever earlier profile may be shown.

David

Re: A700 colour issues

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 9:08 pm
by gio67
"The camera review screens are sRGB and this is why I shoot with my camera set to sRGB although I process my raw files to aRGB. sRGB gives a correct histogram and colour/contrast preview on the camera. aRGB shooting does not. You can check this out, just take identical shots in both colour spaces and compared on the camera."


david i can,t seem to find sRGB on my camera the only place i see RGB is in creativity

Re: A700 colour issues

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 9:31 pm
by David Kilpatrick
All the modes/styles are sRGB except when you select AdobeRGB. If yout shoot Landscape, Portrait, Sunset etc you are automatically in sRGB. 'Standard' is basic sRGB like basic AdobeRGB, with no extra tweaks applied.

David

Re: A700 colour issues

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 9:34 pm
by agorabasta
I would expect a 'camera club' display systems to be able to distinguish between sRGB and aRGB, but my assumption could be overoptimistic... :o

As long as in-cam JPEGs are considered, the raw software quirks are irrelevant.

Anyway, here is a pretty good comparison of JPEG colour fidelity of various cams - http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/A ... MATEST.HTM - Sony yellows are not exaggerated, they rather are subdued; the orange is what is really exaggerated, having all reds shifted towards orange. So, yes, there may be more yellow in Sony JPEGs, but not at expense of green, it's rather at expense of red.

Re: A700 colour issues

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 9:45 pm
by gio67
David Kilpatrick wrote:All the modes/styles are sRGB except when you select AdobeRGB. If yout shoot Landscape, Portrait, Sunset etc you are automatically in sRGB. 'Standard' is basic sRGB like basic AdobeRGB, with no extra tweaks applied.

David
muchos gracias