I have just bought a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and have been disappointed with the trueness of the color of some images to the point I am thinking about returning or exchanging the camera. I am not sure if it is a problem with the sensor and I need to exchange the camera for another one or if this is normal. How can I tell if the problem is the camera or if this is normal? The shades of some things are off quite a bit (the corner of my lens case that is aqua (blue-green) looks light blue, a rusty color looks more red, etc). The reason I bought the camera was for good, true images.
Corporate Profile; Canon. Color: Black with Olive. The Canon Eg-A Focusing Screen is an interchangeable focusing screen compatible with the Canon EOS 5D-Mark II. Keith Richards Life Pdf. Optimizing Lightroom Settings from Your Canon. Without the green color cast. These are the profiles I'm. The original EOS 5D and the 5D Mark II.
I contacted customer support and was told that I need to use a grey/white card and manually calibrate a custom white balance for each shot and in addition buy third party software. To quote the response from canon: “Your EOS 5D Mark II should be quite capable of capturing true to life colors, but stock settings on your gear may not cut it. First-set a Custom White Balance (CWB) by picking up a gray/ white card and filling most of the viewfinder with it IN the light you are shooting.
This will allow the camera to sense what color temperature is best as per the scene you are shooting. Then use the CWB function to set this as the WB and THEN re-shoot the scene. The colors may look subtly different but they should be accurate. Next step is finding a way to calibrate your color profile on the monitor so they match print output. This usually requires the use of third party equipment, but is crucial to get correct color output.”. Well, that sounds correct. Bomberman Battles Iso here.
When you say the colors don't look right, are you talking about on your computer display, or in prints, or both? Yes, you need to have your white balance correct for the light in which you shoot, or record a shot of a white balance target in that light, for use in RAW processing afterwards in post production. And then you MUST have your display calibrated, using a hardware calibration device and the accompanying software. Otherwise, you have no way of evaluating what you're seeing. And when you print, you must be using the the right printer profiles, taking into account the paper stock, which must match the profile. 'True color' is an elusive goal. I've been at this for 5+ years and I'm still improving my technique.
I suppose that taking formal training would accelerate the process, but this is just a hobby for me, so part of the pleasure is the discovery itself. Anyway, here's a summary of what I've learned. White balance is certainly a big part. I always shoot RAW so that I have flexibility to adjust it in post processing. Note that white balance is not simple. Your light sources probably aren't simple.
I find that fluorescent lights are the worst; it's just impossible to get colors to look right. But even if I use a controlled photo-quality light such as flash (which is much easier to balance), light bounces off of colored walls, flooring, etc. Gilroy Pumpkin Patch here. These all contribute to the complex color puzzle. In Lightroom, you get to choose one white balance for all tones in the picture. In PhotoShop you can adjust for casts in shadows, midtones and highlights separately.
Pray that this isn't necessary because it is a real PITA to do. My advice if you go there is to use a light touch of adjustment; it's all too common that I toss out the final result because when I look at it later it looks all wrong. Then there is the matter of interpreting the RAW image data. There's no one 'right' answer.you have choices. In the camera, you get choices such as standard, landscape, portrait and so on.
These are used to generate the JPEG output but dont' affect RAW output. Lightroom seeks to mimic those and gives you its own. Compare them and see how they subtly change the colors.
I find that 'Canon standard' red is hotter than Adobe's red, for example. Faithful tames it further. Next there are adjustments of contrast curves, which can be done in Lightroom for all colors together, or in Photoshop for the colors separately.
I often find that I need to use Photoshop's contrast controls to get the best results, although they can usually be approximately quickly using the various color sliders in Lightroom. One last point--and maybe the easiest and may be the most important for you: when you increase exposure in post processing (I find it necessary in almost every shot with my 5D2), watch out for pushing reds too far. Your RGB histogram is your guide here. I have made it routine practice to tweak the Lightroom 'recovery' slider to pull back exposure of the bright areas (just a bit) as needed to restore natural fleshtones when reds are pushed too far. It's a simple technique for keeping reds natural. Your 5DMkII is probably fine. It is not a point-and-shoot, intended to be used on automatic.