How do the pros get better colors?

[Watarski]

Well, maybe just not the pros. I can't seem to get real good colors out of my pictures. I have been browsing the photo mags at the local bookstore - the photos in them are leagues beyond what I take. I notice that most of them have much more color than my photos. Are they doing a lot of PP'ing? Filters? I don't change my in-camera settings at all - should I try that?

Granted I'm not taking photos at the exotic locations or of exotic items, but I must be missing something.

[cdifoto]

Show us an example. Post one of yours and link to (do NOT embed) a pro's.

[Longwatcher]

After you have posted some examples we may be able to give better answers, but here is an attempt.
- Have you color managed your system (Camera, software, monitor, printer ) ?
- Are you making sure the saturation is correct or if you have CS3 the clarity and vibrance as well?
- Are you using a professional lens? (an "L" lens usually has much better color out of it )
- Are you shooting in sRGB and then viewing in Adobe RGB?
- Do you have your exposure at the correct level?

All of the above can affect the color and look of an image and there are probably some I forgot.

[Doug Pardee]

A couple of good responses already. Let me add this: pros have typically spent a lot of time experimenting with various things to see what it takes to get their pictures to come out the way that they want them. I'm not a pro, and I've still shot maybe 300-500 test photos.

You say that you haven't even tried the various in-camera settings. There are no shortcuts, no magic wands. You have to make the effort. Get out there and try stuff. There are a lot of different camera settings to try. You can also shoot Raw, in which case there are dozens of different Raw converters to try, and each has even more settings and adjustments.

There is a reason that a pro gets pro results: they put the work into it.

[Glenn NK]

Well, maybe just not the pros. I can't seem to get real good colors out of my pictures. I have been browsing the photo mags at the local bookstore - the photos in them are leagues beyond what I take. I notice that most of them have much more color than my photos. Are they doing a lot of PP'ing? Filters? I don't change my in-camera settings at all - should I try that?




Granted I'm not taking photos at the exotic locations or of exotic items, but I must be missing something.


It isn't the locations that you shoot that makes the difference, it's all in the post processing (PP).

Some questions:

1. Are you shooting RAW or JPEG? They won't produce identical results in PP.

2. Do you do ANY PP? Straight out of the camera and not using DPP, the colours are going to be drab.

3. If you do some PP, what software do you use? Canon DPP will interpret the camera's settings for picture style whereas other software will not. Each software will produce different results on the same image.


Other comments:

I use Lightroom, and I literally bump up either the Vibrance or the Saturation, and often both at the same time (they produce different effects).

When I used DPP, I had my 30D set to Landscape in the Picture Styles, and there are four settings that can be changed to alter the "look" of the image in DPP. Each of the Picture Styles will produce different Sharpness, Contrast, Saturation, and Colour Tone.