Most important factor in accurate accurate color

[Jeff]

At times I may take a picture of a flower for example and it comes out with seemingling different than observed colors. I'm wondering what is the most important part of the picture taking process? Lens, camera, settings (ISO,f/, ss), lighting, processing?

Any links to tutorials would be greatly appreciated.

[cosworth]

Calibrate your monitor, calibrate your camera/ACR. With these two variables reduced, the only limiting factor is now your eyes and your taste.

Everyone is somewhat colour blind. We all process colour differently (in very small ways). Some people are just clearly colour blind and do not conform to the normal "parameters". Taste comes into play as well. I see some pretty badly oversaturated shots every day. Some like them.

Search the RAW + Post Processing sub-forum for a wealth of info on calibrating your monitor and your camera. Not cheap, but worth it.

[argyle]

What Jason said, and have proper white balance set.

[cosworth]

True, getting white balance set is easy, but many misunderstand what it takes to get it right. Clicking on something white usually works. But it's not the best way.

Carry a whibal card on you ($30) for the tough shots with mixed lighting and shot one extra frame, eyedropper it in your favourite post processing program and you're set.

[SkipD]

A very important thing to be aware of when colors of the subject are critical is that you do not want to mix different types of light sources. Mixing flash with incandescent (with both strong enough to influence the image, of course), for example, will create a lot of problems for you. Any combination of different kind of light sources can lead to disaster.

If the colors are critical, it would be good to have a color reference card to include in a sample shot. That way, you can tweak the image with software until the card looks right. Then, the real subjects in the image should have the right colors assuming the card was lit by the same lighting that illuminated the subject.

Getting the exposure correct is mandantory for getting the subject to look right.

Then, you also need to pay attention to what Jason wrote about using a calibrated monitor. Your printing equipment also needs to be calibrated to produce a finished product that looks like it did on your calibrated monitor.

[Doug Pardee]

Are you shooting Raw or JPEG?

If you're shooting JPEG, then the camera is controlling the colors. You have some controls: white balance, picture style or parameter set (you didn't say what camera), and the adjustments to the picture style or parameter set.

If you're shooting Raw, then the Raw converter is controlling the colors. Different Raw converters give different results.

To answer your question: for color, the only part that really matters is the conversion from Raw sensor data to RGB color image (JPEG, TIFF, or whatever), and your adjustment of the available controls on the Raw conversion.

[Wilt]

Our ability to remember color accurately is pretty variable. If you want accurate colors, one way to try to achieve this is to shoot a photo of some color sample target like a Macbeth Color Checker. That way, assuming you have your monitor calibrated, you can review the image of the target to decide what adjustments are necessary to get things as accurate as you would like. (Note that different camera models render colors not precisely the same.)

[Jeff]

Thanks for all the info Gents.

Doug - shooting RAW, then use Canon's DPP for any (few) changes although I have Photoshop 7.

For the time being, I'm just looking to get more consistent colors from the scene to the computer monitor so I'll read through all the calibrate monitor stuff. I'll tackle printing later.

I'm off to play with white balance and look for some color cards too...do they come in a set?

[SkipD]

Jeff, this card (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=Search&A=details&Q=&sku=465286&is=REG&addedTroughType=search), formerly by Gretag Macbeth, is what I use as a reference. It is very much a standard in the industry.

[cosworth]

I bought that on Friday.