Pictures with great color

jhusbands

I just purchased my 60D a month ago. I have practiced and practiced with it. Still not at all happy with the pictures. They are washed out looking and not enough color in them. I have tried every setting . What am I doing wrong? I am not a pro at this so I'm sure its me and not the camera.

Stalwartjah

Well, do you have enough light? Take a few shots in Auto mode just to see how the camera looks at what you are shooting, then shoot the way you would shoot it. Compare.

What's better? Start to reverse engineer the photo. Each file on your pc will have the f/stop, ISO, shutter speed, etc...

You might try experimenting with 'P' mode which allows most of the settings to be controlled by the camera while you play with the ISO and learn what it does. 'Av' mode would be next. 'M' is for full hands on.

Moose

Howdy @jhusbands - As @Stalwartjah alluded to, great color is ultimately determined by great light. If you're shooting a landscape on a cloudy, dreary day, there's only so much saturation you can apply in post-processing before everything starts to look fake. The most colorful photos are taken in great light (usually the first hour after sunrise and the last hour before sunset).

If you're shooting indoors, the built-in flash will usually wash out your subject with harsh light. To combat this, it's best to start with an entry level external flash like the Canon 320EX (see here) that will allow you to bounce light off a ceiling rather than directly at your subject. This will produce much more colorful and natural looking shots indoors.

If you like to shoot without flash, the white balance sometimes has a hard time determining accurate colors. To fix this just use one of the built-in presets or set a custom white balance using a white piece of paper. Refer to page 96 of the manual.

Hope that all makes sense and happy shooting! :)