How can I get accurate color with my digital camera (Canon A560?)?

Question

I have a Canon A560 that I use for photos of clothing on ebay. I recently switched from a Minolta SLR (film) that I've used for years. I've noticed with the Canon A560 that the colors aren't as accurate as I'm used to: a blue sweater with a purple tint will simply appear blue w/o any tint, or a sweater that's silver and black with gold highlights will somehow lose the gold. I've experimented with different lighting (250 watt - regular & tungsten) and played with the settings on the Canon (white balance, My Colors, etc). Whats the best way to achieve the color accuracy I'm looking for? This is frustrating since I never had these problems with the old film format.

Answer 1

The answers about white balance should help you. Another way around this is to photograph your clothing outdoors. I know you never did this before, but color negative films for consumers (sold in drug stores, etc.) have an amazing amount of flexibility as far as exposure and printing. The processing center may have been making color corrections for you all along without your knowledge.

Try sticking to one type of lighting. You mentioned "regular & tungsten" as if they aer two different types of light. Household lamps are tungsten. If you are using tungsten light in combination with the flash on your camera, this will cause a color shift. If you want to or need to use flash, set your camera for electronic flash white balance (the lightning bolt) and just have enough tungsten lighting (household light bulb) to allow your camera to focus. This way, the flash stands a chance of wiping out the tungsten light.

Answer 2

When using tungsten, set the camera white balance to tungsten. Don't use flourescent lighting because the colour of it is unstable and shifts between green and cyan constantly. your manual will show how to adjust the white balance and you may even be able to adjust it exactly by using a white piece of paper under the lighting allowing the camera to record the light colour and set the white balance accordingly.

Answer 3

Make sure you are using the absolutely highest resolution available on your camera. I am not familiar with the particular camera you have, but if you have RAW available, use that to get the highest resolution. You then need to follow a system such as the ETTR system (Expose To The Right on the histogram). This will look very bad on your LCD monitor, but will capture the most information available.

If you are shooting RAW, the white balance setting does not matter - it is only used to render the image on your LCD which is a form of JPEG. If you use ETTR, most often your LCD will look overexposed.

Answer 4

your manual proberly says use a peice of white paper and set the white balance to it, so do that

as for the exposure i dont think your camera has manual exposure so you will have to bracket your exposures, -use EV function

if you do the white balance correctly there will be no colour cast

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