Do you like Pentax colour?

robmcsween · 2010-07-06T18:43:20+0100

I've just got a k-x which I'm using with a Sigma 50mm lens. The camera and lens are lovely to use, but I'm tweaking and tweaking the white balance and custom image to try to get the colours looking more natural and true. When I first turned it on I didn't realise it was in default 'bright' mode - results were horribly faked and 'digital' looking. Discovered 'natural' mode, but it still doesn't look right: as if the camera was fine with muted tones, skin, shadows, but as soon as something pure coloured comes into the frame it boosts it up. So like I said, I'm tweaking. Any tips? Am I just an obsessive? Any other colour obsessives out there? One more thing: I hate to start one of those Pentax v canon/nikon/whoever threads, but does anyone think different makers perform very differently in registering colours? All tips and opinions from you highly experienced photographers very welcome!

Pentax Digital SLRsPentax Digital SLRs

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Anvh Anvh

10412 posts
18 years
Dordrecht,
the Netherlands

Posted 10/07/2010 - 13:41 Link

George Lazarette wrote:
There are several free tools that do a perfectly good job, if not quite as good as the best paid-for ones.

Unfortunately, people have been conned into thinking they need to spend huge amounts of money on this. It really isn't so, in my view.

The problem with the free tools is that they rely on your eyes and that's not perfect but it's indeed better than nothing.
I used to did it by eye but after I used a hardware tool for the calibration I saw a shift in colours and contrast which did match the prints better.

And lets be honest £60 for getting better matching colours on your screen is nothing compared to the price of the camera, lenses and rest of the camera equipment.

Stefan

K10D, K5
DA* 16-50, DA* 50-135, D-FA 100 Macro, DA 40 Ltd, DA 18-55
AF-540FGZ

El Dingo El Dingo

260 posts
18 years
Berkshire

Posted 13/07/2010 - 13:31 Link

johnriley wrote:

Quote:
John, is there any reason that I should use sRGB over AdobeRGB?

You are seeing the sRGB space on your monitor reagrdless, you are printing the sRGB space on your printer and you need sRGB for web images.

If you mix Adobe RGB and sRGB in your workflow you will get weak colour in your images. Whatever you do, check that the camera and Photoshop are both set to the same colour space.

There are possible reasons for using the wider gamut of Adobe RGB but I don't find it necessary.

Sorry I took a long time to reply and to say thank you to both you and Anvh for the guidance.

I've actually set AdobeRGB in both the camera and Photoshop Elements (version eight), as most of my 'output' is via an Epson 1400 printer. In this case should I stay with that, or change to sRGB?

(Edit - that's annoying. I typed in v.8 in brackets and a smiley appeared!)

El Dingo - K3-II and K10D

Edited by El Dingo: 13/07/2010 - 13:33