Canon® EOS 7D Digital Field Guide

Chapter 4. Getting Great Color

Whatever light you may encounter, the EOS 7D can deliver accurate and pleasing color.

Great color does not come without any effort from the photographer. But with a few adjustments, you can fine-tune color for any scene, regardless of light, and get excellent color from the 7D.

To set the stage for getting great color, it helps to know that there are three settings on the 7D that affect image color: Color Space, White Balance, and Picture Style.

• Color space. This determines the breadth of colors that are captured in images. Some color spaces encompass a broad range of colors, and others encompass fewer colors. Choosing a color space also factors into the overall image workflow because it provides a color space that can be used not only for capture an image but also for editing and printing images. The Color Space option is one that most photographers set at once and seldom change.

• White Balance setting. This setting is what gets the image color accurate. To get accurate color, the camera must know what kind of light is in the scene. The White Balance setting gives the camera that information so that the camera can, in turn, adjust colors correctly. The White Balance setting is one that changes each time the light in the scene changes.

• Picture Styles. These determine whether the image colors are vivid and saturated, or less vivid and more subdued, and they ...