You don’t know how important your video is, I am a Fujifilm shooter, starting trying sony in these two weeks and so frustrated by the jpeg result. Thanks for your video! I need to watch it over and over again!
Thank you for this lesson. Sony’s colour are driving me crazy they look so off. I’m coming from Canon and I’ve shot with my Sony for a year. I will try some of your suggestions. Yes, the skin tones is what I’m attempting to be accurate and natural.
@@duskodes9047 I find this strange, because I've seen comparisons and Sony has not only changed colours a number of times, quite noticeably, but I've also seen comparisons to newer Canons and while old Canons had a distinctly orange cast to everything they shot, newer ones don't.
Auto white balance white is probably the best bet, because how a camera distinguishes white balance is by looking at the RGB values and determining which pixels are closest to equal RGB values, which is what would generally help determine white balance for a scene. The only place where this can mess up is if there is nothing white in a scene and it latches onto some other bright color that is the closest to white but isn't actually white, but even then, auto white balance can generally take that into account too. So it might see the closest colors to white is something that has RGB values of 230, 225, 202.....then takes those discrepancies and tries to balance them.
I know this is old but it is the best thing I’ve ever seen. I feel like I’m losing my mind with skin tones!! I was about to rent a different camera to see if it was the camera 🤣
I work with food photography, so accurate colors are VITAL, you don't know just how quickly food can turn from yummy to yucky just because of the color. I used to use Canon and SOME colors would have a yellowish shift (I guess that's good for people colors). That colorcheckr passport was a real lifesaver. Now I'm a Fuji shooter and I'm often tempted to use jpegs only ngl. Still I want accuracy so I use the grey card every time. For everything else I just use the Fuji film simulations + recipes. It's very good fun and gives me beautiful almost-ready results.
Can't beat Canon color grades. I'm shopping for my first mirrorless camera and deciding between Canon M50 Mark II and the Sony ZV-E10. Comparing an outdoor picture, the Canon picture is real-to-life colors and the Sony pictures has the "blue" sky in a purple-ish hue and skin tones very magenta. Sony ZV-E10 has better features compared to the Canon M50 but man, the colors on the Canon are amazing!
. That’s why I have a Olympus, Panasonic, Nikon and a Fujifilm Camera, I don’t adjust the colours. That’s just me, nice to compare, it keeps me interested. Thanks for the Video. Stay Safe.
The problem with the older cameras is how the camera interprets the image. If you shoot JPG+RAW, you know this. The a7 II added more green. The A7 III added a lot more magenta. The A7R III added Magenta. The RAW is perfectly fine if you did your WB correctly. But, if you use creative mode, the colours in JPG and MP4 are not the same, too. So to get accurate video colour as you want it, you have to experiment with gammas and colour modes and what the combination of these give you. Adjusting colour phase is important, too, because many colour spaces are noticeably shifted towards red/magenta. So best fix: Shoot RAW for stills, figure out one PP for video. The best with PP is that you cannot only use it for Log and heavy editing, but you can really tweak it to the point that you don't have any work to do in post. This way, you can get the best of both worlds without needing to worry about colour all the time.
Big score, Omar, I can relate with everything you bring up: Coming from Leica and Canon to Sony , I soon realised I was a spoiled kid. I hated A7M2 colors, then improved with A7M3. By side by side comparisons with A6400 however I found that the A7M3 display gets the colors totally wrong, every jpg turned out better on the iPad or print than they appeared on the display. BTW Canon lenses (I kept using some of them by help of a sigma mc-11 adapter) gave a much warmer tone and almost perfect skin tone! But then, like you, I discovered XT-20, coupled with XF16/1.4, 35/1.4 and 52/1.2, chose Film Simulation pro negative std, and ever since colors is no longer an issue for me! And yes, to achieve that to some extent on Sony, lower the contrast and raise the shadows, tone down the saturation a bit ( but that does not work too well for nature .
Fuji's good at making pleasing out of camera JPEG's, but Canon's good at truly accurate colors. And once you've mastered accurate color, you actually get more fidelity/detail out of an image, because shifting colors unnaturally can rob color channels of their true fidelity and editing latitude. One thing many people don't realize is that their straight out of camera RAW files, if processed outside of a color accurate profile, are actually like if your starting point is with slight adjustments to HSL already done, so it's like editing on top of already edited data. And as you might know, you can only adjust HSL soo far before it looks unnatural or clips. So you might be adding +20 to the saturation or luminance of orange, when it's already operating on a +20 by default. Which means if you bump it up to +81, you're technically over 100%. Now imagine that mine field when dealing with multiple colors in the HSL or calibration or Split toning panels. Needless to say, it can lead to some hard limitations in your capability to edit photo's, where certain colors/channels will clip long before they should or shift to improper hues that don't fully represent the hue you're targeting.
I am red/green colour blind. Not enough to not see any red or green, but enough to know I am only seeing a fraction of colour nuance that people with ‘normal’ colour vision can see. These kinds of videos make me realise what I am missing and why I shouldn’t trust myself to judge skin tones... 😬
I fixed my Sony colors with one simple step... I switched to Fuji. 🤣 in all seriousness though great video and I wish I knew this back when I still had my Sony gear.
I never use JPG. Shooting in raw with a custom camera profile is the way I do it. The same is true for printers. Once calibrated, there is no difference between different brands. I have made comparison tests with A7R4 and R5. The prints on my Canon Pro1000 just look the same. Of course this comes with additional work. Sometimes the difference is marginal and not worth the effort. There is a noticeable difference of JPG output between the different brands and is in most cases subjective.
Same here... I got bored with Canon gear around 5 years ago... and went full Sony full frame camera and lenses. A week ago got a second hand Fuji X100F and what a difference! And I’m not only talking jpgs even raws processed in LR (which isn’t ideal for Fuji) looks more appealing to me just moving a couple o sliders if at all. It had saved me a lot of time.
Nice tips! I've switched from Fuji to Sony and IMHO biggest problems with Sony colors are Auto White Balance (for jpegs) and horrendous Lightroom profiles (for raws). These are my best solutions so far Jpeg - Standard and Vivid profiles are pretty accurate, with Standard being pretty close to Colorchecker calibrated profile (same as Fuji Provia), as long as white balance is correct. AWB with Priority White and M1 offset (on magenta-green scale) looks ok 80-90% of the time, but often I need to result predefined presets (like daylight) or setting a Kelvin value. Fuji was much better there since auto white balance was more reliable. Raw - using Capture One or Lightroom with Color Checker Dual Illuminant profile. Capture one does great job with Sony colors, especially with ProStandard profile, but custom made dual illuminant profile is even better. Either of these methods gives me great results, superior to the results I used to get with Fuji. But in the end, Sony is definitely still not a best choice for Jpeg-only shooters,even with all those tweaks applied.
@@marcocanova2944 IMHO, if you are shooting JPEG only you should go with Canon or Fuji. If you go with Sony, I advise manually setting WB to one of the presets (or Kelvin value). If you must use AWB, AWB White Priority with B1-M0.5 bias works decent buy still not on Canon or Fuji levels. It can still miss a lot in certain circumstances. Once you have nailed WB, then you can have good JPEGs with many Creative Styles, and I like Standard, Vivid, Night, and Autumn Colors the most. EOSHD 5.0 is also great for emulating Canon colors. But getting with WB in-camera is the key to having good SOOC JPEGs, and Sony AWB is not as reliable as Canon or Fuji.
I cannot choose between sony at7 iv, canon r6 or fuji. i shoot portraits, i work in nightclub and discos, no landscape and no video... my clients always wanna see my jpeg pics on lcd display ... and i reead sony at7 iv has the worst lcd display...
@@marcocanova2944 I heard that Sony has improved AWB with A7 IV, but I haven't seen any proof of that so far. Xing Liu has a great channel for JPEG-only shooters and he will be publishing the test for A7 IV from that perspective. In the meantime, you can see his JPEG comparison A7 III vs X-T4 with equivalent lenses th-cam.com/video/pXxg-AjpsKk/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=XingLiu He also has a Canon R6 vs Fuji X-T4 comparison (with mostly equivalent lenses) and IMHO Canon has better JPEG. See for yourself th-cam.com/video/1V-G_p_KsTM/w-d-xo.html
That’s a really helpful video, Omar! Can you tell me whether the Creative Style on Sony (A7R3) can make a difference with these settings? Standard, Vivid or Neutral…
Some great advice. I'm puzzeld as how Sony can provide such bad color management in their cameras. It's not the hardware, but the algorithm. For Sony every image needs to be manually color-corrected. As others state, it's always off, but it's much more of a problem when taking photos of scenes where the brain knows how they should look. I'm having issue with to much of a magenta cast in any image. I think that is the source of the green/yellow problems. Once I reduce the magenta (in combination with the correct WB to avoid greeen/yellow stains, which is a real manual chore as its slightly different for each image) the colors ín the images of an A7M4 are good.
thank you, very useful tips and indeed I shot fuji jpeg to document my life and sony to document nature and when it comes colours especially in the evening golden hour it is challenging to get skin colours right. Thank you again for some setting tips
Omar, to add to your informative video, I would create a profile for each camera/lens combo. Some lenses have different color cast, and I name my x-rite profile files with the body, lens, date and session name. Yes, I get many profiles and I save them in the same archive folder of the session. Thanks for another great video 🙏
That's what the tutor from X-Rite (at the time the system was under X-Rite) did, even for her personal photography. The chemistry and the application/# of layers of lens coatings differs.
I used to shoot Sony but left because I spent so much time trying to get the colors right. But the good thing is It made me better understand what I needed to do. Still for some unknown reason to me I kinda like my black and whites more. Go figure.
Sony is slow with WBalancing. Setting to fixed scene (sunny) can help. XRITE color pass is a must have for non electronically coupled lenses (vintage, manual focus). If lenses lack electronic coupling, the colors can be very bad and off. In the worst of the cases I take a cellphone image of a scene to take it home and compare this with my shots. Lastly, color judgement varies by time of the day very dramatically. I usually check colors at daytime and at nighttime twice.
I wish I had a colour and gamma accurate LCD/EVF, because nothing else I have is colour calibrated, so idk if I'm nailing the vibrance or just shooting skittles at this point. Sometimes I use adobe RBG with Velvia just to be sure, but my gooey Costco prints have come out fine so far. I'm deliberating getting a Canon for video. I love the tones and colours, the usability, the AF, the size, the slide in ND EF adapter, but everyone has scared me into thinking they have the dynamic range of a crosswalk.
A wonderful video but also an expensive solution wrt the colour checkers. BTW I've reduced my TH-cam photography consumption because gear review videos are boring and lately, toxic. Your channel is a wonderful, warm space where your knowledge, experience and humour keep me coming back btw. I was kinda mean to you about the Jim Carrey mannerisms a long time ago and I apologise for that. I hope you know that you now have a 100% convert. :}
There is nothing like “fixing the colors once and for all.” Film and video are emulation of real world, which means it shouldn’t be exactly the same as real life. Your necessities change all the time for different projects therefore there is nothing as the best colors for all. Also, for cameras with not so good color science you can tweak the colors however you want but even with a lut like the Emotive Color Arri lut, you still won’t get the same thing. That’s the fact at least for now.
Just a few observations. The worst color problems from Sony in my estimation are skin tones and green grass and trees. Perhaps because brain has very good memory how healthy tones should look like. The abstract colors, like street, architecture, etc. are fine because a normal person doesn't really have a good reference point to begin with. I don't feel the newer Sony cameras produce better colors by default. In my experience Sony A7Rii was the best and then the problems got worse, the third generation generally reduced saturation and colors look bland and diluted with white and require significant boost, and I think the worst colors right now are from A7Riv with something really ugly in the skin tones. X-rite generated color profiles sometimes look good sometimes bad, no consistency. I created many of them from different light sources, and still it doesn't solve the Sony color problem. They also seem to really screw out of gamut colors. The other observation, I also have Nikon Z5 camera and I almost never have to do anything to colors other than vibrance and saturation. I'm using Lightroom. So I think I will just sell my Sony and stay with Nikon until Sony solves this problem.
I started using xrite and it seems to make the blue pop more, and yes it has inconsistencies. Il hold on to my canon 5dm4 for photos a little longer until sony fixes their color science.
You have hit the nail on the head with everything to have said 100%. I owned the A7R3 and upgraded to the A7R4 thinking that the R4 coming out last year would have substantially better colours then the R3 that still used the R2 sensor. So a 2015 senor to a 2020 sensor, so five years of improvements. Not the case, the R4 raws are muted and have a ugly green/yellow cast nothing like the preview on the camera (through I think that the preview is a jpeg representation?). Greens are a nightmare not just in the skin tones but in landscape. I think I will do a pre-set as a starting point for most images, Nikon used to be my bread and butter and I enjoyed the first 11 years doing digital photography with Nikon never had these issues. But then I look at images on this video and they look fantastic so I need to learn more with my Sony. On a side note at the beginning of this video (with the Canon, Fuji and Sony images) the Fuji colours to me looked incredible!
This was so helpful as a new Sony shooter. I'm definitely getting the Xrite. The other solutions seem too hit and miss. That final closing comment 😆 Follow-up question: Are Xrite and Calibrite the same product?
I've shoot with canon for years, the color changes with each lens. more reddish and greenish tone. I've tried EOS R, it has most beautiful colors SOOC for my taste. I've tried Sony A9, it has the most details, so sharp but the colors not exactly my taste. I've also tried Fuji GFX50R, no complaints. I've tried Lumix S1, nothing special but the focusing system is poor for that price Lastly Leica M10&Q, its normal.
Thank you for this video Omar. Bought two zeiss lenses lately(FE 35mmf2.8 SonnarZA + 135mmf2.8 Batis FE). Actually, i do not know what is going on with these zeiss lenses, but color rendition changed to superb on my a7rii raw.
Omar, this is a very helpful video. I have been shooting in RAW with my Sony A6300 but have recently used RAW + jpeg in order to get images in jpeg for quick transfer and sharing. I tried to change my AWB to white but that does not appear to be an option. Instead when I select AWB and try to change it I get a color grid with A-B and X-Y axis. If I have them at 0-0 is that the same as white? Thanks.
Such great scripting. Yes, once I calibrated monitor... omg, it was like night and day. I can't recommended that enough. It like a huge confidence boost when you tweak a color and know it will look good on everything, phones, TVs, tablets, etc. For video, I get better results and easier grading with a static white balance. You're absolutely right about how auto white balance works. The Sony cameras are great for run and gun with auto WB on but color grading is so much more difficult. 5000-5700 Kelvin is a good level, but I suggest to use a gray card or a color checker of you got one. Gray cards are under $10.
Great video Omar. DRO messes the raw file in a way as well. I kept wondering why my raw photos were so much darker then what was in camera. I Turned that off and now they look the same. Also , I decided to switch to capture one ( from Lightroom) and the starting point for raw files is so much better (even skin tones). I’m finding that there is way less work to get a pleasing result when editing.
My fat fingers must have turned on DRO when I was navigating the menu system on my first day with the A7III. I exited the menu and now everything was extremely washed out. It was similar to what my EXCAM displays if I set it to S-Log and don't compensate the LCD but I downloaded the RAW and the JPG and both were washed out. Anyway, by trial and error I got it sorted. Now always OFF. Online Sony references to explain "DRO" were hopeless.
Had an A7 II and A7 III and had to switchto a 5D 4 and then R6 in 2021. Always wished Sony did it for me in colors. I edit when I work but when I’m out and about for jpegs, Sony didn’t cut it for me.
Hello! Thank you for this video. (I haven't finished watching this video yet while typing this) I'm really contemplating returning my Sony ZV-1 due to colouring for vlogging. I find my camera is struggling overexposing lights and making my skin colour look pale and darkening facial features that aren't true to life. Not sure what to do about this
Thank you Omer for such a great informative video. I was a Nikon user (D750 n Z6) and moved to Sony for better AF system. Colours are my pain point with Sony ( A7III n now A7R IV). I try your tips. I am also planning to move back to Nikon or Canon maybe. I mostly shot Jpeg according to my work needs. Please suggest me which system would be better in this scenario Nikon or Canon, my top needs are SOOC and AF. I mostly shot indoors weddings, kinds and corporate shots.
That's a nice video, Omar. After shooting 2 years with my a73 I got fed up and I sold it. First, I was intending to upgrade to an a7r4 but the colours on Sony have always bothered me. I came from a Canon t3i before the a73 and I use to prefer the t3i with a cheap 18-55 standard lens over the Sony a73 with a 24-70 2.8gm. One thing that you mentioned that's true is the Sony sharpness. But the colours..omg...horrible. You've shone a light here for all the Sony users and honestly made me think about the a7r4 again. I bought a Canon m6 mk2 and I'm waiting for the lens to arrive so I can start testing it but I hadn't the courage to sell my Sony stuff (besides the camera that has gone) yet. Well, after all this useless explanation, how do you use your colour checker in events that have a lot of lights interfering in the flash? Do you have a video talking about using the color checker? Thanks for all your videos, you have always made me buy a fuji but I wanna go over 30 megapixels cause I like to recompose the images on Lightroom. Cheers mate
I feel you. I was in the same boat with Sony colors. Canon is just so much easier to deal with. Honestly, the truth is you might be happier with a Canon. DJ lights don’t matter if my flash is lighting the person. Profile is for the speed light or even natural light.
Hi Omar!! Love your videos. I’m a Fuji shooter and would like to go to full frame. Are you still regret on going Sony? They have a great unified system, and I shoot also video but their color science… would you recommend it over canon? Thanks for your content!!!❤😊
Great video Omar! One question though, how do you use a color checker during candid shots that don't have strobes involved. An x-rite is on my short list of things to buy and I probably need to just experiment with it but how well does it work in constantly changing natural light situations?
Hello Omar, I’ve been contemplating a lot. I wanted to upgrade to a new camera. I currently own a Fuji XT20. I am torn between Fuji XT4 and Sony A7 iii. Do you have tips in mind? A big help. Thank you!
Good guide mate, Sony should really reassess their colour science, it's a shame they can't nail skin colours in camera - everything can be post processed to damnation..
Cameraville has done a series of videos in the past on image quality that includes color across Sony, Nikon, Canon and Pentax. There is a substantial difference. Using the same lens, and on one video - the same sensor across Sony, Nikon and Pentax. Sony can fix their problem if they so desire - but apparently they don't desire.... Sure you can "fix" the colors in post processing - but, the question is why do you have to go through the process? PS - YT doesn't let me link to the various videos...
Canon colors are nice, but why would Sony, Nikon, or Fujifilm want to change to Canon-like colors? Some/most of Sony users (and their clients) are perfectly fine with what they have within the adjustments that they can make. I'm a Sony shooter and have never owned a Canon, so I don't know what I'm missing.
Why is everybody ignoring the significance of the light source? For me, ambient light pictures became real with a reflected flash or Rotolight. It might be that you are actually missing a wavelength and you try to fix the problem with a preset.
Hi Omar, i have a sony a7lll and a dji mini4. i like the drone colours and i want set up the a7lll to much the colour when i am editing both images together can you help me ? plese!!!!!
I only shoot Raw in both Sony and Fuji. I still find fuji lacking in jpeg. Again, that is how I see it. It is easier to get what I want in Lightroom or Capture 1 on both systems.
Sony user here for many years and I hate that the LCD always shows my images way more blown out than they actually are. But I always shoot raw also. Just hate when I show someone the back of the screen I have to say it will look different than what they are seeing..
You don’t know how important your video is, I am a Fujifilm shooter, starting trying sony in these two weeks and so frustrated by the jpeg result. Thanks for your video! I need to watch it over and over again!
Thank you for this lesson. Sony’s colour are driving me crazy they look so off. I’m coming from Canon and I’ve shot with my Sony for a year. I will try some of your suggestions. Yes, the skin tones is what I’m attempting to be accurate and natural.
@@duskodes9047 skill issue, people make amazing photos with any equipment so blaming the gear is so funny
@@duskodes9047 I find this strange, because I've seen comparisons and Sony has not only changed colours a number of times, quite noticeably, but I've also seen comparisons to newer Canons and while old Canons had a distinctly orange cast to everything they shot, newer ones don't.
I’m NOT SAYING my Sony cameras have weird colors… but I’m here for a reason. Thanks Omar!
Auto white balance white is probably the best bet, because how a camera distinguishes white balance is by looking at the RGB values and determining which pixels are closest to equal RGB values, which is what would generally help determine white balance for a scene. The only place where this can mess up is if there is nothing white in a scene and it latches onto some other bright color that is the closest to white but isn't actually white, but even then, auto white balance can generally take that into account too. So it might see the closest colors to white is something that has RGB values of 230, 225, 202.....then takes those discrepancies and tries to balance them.
I have a zv e10 and the automatic balance leaves the image horribly oriented towards green, even when I wear a white shirt
"Let`s go back to the photographer" , Omar, you`re the man, girl. Gotta love the honest humor!
I know this is old but it is the best thing I’ve ever seen. I feel like I’m losing my mind with skin tones!! I was about to rent a different camera to see if it was the camera 🤣
man you have a calming voice, it always makes me relax. you are the best.
great video. thank you !
Can you show us how you use a colour picker in different settings such as events with flash or even in a nature setting?
I work with food photography, so accurate colors are VITAL, you don't know just how quickly food can turn from yummy to yucky just because of the color.
I used to use Canon and SOME colors would have a yellowish shift (I guess that's good for people colors). That colorcheckr passport was a real lifesaver.
Now I'm a Fuji shooter and I'm often tempted to use jpegs only ngl. Still I want accuracy so I use the grey card every time.
For everything else I just use the Fuji film simulations + recipes. It's very good fun and gives me beautiful almost-ready results.
Hello do you know a good sony camera for food photography and videography ?
Came for the colour correction, stayed for the PRS and Taylor (but mostly the colour correction). Thanks for the tips!
Can't beat Canon color grades. I'm shopping for my first mirrorless camera and deciding between Canon M50 Mark II and the Sony ZV-E10. Comparing an outdoor picture, the Canon picture is real-to-life colors and the Sony pictures has the "blue" sky in a purple-ish hue and skin tones very magenta. Sony ZV-E10 has better features compared to the Canon M50 but man, the colors on the Canon are amazing!
Why not get R10?
I find the canon colors awful
. That’s why I have a Olympus, Panasonic, Nikon and a Fujifilm Camera, I don’t adjust the colours. That’s just me, nice to compare, it keeps me interested. Thanks for the Video. Stay Safe.
been waitttinnnggg for this lol. (you mentioned it once and I've been looking for this video) You are awesome.
The problem with the older cameras is how the camera interprets the image. If you shoot JPG+RAW, you know this. The a7 II added more green. The A7 III added a lot more magenta. The A7R III added Magenta. The RAW is perfectly fine if you did your WB correctly.
But, if you use creative mode, the colours in JPG and MP4 are not the same, too. So to get accurate video colour as you want it, you have to experiment with gammas and colour modes and what the combination of these give you. Adjusting colour phase is important, too, because many colour spaces are noticeably shifted towards red/magenta.
So best fix: Shoot RAW for stills, figure out one PP for video. The best with PP is that you cannot only use it for Log and heavy editing, but you can really tweak it to the point that you don't have any work to do in post. This way, you can get the best of both worlds without needing to worry about colour all the time.
Big score, Omar, I can relate with everything you bring up: Coming from Leica and Canon to Sony , I soon realised I was a spoiled kid. I hated A7M2 colors, then improved with A7M3. By side by side comparisons with A6400 however I found that the A7M3 display gets the colors totally wrong, every jpg turned out better on the iPad or print than they appeared on the display. BTW Canon lenses (I kept using some of them by help of a sigma mc-11 adapter) gave a much warmer tone and almost perfect skin tone! But then, like you, I discovered XT-20, coupled with XF16/1.4, 35/1.4 and 52/1.2, chose Film Simulation pro negative std, and ever since colors is no longer an issue for me! And yes, to achieve that to some extent on Sony, lower the contrast and raise the shadows, tone down the saturation a bit ( but that does not work too well for nature .
56 you mean. I love the combo 56mm xt4
I'm in love with classic neg. That's not accurate at all but I loooove that
white balance daylight, day white works for me, thanks alot
Fuji colors are really good straight out of camera
Fuji's good at making pleasing out of camera JPEG's, but Canon's good at truly accurate colors. And once you've mastered accurate color, you actually get more fidelity/detail out of an image, because shifting colors unnaturally can rob color channels of their true fidelity and editing latitude. One thing many people don't realize is that their straight out of camera RAW files, if processed outside of a color accurate profile, are actually like if your starting point is with slight adjustments to HSL already done, so it's like editing on top of already edited data. And as you might know, you can only adjust HSL soo far before it looks unnatural or clips. So you might be adding +20 to the saturation or luminance of orange, when it's already operating on a +20 by default. Which means if you bump it up to +81, you're technically over 100%. Now imagine that mine field when dealing with multiple colors in the HSL or calibration or Split toning panels. Needless to say, it can lead to some hard limitations in your capability to edit photo's, where certain colors/channels will clip long before they should or shift to improper hues that don't fully represent the hue you're targeting.
I am red/green colour blind. Not enough to not see any red or green, but enough to know I am only seeing a fraction of colour nuance that people with ‘normal’ colour vision can see. These kinds of videos make me realise what I am missing and why I shouldn’t trust myself to judge skin tones... 😬
same same here! I wonder if those color blind glasses actually make a difference..
كل الشكر والتقدير لك اخي عمر على كل ما تقدمه من محتوى جميل
I fixed my Sony colors with one simple step... I switched to Fuji. 🤣
in all seriousness though great video and I wish I knew this back when I still had my Sony gear.
To me I was thinking to get Sony as a second body but now I will reconsider it
Can you create a tutorial on the colour passport checker and how you would go about adjusting settings based off of it? Thanks!
1. Nikon/Canon
2. Fuji
3. ...
4. ...
5. Sony
6. ...
....
Selecting any DRO will decrease the image quality, especially when you shoot in low light. I keep it OFF most of the time.
I wondered why my images suddenly looked really grainy. DRO was the culprit. Switched it off. Thanks!
I never use JPG. Shooting in raw with a custom camera profile is the way I do it. The same is true for printers. Once calibrated, there is no difference between different brands. I have made comparison tests with A7R4 and R5. The prints on my Canon Pro1000 just look the same. Of course this comes with additional work. Sometimes the difference is marginal and not worth the effort. There is a noticeable difference of JPG output between the different brands and is in most cases subjective.
1000% correct!
the best video for sony colors I´ve watched so far. got you an abo ;-)
If you want good Sony colours Use Capture One instead of Lightroom and turn DRO off.
The month of May 2022 I see Capture One is presenting weekly sessions on using Capture One in workflow situations. e.g. Thursdays starting May 12.
Ohh, just updated some settings! Thanks! Can't wait to give it a shot.
There are accurate colors, there are pleasing colors and there are the colors of the sony a 7 II, which i'm so glad i left behind me...
I've only shot with a Sony, so I didn't notice how much I had to work to get the colors how I liked them until I shot with a Fuji.
Same here... I got bored with Canon gear around 5 years ago... and went full Sony full frame camera and lenses. A week ago got a second hand Fuji X100F and what a difference! And I’m not only talking jpgs even raws processed in LR (which isn’t ideal for Fuji) looks more appealing to me just moving a couple o sliders if at all. It had saved me a lot of time.
Nice tips! I've switched from Fuji to Sony and IMHO biggest problems with Sony colors are Auto White Balance (for jpegs) and horrendous Lightroom profiles (for raws). These are my best solutions so far
Jpeg - Standard and Vivid profiles are pretty accurate, with Standard being pretty close to Colorchecker calibrated profile (same as Fuji Provia), as long as white balance is correct. AWB with Priority White and M1 offset (on magenta-green scale) looks ok 80-90% of the time, but often I need to result predefined presets (like daylight) or setting a Kelvin value. Fuji was much better there since auto white balance was more reliable.
Raw - using Capture One or Lightroom with Color Checker Dual Illuminant profile. Capture one does great job with Sony colors, especially with ProStandard profile, but custom made dual illuminant profile is even better. Either of these methods gives me great results, superior to the results I used to get with Fuji.
But in the end, Sony is definitely still not a best choice for Jpeg-only shooters,even with all those tweaks applied.
What is the best choice for Jpeg only shooters?
@@marcocanova2944 IMHO, if you are shooting JPEG only you should go with Canon or Fuji. If you go with Sony, I advise manually setting WB to one of the presets (or Kelvin value). If you must use AWB, AWB White Priority with B1-M0.5 bias works decent buy still not on Canon or Fuji levels. It can still miss a lot in certain circumstances.
Once you have nailed WB, then you can have good JPEGs with many Creative Styles, and I like Standard, Vivid, Night, and Autumn Colors the most. EOSHD 5.0 is also great for emulating Canon colors. But getting with WB in-camera is the key to having good SOOC JPEGs, and Sony AWB is not as reliable as Canon or Fuji.
@@tomapaunovic I dont know how to thank you! You have been really really really great!!!
I cannot choose between sony at7 iv, canon r6 or fuji. i shoot portraits, i work in nightclub and discos, no landscape and no video... my clients always wanna see my jpeg pics on lcd display ... and i reead sony at7 iv has the worst lcd display...
@@marcocanova2944 I heard that Sony has improved AWB with A7 IV, but I haven't seen any proof of that so far. Xing Liu has a great channel for JPEG-only shooters and he will be publishing the test for A7 IV from that perspective. In the meantime, you can see his JPEG comparison A7 III vs X-T4 with equivalent lenses th-cam.com/video/pXxg-AjpsKk/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=XingLiu
He also has a Canon R6 vs Fuji X-T4 comparison (with mostly equivalent lenses) and IMHO Canon has better JPEG. See for yourself th-cam.com/video/1V-G_p_KsTM/w-d-xo.html
Great video Omar! Love your tutorial videos. I'm not seeing much from you these days it seems. Hope life is treating you well!
That’s a really helpful video, Omar! Can you tell me whether the Creative Style on Sony (A7R3) can make a difference with these settings? Standard, Vivid or Neutral…
Camera settings check thee super. Thank you!
Some great advice. I'm puzzeld as how Sony can provide such bad color management in their cameras. It's not the hardware, but the algorithm. For Sony every image needs to be manually color-corrected. As others state, it's always off, but it's much more of a problem when taking photos of scenes where the brain knows how they should look. I'm having issue with to much of a magenta cast in any image. I think that is the source of the green/yellow problems. Once I reduce the magenta (in combination with the correct WB to avoid greeen/yellow stains, which is a real manual chore as its slightly different for each image) the colors ín the images of an A7M4 are good.
Thanks for the education! Can you do a color checker workflow tutorial? That would be valuable :)
Yes, this please.
Wow, this was really helpful. Thanks. I also like photos to be as real-life as possible with the colors matching life.
thank you, very useful tips and indeed I shot fuji jpeg to document my life and sony to document nature and when it comes colours especially in the evening golden hour it is challenging to get skin colours right. Thank you again for some setting tips
Omar, to add to your informative video, I would create a profile for each camera/lens combo. Some lenses have different color cast, and I name my x-rite profile files with the body, lens, date and session name. Yes, I get many profiles and I save them in the same archive folder of the session.
Thanks for another great video 🙏
True.
That's what the tutor from X-Rite (at the time the system was under X-Rite) did, even for her personal photography. The chemistry and the application/# of layers of lens coatings differs.
I used to shoot Sony but left because I spent so much time trying to get the colors right. But the good thing is It made me better understand what I needed to do. Still for some unknown reason to me I kinda like my black and whites more. Go figure.
What do you use now Ray?
I fixed my Sony colours by moving to Fujifilm. It appears from comments I am not alone!
My condolences...
@@darqaegis9045
Best thing I did.
Sony is slow with WBalancing. Setting to fixed scene (sunny) can help. XRITE color pass is a must have for non electronically coupled lenses (vintage, manual focus). If lenses lack electronic coupling, the colors can be very bad and off. In the worst of the cases I take a cellphone image of a scene to take it home and compare this with my shots. Lastly, color judgement varies by time of the day very dramatically. I usually check colors at daytime and at nighttime twice.
I wish I had a colour and gamma accurate LCD/EVF, because nothing else I have is colour calibrated, so idk if I'm nailing the vibrance or just shooting skittles at this point. Sometimes I use adobe RBG with Velvia just to be sure, but my gooey Costco prints have come out fine so far.
I'm deliberating getting a Canon for video. I love the tones and colours, the usability, the AF, the size, the slide in ND EF adapter, but everyone has scared me into thinking they have the dynamic range of a crosswalk.
A wonderful video but also an expensive solution wrt the colour checkers.
BTW
I've reduced my TH-cam photography consumption because gear review videos are boring and lately, toxic. Your channel is a wonderful, warm space where your knowledge, experience and humour keep me coming back btw.
I was kinda mean to you about the Jim Carrey mannerisms a long time ago and I apologise for that. I hope you know that you now have a 100% convert. :}
Love the "Who cares how your kids looks like" Brilliant !
I liked this video, very useful. Waiting for more videos like, Sony and Fujifilm, how to set, how to shoot, to the point with samples. Thank you
THANK YOU so much for the tips on the WB and Standard settings for the Sonys...AMAZING tip!!
Thanks very much...a bucket of great info
With my A7RIV I just go off the histogram use manual settings. How I want the shadows and colours to look is done from RAW in capture one.
There is nothing like “fixing the colors once and for all.” Film and video are emulation of real world, which means it shouldn’t be exactly the same as real life. Your necessities change all the time for different projects therefore there is nothing as the best colors for all. Also, for cameras with not so good color science you can tweak the colors however you want but even with a lut like the Emotive Color Arri lut, you still won’t get the same thing. That’s the fact at least for now.
Wow, this helped me a bunch. Thank you so much.
Just a few observations. The worst color problems from Sony in my estimation are skin tones and green grass and trees. Perhaps because brain has very good memory how healthy tones should look like. The abstract colors, like street, architecture, etc. are fine because a normal person doesn't really have a good reference point to begin with.
I don't feel the newer Sony cameras produce better colors by default. In my experience Sony A7Rii was the best and then the problems got worse, the third generation generally reduced saturation and colors look bland and diluted with white and require significant boost, and I think the worst colors right now are from A7Riv with something really ugly in the skin tones.
X-rite generated color profiles sometimes look good sometimes bad, no consistency. I created many of them from different light sources, and still it doesn't solve the Sony color problem. They also seem to really screw out of gamut colors. The other observation, I also have Nikon Z5 camera and I almost never have to do anything to colors other than vibrance and saturation. I'm using Lightroom. So I think I will just sell my Sony and stay with Nikon until Sony solves this problem.
I started using xrite and it seems to make the blue pop more, and yes it has inconsistencies. Il hold on to my canon 5dm4 for photos a little longer until sony fixes their color science.
You have hit the nail on the head with everything to have said 100%. I owned the A7R3 and upgraded to the A7R4 thinking that the R4 coming out last year would have substantially better colours then the R3 that still used the R2 sensor. So a 2015 senor to a 2020 sensor, so five years of improvements. Not the case, the R4 raws are muted and have a ugly green/yellow cast nothing like the preview on the camera (through I think that the preview is a jpeg representation?). Greens are a nightmare not just in the skin tones but in landscape. I think I will do a pre-set as a starting point for most images, Nikon used to be my bread and butter and I enjoyed the first 11 years doing digital photography with Nikon never had these issues. But then I look at images on this video and they look fantastic so I need to learn more with my Sony. On a side note at the beginning of this video (with the Canon, Fuji and Sony images) the Fuji colours to me looked incredible!
@@beerequalsheaven Are Fuji colors even better than Canon?
Can I have your Lightroom Profile for the Sony A7III? The one you calibrated the color with
Just use Capture One. It handles Sony colors a lot better than Adobe, no more weird skin tones
Cheers so much 😊
This is so helpful ❤
This was so helpful as a new Sony shooter. I'm definitely getting the Xrite. The other solutions seem too hit and miss.
That final closing comment 😆
Follow-up question: Are Xrite and Calibrite the same product?
I've shoot with canon for years, the color changes with each lens.
more reddish and greenish tone.
I've tried EOS R, it has most beautiful colors SOOC for my taste.
I've tried Sony A9, it has the most details, so sharp but the colors not exactly my taste.
I've also tried Fuji GFX50R, no complaints.
I've tried Lumix S1, nothing special but the focusing system is poor for that price
Lastly Leica M10&Q, its normal.
Thank you for this video Omar.
Bought two zeiss lenses lately(FE 35mmf2.8 SonnarZA + 135mmf2.8 Batis FE). Actually, i do not know what is going on with these zeiss lenses,
but color rendition changed to superb on my a7rii raw.
Omar, this is a very helpful video. I have been shooting in RAW with my Sony A6300 but have recently used RAW + jpeg in order to get images in jpeg for quick transfer and sharing. I tried to change my AWB to white but that does not appear to be an option. Instead when I select AWB and try to change it I get a color grid with A-B and X-Y axis. If I have them at 0-0 is that the same as white?
Thanks.
Absolutely brilliant, Omar!
Hey Omar! Nice content as always. Keep up the great work!!!
Do you prefer the AWB ambience/white setting?
I see those klipsch rb's in the background. This is a great video man! Thinking of getting into photography soon. Definitely will be back here
Wonderful input. Thanks a million from an amateur photographer!
Just use a Grey card & use capture one. This will have do until I can upgrade my A6400 to a R6. 💪🏽
Such great scripting. Yes, once I calibrated monitor... omg, it was like night and day. I can't recommended that enough. It like a huge confidence boost when you tweak a color and know it will look good on everything, phones, TVs, tablets, etc. For video, I get better results and easier grading with a static white balance. You're absolutely right about how auto white balance works. The Sony cameras are great for run and gun with auto WB on but color grading is so much more difficult. 5000-5700 Kelvin is a good level, but I suggest to use a gray card or a color checker of you got one. Gray cards are under $10.
Great video Omar. DRO messes the raw file in a way as well. I kept wondering why my raw photos were so much darker then what was in camera. I Turned that off and now they look the same. Also , I decided to switch to capture one ( from Lightroom) and the starting point for raw files is so much better (even skin tones). I’m finding that there is way less work to get a pleasing result when editing.
Awesome! DRO off for me. Thanks for sharing!
what is DRO?
@@orshanti Dynamic Range Optimizer. Brings the shadows up based on the contrast in the scene.
@@ogonzilla thanks man!
My fat fingers must have turned on DRO when I was navigating the menu system on my first day with the A7III. I exited the menu and now everything was extremely washed out. It was similar to what my EXCAM displays if I set it to S-Log and don't compensate the LCD but I downloaded the RAW and the JPG and both were washed out. Anyway, by trial and error I got it sorted. Now always OFF. Online Sony references to explain "DRO" were hopeless.
I get tired of people saying Sony has bad colors. I get amazing colors out of my a7Riv and a7Siii
Do you still have your R4? what's your color recipes?
Hey work in capture one with raw there you can set Color’s like you won’t canon,Nikon, Olympus..,,
Very nice job
Great video! it will be nice if you. can share the sony color profile you have made. I just moved from canon to sony
:-)
Thanks a lot from Denmark.
so helpful, thank u so much!!
Had an A7 II and A7 III and had to switchto a 5D 4 and then R6 in 2021. Always wished Sony did it for me in colors. I edit when I work but when I’m out and about for jpegs, Sony didn’t cut it for me.
Thanks Omar. Instructive video. Could you do a video about how to make your own color profile as well?
There's tons of videos on this. It's not too hard. A X-rite or Datacolor search will help you find some tutorials. :)
@@ogonzilla Ok. Thanks for your quick reply.
Sony a900 colora are one of the best
Hello! Thank you for this video. (I haven't finished watching this video yet while typing this) I'm really contemplating returning my Sony ZV-1 due to colouring for vlogging. I find my camera is struggling overexposing lights and making my skin colour look pale and darkening facial features that aren't true to life. Not sure what to do about this
Great vid. Thanks.
Thank you Omer for such a great informative video. I was a Nikon user (D750 n Z6) and moved to Sony for better AF system. Colours are my pain point with Sony ( A7III n now A7R IV). I try your tips. I am also planning to move back to Nikon or Canon maybe. I mostly shot Jpeg according to my work needs. Please suggest me which system would be better in this scenario Nikon or Canon, my top needs are SOOC and AF. I mostly shot indoors weddings, kinds and corporate shots.
That's a nice video, Omar. After shooting 2 years with my a73 I got fed up and I sold it.
First, I was intending to upgrade to an a7r4 but the colours on Sony have always bothered me.
I came from a Canon t3i before the a73 and I use to prefer the t3i with a cheap 18-55 standard lens over the Sony a73 with a 24-70 2.8gm.
One thing that you mentioned that's true is the Sony sharpness. But the colours..omg...horrible.
You've shone a light here for all the Sony users and honestly made me think about the a7r4 again.
I bought a Canon m6 mk2 and I'm waiting for the lens to arrive so I can start testing it but I hadn't the courage to sell my Sony stuff (besides the camera that has gone) yet.
Well, after all this useless explanation, how do you use your colour checker in events that have a lot of lights interfering in the flash? Do you have a video talking about using the color checker?
Thanks for all your videos, you have always made me buy a fuji but I wanna go over 30 megapixels cause I like to recompose the images on Lightroom.
Cheers mate
I feel you. I was in the same boat with Sony colors. Canon is just so much easier to deal with. Honestly, the truth is you might be happier with a Canon. DJ lights don’t matter if my flash is lighting the person. Profile is for the speed light or even natural light.
You so funny..! Oh...and helpful too w that color wizardry stuff.
Hello what's good camera of all brand
Nikon
Sony
Canon
Best in skin tone colours and speed focus and resolution
Am wedding photographer
I'm a Fujifilm raw landscape shooter. How good would you say the Fujifilm color profiles are in Lightroom?
Hi Omar!! Love your videos. I’m a Fuji shooter and would like to go to full frame. Are you still regret on going Sony? They have a great unified system, and I shoot also video but their color science… would you recommend it over canon? Thanks for your content!!!❤😊
For me, the Sony over Canon mirrorless. Always have a Fuji in your life
@@ogonzilla thanks Omar! Yeah wont sell it When I change. Great style and videos! Thanks again!!
I love how your sony skin tones look! Do you create a profile every photo session?
Not all the time. Same flashes same gels. Only if there's red carpeting for example.
Great video Omar! One question though, how do you use a color checker during candid shots that don't have strobes involved. An x-rite is on my short list of things to buy and I probably need to just experiment with it but how well does it work in constantly changing natural light situations?
You can create general profiles for situations. Shade. Natural light.
Or you can use the camera mount cover , which is a free 50 grey card!!!!
Hello Omar, I’ve been contemplating a lot. I wanted to upgrade to a new camera. I currently own a Fuji XT20. I am torn between Fuji XT4 and Sony A7 iii. Do you have tips in mind? A big help. Thank you!
Great video. Now show us how to make a color profiles.
Subscribed on closing comment 😆
Sony A7III does not seem to have an ability to setup some wheel to change Kelvins fast. Or may be someone how to set it up?
Yep, learned something today... 🤔👍
Good guide mate, Sony should really reassess their colour science, it's a shame they can't nail skin colours in camera - everything can be post processed to damnation..
Cameraville has done a series of videos in the past on image quality that includes color across Sony, Nikon, Canon and Pentax. There is a substantial difference. Using the same lens, and on one video - the same sensor across Sony, Nikon and Pentax. Sony can fix their problem if they so desire - but apparently they don't desire.... Sure you can "fix" the colors in post processing - but, the question is why do you have to go through the process? PS - YT doesn't let me link to the various videos...
Canon colors are nice, but why would Sony, Nikon, or Fujifilm want to change to Canon-like colors? Some/most of Sony users (and their clients) are perfectly fine with what they have within the adjustments that they can make. I'm a Sony shooter and have never owned a Canon, so I don't know what I'm missing.
@@TroyShields Agreed. Entirely. For the record I've been using Canon and Sony eqpt (stills and video).
Great and informative video! Greetings from Germany!
What film simulation and recipe do you use when using Fuji and out with family, travel, etc? just the basic every day color on Fuji?
For Jpegs.
@@lashesfordaze mostly provia with shadows -1.
Why is everybody ignoring the significance of the light source?
For me, ambient light pictures became real with a reflected flash or Rotolight.
It might be that you are actually missing a wavelength and you try to fix the problem with a preset.
Hi Omar,
i have a sony a7lll and a dji mini4. i like the drone colours and i want set up the a7lll to much the colour when i am editing both images together can you help me ? plese!!!!!
I only shoot Raw in both Sony and Fuji. I still find fuji lacking in jpeg. Again, that is how I see it. It is easier to get what I want in Lightroom or Capture 1 on both systems.
Is the newer mirrorless of sony camera doesn't have this issue.
I hate sony for this for a long time
Great explanation!!.. makes me appreciate even more not having to go through this with fuji😜
Yep. True. But I'll take that Sony autofocus in the dark at an event any day! lol....
@@ogonzilla you'd need a Soji for that😂😂
Sony user here for many years and I hate that the LCD always shows my images way more blown out than they actually are. But I always shoot raw also. Just hate when I show someone the back of the screen I have to say it will look different than what they are seeing..