Sony A6000 Color Tone Consistently Brown and Not Vibrant

[GntlBdgrc]

Hi. I’m writing in order to hopefully get some help with a photo image issue. Having decided to take up photography again after a long hiatus, I picked up a refurbished Sony a6000 camera body a few months ago. Independently, I purchased a Sony 35mm f/1.8 lens to go with the camera.

I’ve been shooting primarily in Aperture mode, and the subject matter has been primarily landscape scenes. When I download the images on my laptop at home, I’m find that the image quality is regularly skewed along a kind of burnt-brown/grey color range, and the images seem faded and lack vibrancy. I’ve attached a picture taken about a month ago. The following are the settings for the image.

Aperture Priority mode set to f/11.
ISO 200.
Shutter Speed 320.
Spot metering

Independent of the subject matter, most of my shots come out along the same color spectrum and looked oddly washed out. My research online shows this type of washed-out color image quality is a common complaint with Sony images. I’ve tried some of the corrections and tweaking suggested by professional photographers at various photo sites, but I’m still not getting the kind of vibrant color imaging I’d like.

Any advice including websites and literature to help with this issue would be greatly appreciated. As I mentioned earlier, I’m essentially a novice beginner, at least with respect to digital photography. It’s likely I’m doing something consistently wrong with respect to metering correctly for exposure, but I’m not sure what my next step should be.

 

[BryLogan]

Welcome to the forum!

I don't see anything wrong with the image to be honest.

It's possible the previous owner made some changes to the in-camera processing. There are many settings in there for different looks like portrait, landscape, etc., as well as individual settings for sharpness, contrast, and others. You can do a factory reset and see if that helps.

Here's a link to Sony's online help guide, which is searchable.

Help Guide | Top

Use this manual if you encounter any problems, or have any questions about your device.

helpguide.sony.net

It might be beneficial for you to learn (eventually) how to process RAW images to get the look you want.

Good luck, maybe someone else will chime in with other ideas.

I was wondering if the OP was reacting to the appraisal of the RAW images straight out of the camera. Many newcomers are surprised with their first sight of RAW images as they can be very meh vis-a-vis a camera produced jpeg.

 

[Gaz]

I’d check to see if there are any updates of the firmware.

Check/calibrate your monitor.

Re-set the camera to its factory default settings.

Take a few shots in jpg

Scroll through the camera image pre-sets and export them one by one.

Select the camera pre-set that is closest to the image computation you like most.

If you still have no joy, export in RAW and see if the Sony imaging software produces a better response.

 

[GntlBdgrc]

I’d check to see if there are any updates of the firmware.

Check/calibrate your monitor.

Re-set the camera to its factory default settings.

Take a few shots in jpg

Scroll through the camera image pre-sets and export them one by one.

Select the camera pre-set that is closest to the image computation you like most.

If you still have no joy, export in RAW and see if the Sony imaging software produces a better response.

Hi Gaz. Thank you for the suggestions. I will check for firmware updates and reset the camera to the factory defautl settings. I'm not sure what you're referring to with respect to 'camera image pre-sets' or how to export them. I'll look that up, but if you have a quick explanation and process, I'd appreciate seeing that. Again, I appreciate your taking the time to help. Best wishes.

 

[GntlBdgrc]

I was wondering if the OP was reacting to the appraisal of the RAW images straight out of the camera. Many newcomers are surprised with their first sight of RAW images as they can be very meh vis-a-vis a camera produced jpeg.

Hi BryLogan. Yeah, the RAW images were a little funky to deal with at first, especially when compared against the in-camera 'cooked' jpeg images. But I got over that pretty quick, and whether jpeg or RAW, the images still come off as tone-def and bland, at least to me. Thanks for the feedback and best wishes.

 

[GntlBdgrc]

BTW, I love the composition in this shot. I want to know what's up around the bend, and through the trees. It sucks you into the shot. Well done!

Hi Brownie,

First, thank you for the kind remarks regarding the photo's composition. That was a really great stretch of road near Pt. Reyes, and yeah, I like how it does kind of stretch out and then disappears around the bend. And no, I don't mind your playing with the image. I like the changes you made. I also later used MS and got a similar look. I'll attach a copy of that.

I'll definitely look at the link you sent me, and I am going to do a factory reset and start from scratch. As I mentioned earlier, this is a return to photography after a long absence (my last camera was a Canon AE-1). As such, there's a lot of new tech to learn. Thank you again for the remarks and for taking the time to help.

Best regards

 

[Gaz]

Hi Gaz. Thank you for the suggestions. I will check for firmware updates and reset the camera to the factory defautl settings. I'm not sure what you're referring to with respect to 'camera image pre-sets' or how to export them. I'll look that up, but if you have a quick explanation and process, I'd appreciate seeing that. Again, I appreciate your taking the time to help. Best wishes.

I think on your camera settings you should check what it’s called “creative style”. It may be set to generate jpg like the image you’re getting. The out of factory defaults for creative style can be modified by the user in camera, which is why I suggested re-setting the camera to factory defaults. I googled it and found a video that might help sort it all out.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

youtu.be

I hope you resolve it and can get back to fun.