D3200 pictures are often 'dull' in colour

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reverb

Senior Member
I've been playing with the new D3200 for a few weeks now. I'm starting to notice that the pictures are more often fairly dull in colour. This is easily remedied with iPhoto, but I'm wondering whether it's an issue with the camera, or the way I'm using it.

I've seen in other threads how the D5100 (I think) is badly set up 'out the box', and lots of advice on compensating exposure levels and other tricks.

Does anyone know if the D3200 is also unfortunately configured in this way, and any known compensation tricks. Or is it just me - and how do I improve!

thanks in advance.
 
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nickt

Senior Member
The camera is most likely fine. Try upping the picture control mode to vivid. Then go a menu deeper and up the sharpening a bit. Page 77 in your manual. Try portrait or landscape if you don't like vivid. You can go on to adjust sharpening, etc in each of those picture modes as you try then. Each has its own sub menu for added tweaks.

At some point read up on shooting RAW, its a whole new world for improving your pictures.
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
reverb said:
I've been playing with the new D3200 for a few weeks now. I'm starting to notice that the pictures are more often fairly dull in colour. This is easily remedied with iPhoto, but I'm wondering whether it's an issue with the camera, or the way I'm using it.

I've seen in other threads how the D5100 (I think) is badly set up 'out the box', and lots of advice on compensating exposure levels and other tricks.

Does anyone know if the D3200 is also unfortunately configured in this way, and any known compensation tricks. Or is it just me - and how do I improve!

thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Hard to say without seeing some of your shots and the EXIF data for them. First question is... Are you shooting JPG or are you shooting RAW? If you shoot JPG go into the profiles in the menu's and choose one that will increase the saturation.

Go to into your menus, choose "Shooting" then go into "Set Picture Control". Maybe try using "Vivid" instead of "Standard" and up the "Sharpening" to +6 or +7. That or use "Standard" with +2 to "Saturation" and +6 or +7 to "Sharpening".


......
 
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andergar

Senior Member
Horoscope Fish I know I'm responding to this way after the fact, but I went to the menu to "Set picture control" and tried to set to "vivid", but I noticed you can only do this in M, A, S, or P mode. Is this correct? If I want to make my photos less "dull" in auto mode or the other preset modes, is there a way? Thanks for any help given.
 
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Don Kuykendall_RIP

RIP :(
andergar said:
Horoscope Fish I know I'm responding to this way after the fact, but I went to the menu to "Set picture control" and tried to set to "vivid", but I noticed you can only do this in M, A, S, or P mode. Is this correct? If I want to make my photos less "dull" in auto mode or the other preset modes, is there a way? Thanks for any help given.
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You really want to get away from Auto as soon as possible. As you have seen you have no control over anything in Auto. Go to Program and set the camera like Fish said.
 
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andergar

Senior Member
Don Kuykendall said:
You really want to get away from Auto as soon as possible. As you have seen you have no control over anything in Auto. Go to Program and set the camera like Fish said.
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Sounds good. Here's another question, I've noticed that when I was experimenting in Program mode, my photos had a weird shadow. I read the manual and it said that this could happen because of the lens hood. So here's the question, is there a work around for this problem or do I just take the lens hood off? Also why do I need a lens hood? Many thanks in advance for any and all advice. Oh, the shadow thing doesn't happen in Auto mode. Hmmmm.
 
D

Don Kuykendall_RIP

RIP :(
andergar said:
Sounds good. Here's another question, I've noticed that when I was experimenting in Program mode, my photos had a weird shadow. I read the manual and it said that this could happen because of the lens hood. So here's the question, is there a work around for this problem or do I just take the lens hood off? Also why do I need a lens hood? Many thanks in advance for any and all advice. Oh, the shadow thing doesn't happen in Auto mode. Hmmmm.
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If it is a shadow from the lens hood it will be there no matter what mode you are in. That is a fact. Post an example of what you are talking about.
 
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nickt

Senior Member
The lens hood should not cause a shadow unless its a closer shot using on camera flash. Auto or P should not make a difference. A lens hood shadow would likely make a bottom portion of the picture darker. If your subject is fairly close, the hood sticks out far enough to block the flash and leave a shadow in your image. You might need to post a picture with the problem shadow. Are you possibly having a too slow shutter speed in P and causing your image to look shaky and calling the fuzzy image a shadow?

The purpose of the lens hood is to shield the front of the lens from unwanted light, usually outdoors. Bright light can strike the front on the lens at certain angles and cause reflections that show up in your picture.
 
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andergar

Senior Member
As Charlie Brown, would say to Lucy, "THAT'S IT!" I was taking flash photos in "A" and "P" modes of my dog and he was about 3 -4 ft. away. You hit it on the head, nickt! So now I know what not to do. So here's the question, do you use a lens hood for indoor close up shoots, like taking a portrait? Oh, Don Kuykendall I don't have an example. I was so flustered, I deleted them. Bad noob, bad noob. Next time I'll a sample. Many thanks again for the help.
 
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nickt

Senior Member
You shouldn't need the hood indoors unless there is some bright light to the side that might cause reflections on the lens. Its good outdoors on bright days. Depending where the sun is or large sources of reflected light, the hood will help prevent little orb-like lights floating across your image. Some people leave it on all the time to protect the lens from accidental bangs or scrapes or finger prints. If you google "when to use lens hood", you will find examples of the problems you can get without a hood.
 
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andergar

Senior Member
nickt said:
You shouldn't need the hood indoors unless there is some bright light to the side that might cause reflections on the lens. Its good outdoors on bright days. Depending where the sun is or large sources of reflected light, the hood will help prevent little orb-like lights floating across your image. Some people leave it on all the time to protect the lens from accidental bangs or scrapes or finger prints. If you google "when to use lens hood", you will find examples of the problems you can get without a hood.
Click to expand...

Many thanks nickt for helping out an old noob. : )
​Steve
 
josepratheesh

josepratheesh

New member
DSC_0155.jpgThe beautiful Taj we visisted during the day... The photos looked good on the LCD, but when I uploaded them, they looked so dull. We thought maybe it was the computer screen. But they looked the same with many devices.
I shoot only Manual Mode... please advice...
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Your shot of the Taj is slightly underexposed because you were shooting a pretty bright subject against a slightly darker background. Your camera's meter tried to balance this out, but it's not perfect and you got a slight under exposure. Using your Exposure Compensation button (the "+/-" button right behind the shutter release button) could have been used here to correct the exposure in-camera as well.

As long as you're shooting in JPG you can adjust your settings in your menu like I explained in my previous post; upping the Saturation and Sharpness or simply using a different setting like "Vivid" will really get your colors brighter and give your shots more "pop". At the very minimum, up the Sharpening setting to +7; that's probably the single best adjustment you can make on your camera if you're going to be shooting JPG, and it sounds like you are, at least for now.

My girlfriend shoots with a D3200 and I know from working with her it's an amazing little camera, a real wolf in sheep's clothing, IMO; and it's definitely capable of taking amazing JPG's if you're willing to work with the camera's internal settings a bit.

....
 
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