Simple tricks to get more accurate colour without extra kit

We all want our photos or videos to look good and have great colour – whether that’s natural skin tones, vibrant greens or a warm sunset. While specialist tools and colour-accurate monitors can certainly help, there are also some simple steps you can take at the shooting and editing stage to help ensure your colours are as accurate as possible, without needing to invest in any new kit.

Here are a few tricks to help you see your work more clearly – no extra kit required.

Accurate colour starts long before you open your editing software. All cameras include tools that can help you get better colour in-camera, which means less guesswork later.

First up, the white balance. The auto white balance settings in modern cameras tend to be better than in older models, but they’re not completely foolproof. Start by using your camera’s pre-set white balance options, Daylight, Shade and Cloudy etc, to match the lighting conditions.

Alternatively, especially in tricky lighting, use the custom white balance feature to avoid introducing unwanted colour casts. This usually requires you to photograph something white or neutral grey to set a white balance value that renders the object the correct colour. Once you’ve set the custom value, you can continue to use it until lighting changes.

You can also use in-camera white balance adjustment tools to fine-tune the results you get and produce colours you’re happy with straight out of the camera.

Digital cameras have settings called things like Picture Mode, Picture Control or Film Simulation Mode that give your images a particular appearance. They often adjust sharpening, saturation and contrast, as well as the colour balance, and they’re a great way of getting colours that suit the scene or your mood without having to open editing software.

Before you even touch your monitor’s settings, take a look around your workspace. Strong colours in your surroundings can influence your perception without you realising. A bright red wall, colourful lamp or even a vivid desktop wallpaper can throw off your sense of colour balance.

For this reason, it’s helpful to keep your editing area neutral, ideally grey or off-white, and avoid harsh coloured lighting. If you can, also switch your computer screen to show a plain background while editing, and remove anything overly bright or saturated from your field of view.

It might sound obvious, but the lighting around your screen has a huge impact on how colours appear. Editing in a dark room can make your screen look brighter than it really is, which may lead you to produce darker-than-expected images. On the other hand, working in strong sunlight or near a bright window can wash everything out, so you might darken your images too much to compensate.

Try to edit in a room with soft, consistent lighting – not too dark, not too bright. If possible, avoid direct reflections on your screen.

Many computer monitors are set to eye-popping, saturated modes out of the box. That can be great for gaming or watching films, but it’s not so helpful when you’re editing images. Look for any colour presets your monitor offers, and select something like ‘sRGB’ or ‘Standard’ instead of ‘Vivid’ or ‘Game’.

Also, check that your screen’s brightness and contrast aren’t set too high. A screen that’s too bright will make your images appear lighter than they really are, and you might end up underexposing without realising it. Aim for a level that’s comfortable for your eyes but doesn’t make everything glow unnaturally.

Even if you’re not using calibration hardware, most operating systems and editing software will give you access to colour profiles. These tell your computer how to handle colour.

If you’re on a Mac, go to System Settings > Displays and see which profile is active – sRGB is a good general-purpose choice. On Windows, you can adjust this under the Colour Management settings.

In your editing software, double-check your colour space too. Working in sRGB is a safe bet if your images are going online, while Adobe RGB can offer a wider range of colours if your monitor supports it and you’re editing for print.

If you’ve edited an image or video before and you know it looks good in print or on other devices, keep a copy handy as a reference. Alternatively, a photographer friend may be willing to send you suitable images you can use to check your work against.

Monitor preset

Accurate display

It might not be the most exciting tip, but keeping your operating system and editing software updated ensures you’re working with the latest colour handling improvements. Some older versions may not interpret colour profiles correctly or might render previews differently, especially when dealing with wide-gamut content.

If you’re switching between applications – for example, from Lightroom to Photoshop – make sure the colour space and colour settings are the same, so your images don’t shift in hue unexpectedly.

When you’re editing an image, it’s easy to keep nudging those sliders further and further, making small adjustments that add up to a big change. To avoid this, look away from the screen between edits and return with fresh eyes. It’s also helpful to keep an unedited version of your image so you can compare it with the edited version and see if you’ve pushed the saturation too far or overdone a colour adjustment.

Colour accuracy doesn’t have to be complicated and it doesn’t always mean investing in new kit. By being more mindful of your workspace, lighting, camera settings and display setup, you can make simple changes that lead to better-looking images and video. It’s about creating the best environment you can with what you’ve already got.

And when you’re ready to take your setup to the next level, adding a colour-accurate, wide-gamut monitor like the Eizo ColorEdge, along with regular calibration, can give you even more control and confidence in your work.