White balance and colour
Image: In this scene dominated by greens and browns, the AWB has produced a cold colour balance, while the sunny setting retains the warmth of the light
I have always been impressed by the colours straight out of the camera of Canon’s DSLRs, and JPEGs from the EOS 650D do not disappoint. Unless one is overly critical, it is possible to keep the camera in auto white balance and auto picture style in most situations, and get good results. Other picture-style options include faithful and neutral modes but, interestingly, no vivid-type option. Auto picture effect is fine, but for those who want punchier results, extra saturation needs to be dialled in manually. Up to three custom picture styles can be saved for quick access, and I found it useful to create a vivid option, along with two monochrome settings using different filter effects.
For the situations where colours are inaccurate, which can typically happen when a scene has a single dominant colour that the camera mistakes for a colour cast, or in tungsten light where colours can be a little neutral with the warmth taken out, there are the usual six white balance presets or custom control.
