Trouble capturing accurate colors for linens with dslr

[dwsfb12]

Good morning,

I am having difficulty capturing the true colors of linen display's inside of a showroom. The showroom is lit by overhead tungsten lightbulbs and has plenty of windows to let in outside light. I understand that tungsten has a kelvin temperature of 3200 and will come off as orange and outside light is 5600k and will look blue...I'm shooting in manual mode with a f stop of 5 and an iso of 200 to 400 with an automatic white balance setting . then I bracket my shutter speed for various exposures. The purple's just won't come out the way they should, lilac purple napkin even looks white. I did a little reading on using a higher f stop which will decrease the amount of light, I do not have a polarizing filter for my lens. I may have access to lights, any suggestions? Thank you

 

[tirediron]

Mixed lighting is going to make this very challenging. I would use the X-Rite Colour Checker Passport and its associated Lightroom Plugin to dial in the colours exactly (assuming you're already working on a colour-calibrated monitor; if not, shame on you!).

 

[Tee]

The first thing I would do is create a custom white balance using a white balance card (check your camera manual). That will get you closer and may satisfy you without having to buy the color checker.

P.S. I used to live in Kittery, ME and loved it up there.