Make sure that your white balance is set for the correct lighting... Afternoon light is probably the best for the most accurate lighting.

If that does not work try taking the picture in the same spot with the same camera settings several times during the day to see if that helps you.

This a pretty difficult task!

Oh and by white balance set to the right lighting ... I mean that if you do have artificial lights turned on that it is set for tungsten, florescent etc. Try taking the pictures with the white balance at different settings too!

I cant stop thinking about the issues you could possibly have...hahaha...

If you are taking a picture of a burgundy wall and the sun is shining brightly on the main wall you are taking a picture of then you will get pink walls!

Ok I think I am done now.

I haven't actually tried this one myself since it's not appropriate for my camera, but I heard that it works with some point & shoots - bring a piece of white paper into the room you are shooting. Hold up the paper in front of the camera and take a picture - this tells the camera what is white in the room. Take another shot without the paper. This works with some models and might be worth a try for you.

I would say a correct white balance as well as not using a flash will help you achieve better results. For best results use the custom white balance setting of your camera, to do this you will need to take a picture of a white or gray card (it also works well with any white object that is not too glossy) in the room you are trying to photograph and you can then set it as a reference for your white balance.

I am a terrible photographer .... but it has made me an excellent Photoshopper ;)

If you use a program like iPhoto to organize your shots, try doing an auto-level and/or auto-color adjustment on some of the shots that you don't like.

I've also learned that I can never have too much light. The light you're in may be enough to show your eyes the wall's true color, but it may not be enough for the camera's aperture.

You know when you get your school photo taken how the photographer has lights aimed away from you into white umbrellas? These give an overall ambient light without putting a hot spot (glare) somewhere in the composition. Kluge together a setup like this -- get some extra lamps (desk lamps with adjustable necks are great) and aim them away from the wall and at some white paper.

I don't use flash, but make sure that the space is well-lit by natural light.

Things like incandescent and fluorescent lights, as well as late day sun will all also effect the "color" of your shots.

white balance is key. there's three things you can do:

use an 18% grey card, shoot in RAW, then fix the temperature in photoshop.

take a photo of a white piece of paper in the same room in the same lighting conditions and then set your camera's white balance manually. different cameras do it differently so just read your manual for custom white balance.

shoot using flash and make sure that it's only flash lighting the room. don't turn on the overhead lights, don't shoot in any day light. flash typically shoots at 5500K so if you've taken a photo only light by a flash, then if you adjust that photo's white balance to 5500K, it should then be an accurate colour.

i would agree with Courtachino. Gizmodo has done some great articles on why you should never use a flash and it's totally changed the way i take pictures. it's also forced me to learn more about Manual method and get away from the Auto button. and as Saragrz said, you need to be sure to sue the correct white balance/lighting setting and then just take multiple photos as different exposures at different times of the day. eventually you'll learn the setting that returns the most accurate depiction of color. good luck!

As a part-time photographer who has shot my share of weddings, I understand the difficulty of getting colors to look as they should. A deep blue dress can easily cross over to purple from shot to shot unless you're careful. As others have pointed out, yes, it all has to do with white balance.

I assume your D80 is set to Auto white balance. With this setting, each time you press the shutter release your camera evaluates the color temperature of the scene and adjusts it's internal settings in an attempt to make what it thinks are whites and grays, well...white and gray with no color cast. Often times though, your camera does a poor job at this and your colors come out quite off from what they look like in reality.

The easiest way to force an accurately colored photo with a D80? Don't use Auto white balance, use the white balance "preset" (PRE) setting by taking a picture of a neural gray or white object in the same lighting conditions as your wall (must fill the frame with the object, doesn't need to be in focus, see page 60 of your camera manual for more info). After you set the PRE white balance, shoot away within the room. The camera should render your wall color accurately.

I agree with the white balance comments. I also think you shouldn't keep lights on. Just use the natural light and set at a smaller aperture to open the lens up more. B/c of the smaller ap I would make sure to keep your camera on a tripod.

I do a lot of color correction for art photos, which can be really tricky and need to be very accurate. With digital cameras, I actually don't bother with white balance. Instead I use a *single* type of light source (i.e. all natural, all incandescent or all florescent) and do all the correcting work in photoshop. Of course, when taking shots of interiors you will probably be getting a mix of natural with a different light source, just do the best you can.

The single best way I can advise to color correct in photoshop (out of hundreds of variations) is to go to Image / Adjust / Levels... (not Auto Levels.) In the Channel selection at the top of Levels, go thru R and G and B separately - not the default RGB combined - and move the arrows until they hit the top and bottom of the main part of the chart shown. In most instances this will work wonders. For fine tuning, pay particular attention to making whites look pure white - and the other colors will fall into place. Of course, this is not a 100% of the time fix, but it often is amazing.

Oh, and I forgot the obvious - use a tripod.

The unspoken thing here is that "accurate" lighting means making the colors look like they do in your head.

I would prefer lots of natural light, but the other camera/comp tweaks will get you there.

And you don't absolutely need a tripod, just plant your feet and hold still for a second while you take the picture.

Here are two methods to try with a D80:

1a. Use a tripod and set your ISO to 200 (the ISO set button is located on the rear of the D80, left side of the display) DO NOT USE A FLASH.
1b. In Program mode shoot a series of 4 identical photos, adjusting the White Balance setting each time (the white balance set button is just above the ISO button and is labelled WB on a D80)
1c. Shoot the first shot with WB set to SUN, then shoot the next one with the WB set to SHADE, then shoot one with the WB set to FLUORESCENT, then shoot the final one with the WB set to INCANDESCENT.
1d. The results will be four images at four different colour temperatures. You can review the four and then keep shooting with the WB setting that gives you the best colour for your room lighting.

Method 2 is the same as method one except you should set your ISO to 1600 if you are going to hand hold the camera and not use a tripod. Again, don't use a flash .Follow the same steps to get four sample WB images.

Remember, shoot lots but only show the good ones!

Totally agree with everyone else. If you're using a dslr, you should know all about white balance and not be using the flash. A big part of the problem too no one really accounts for is how are you looking at these photos? Your computer screen isn't (likely) calibrated and (especially if you use a mac, which have notoriously overly bright screens) the brightness might be altered by your screen as well as the color calibration being totally off. A burgundy wall on your screen might look mucky rust colored on someone else's (seriously...you'd be surprised) The screen on your camera is very bright as well.

Honestly though, this does sound just like total off white balancing. Photoshop can fix all this.

Definitely take into account the calibration of your screen. That is a big deal, as it may look perfect on-screen but "off" when printed (assuming you will be making prints).

Also, kludging together good lighting is the way to go, or if you really need your flash, diffuse it using a few layers of Scotch tape or a piece of white paper. That has worked very well for me in a pinch!

Miranda,
Reading through all these excellent suggestions, if you don't have Photoshop, I agree with trying to use one type of lighting for the room to keep it simple (buttery yellow lamp light and the bluer light through a window will probably just confuse you as you try to learn about color correction.) However, it's a fun experiment to take a picture during the day with just sunlight, take some more at dusk with mixed color light (lamps and dusk through the windows) and then one at night (just lamp light - use a tripod or brace against a chair if necessary to avoid blur). Experiment with your camera's white balance settings (take notes if you plan to do more of this sort of photography in the future, it's hard to remember what combination of settings worked best when you're faced with dozens of photos!). Then correct in iphoto (as suggested by a few folks above).
Just a note: try to get your photos to be as close to accurate as you can *before* you start adjusting colors in iphoto - the image can get grainy quite fast if you're really tweaking colors. And having something white (like a white window trim) in the picture will really help you determine if you're in the ballpark. The human eye/brain can get confused after staring at colors for a long time, so it helps to have something white for reference.

Of course, I'm assuming your computer monitor is relatively close to a neutral color balance. You can open up that can of worms by doing a little Googling :)

Also, grey-blues and grey-greens and reds are notoriously hard to depict accurately in the digital world. Reds can blaze with intensity, and greens and blues with subtle tones shift colors in unexpected ways. I'm a director of photography/camera op for docs and TV, and we always have to be careful with those colors when setting up interviews or decorating a set.

Another word of warning - I find that jumping in and doing my own tests is less overwhelming than reading through a lot of tech-tweaked photography boards. I learn better by doing it, who woulda' thunk? Good luck!

The only thing I'd have to add is not just to take pictures at a variety of times through the day (morning, noon, afternoon, very late afternoon) but also to try pictures on a day that's gray and overcast -- especially if the wall in question is going to be reflecting light coming in through a window. There are distinct qualities to light depending on where you are -- New England tends to 'feel' bluer, the Eastern mid-coast leans towards a butter yellow, the Dakotas have a gray tint to the yellow, while Arizona is positively orange! An overcast day turns the entire sky into a big honking lightbox, helping to reduce the strong variation in light you can get depending on geographical region, time of day, and season of the year.

Great suggestions. In my experience the most difficult aspect to color correction is multiple types of light sources. If you have natural light coming from a window on the right and fluorescent / incandescent light bulbs on the left, it's not possible to correct the entire image in one go - correcting the left side makes the right side way off, and vice versa. If you know how to use layer masks in Photoshop this isn't a dealbreaker but it does add a step.

On the other hand, turning on the lights in a room makes the photos look a lot nicer, so do some experiments with lights on vs. lights off and see what works best for you.

All of you guys who keep harping on "never using flash" are quite simply wrong. Yes, you should never use the flash that comes with your camera. However, a hotshoe flash (like the speedlights for the Nikon series) that you can angle properly (say, bounce the light off the ceiling) can be absolutely incredible for your photography, creating an even light that's as good as daylight. Try it sometime, you'll be amazed.

I don't think anyone has mentioned the computer on which the photos are being viewed. If your color monitor isn't calibrated correctly, it doesn't matter how perfectly your camera captured the image.

agree with much said above: white balance, no flash, natural light.

then adjust accordingly in photoshop if necessary.

A lot of great suggestions and one thing to also throw in there, when using white balance, don't use the already white balance settings, use the pre setting, on the D80, it's on the row of buttons to the left of the screen and says WB hold it in a moment until the ISO display in the viewfinder blinks WB, if in manual mode, adjust your exposure via the aperture and shutter dials, aim at something, like a piece of white paper that's IN the primary light you will be WB-ing to and then WB.

As others have said, shot it in all times of the day, avoid direct flash, on board flash avoid like the plaque for this and I totally agree on monitor calibration to ensure what you see is what you get, also if you have your WB CORRECT, you shouldn't need to tweak it in any photo processing software such as Photoshop or iPhoto and the trick here is when you do a test photo and the white subject is white, given whatever variation of white is being shot, and the rest of your colors SHOULD be correct, also, ensure you don't over expose or under expose for that'll affect color as well.

Also, since you are using the D80, I agree, don't go over 800 as the photo will gain too much noise and that CAN have an effect on how the color is rendered to a degree but in this case with 400-800 ISO, you can then keep your aperture wide open (f3.5 if left wide I'm assuming here) and bring your shutter to around 1/60s and you should be able to get a good clear, sharp image, especially if you have VR on your lens.

It's all doable and you should get something pretty close to what you see if not dead on.

Good luck!

I just wanted to add that I had the exact same problem- I painted my walls a deep warm teal and they show up as cold smurf blue in every single shot. I figured out the culprit is my off-white trim in the house- the auto white balance tries to turn it into a stark white, which affects the colors of the wall. Custom white balance is the way to go, but if I'm feeling lazy I just switch my white balance setting to "shade" and it's close enough. At least much better than auto!