Possible Noob Question: Correcting Colors From Cheap Digital Camera

Question

I'm somewhat embarrassed to ask this here, but ya gotta start some place.
I'm a web dev so forgive my ignorance. I work with photos a lot, but they've always come to me from people who know what they're doing. I don't really understand digital -photography- that well---which is quite different I realise than film.
Anyhoo, I'm trying to get better colors from a  pocket digital camera (Canon Elf 310) which (supposedly) has 12MP. The pictures I want to take for the job I have in mind involve clouds and landscapes and I gotta take a pocket came because we're camping/fishing.
Anyway, they -could- be very cool but the tests I've done show that the colors are going to be just -wrong-. And by 'wrong' I mean everything either seems -under- saturated or hyper-statured. For example... the subtle pinks in clouds are rendered as washed out or will be overly contrasty (hyper) yellow to orange.
The detail is quite sharp, however so does that mean there's something 'there' there which can be properly corrected? And if so, how?
If it's too wordy, perhaps maybe someone can just recommend a good text on the subject?
TIA,
---JC

Answer 1

I completely agree with Mylenium.
Beyond working with the various Tools in PS, for "Color Correction," I would start with a properly calibrated monitor, so that you know that what you are "correcting," is the Image, and not the monitor.
Next, familiarization with those Tools, such as Hue/Saturation, will be very useful. The Help file can get you started, by defining what each Tool can do, and a short-course on how it does it.
I would always work with non-destructive techniques, so that one can always go back and re-edit things. For that Hue/Saturation, mentioned above, I would use a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer. Same for Color Balance, and the rest.
Last, you eye should be your guide, on that calibrated monitor. Adjust, until you get what YOU like (or what your client likes). Remember that by default, most of those "corrections" will be "global" for the Image, BUT with Layer Masks, you can restrict/constrain the corrections to just certain areas of that Image. At that point, knowing about the various Masking techniques will be very helpful. Besides the Help file, there are many useful tutorials on various Masking techniques, and many will apply to Layer Masks.
Also be aware that different camera sensors might bias differently, and also with lower-resolution Images, you will likely not have a great deal of Dynamic Range to work with. Start with the best possible, from your camera. If possible, shoot in Camera RAW, and use the "processing" power of ACR (Adobe Camera RAW), to get started. You should be able to create a Preset for your camera (maybe shoot a McBeth Color Checker card, and calibrate that), to get that processing started.
Good luck,
Hunt