The paper elaborates on understanding, measuring and optimizing perceived color quality of natural images. We introduce a model for optimal color reproduction of natural scenes which is based on the assumption that color quality of natural images is constrained by perceived naturalness and colorfulness of these images. To verify the model, a few experimentswere carried out where subjects estimated the perceived ‘naturalness’, ‘colorfulness’ and ‘quality’ of images of natural scenes. The judgments were related to statistical parameters of the color point distribution across the images in the CIELUV color space. It was found that the perceptually optimal color reproduction can be derived from this statistic within the framework of our model. We specify naturalness, colorfulness and quality indices, describing the observer's judgments. Finally, an algorithm for optimizing perceived quality of color reproduction of natural scenes is discussed.