The invention describes a method of controlling the color of the light output of a lamp (1), which method comprises electronically collecting color data pertaining to a first color (C1) to obtain a first color description (D1), electronically collecting color data pertaining to a second color (C2) to obtain a second color description (D2), and combining the first color description (D1) with the second color description (D2) to obtain a target color description (DT). The target color description (DT) is transferred to a control unit (4) of the lamp (1), and the lamp (1) is driven according to the target color description (DT) to give a target color light output. The invention also relates to a system (3) for controlling the color of the light output of a lamp. Furthermore, the invention relates to a color data collection device (2) for use in a system (3) for controlling the color of the light output of a lamp (1), which color data collection device (2) comprises a color detector (20) for electronically converting captured light (Lr, Lsp) into color data pertaining to a color (C1, C2), a conversion unit (21) for translating the color data pertaining to a color (C1, C2) into a corresponding color description (D1, D2), a combining unit (22) for combining a first color description (D1) with a second color description (D2) to obtain a target color description (DT), and a transfer interface (23) for transferring the target color description (DT) to a control unit (4) of the lamp (1).