• Please use real names.

    Greetings to all who have registered to OPF and those guests taking a look around. Please use real names. Registrations with fictitious names will not be processed. REAL NAMES ONLY will be processed

    Firstname Lastname

    Register

    We are a courteous and supportive community. No need to hide behind an alia. If you have a genuine need for privacy/secrecy then let me know!
  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

Picture Styles

Jane Auburn

New member
Does anyone give a hoot about these "picture styles" that Canon is putting in all of its newest DSLRs?

They have to be the biggest joke I've ever seen in pro-level technology. They're beyond useless: they're absolutely detrimental to achieving good pictures!
 
I give a hoot, I just think they need some serious work first.

I only use Nuetral and Monochrome on a regular basis (of course nuetral is what you would have without picture styles).

They look like they have potential, but outside of the two above and occasionally faithful, the others give lousy results. I consider the possibility that given my camera came out before the picture styles were actually implemented that may be part of the problem. So the next time I upgrade I will see if an improvement was made and under what conditions it works or doesn't and then decide to use them or not. If they work great, if not then what a waste of effort in my opinion.

The one area where I think Canon could maybe make a difference is in skin tones. European, Asian, and African skin tones require different settings (and frequently different lighting) and it seems Canon's default settings are for lighter skinned folks. It is common that I shoot a redhead one week and then an african-american the next and so I find I can rarely use the same settings from shot to shot. If they could figure out that trick I would be happy.

I just had a thought, in addition to WB, how about a skin balance feature. To include ability to cover multiple skin tones in same shot. Kind of like an AF focus point box, but calibrated for skin tones - perhaps in conjunction with white balance tools.

Just a thought,
 

Tony Field

New member
Although canon does not have a way to load an external "picture styel" or "curve", the styles are actually quite useful. Admittedly, I have not figured them all out in detail (and probably won't). However, the basic ability to modify and existing styles and to create your own user defined styles allows you to effectively create custom curves that modify sharpness, constrast, saturation and tone - all in one menu location. IMO, this is better than having sharpness, contrast, saturation and tone in different menu selections.

If you set up your one or two (or many) personally needed styles, you can select amongst them quickly without changing any other camera operational parameters. This is a darn'ed site better than assigning each "curve/style" to a profile which records most operating parameters.

In my case, I have user defined styles that are set for theatre/dance performances, outdoor sports/events, low contrast subjects - all of which are based upon "Neutral".
 

Jason C Doss

New member
Being a recent convert to RAW, I cannot imagine how I was trying to anticipate what kind of contrast, saturation, or sharpness I was going to require for my 20D photos before actually shooting them, let alone throwing in the picture style into the mix. Once upon a time, I tried my darnedest and I now regret not switching to RAW sooner. RAW conversions are now about as fast for me to process as my JPGs were thanks to CS2/ACR, and the results are unequivocally better.

So I guess my answer to your question is that I no longer give a hoot about picture styles. :)
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
In addition to their styles would be several customizable psitions, 1,2 and 3, would make the choices really useful for more serious work.

Asher
 

Diane Fields

New member
Since I'm totally a RAW shooter and don't use DPP as my RC they really don't affect me in any way. I have the picture style set to 'neutral' as I understand the histo on the LCD (5D) is based on the picture style. I think there could be some utility of them if user defined as above. There was talk at some point in sharing PS as curves are with other mfg. For jpeg shooters it would appear they are something to come to terms with.

Diane
 

Harvey Moore

New member
Many photographers have posted posted in forums regarding their satisfaction with DPP as a very good raw converter, and I am one of them.

When raw is used, Picture Styles can be applied at will in DPP. The key is applying a style, modify to suit, and save the "recipe" for re-use later.

In camera jpeg is another matter, and there are workflow aggravations with DPP that discourage its use, such as working with a large number of photograph files.
 
Picture Styles? What's that??

Diane Fields said:
Since I'm totally a RAW shooter and don't use DPP as my RC they really don't affect me in any way. I have the picture style set to 'neutral' as I understand the histo on the LCD (5D) is based on the picture style. I think there could be some utility of them if user defined as above. There was talk at some point in sharing PS as curves are with other mfg. For jpeg shooters it would appear they are something to come to terms with.

Diane

Just kidding :)
In fact, I'd like to second Diane's post. Set it to all neutral to make sure you're looking at "real" histogram (if there is anything real in our world still:) and shoot RAW.

Of course, for the event shooter this may not be an option, but in this case you'd know what exact setting you want, since one does not become a pro event shooter overnight..

As somebody said recently: Rock and RAW!

Just my 0.000002 of the f/stop

Cheers!
 

Jason C Doss

New member
Hmmm... hadn't thought about the effects the JPG settings might have on the histogram. Like I said, I'm a recent RAW convert. I suppose straight "0" settings on JPG would be what to shoot for on a 20D?
 

Tony Field

New member
Diane Fields said:
I have the picture style set to 'neutral' as I understand the histo on the LCD (5D) is based on the picture style. Diane

I wonder if the histogram and blinking highlights on the 5D (or the 1D-IIn for tht matter) actually reflect the tone composition of the raw file. It is frustrating to look at the histogram on, for example, a tungsten lit image, and show perfect exposure - no blown highlights. Subsequently, after looking at the image in Photoshop, the red channel is severly blown out. It seems to me that the picture style and the white balance must be considered when judging the histogram.

It would be nice to know how to interpret the LCD display - wish Canon would write a little white paper on this and address all recent cameras.
 
Tony,

Tony Field said:
I wonder if the histogram and blinking highlights on the 5D (or the 1D-IIn for tht matter) actually reflect the tone composition of the raw file. It is frustrating to look at the histogram on, for example, a tungsten lit image, and show perfect exposure - no blown highlights. Subsequently, after looking at the image in Photoshop, the red channel is severly blown out. It seems to me that the picture style and the white balance must be considered when judging the histogram.

I don't know 5D, but in 30D (which is pretty much its little brother) you can setup histo to display all channels separately so you'd know exactly where what is...

HTH
 

Diane Fields

New member
Tony Field said:
I wonder if the histogram and blinking highlights on the 5D (or the 1D-IIn for tht matter) actually reflect the tone composition of the raw file. It is frustrating to look at the histogram on, for example, a tungsten lit image, and show perfect exposure - no blown highlights. Subsequently, after looking at the image in Photoshop, the red channel is severly blown out. It seems to me that the picture style and the white balance must be considered when judging the histogram.

It would be nice to know how to interpret the LCD display - wish Canon would write a little white paper on this and address all recent cameras.

Tony, I wish I could remember where I picked up that tidbit. This is one thread on LL that I found while Googling for this subject which you may find interesting (you really have to read on down through the thread --check Jonathon Weinke's post). There is also an interesting bit about histo with tungsten lighting--if WB is incorrect. Of course this isn't from the 'horse's mouth', but I've surely found a lot of info on this--and though I don't know it for fact, it is possible to shoot a RAW plus jpeg and compare the histograms and that may give you some insight. Looks as htough this may be something that Chuck Westfall could comment on if its within his 'parameters' for disclosure.

http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t10367.html

Diane
 
Top