EOS 90D: Do you all tweak the Picture Style settings?

[Ramsden]

Hello 

EOS90D here across the pond.

I was recently advised to try turning off lens aberration in some situations. I have to admit to not knowing anything about this feature, so had a go, nervously digging into the inner workings of my camera. It's all part of my ongoing learning process, and getting to know my camera. Great results, and learned a lot.

No obvious connection, but I then started looking at Picture Style settings.

So my question is to the more experienced folk out there, and whether any of you tweak the settings, and secondly, do any of you use the User Def 1, 2 and 3. If so what innovations have you come up with and are you willing to share them?

Hands up, I wouldn't know where to start at the moment.

Regards 

Ramsden 

[jrhoffman75]

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@Ramsden wrote:

Its night time here, so can't test this out, but I just zeroed all User Def 1.

So that should test the inbuilt technology.

Watch this space.

Ramsden 

 

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"AUTO" is not a defined Picture Style. When it is selected the camera analyzes the scene and selects the various parameters based on its analysis. This is different than one of the defined Picture Styles which always apply the same settings.

[SignifDigits]

I'm lazy.  I shoot RAW and use whatever the default settings are and then adjust in DPP.  Typically I manually correct white balance.  Sunlight or Cloudy seems to me to give more more accurate than results "Auto".  And typically if it's a landscape I choose Landscape.  Every now and again I'll choose Fine Detail for a shot where that's important.  99% of the time I do what I would have done in the camera, but don't do it there.  If I want monochrome I choose Monochrome. 

If I had to customize/set up/choose styles in the camera I would have to remember something and/or remember to change something.  That would almost certainly result in an "oops" for me.  I would probably be shooting wildlife or family with the picture style set to "Landscape" and shots in the sunshine set to Cloudy.

[Ramsden · Accepted solution]

Great post. Appreciate your honesty, and speaking personally, I can recognise the problem of having too many things to remember. But its great fun and ever engaging challenge.

Ramsden 

[jrhoffman75]

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@SignifDigits wrote:

I'm lazy.  I shoot RAW and use whatever the default settings are and then adjust in DPP.  Typically I manually correct white balance.  Sunlight or Cloudy seems to me to give more more accurate than results "Auto".  And typically if it's a landscape I choose Landscape.  Every now and again I'll choose Fine Detail for a shot where that's important.  99% of the time I do what I would have done in the camera, but don't do it there.  If I want monochrome I choose Monochrome. 

If I had to customize/set up/choose styles in the camera I would have to remember something and/or remember to change something.  That would almost certainly result in an "oops" for me.  I would probably be shooting wildlife or family with the picture style set to "Landscape" and shots in the sunshine set to Cloudy.

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It depends on the particular camera model, but some allow saving configurations as custom settings - C1, C2, C3. Switch to one and your preconfigured settings are restored.

[justadude]

If you shoot jpeg, then there is some great advice in these replies. However if you use the RAW files instead and only use picture styles as a starting point in your RAW image that's not a bad way to go.  However, I saw a video last year by Mark Denney that really made me rethink how I was using picture styles as a starting point.

Basically, the guy that made the video suggested using "Flat" as your profile. He shot Nikon which has a Flat profile, but as he was mentioning other brands, he said with Canon use "Neutral" which was very close. The reasoning is NOT with what you will have as a starting point on your Raw image in Lightroom (or the software of your choice) because you will start with an image that needs a boost in editing, even if you do minor editing. The reasoning is because of what you see on your camera screen and histogram as you are shooting. 

For example if you use "Landscape" or "Vivid" as your profile, your camera screen will show what the jpeg image looks like (as expected) but the problem is your camera meter is set to adjust for that profile, as is what your histogram shows, and you could be missing out on a bit of the full dynamic range. The video went on to show the differences in the histogram... where the jpeg and the Landscape profile the histogram was almost touching on the right... then without changing any settings other than the profile to "Flat" the histogram still had a lot of room on the right, so the RAW was not picking up as much dynamic range as it could have.

Anyway, I did some testing, and it really did make a difference in my outdoor shooting. I don't think I can post a link for an outside source in this forum (correct me if I am wrong) but if you go to YouTube, search Mark Denney, then look for the video named "Don't Shoot Raw Photos Before Fixing a Jpeg Setting" he can explain it a lot better than I'm attempting to do. 

[Ramsden]

Hi Gary 

That's a very interesting post and the flat/neutral somehow appeals to me. I'll check out Mark D.

I grew up on film and had a photographer dad. I still have his camera and equipment, including a light meter. So I'm used to that careful approach to taking a photograph.

I really enjoy my EOS90D but have recently realised that I don't use all the great features it has to offer. I do intend to rectify that. But my Def 1 is now set with a flat profile which adds to the fun and makes me think more when composing a shot.

Thanks again 

Ramsden 

[Ramsden]

Hi Gary 

Just watched Mark. That was fascinating and will push me into another learning process with my canon, which is understanding and more importantly, using the Histogram.

The exercise on different picture styles was really interesting.

But probably one of the major points was how the jpeg influences the RAW.

I don't know whether you saw the photos I recently posted on the Cliff near where I live. As much as I liked the rocks, the best picture was probably 'blown' by the sky. I was lying on my back shooting low to high! I'm sure I could have improved this, in camera with a better setting and access to white balance.

Thanks 

Ramsden 

 

[jrhoffman75]

Bryan Carnathan at Thedigitalpicture-dot-com creates setup guides for cameras he evaluates. He recommends Neutral with Sharpness +1. Same basis as Mark ( more accurate histogram) but camera specific. 

[Ramsden]

Thanks John 

I'll have a look shortly

Ramsden