checking camera metadata after images are downloaded

[mloufrost]

I am trying to do a demo on how Picture style settings affect the exposure of Raw images.  When I took my examples, I set my camera for both Raw and large jpeg images.  I failed to take notes on which images were taken with an auto picture style and which were taken with a neutral picture style.  The images are downloaded to my MacBook Air and I am trying to get that metadata now.  I don't see a way to get that camera-specific metadata now.  Is there any software that will get me that information or do I need to redo my experiment and take "Notes" on each exposure?

[Waddizzle]

Picture Style settings have no effect on RAW data files, only JPG files.

[johnrmoyer]

In the past, you were correct. Maybe not entirely correct now, but I am speculating that there are choices made in software to produce the various types of RAW files.

While I have not attempted to prove it, I suspect that picture style impacts the contents of CRAW and possibly even makes a difference between dual pixel raw and ordinary raw. At the very least, it is used as a hint by software displaying the contents of the raw file.

I tried a capture of a dark image with the lens cap on with the only difference being dual pixel vs. ordinary raw and looked for a pixel that was a little warmer than most. I suspect that recorded camera style impacts the bayer array interpolation to make color out of the warmer pixel when combining the two sub-pixels into a single pixel.

[mloufrost]

Picture Style setting affect the histogram which appears on the back of the camera.  When I set them to "auto" I get a histogram which has been created in the camera according to the jpeg style settings.  When I open the Raw file it is often underexposed because I didn't see a histogram created from a neutral jpeg style.

[Waddizzle]

Picture Styles have no effect on the actual contents of a RAW file, only how it is displayed. 

You could select any PS you wish, including black and white, and watch the histogram change. 

[kvbarkley]

The histogram is based on the JPEG, so includes the effects of picture styles. I remember a lot of consternation on Luminous Landscape when this was first puzzled out.

[Waddizzle]

You can use Canon’s DPP4 app to see all of the EXIF data.  You can change the Picture Style of a RAW file to anything you want.  The Picture Style of a JPG is baked into the image file itself and cannot be changed.

The same is true for White Balance.  You can change WB of a RAW file in post, but not a JPG file.

[johnrmoyer]

I use exiftool ( https://exiftool.org/ ) on my iMac in a terminal window to view all of the image metadata. There is more information in the raw files than in the JPEG files.

exiftool -"*Style*" *.CR3

======== IMG_0729.CR3
Picture Style : Auto
Picture Style User Def : Standard; Standard; Standard
Picture Style PC : None; None; None
Custom Picture Style File Name :
======== IMG_0996.CR3
Picture Style : Standard
Picture Style User Def : Standard; Standard; Standard
Picture Style PC : None; None; None
Custom Picture Style File Name :

Or

exiftool -G0:2 -U IMG_0996.CR3 | less

to see everything and also what section of the metadata it is in.