6D settings picture style

THC_SsSsSnake · 14 May 2014 at 08:53

was watching a youtube vid by a pro shooter on setting up the 6D and he suggested picture style to be set to faithful(neutral seems to be the same,why is that)?.
mine had been on standard and when i took my 1st shots on neutral i thought id set it wrongly as it looked well under exposed and dull,then i remembered last night id changed from standard.
have to admit when i tweaked it in LR5 the colours looked nice and natural to my eyes as apposed to standard that seemed a little over colourful.
these were in Raw by the way.

So what do you guys have your picture style set to and why?
thanks for any responses

greedy123 · 14 May 2014 at 08:58

Picture styles don't affect RAW output.

dannyjo22 · 14 May 2014 at 09:14

greedy123 said:
Picture styles don't affect RAW output.

They do on the screen when you view them on the back of the camera but other than that mine load up for a half second in lightroom and then the raw loads.

Sometimes I'm like, that looks nice then the style get's ripped out and the RAW loads

THC_SsSsSnake · 14 May 2014 at 13:40

Thats strange then. I wonder why it was so dull . Wonder if ive changed something else. Will check tonight.
Thanks
Yes danny mine for a sec loads brighter and then duller.this was before last night also

mrk · 14 May 2014 at 14:06

I use Technicolor Cinestyle (custom) picture profile and it's more of a tweaked version of faithful. In preview you get excellent detail in shadow and highlight areas and I find my RAW processing results are closer matched on the camera back when viewing them so this works for me.

Plus, in video this works excellently as videos have that cinematic look and makes editing easier with the extra dynamic range available in either extreme of the exposure scale.

THC_SsSsSnake · 14 May 2014 at 14:38

Mrk . How would this work if pic style only
works in jpeg?

mrk · 14 May 2014 at 14:45

Picture styles work in RAW but only on the RAW preview image embedded in the RAW that the camera uses with playing back photos on the LCD - That's the whole purpose of using picture styles when shooting RAW. I find the level of shadow and highlight detail for my style of processing is in-line with the picture style I'm using and thus seeing a quick preview of on the camera LCD. Obviously the RAW is untouched, I need to apply my processing presets to get the look back in Lightroom.

Without using a picture style if your photo looks overexposed on the camera you could be being fooled because your full frame sensor's dynamic range is far greater than what the LCD is showing you in the preview and the picture style counters that by showing you otherwise missing details in shadow and highlight areas.

It's just a more efficient way of seeing everything across the frame without having to wonder whether you've actually over or underexposed too far because if it's too far out with a picture style being used then it's almost definitely too far gone - From my experience anyway of using it since going full frame.

D.P. · 14 May 2014 at 15:36

It is also important to set the picture style AND more importantly white balance somewhat accurately so the histograms are more accurate and you can better judge exposure. e.g., if you process with high contrast then setting a matching contrast in the picture style will help evaluate whether the highlights are getting clipped.

But to reiterate, none of this affects the RAW, only the jpeg image embedded in the raw which is used for the preview, and is what you first see in Lightroom before it imports the raw

mrk · 14 May 2014 at 15:40

Personally I never set white balance as I've never been dissatisfied with what I've been shown on the lcd of the 5D3. AWB since day 1.

D.P. · 14 May 2014 at 16:09

mrk said:
Personally I never set white balance as I've never been dissatisfied with what I've been shown on the lcd of the 5D3. AWB since day 1.

I do the same but it is useful when the auto white balance is failing. e.g. if you try to photograph a sunset the WB will reduce the orange saturation so if you were to look at the red histogram you might find you are some way from clipping the red channel so might be tempted to increase exposure and get more shadow detail. But once you are home processing you will have found the red channel saturated and risk clipping.

mrk · 14 May 2014 at 16:53

Not found an issue with that myself but we all have our own ways I guess.

THC_SsSsSnake · 14 May 2014 at 17:09

I'm obviously going to have to study this a lot more deeply

D.P. · 14 May 2014 at 17:45

mrk said:
Not found an issue with that myself but we all have our own ways I guess.

I also rarely have an issue, it is just useful to know that the histograms are based on the processed jpeg preview in the RAW and so the WB and picture setting affect the histogram. The auto WB will always try to get a neutral gray colour, even when you are photographing something bright orange or heavily green o in post you typically end up correct these in extreme instances so if you were to rely in the in camera histogram it would be wrong.