450D my best settings

I got my 450D since 2 weeks and I the settings I like are:

when I shoot JPEG:

quality L
sharpness +5
contrast +1
saturation +1
color tone 0

aeb 0
sRGB for fun, adobe RGB for portraits
red eye off
C. FN
2-> 1
8-> 1

AF: one shot
metering: everything but partial metering!
I use external 430 EX

and listen here I am using an EF 80-200 which is 15 years old (sinse I purchased my first EOS 1000) and I am having great fun.

When I shot RAW:

I am still trying to find a good setup for RAW, I still get very soft images uncomparable with JPEG.
Any suggestions? for RAW how do you setup LR or ACR?.

share, share, share....

Giuseppe
***************************************
EOS 1000, S45, S80, G9, EOS450D
35-80; 80-200; 18-55 IS

beppe_it said:

I got my 450D since 2 weeks and I the settings I like are:

when I shoot JPEG:

quality L
sharpness +5
contrast +1
saturation +1
color tone 0

Click to expand...

sharpness +5?! are you shooting most of your shots landscape? or you do have to crank it up to +5 to get sharp pics?

right, many landscapes and few family pictures.

I found out that +5 look nicer (at least for me). The on camera sharpening works on 14 bits which is better than leaving +3 as many do, and than sharpen it out later in photoshop (where at maximum you smooth the skin after spot removal).

what about you?

--

EOS 1000; S45; S80; G9; EOD450D
35-80; 80-200; 18-55 IS

"Any suggestions?"
Why not try DPP-It's the software that came with the camera.
It's on the CD..

--
Mike397x
http://mike397x.zenfolio.com/

beppe_it said:

sharpness +5

Click to expand...

At +5 sharpness you are getting fried images. They will show sharpening artifacts and jaggies all over the place. Post some full size crops of detail areas and I think we will be able to point out the flaws.

Sharpening is a destructive procedure. You are better off to sharpen just enough, but not too much. I think +5 is way too much.

beppe_it said:

contrast +1

Click to expand...

This is OK, but if you plan to do any post processing contrast is so easy to adjust. My opinion is that it is better to save the dynamic range in the camera (contrast set to zero or lower) to make sure you preserve highlights, then a simple levels adjustment in post process for your contrast boost.

beppe_it said:

saturation +1

Click to expand...

OK, I like color too. Satruation is not destructive like sharpness. You can increase or decrease saturation (within limits) without degrading the image.

beppe_it said:

and listen here I am using an EF 80-200 which is 15 years old (sinse
I purchased my first EOS 1000) and I am having great fun.

Click to expand...

80-200 L? That is a legendary sharp lens. The good news is the fantastic image quality from it. The bad news is that if it breaks, it is too old and canon will not repair it.

beppe_it said:

When I shot RAW:
I am still trying to find a good setup for RAW, I still get very soft
images uncomparable with JPEG.
Any suggestions? for RAW how do you setup LR or ACR?.

Click to expand...

Use Adobe RAW process or or other that mimics your camera settings as a starting point. Your RAW pictures should be identical to your JPG output as a starting point. Then, with RAW, you can fine tune white ballance, exposure, and other basic settings in RAW development if you choose.

--
CityLights
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/favorites
http://www.pbase.com/citylights/show_case
.

I think that, as you gain experience and look at a lot of images, your favorite settings are going to change a lot.

You will start to see why people are making the suggestions you are getting. You are too impressed with oversharpened, oversaturated, high contrast images. Your tastes will change.

--
Nothing is enough for the man to whom nothing is enough.

I agree with City except I would lower contrast to neutral. The digital sensor has enough trouble with the lows and highs. Don't make it worse and blow out both ends.

I'd take care of the contrast and sharpness in PP.

Hello,
funny how we don't have the same settings...

I shoot mainly RAW to get the best of my 14bits and get all the potential of the beast, but when shooting JPEG I try to be the least destructive, so that would be:

sharpness: 0
contrast: all the way to the left
saturation: 0

beppe_it said:

sRGB for fun, adobe RGB for portraits

Click to expand...

I guess you are a pro, but being a total amateur (I only started shooting with a DSLR three years ago...) I stick to sRGB for the moment, as I don't master all the "color" chain, it seems a bit overhelming to me !

beppe_it said:

metering: everything but partial metering!

Click to expand...

funny, I think this is the one I will use the most now on (I was used to "evaluative" but with a fisheye it does not give good results)

beppe_it said:

When I shot RAW:
I am still trying to find a good setup for RAW, I still get very soft
images uncomparable with JPEG.

Click to expand...

"very" soft ? I usually get sharper images when starting from RAW. With JPEG you can apply sharpness but you'll end up with more artefacts, less real details.

beppe_it said:

Any suggestions? for RAW how do you setup LR or ACR?.

Click to expand...

nothing extraordinary, except I usually have the blacks at "+2" instead of the "+5" which was the default, and I also lowered the contrast to "+6" instead of "+25" which was the default.

Otherwise I had good images but with bad shadows (too dark).

The default "details" setting in LR/ACR is not bad, but you can try the "landscape" preset in LR to get finer details (if you image is not too noisy to start with).

I like your jpeg settings, they are chosen so you can have minimum or even zero post processing.

There are two choices - shooting RAW or jpegs. If you decided to shoot RAW just leave all at default, you will be post-processing anyway.

As far as shooting Jpegs - I'm puzzled - why would somebody advice to pick settings so the image can be better processed later? If you need to pp - shoot RAW. If you shoot jpegs, pick settings that would not require pp, and if the scene requires high sharpness, contrast, and saturation, so be it.

For standard shooting I have:

Contrast: -2
Sharpness: +1
Saturation: +1

This is my starting point for experimentation. So far so good. My Sigma 18-200 Zoom isn't very sharp so I compensated with +1.

I still have to fine tune the settings for my other lenses, mainly the Canon 10-22 and a Sigma 30 f/1.4 Have to figure out a balance so all the lenses can be optimized with each settings. The plus side of the XSi is that it has 3 extra user settings for customizations in creative mode.

Gena said:

As far as shooting Jpegs - I'm puzzled - why would somebody advice to
pick settings so the image can be better processed later? If you need
to pp - shoot RAW. If you shoot jpegs, pick settings that would not
require pp, and if the scene requires high sharpness, contrast, and
saturation, so be it.

Click to expand...

hmmm... you are right... !

In fact JPEG for me would be the choice to simply get a higher frame rate, or to save space...

I did a trip to Quebec in 2005, at that time, I had only 2Gigs of Compact flash, so I shot 1600 photos in JPEG medium compression I wish I had shot RAW, but I had no more storage.

Today I only shoot RAW, but with the 450D RAWs are 4 times the size of a RAW.

So for example when I shoot a spherical panorama with my fisheye, with bracketing, this makes 6 * 3 = 18 photos... So if I shoot this kind of scene while away from my computer for a long time, maybe I'll shoot JPEG. And then I want a JPEG that will still retain the best quality possible.

sir can you post some sample picture with that settings , just want to see the result. Im planning to buy 450d and heared that the picture are soft and im also planning to adjust the sharpness in the camera

Set sharpness to 1 and contrast to 1.

Use DPP software to process and adjust. You may never go back to using jpg.

--
Whether you think you can or you can't, you're right!

any ideas what the colour tone settings do? can't see much difference when i switched it to 7

btw my settings for city walkabout is

sharpness +5
contrast +1
saturation +1
color tone 0

i will still do batch PP with auto leveling and unsharp masking after that

Exposure control - Aperture Priority mode
Metering - Evaluative
Auto Focus mode - AI Focus AF
Exposure Compensation - 0
ISO Speed - Auto
Image Quality - JPEG Fine (switch to RAW+JPEG for special shots and low light)
White Balance - Auto
Auto Lighting Optimizer - ON
Highlight tone priority - ON
Picture Style Standard
Sharpness: 3
Contrast: -1
Saturation: 0
Color tone: +1
Color Space - sRGB
Live View shooting - Quick mode
Grid for Live View - ON
Long exposure noise reduction - OFF
High ISO speed noise reduction - OFF
Review time - OFF
LCD auto off - Enabled
Auto power off - Two minutes
Red-eye - OFF

btw, this is the first digital camera I've owned (and I've owned many though the XSi is my first DSLR) that I didn't have to keep Exposure Compensation set at minus -1/3 or -2/3 (I take primarily outside photos in the bright sun). I wondering if it's because of Auto Lighting Optimizer and Highlight Tone Priority.

I, of course, change settings when necessary but, for the most part, these settings work well for the majority of my shots.
--
gail ~ http://www.pbase.com/gailb

My digital camera BLOGs: Canon XSi, S2, SD700; Pany FZ18, TZ3; Fuji F20; Nikon 5400 http://www.digicamhelp.com/camera-logs/index.php

Thank for sharing, Gail. Might try a few of yours to see how they work for me. Having trouble getting my kit lens to produce sharp pics.
--
Russ Meyer
Palm City, FL
http://bigkahuna.shutterfly.com

Russ Meyer said:

Having trouble getting my kit lens to produce sharp pics.

Click to expand...

Have you tried setting the aperture in at a mid-range fstop to maximize depth-of-field? It helps a lot.

For years I've shot P Mode almost exclusively, but it doesn't work well with the XSi and the two lenses I own. So I've started shooting aperture priority mode.
--
gail ~ http://www.pbase.com/gailb

My digital camera BLOGs: Canon XSi, S2, SD700; Pany FZ18, TZ3; Fuji F20; Nikon 5400 http://www.digicamhelp.com/camera-logs/index.php

Interesting settings. What does Colour tone do?

gail said:

Exposure control - Aperture Priority mode
Metering - Evaluative
Auto Focus mode - AI Focus AF
Exposure Compensation - 0
ISO Speed - Auto
Image Quality - JPEG Fine (switch to RAW+JPEG for special shots and
low light)
White Balance - Auto
Auto Lighting Optimizer - ON
Highlight tone priority - ON
Picture Style Standard
Sharpness: 3
Contrast: -1
Saturation: 0
Color tone: +1
Color Space - sRGB
Live View shooting - Quick mode
Grid for Live View - ON
Long exposure noise reduction - OFF
High ISO speed noise reduction - OFF
Review time - OFF
LCD auto off - Enabled
Auto power off - Two minutes
Red-eye - OFF

btw, this is the first digital camera I've owned (and I've owned many
though the XSi is my first DSLR) that I didn't have to keep Exposure
Compensation set at minus -1/3 or -2/3 (I take primarily outside
photos in the bright sun). I wondering if it's because of Auto
Lighting Optimizer and Highlight Tone Priority.

I, of course, change settings when necessary but, for the most part,
these settings work well for the majority of my shots.
--
gail ~ http://www.pbase.com/gailb
My digital camera BLOGs: Canon XSi, S2, SD700; Pany FZ18, TZ3; Fuji
F20; Nikon 5400 http://www.digicamhelp.com/camera-logs/index.php

Click to expand...

Thanks!!

--
-Faelaena

There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.

• Ansel Adams

NaimC said:

Interesting settings. What does Colour tone do?

Click to expand...

Moving the Color Tone slider toward minus makes skin tone more red. I do not like overly red skin tone and it is especially annoying when using the flash. So that's why I moved the slider to the plus side....but not too far as skin tones will come out more yellow (page 83 in the manual).

--
gail ~ http://www.pbase.com/gailb

My digital camera BLOGs: Canon XSi, S2, SD700; Pany FZ18, TZ3; Fuji F20; Nikon 5400 http://www.digicamhelp.com/camera-logs/index.php