The Unofficial Picture Styles Thread

[akin_t]

Now we all know good pictures involve some creative post processing. I personally think candid portraits with slightly desaturated colors look amazing; as a result I'm trying to make a picture style to that effect.

I know I'm not the only one who likes a certain look to some of their pictures, and I think that's where Picture Styles are really amazing ... DPP in my opinion has that advantage over any 3rd party RAW editor, it just saves you time with this sort of thing if you don't feel like post processing all the inconsequential things you shoot.

I'll share mine once I'm done and hopefully others out there can share theirs too.

Lastly, if anyone has any tips for creating PS please drop a hint in this thread. Thanks!

 

[Michel Pyck]

good idea, i'll bookmark this one
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EOS 7D _ 400D _ 28-135IS _ 70-200LF4IS_100-400LIS_580EXII

 

[Lowfreq13]

I have this one bookmarked as well.

 

[Anonimo]

Hi Akin_t!

Great initiative. Here is my humble contribution.

Links to Canon resources related to Picture Styles:

http://www.canon.co.jp/imaging/picturestyle/index.html
http://www.usa.canon.com/content/picturestyle/index.html

From the first link you can download 7 additional picture styles (Studio Portrait, Snapshot Portrait, Nostalgia, Clear, Twilight, Emerald, Autumm Hues).

Picture Styles are briefly discussed in the following DPP video-tutorial (starts at 18min 30s and lasts 11min).

http://www.video.bhphotovideo.com/?fr_story=6705482e45f83bfb581744e6bbf1bee3836e657f&rf=sitemap

Some general information about pre-loaded Styles:

• "Standard" is told to emulate Kodak's Ektachrome 100 slide film emulsion. Also the "Portrait" and "Landscape" styles are told to emulate popular film emulsions.

• "Neutral" is told to be tweaked to maximize the amount of information transfered to the RGB output (JPEG / TIFF file) and is therefore indicated for JPG shooters and RAW shooters who use DPP for RAW conversion only but do the remaining post-processing e.g. in Photoshop.

• "Faithful" is told to be the closest to the human eye response. It seems to use the same tonal curve as "Neutral" but color tones / satuation are different.

Some personal notes of mine.

• Picture Styles affect the JPG thumbnail embeded in RAW files and the histogram displayed by the camera. There are some threads in this forum about how to tweak the camera's picture style and white balance to make camera histograms more usable for "Expose-to-the-Right".

• "Standard" is quite contrasty and saturated, what often leads to luminance and/or channel clipping in the RGB output. It worths to try "Faithfull".

• Canon uses a different approach in their PowerShot cameras. Instead of Picture Styles they have something comparable, called "My Colors". I wish they would adopt Picture Styles in their RAW-enabled PowerShots at least - and issue Styles for each of those "My Colors".

Regards, Anonimo

 

[Anonimo]

Hi Akin_t !

I've made some internet research and found some interesting links about customer-made picture styles.

http://vimeo.com/7256322
http://www.cinema5d.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=3401

http://marvelsfilm.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/canon-7d-picture-style-with-cine-gamma-s-curve-free-download/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20j3UH8_B6w&feature=related
http://www.alexandrosmaragos.com/search?q=Picture+Styles

I've noted following mentioned styles: "Super Flat", "Genesis Panalog", "Velvia", "Cine Gamma", "Advanced Flat", "Sepia look", "Blu-look", "Kodachrome".

It seems that folks above are being driven by video.

Regards, Anonimo

 

[nathaniel m]

picture styles still really confuse me. If i just want the most accurate, detailed RAW file, and do all of my PP (raw conversion and edits) in Aperture, what should i set mine to?

 

[akin_t]

Thanks!

Yeah I've noticed that too, it seems the folks into video really know their stuff. The Picture Styles Editor (Henceforth PSE) isn't as easy as I thought it would be.

It involves a lot of trial and error, but on the plus side, I have become very well versed on Color spaces (You have to seriously know what you're doing) but I'm still learning.

One picture style that I like in particular is by Kevin Wang on Flickr, he calls it the "Movie Style"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevin32832/sets/72157619773218659/

He has some others, but I like this one in particular. It's annoying that PSE doesn't give you manual control over the RGB curves, we would have been able to do so so much if that was made available to us.

Right now we can just map certain hues to other hues to approximate this effect, the trouble with this is we don't know how it affects the hues that fall in between the anchor points we select.

I have searched but it seems there's not a lot of support for PSE, and the people who have done good work on it, aren't very vocal about how they achieved their results.

That being said, I'm sure we'll be able to figure it out. I was just taken aback by the amount of theory involved in knowing how to get to your desired effect.

Hi Akin_t !

I've made some internet research and found some interesting links about customer-made picture styles.

http://vimeo.com/7256322
http://www.cinema5d.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=3401

http://marvelsfilm.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/canon-7d-picture-style-with-cine-gamma-s-curve-free-download/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20j3UH8_B6w&feature=related
http://www.alexandrosmaragos.com/search?q=Picture+Styles

I've noted following mentioned styles: "Super Flat", "Genesis Panalog", "Velvia", "Cine Gamma", "Advanced Flat", "Sepia look", "Blu-look", "Kodachrome".

It seems that folks above are being driven by video.

Regards, Anonimo

 

[brightcolours]

picture styles still really confuse me. If i just want the most accurate, detailed RAW file, and do all of my PP (raw conversion and edits) in Aperture, what should i set mine to?

As far as I know there are no other RAW converters that actually use picture style data. So when you use Aperture, it does not matter which picture style you select, it only affects the preview image in the RAW file. The RAW data remains unaffected.

 

[akin_t]

Yeah.

Of course, one can simply just create presets in Lightroom or Photoshop to achieve the same thing, but on the rare occasion that you want to shoot in JPEG you can still achieve your desired effect.

But not everyone likes sitting down to post process ... My excuse is I just want to do something with the PSE and see what I can accomplish should be fun.

I also like it because it lets us play with LAB color space ... So many possibilities.

picture styles still really confuse me. If i just want the most accurate, detailed RAW file, and do all of my PP (raw conversion and edits) in Aperture, what should i set mine to?

As far as I know there are no other RAW converters that actually use picture style data. So when you use Aperture, it does not matter which picture style you select, it only affects the preview image in the RAW file. The RAW data remains unaffected.

 

[dprsok]

I'm confused on this point. LR3 has a setting in the Develop Module where one can choose what looks like Canon Picture styles such as Faithful Standard, Landscape, etc., or Adobe Standard. What is Adobe Standard?

--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39169343@N04/

 

[BoosAngel]

tag
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Cherish every minute and be kind to others because life is short and our time is to precious to waste.

 

[nathaniel m]

Of course, one can simply just create presets in Lightroom or Photoshop to achieve the same thing, but on the rare occasion that you want to shoot in JPEG you can still achieve your desired effect.

But not everyone likes sitting down to post process ... My excuse is I just want to do something with the PSE and see what I can accomplish should be fun.

I also like it because it lets us play with LAB color space ... So many possibilities.

picture styles still really confuse me. If i just want the most accurate, detailed RAW file, and do all of my PP (raw conversion and edits) in Aperture, what should i set mine to?

As far as I know there are no other RAW converters that actually use picture style data. So when you use Aperture, it does not matter which picture style you select, it only affects the preview image in the RAW file. The RAW data remains unaffected.

thanks to all of you

 

[Joe Marques]

Those are camera calibration profiles which emulate the picture styles. Taking it a step further you can get an x-rite color checker passport and make your OWN profile for each shoot (you must create one for the given lighting). Works extremely well, here's an example:



Image on the right is custom profile which eliminates the magenta cast improving the skin tone significantly. It renders a more subtle yellow shirt which is closer to reality. You can also see a slightly more pure grey sleeve vs. the image on the left.

Joe

I'm confused on this point. LR3 has a setting in the Develop Module where one can choose what looks like Canon Picture styles such as Faithful Standard, Landscape, etc., or Adobe Standard. What is Adobe Standard?

--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39169343@N04/

 

[brightcolours]

Related to picture styles:

You can load custom curves in photoshop's curve dialog.

4 very nice film curves (velvia, provia, porta and cross process):
Article start:

http://www.prime-junta.net/pont/How_to/100_Curves_and_Films/_Curves_and_films.html
Download page at the end:

http://www.prime-junta.net/pont/How_to/100_Curves_and_Films/_Curves_and_films.html?page=10

 

[Seabassius]

--
LB

 

[325xia]

I actually like the image on the left better. To each their own.

Those are camera calibration profiles which emulate the picture styles. Taking it a step further you can get an x-rite color checker passport and make your OWN profile for each shoot (you must create one for the given lighting). Works extremely well, here's an example:



Image on the right is custom profile which eliminates the magenta cast improving the skin tone significantly. It renders a more subtle yellow shirt which is closer to reality. You can also see a slightly more pure grey sleeve vs. the image on the left.

Joe

I'm confused on this point. LR3 has a setting in the Develop Module where one can choose what looks like Canon Picture styles such as Faithful Standard, Landscape, etc., or Adobe Standard. What is Adobe Standard?

--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39169343@N04/

 

[hazzam]

For those who use Elements, these .acv files will not load using the built-in curves facility.

However, add the free smartcurve plugin (link below) and you will then be able to load these, and any other .acv curve files.

You will also be able to save any curve settings you create as your own .acv files, for subsequent use.

link... http://free.pages.at/easyfilter/curves.html
download... http://free.pages.at/easyfilter/smartcurve.zip

Harry

 

[akin_t]

Not sure if you know who he is, but he really knows how to work the PSE software.

Look on his Flickr page, he claims that all his shots are done with picture styles he created himself ... He's even gone as far as making an Infrared one.

http://www.flickr.com/people/kevin32832/

I found a batch of his picture styles for download (that software is too unintuitive for me and I haven't really had time to figure it out on my own sadly)

Hopefully we can take these "presets" if you will and try to figure out how they came up with them. Unfortunately, most of them are locked from editing.

Edit: Forgot the link ... Here it is

http://basedigitalphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Kevin-Wang-Picture-Style.zip

 

[chiltonj]

Perhaps a dumb question. How do I view the entire list of Picture Styles available via DPP without having to open up one at a time? Also, am I restricted in PSE to just the standard picture files without adding to the list?

Hope this makes sense.

 

[Rotlex]

Just found this thread in looking for some info in Picture Styles. Up until recently, I've shot pretty much exculsively in RAW, and never really worried about them. With my recent acquisition of a 60D, and the HUGE file sizes that go along with RAW, I'm thinking of using JPG on a number of occasions, hence, my interest in learning about Picture Styles.

Here's my question though; Am I right in assuming that using the "faithful" style might be closest to the color tones I'm going to get when shooting\working with RAW? Even after reading quite a bit, I'm still a lilttle confused, and don't see much visual difference, between it and neutral. I'm not overly happy with the standard setting, just don't care for the reds and a few other things, and I post process everything anyway, to get things the way I like.

Thanks for the info in this thread, and the links included. It's been very helpful so far.
--
Steve
http://web.mac.com/rotlex