Canon 5D Mark ll Picture Styles

Working my way through my Canon 5D Mark ll manual..I'd like some further explanation on the standard and neutral picture styles when shooting in Raw for landscapes and wildlife. Does choosing one of any of the picture styles make a difference in CS3?

Much tanks,

Kelly

Hi Kelly
I have a different camera. The picture styles are apparent if you are using the Canon RAW conversion software, but as far as I have been able to tell, they don't seem to make any difference in CS3, ACR, or other software. I suppose they may also affect the camera's JPEG output, but I only shoot RAW, so I haven't tested that.

In addition to Buck's reply, the jpg settings determine the image that is displayed on the back of the camera as well as the histogram. When shooting raw I turn the jpg settings pretty low for sharpness, contrast and saturation (different camera). That way if I get blown highlights I know that they are truely blown. Good luck with the new machine!
-Mark

If you are using Lightroom 2.0 and have installed the camera profiles (actually they get installed automatically with the latest incremental upgrade to 2.2) you will be able to take advantage of the Canon Picture Styles. The Lightroom profiles and the pictures styles are the same. You do not need to set the camera to a specific style to be able to use it. You can apply it in post processing, very much like changing white balance in a raw file in post processing. As noted above, if you use a specific camera style while shooting, it will applied to the displayed JPEG so you'll have a better idea what might be happening with the histogram. I personally don't deal with them on camera, rather apply them later if it looks good in post processing.

Also, using Canon's own DPP software for your RAW conversions will allow all those picture styles to be applied. Though the picture styles have no impact on the RAW capture itself, DPP recognizes whichever picture style was used at capture and adopts those settings as defaults when doing the RAW conversion. The defaults are very easy to change in DPP, however, so you don't need to use the ones set at capture.

I had a real "A-HA!" moment on August 1st, 2006. I always shot my 5D on "neutral" or "faithful" picture style, but like a very unsaturated slide film, looking at the results on the LCD was depressing. Bridge and CS3/ACR didn't retain the info anyways, so I was frustrated and questioned my decision to go digital. Then Jerry Greer suggested I go ahead and shoot in the "landscape" picture style, so at least the LCD would show me the potential of the image to look more like a sweet Velvia image, even if I couldn't achieve that with ACR. So on that summer morning I sat atop a ridge watching clouds build above and below high peaks of the San Juans, and as I looked at the LCD, I was heartened to see the rich colors I so desperately wanted. It made a HUGE difference in my mental and emotional state when I shot, since the neutral, faithful and standard picture styles just looked so drab.

The next epiphany was asking on one of the forums (maybe this one) if there was any way to make Bridge or ACR recognize the picture styles. Someone mentioned Canon's DPP software, and I thought, "Gee whiz, I think I have that!" And a workflow was born! Now I do an initial work-up in DPP, then finish it off in CS3.

Sorry for the long-windedness...

I just got a 40D and was perplexed about this issue myself, as it doesn't really tell you in the manual whether these 'picture styles' apply to jpegs only or RAW files as well. I assumed that RAW files would be unaffected, but wasn't convinced...

Daniel - The RAW files are unaffected, but if you use Canon's RAW converter the default conversion will take the picture style into account...

Thanks David, thats good to know!