Canon Raw Conversion and Picture Styles: Survey

Which picture style/settings do you use most often for avian photos? How about other situations?

I have settled into mostly using Neutral for bird pix and Standard/Saturation -1 for most others. When processing a "family jewel" picture (to use Art's term), I will often try several different picture styles to see which one gives the best starting point before loading into CS2.

I have also the Autumn and Emerald styles from Canon: htttp://www.canon.co.jp/imaging/picturestyle/file/index.html.

There are not many other custom styles available on the web. I once used a Velvia custom style with some sucess. Get it from here: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...ssage=25165834

Regards,
Mike

Michael--What software do you use? I have been shooting Canon digital since the D60--and am not familiar with the term picture style. It might just be that I have never read the directions to something though...

Hi Michael,

I have been setting my color space to sRGB (explained well by Robert O') and some sharpening It allows me to evaluated the images better and have no effect in the RAW

As far as helping the image look prior to processing I only change the color temperature Mostly at the end of the day or when cloudy

Picture styles are in the EOS-1Ds Mark III, EOS-1D Mark III, EOS 40D or EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi bodies. It can be set in the camera if shooting jpeg or in the converter when using raw (Canon DPP, BreezeBrowser, and some others).

Hi Michael,

I really don't use any of the picture styles as I only use RAW. I recently changed my camera to sRGB and I'm very happy for the results. I'm glad I asked.

I use Standard in the camera (Canon 40D) adjusted to minus 2 Contrast and plus 2 Sharpening with color space set to Adobe RGB. When I review the image on the camera's LCD this gives me the most accurate rendition of the RAW image I've just taken. As E.J. said in another thread here aRGB and -2 Contrast gives you a better feel for the amount of highlight headroom the RAW image has because the RAW file has more highlight headroom than the normal JPG file has. I do my RAW processing in Lightroom and do not use Picture Styles when converting the Raw file.

Dick:

That sounds like good advice for viewing in camera. The Canon DPP and Breezebrowser RAW converters require the selection of a Picture Style so I usually opt for Neutral with no sharpening, 0 contrast, and 0 for the other adjustments.

Regards,
Mike

I seldom process using Picture Styles because they are not a part of Adobe Camera RAW. Still, when I occasionally use BreezeBrowser for a conversion I often like the 'Landscape' style. Something about the vivid colors often works nice for scenic and wildlife images IMO.

I use DPP and I like the landscape setting... the eyes of the birds are better and I like to do a lot of water shots... if I am shooting a cardinal landscape is not a good choice because it seems oversaturated so then I switch to standard... when post processing sometimes I might use other choices but mostly landscape which is set in my 30d

I have been using Standard and Adobe RGB. I understand the argument over using sRGB but I feel that displays pixel blowout in the histogram and "blinkies" more readily then Adobe RGB.. As I am trying to maximize data in the image I Expose Right. I never judge sharpness on the LCD though Alfred has a good point in that on the new Nikons with the hi-res LCD you can.