What picture styles do you use with MF lenses?

yinyangbt · Expire: 2012-12-27

Hello , again !
I am curious what settings do you prefere to use on your digital body when shooting with manual focusing lenses . I mean RAW or JPEG ? If JPEG which picture style do you prefere : the neutral , faithful , standard, portrait preset ? Do you prefere to custom your image quality settings or shoot in neutral to observe the sharpness,contrast and chromatic rendition of the lens?
How much PP do you usually use?
When I was shooting AF I was using a Custom style enhancing the sharpness and contrast. But in time I use it less , and use more RAW or faithful if using JPEG.

symphonic · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 550 Location: SE Europe, Croatia

I'll never ever shoot in JPEG. Smile

(OK, only in case I run out of space on the memory card).
But in PP, I prefer contrasty profiles (currently I'm using Lightroom, but before when I used DPP I almost always applied the Landscape or a similar custom strong profile I made in profile editor).

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

With the...

...Sigma SD10 I use RAW (X3F) and have no other choice. Wink

...Canon EOS 300D I use JPG (high) and only occasionally RAW.
...Canon EOS 40D I use RAW and JPG (medium size).
...Canon EOS 5D I use RAW and JPG.

As far as the Picture Styles are concerned, I sometimes choose this one sometimes that one. I also have several that I have create myself.
And with the 40D and the 5D I have a "high ISO b&w yellow filter" custom function to simulate b&w film directly out of cam.

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

martinsmith99 · Expire: 2013-11-18

Raw on 5Dmkii and 40D. Ilford & Foma films & Rodinal for my black & whites. Laughing

ylyad · Expire: 2013-12-05

Until now, mainly landscape and monochrome. But I need to find some time to customize and play a bit with Canon's PS editor Smile

peterqd · Expire: 2014-01-04

Always faithful! Smile

visualopsins · Expire: 2025-04-11

Long ago I decided that raw is always best at providing the most flexibility for PP, that any in-camera jpeg production including the raw thumbnails should be as neutral as possible especially for lens comparisons.

As I understand, the Picture Style is applied during 'development' of raw senor data, i.e. Picture Style has no effect whatsoever on raw exposure.

Orio's use of ColorChecker for profile prompted me to delve into the whole digital color metrics as applied to digital cameras, how to calibrate sytle, display, and printer for WYIWYG. I still have some questions, mostly related to metamerism and how digital sensors 'see' color compared to how eyes see colors in varied lighting. More on that later...

Canon recently released Picture Style Editor software.

The 5D manual describes the various styles. Note the differences between 'Faithful' and 'Neutral'. 'Faithful', "when the subject is photographed under a color temperature of 5200K, the color is adjusted colormetrically to match the subject's color. No sharpness is applied.", and 'Neutral', "For natural colors and subdued images." I had always used 'Neutral', because I incorrectly thought the style affected the raw exposure; I didn't want any raw exposure adjustment. Now I know there is no effect on raw.

symphonic · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 550 Location: SE Europe, Croatia

For photographs taken in raw, picture styles aren't important, but for capturing video it matters, since you still can't save the raw video data in today's HDSLRs. That's why most videographers use the most 'flat' (low contrast, increased dynamic range) picture style, if they intend to post process it later. Or at least that's what I read. Smile