When shooting with a Canon DSLR one of the first things you should do is to switch the incamera Picture Style from “Standard” to “Neutral...
When shooting with a Canon DSLR one of the first things you should do is to switch the incamera
Picture Style from “Standard” to “Neutral” and dial down the contrast all the way; this
will give you a flatter image that gives you more flexibility with the image in post.
Shooting with the factory-supplied Neutral setting is just the beginning of optimizing your
camera for filmmaking. The next step is to put to use the Picture Style Editor software, which
is one of the most important features for Canon DSLR cinematographers (Nikon users have a
similar software, the Picture Control Utility). The software allows you to make a wide range
of adjustments to your camera’s “look” — color response, gamma curve, etc. — sort of like
giving you a choice of film stocks. It’s a bit
user-unfriendly, but it affords you the ability to
implement a pesudo-RAW workflow (it’s not a
true RAW image ala the RED camera, wherein
one can losslessly manipulate the camera’s
white balance, brightness, contrast, etc.
after the fact), and used wisely, you can get
a nice, flat, gradable image out of a camera
that ships with woefully pumped contrast
and crushed blacks. The fact is, many guerilla
cinematographers were happy to have Cinegamma and other custom knee settings
when they made their low-end debut on the venerable DVX-100 in 2002, but most of
us wouldn’t have guessed that gamma curves and color matrices would ever be usereditable
on a $2,000, mass-market camera. But it just so happens that Canon’s software
for customizing photo styles also works in movie mode, and thus another feature from
six-figure cameras has made its way down to four-figure DSLRs.
Many users would just download the freely available Marvels, Superflat, or Extraflat
picture styles; across the board, they give you a flatter image than the default shipping
preset. However, every individual camera is different, and one user designing an
optimized setting for their own camera does not mean that same setting will be optimal
for yours. Using preset custom picture styles is becoming more controversial, with
many shooters (myself included) noticing some drawbacks to using over-flattened
picture styles. While you often gain perceived latitude and shadow detail by using
custom styles, you can also lose detail and introduce more noise and banding thanks to
the h.264 compression algorithm. I’ve noticed these artifacts in post-production with
footage shot with the Marvels and Superflat styles, and am currently creating my own
subtle flat look tailored for the unique characteristics of my particular 5D. Shane has a
great tutorial on setting up your own Picture Style, by optimizing the white balance and
tonal curve of your particular camera (also handy for matching mutiple DSLRs to each
other). Users have also created Picture Styles emulating specific film stocks, as posted
by sumitagarwal, but most of these are probably too extreme for shooting under normal
conditions (the h.264 compression algorithm breaks down pretty easily when pushed). If
you’re willing to put in the work, it’s definitely worth it to create your own Picture Style;
don’t assume that someone else’s testing with their camera will yield the same results
for yours. If you’re just looking to shoot out of the box as quickly as possible, I’d use
Neutral and turn down the Contrast all the way, and worry about custom Picture Styles
later.
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