Comments on: Picture Style: How Do You Choose?

By: Shane

Shane — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 05:36:38 +0000

Scotty C., yes, use the Neutral setting with your contrast around -3 and your saturation around -1, with sharpness at 0. Standard sucks. You will find this very appealing and give you the necessary help going with available light.

By: Shane

Shane — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 05:28:23 +0000

Pete, That camera is a little more contrasty than the 7D, and twice as contrasty as the 5D. So I would try to bring lenses that are not super contrasty because the sensor will deliver that. I would go
-4 with and -1 saturation with Canon lenses. The 1.4 extender will soften the contrast and sharpness, so maybe -3 contrast with the extender.

By: Pete

Pete — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:15:38 +0000

Hi Shane,
I’m heading to Argentina next week to film skiing and snowboarding. I have a Canon T2i, a 10mm Sigma, a 50mm 1.4 canon, and a 70-200mm canon with a 1.4 XTender. I was wondering if you still set your Picture Style to the same one as your April 6th comment post: Sharpness all the way to the left, Contrast all the way to the left, and Saturation 2 points to the left. If so, would you modify that recipe when shooting in snow?

By: Scotty C.

Scotty C. — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 20:43:37 +0000

Hey Shane, I’m shooting a documentary in a few days and I just started tapping into the different picture settings on the 5D. I’ll be shooting almost entirely with natural daylight (a little help from some china balls here and there) and I was wondering what the best set up would be? I hate the way the standard looks. Should I use the modified neutral settings like you have pictured?

By: New work: Cultures Connecting promo video | Dan McComb

New work: Cultures Connecting promo video | Dan McComb — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 20:44:50 +0000

[...] One thing I discovered in shooting this project is NOT to use the superflat picture profiles that are touted by some. The results, even after a significant amount of tweaking in post, are, well, super flat. Especially the skin tones, which I’m not happy with at all. I’ve since getting much better results following the advice of people like Shane Hurlbut, who advocates a simple recipe. [...]

By: Shane

Shane — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 02:04:37 +0000

Francois, You are very welcome. The HDMI output it perfect out of the camera into a lighting monitor. I use the Dreamcolor HP 2480ZX. You cannot judge exposure off of an on-board monitor. They suck. They are there for composition only. So you have the LCD screen on the back or a lighting monitor. My picture style was done with in the inner-workings of the camera with the picture style editor. I did not use any software. Simple moves of bending the knee and shaping the shoulder a bit, then using the contrast and saturation levels. They are not extreme. You can still gauge your exposure off of your LCD screen very well.

By: Francois

Francois — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 14:53:35 +0000

Hi Shane,

Thank’s a million for what you’re sharing! It’s just fantastic, and a real blessing!

My question relates to the on-board monitor issue you were addressing above. I was wondering why I was getting the feeling that the scopes on my Transvideo HD6 were… “cheating” me… And to make I understand, are you saying that the HDMI output of either the 7D and 5D, even knowing that they don’t share the same specs, are both unreliable to evaluate proper exposure? That we should only rely on the camera’s LCD for proper exposure?

Also, on another topic, you were talking about the problems you had with the superflat picture style that you downloaded from the internet, and that it ended up being the wrong way to go. You then decided to create your own RAW look for SEAL… How did you do that? What software?…

Thank’s again!

Francois

By: Shane

Shane — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:06:33 +0000

Steve K, Hi Steve, you cannot judge color or exposure on any of those on-board monitors. They are just a viewfinder. 2.5X worked for my eyes the best. The LCD screen is the best representation of exposure and color that you can get.

By: Steve K

Steve K — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 03:56:50 +0000

Thanx for the tip, Shane. A Z-Finder has been on my wish list for some time—seems they’re not currently in stock anywhere—do you recommend the 2.5x or the 3x?

> An on-board monitor will be way worse.
Not sure what you meant there. Sorry.

Thanks again.

Have a great one.

Cheers!

By: Shane

Shane — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 02:30:21 +0000

Steve K, If you do not need anyone else to view this, I would buy a Z-Finder from Zacuto for 350.00 and call it a day. Set your LCD brightness to auto and you will be spot on with your exposures. An on-board monitor will be way worse.