Which Canon picture style is totally flat?

[keith_lubow]

Hello,

 

I normally shoot JPEG and sRGB, but have been shooting more raw and Adobe RGB lately. As I no longer work for

this paper, I now mostly shoot personal pictures which I am not in a rush to edit, and that I intend to actually

print via inkjet or lightjet.

 

I process my RAWs in DPP (whatever version matches the EOS 1D and 10D). My problem is: I am forced to choose a

picture style in this program. I am confused as to whether to use Standard, Neutral, or Faithful. I want the one

that is actually just the flat information with no modifications. I would rather just use DPP to convert the

pictures, and do all my real editing in Photoshop (7.0). Therefore, I want the most flat, unaltered TIFFs or

JPEGs that I can get from my raws.

 

Thank you in advance,

 

Keith

[jammer_jammer]

From the manual.<div></div>

[ronald_moravec1]

Faithfull will reprouce colors technically correct, but you may not like them. Neutral will probably give what you want.

 

Raw files are unaltered and will give what a non saturated, flat contrast, non sharpened JPEG will be. Raws are uneffected by camera settings with most cameras.

 

The most editing possibilities remain with a raw file, but JPEG is useable if you get it right in the camera as a decent photog should. The idea you have exposure latitude with raw is not true if you are trying for maximum quality.

[keith_lubow]

My problem is that I appear forced to choose a picture style in order to make the conversion to a Photoshop-editable file.

 

"Raw files are unaltered and will give what a non saturated, flat contrast, non sharpened JPEG will be. Raws are unacted by camera settings with most cameras."

 

Indeed. That is exactly what I want when I shoot raw. But it seems that DPP forces you to pick a picture style regardless.

 

"The most editing possibilities remain with a raw file, but JPEG is useable if you get it right in the camera as a decent photog should. The idea you have exposure latitude with raw is not true if you are trying for maximum quality."

 

I am not confused as to whether to shoot raw or jpeg. I shoot jpeg when it suits the situation, and raw when in suits the situation, not for mistake latitude. I am just trying to figure out if there is some way around the forced picture style in this software when shooting raw.

[bill_fouche]

The picture style you choose has no effect on the RAW data captured by your Canon camera. It simply tells Canon's software (DPP) to choose that picture style when it first displays that file for you. It's letting you do your own JPG (or TIF) conversions more quickly by trying to predict in advance the picture style you are most likely to use when the time comes to "develop" the file. That's all. No matter what settings you choose in camera, a Canon RAW file is a RAW file, entirely unaffected by those in-camera choices.

[keith_lubow]

I am talking about the program, not the camera settings.

[mark_zammit]

I think some of you are not understanding Keith's question. He's asking about what picture style to use when converting from RAW to JPEG/TIFF, not the effect of picture style on his RAW files (which is obviously nothing).

 

Go with neutral Keith. As per the manual, this gives the least manipulation of the image. I often convert in standard (to 16-bit TIFFS for photoshiop editing), but for images that are naturally highly saturated, have noted some apparent clipping (particularly of reds).

[keith_lubow]

Thanks Mark. You are the only one who has understood my question so far. It's not one of the ubiquitous raw vs. jpeg questions, but has to do with a particular piece of software. I was really just confused by the relativity of the situation...Is any one picture style truly flat, for instance? Is standard a pumped up version of neutral, or is neutral a subdued version of standard? Is neutral really flat, of is it a subdued version of the raw info? From what you have told me, neutral is the best flat reference. I was confused that Canon's manual calls it "subdued", however. This led me to think that perhaps saturation and other parameters might be reduced from the raw information.

 

When it gets down to it, I really need to just find a better program to do this. But you can't beat free!

 

Thanks very much.

 

Keith

[jammer_jammer]

Keith<p>

If you like free and you would like to experiment with a RAW conversion software that I have grown to absolutely LOVE, try Raw Therapee. I very rarely use anything else at this point. I particularly like their straight forward and easy to use highlight recovery and highlight compression tools.