Each year n November, the annual SEMA Show is held at the Las Vegas Convention Center in conjunction with the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Week and is one of the largest single events on the Las Vegas calendar. This show is not open to the public; Registration as media, manufacturer, buyer or exhibitor is required.
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“Style is the answer to everything. A fresh way to approach a dull or dangerous thing…”—
Today’s post focuses on a feature that’s found in Canon EOS DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. I only own one of Canon’s mirrorless camera, the now-discontinued EOS EOS M6 Mark II and it has a limited selection of Picture Styles as compared to their newer R-series mirrorless cameras.
While shooters of other brands and systems might be unhappy about this singular focus on one camera brand, please keep in mind it’s just for today’s post. If nothing else, enjoy today’s featured photograph.
Canon’s Picture Styles
Canon’s Picture Styles are adjustable parameters that determine how your camera will process and render images and can be applied to JPEG and MOV files during exposure. Do they work with my favorite method of RAW+JPEG capture? Picture Styles work will work with RAW+JPEG capture but they affect the two captured files differently. With a JPEG, the Picture Style is permanently “baked” into the image. The camera applies the selected look directly to the file, and cannot be undone.
For RAW files, the Picture Style is recorded as metadata and affects the in-camera preview, histogram and embedded JPEG but the underlying RAW sensor data is untouched. If you intend to convert RAW images to black and white, for example, the Monochrome Picture Style will provide a preview of the image in black and white while retaining all of the photograph’s original color information in the RAW file. On the other hand, monochrome JPEG or MOV files can’t be converted back to color.
How I made this shot: I photographed this 1957 Chrysler convertible at a previous SEMA show using a Canon EOS 5D Mark I with EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens (at 28mm.) The exposure was 1/2 sec at f/22 and ISO 800 with a plus one stop exposure compensation and was shot using the Nostalgia Picture Style.
Any Picture Styles that are applied to RAW files can be changed or modified later using Canon’s proprietary Digital Photo Professional software. When applied during post-processing, you can apply any Picture Style you wanr, whenever you like. The Picture Style you choose will not become a permanent part of the rendering until you export the RAW file as a JPEG or TIFF file. This option is not available with many third-party applications, which often apply a preset rendering regardless of the Picture Style you’ve already have set.
If you have an EOS camera and want to experiment with Picture Styles, You can download some here.
Copies of my book Creative Digital Monochrome Effects is available from Amazon with used copies starting around seven bucks, way less than a trenta Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino at your local Starbucks drive-through. No Kindle version of the book was ever available, sorry