How to mimic levels adjustment in-camera?

[dolfinack]

I notice that a LOT of my images look a bit flat but come to life and seem to "pop" when I fiddle with Levels in PS. More than anything, what I find is moving the centre triangle to the right does the trick.

My question is this : is there a way of doing this same thing before I take the shot with the settings on my 350D?

Sample shots below... any help much appreciated

many thanks

[eddarr]

Maybe but you are better off doing in PP than in camera. Depending on your software you may be able to set some import and base settings that do the same thing.

[PhotosGuy]

Maybe but you are better off doing in PP than in camera. Every image is different & I would never let the camera do that for me because you lose image information that you may need later.
Look up Processing Parameters in your manual.

[rral22]

You can always just pump up the contrast and saturation in the camera's Jpeg settings.

I actually like the first one better of the two you showed. I think you are losing detail around the eyes, and the colors are over the top.

If you shoot Jpeg, you are allowing the camera to make irreversible decisions for you, so I would want the settings to be very "gentle" so that I could move them a little if I wanted, but not be "trapped" with the high contrast/saturation.

I feel so strongly that I want post processing control that I shoot Raw and do all my decision making afterward.

[dolfinack]

Cheers for the answers guys. I think I should re-phrase the question. Not whether I should so it or not, but how I would go about it.

What is moving the middle triangle in levels the equivalent of "in camera settings"? Adding more contrast? Adjusting mid-tones? How would the effect above be acheived? Surely not every decent image we see has been flat until tweaked?

[gjl711]

...What is moving the middle triangle in levels the equivalent of "in camea settings"? Adding more contrast? Adjusting mid-tones? How would the effect above be acheived? Surely not every decent image we see hasn't been flat until tweaked?
As the left and right sliders are pure black and pure white, the middle slider adjusts the mid tones. I believe by moving the middle slider alone all you’re doing is adjusting the contrast.

[E-K]

There is no way to exactly mimic the effect of setting the mid-tone slider with a 350D. You can use the contrast/saturation settings in the 350D to give a little more punch but it's not quite the same thing.

e-k

[dolfinack]

There is no way to exactly mimic the effect of setting the mid-tone slider with a 350D. You can use the contrast/saturation settings in the 350D to give a little more punch but it's not quite the same thing.

e-k


ah OK thanks, thats the answer I was looking for. I wasn't too sure. Endless PP until a camera upgrade is affordable then... :rolleyes:

[DStanic]

Look in camera menu under picture styles. You can create your own in regards to sharpness, contrast, color saturation, etc. Or use one of the presets.

[dolfinack]

Look in camera menu under picture styles. You can create your own in regards to sharpness, contrast, color saturation, etc. Or use one of the presets.

ta ta, have been playing with the presets from day one. They make some difference but not really enough. Still need to PP. Ah well.

[E-K]

ah OK thanks, thats the answer I was looking for. I wasn't too sure. Endless PP until a camera upgrade is affordable then... :rolleyes:

If you were planning on using the same setting for most of your pictures you can always use DPP to copy the recipe from an adjusted file to others and then batch them.

Adjusting the mid-tone slider with levels can be accomplished using curves. Grab the curve a little over a 1/3 (maybe 3/8) of the way in and move it down and right to do the same as sliding mid-tone slider right (and up and left for left).

e-k

[Tee Why]

I'd consider increasing contrast and maybe saturation.

[René Damkot]

Yep. Increasing contrast & saturation comes close.
Easiest would be to shoot an image in Raw, then in DPP fiddle with the settings untill you like what you see. Those settings you transfer to the camera.
They will be applied to the images if you shoot jpg, or be the default settings in DPP when you use that for raw conversion.

If you use ACR or LR for raw conversion, you can just alter the "default" for those as well.

On a side note: Is your screen calibrated? IMO the first image looks better. Second is loosing shadow detail (ears, eyes)...