60d and T3i JPEG settings

What are you folks doing with in camera settings to get the best possible jpegs with these bodies? I'm talkin about taking pictures of people indoors primarily, like my daughter and family. I process raw files for my landscape, scenery and outside nature shots. Sometimes I don't feel like processing 1000 photos of family indoor shots. Also, what I you do in processing with raw files for indoor people shots? I'm pretty good with scenery pp, but unsure of processing people. I would in fact like to know if there are any tips or tricks getting these bodies to create great jpegs.

Heya,

I don't use any fancy settings. I shoot RAW 99% of the time these days. When I am shooting JPG, I often am using (and my lady is using) a 650D and an XSi. Settings, basically neutral, with white balance set appropriate to the lighting (tungsten if inside, cloudy in all other settings with natural light or flash involved). I still do post processing on them. Namely, crop -> levels -> brightness/contrast -> saturation(if wanted) -> layer(dodge&burn if needed/wanted). The only difference for me when shooting RAW, is I will alter exposure value before I export to TIFF. Then load TIFF and do it as I described JPG process, then save as JPG.

If you want to literally just post/print SOOC shots, with JPG as a starting point, all you really need is making sure the white balance is appropriate, and test your sharp/sat settings to taste, otherwise, just shoot neutral.

Very best,

So when you shoot raw photos of lets say, your family or children etc indoors. What is the typical thing you would do to the file? I just don't want peoples faces etc to look unnatural.

Heya,

I shot some of my baby eating cereal today. All I did was: (1) levels (correcting shadows/color), (2) brightness/contrast (lowered brightness a touch), (3) crop to composition taste. It takes me like 5 seconds to do my processing, as I keep it minimal, just minor corrections. The corrections I do, I do with printing kept in mind.

Also, for the longest time, I tried to shoot natural light, which is fine outside, but indoors? Nope. I use heavily diffused flash inside no matter what. It makes a world of difference. If it's "no time to setup" I just bounce flash off the ceiling. If there's time to setup, I use a portable wireless single speedlite setup, on a stand behind an umbrella or 24x24" softbox (all of which collapse). Even when I do happen to shoot natural light, I use a reflector (a huge 43" gold one) to bring the window light to a face to help with shadows.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/na1G​6o

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/n9Zc​Ye

I always use flash indoors as well now. It does in fact make a world of difference. What is levels? I use Lightroom primarily.

Good shots btw.

Frodge wrote in post #16837042
I always use flash indoors as well now. It does in fact make a world of difference. What is levels? I use Lightroom primarily.

Heya,

Levels, in photoshop (I use CS5). I would probably use Lightroom instead, as again, I do minimal simple post processing on all my stuff, I try to get it right with the light before that. I think in Lightroom, this feature doesn't exist, but similar things would be the Tone/Curves tool(s). Levels does some color correction, and tries to correct the exposure. Usually does fairly well. But sometimes, it really botches it. I sometimes don't even use it. I only use it when I know my white balance is off big time. There are times I do NOT want to use it at all, because it will erase what I wanted (such as golden hour hues).

When I shoot flash, I generally don't have to do any levels adjustment. I just adjust exposure and saturation in post, crop to taste, done. I tend to avoid sharpening on portraits of kids/people. I'll even soften it sometimes a touch just to take the edge off if it's really biting.

Very best,

Thanks. Kind of what I do for Raws. I have always read of people setting saturation etc in camera and was wondering about that.

Frodge wrote in post #16837063
Thanks. Kind of what I do for Raws. I have always read of people setting saturation etc in camera and was wondering about that.

Heya,

Yea, I don't do that. I don't let the camera do any noise reduction, don't let it saturate a bunch, don't let it sharpen like crazy, etc. That's why I like RAW so much these days. I used to shoot JPG exclusively too. But I migrated to RAW because I was able to shoot so much faster and not worry about things, as I could always adjust it in post later. Canon's DPP software is so stupid easy to use too, so it just made it easier to switch to RAW. My only annoyance is converting RAW -> TIFF -> JPG. Sometimes I just do RAW -> JPG and be done with it as most of work flow is exposure & saturation and done, then convert & save to JPG. If I know I want to do a little more work, I just convert to TIFF and load it up in photoshop.

Here's one I did yesterday, my field is blooming with flowers, so we took the baby out for a little flower shoot fun.

The only thing I did here was RAW -> DPP software -> Exposure adjustment -> Saturation adjustment -> JPG -> Cropped to print ratio.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/na4c​vm

Nice! I've actually always shot raw, but have always shot scenery and objects. Recently started shooting more people and was just curious as to what you folks do. I appreciate the advice...

Take a few pictures of your new subjects, in RAW format. Then open them in Canon's Digital Photo Professional and play with applying the different picture styles that are available there, including the fine tuning of these picture styles. Once you've found something you can live with, apply this picture style with its settings in the camera, and voila, you are doing this to your shots automatically.

Frodge wrote in post #16836973
So when you shoot raw photos of lets say, your family or children etc indoors. What is the typical thing you would do to the file? I just don't want peoples faces etc to look unnatural.

I never shoot jpeg, for me inside would have to be the worst situation to deal with doing jpeg, simply because of lighting. I pretty much do natural light because I love the skin tones, and I think the 60d puts of beautiful skin tones. I do use flash at times, but if I can avoid I choose to go that route. If I do use flash, I bounce of ceiling.

I see you have lightroom so will start there with what I do personally.

Fix exposure
white balance
color cast removal
Noise, in lightroom or move too Photoshop Elements to run topaz noise.

These are my very first steps I try to get right first, before I move on and would do anything else to the photo weather in lightroom or photoshop.

I do have quite a few actions in lightroom too run for pretty much the rest of the stuff, like fog removal, etc. I like to stay in lightroom if I can, not always possible though so in those times I move the photo over too photoshop and finish off pretty much there and move back to lightroom for cropping of whatever sizing I need by way of virtual copies and then export out if printing or posting.

Also, reflectors would also come into the picture if needed...I simply don't have any now. I need to get one for any shadows that you might see, I personally hate noise in a photo, a little is ok but sometimes in the shadow area's it can get bad depending on how high you have to raise your ISO, here it's up too the 1600 area for my grandson on the floor in good light. Another thing I had problems with was metering, I did ask that question in here on this camera and found out that you basically need to go too the right a bit to help with that on the camera, this did help. I've heard even a piece of white board will help as a reflector inside if needed.

Hope this is some help too you to get those photos inside your after of your family.

For accurate color reproduction (RAW or JPEG), I set up a custom white balance using either a grey card or an Expodisc. I find the Expodisc method works a bit better because it seems to take in all the ambient light.

Thanks for all the Help and suggestions. What is color cast removal?

I very rarely PP family shots, unless one is just a keeper and you know it when you see it. I like sharp photos and ones with some saturation. Note I'm relatively new to DSLR use (got a T3 last July and upgraded to a 70D in January), so my settings aren't for everybody but they produce pleasing images for my taste when using the SOOC JPEGs.

For snapshots inside at family gatherings, I use:

• Auto WB, unless it's not doing what I want it to, then probably switch to Tungsten
  
• Auto exposure (though I will aim elsewhere and lock exposure if it's not behaving)
  
• Set ISO to the light level (letting the camera choose shutter speed, and gauging ISO by the shutter speed I want, if that makes sense)
  
• "Normal" in-camera NR
  
• Typically use Av and wide open since indoor shooting without flash is always thirsty for light. I don't have a good flash and on-camera is horrible, so I just deal with higher ISOs when necessary.
  
• I use a user defined picture style, with "Auto" picture style, sharpness at +6 and saturation at +1. I'll bump saturation to +2 when not shooting people, for a bit more pop in the SOOC JPEGs.
  
• While I don't have them, using a reflector, soft box, umbrella et all just for taking snapshots of the family when we're together seems like way too much for me. It takes me out of the family gathering and makes me that guy. I don't want to be that guy. I just want to capture the moment, and this allows me to do that with pleasing photos that my family also likes. That's not to take away from those that do; if it works for you, more power to you, but the most you'd see me using is bouncing a flash, which I plan on doing when I can afford to grab one.