Low Contrast in-camera setting

Hello Everyone,

I am just trying to experiment on reducing one of the camera picture styles (User def) to +7 sharpness, -4 contrast and all the rest at zero. I have not tried it yet however, what I wanted to achieve is to reduce the tonal range so that highlights and shadows will not be blown out. If I need more contrast, I am thinking of pushing it up during post processing. Is there anyone who may recommend any picture style settings to minimize blowing out highlights and shadows?

Any suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks.

If you reduce the tonal range then you will blow out the highlights and clip the blacks. You'd need an increased tonal range to stop that. However, reducing the contrast (assuming you are shooting JPEG) will have the effect of simply making your images flat and have no effect on the exposure, which is what causes the blown highlights and/or black clipping.

The best thing to do is ensure you expose as best you can given the subject and shoot RAW to give yourself a better chance of recovering anything that falls beyond the range of the camera.

http://www.hdrlabs.com …hp?id=285486810​0445353039

Kirk

I just thought that if I reduce the contrast, I would be able to at least lift the blacks and lower the highlights.

To clarify Hank's suggestion, if the background of the subject is the sun or something bright, I will need a fill light (which is what I do) and to minimize darker areas in the background, which should I clip, highlight (caused by the bright light source) or the shadows? I guess what I wanted to know is how to correctly expose for high contrast lighting conditions to capture more details and then, any punch or necessary adjustments will be done in post processing.

Thanks guys for your input.

You've got a 5DMkII & insist on shooting jpgs? Unless you have an editor who needs uploads 5 minutes after you've shot them, bite the bullet & start shooting RAW.
Why I love RAW - '53 Ford Sunliner
I'm never throwing away a picture again

If I were to shoot jpgs and knew that I will be editing them afterwards, then yes, I would shoot Neutral or Faithful and minimal contrast and sharpening. But if I knew I would be editing later, I wouldn't shoot jpg.

Jpg is for folks swho don't want to edit and are willing to accept "near enough" in order to avoid editing.

PhotosGuy wrote in post #9013313
You've got a 5DMkII & insist on shooting jpgs? Unless you have an editor who needs uploads 5 minutes after you've shot them, bite the bullet & start shooting RAW.
Why I love RAW - '53 Ford Sunliner
I'm never throwing away a picture again

I am not a jpeg shooter (I should have clarified that). I just thought that if shoot on low contrast (picture style) on raw and then, edit them after (boost whatever is needed), I would capture more details especially when I am in a high contrast situation that will clip my highlights and shadows.

In my intial trials, I set up the camera to have a really low contrast to capture details in the shadows and highlights (shooting in raw). Then, if I needed more contrast, I do it in PP. So far, I noticed there is a difference (but not much) in terms of the clipped highlights, the shadows showed a small amount of difference. I will try more shots but I guess they will be mostly indoors as chilly weather is starting to get to us (in Winnipeg Canada).

Thanks guys for your inputs. If you have more ideas or suggestions, keep them posted.

In-camera settings like Contrast, Saturation, White Balance, Hue and Sharpness do not affect your Raw capture -- they are merely "flags" used in creating a jpeg if you are shooting jpeg, and they also affect the histogram and LCD display, which uses the jpeg "preview" which will also be imbedded in your Raw file.

What you have suggested (setting your camera to low contrast) can have two effects: first, when exposing, you will see a histogram that is more accurate for Raw shooting -- you'll see the extra highlight and shadow headroom that would be clipped by shooting a jpeg with higher contrast settings, so it can help you to fine-tune your exposure accordingly. Second, if you have your saturation set to low, and a reasonably accurate white balance, and are using the RGB histogram in the camera, it can give you a better idea of when a color channel is being clipped which can be useful.

Also, if you are using DPP as your Raw processor, the in-camera settings will be your default "starting point" so if you set your Picture Style to Neutral or Faithful, you will get something similar to what Lightroom gives as a default, or DPP will match another Picture Style automatically, whereas Lightroom will not unless you apply presets.

tonylong wrote in post #9079895
In-camera settings like Contrast, Saturation, White Balance, Hue and Sharpness do not affect your Raw capture -- they are merely "flags" used in creating a jpeg if you are shooting jpeg, and they also affect the histogram and LCD display, which uses the jpeg "preview" which will also be imbedded in your Raw file.

What you have suggested (setting your camera to low contrast) can have two effects: first, when exposing, you will see a histogram that is more accurate for Raw shooting -- you'll see the extra highlight and shadow headroom that would be clipped by shooting a jpeg with higher contrast settings, so it can help you to fine-tune your exposure accordingly. Second, if you have your saturation set to low, and a reasonably accurate white balance, and are using the RGB histogram in the camera, it can give you a better idea of when a color channel is being clipped which can be useful.

Also, if you are using DPP as your Raw processor, the in-camera settings will be your default "starting point" so if you set your Picture Style to Neutral or Faithful, you will get something similar to what Lightroom gives as a default, or DPP will match another Picture Style automatically, whereas Lightroom will not unless you apply presets.

Thanks Tony for the suggestion above. I will try to use neutral or faithful and then maybe reduce contrast and saturation by one stop.

I realized that by indicating that I play around with the picture style, it was for jpeg shooting style. Although one thing I find too is that if I import the raw files to Lightroom and do not set any auto processing, the raw files almost has the same properties as when they were shot (at least close).

ralliart_04 wrote in post #9079952
Thanks Tony for the suggestion above. I will try to use neutral or faithful and then maybe reduce contrast and saturation by one stop.

I realized that by indicating that I play around with the picture style, it was for jpeg shooting style. Although one thing I find too is that if I import the raw files to Lightroom and do not set any auto processing, the raw files almost has the same properties as when they were shot (at least close).

That's an interesting observation -- I never mess with Picture Styles so I haven't had a chance to observe anything there. I guess it would be a simple test to shoot the exact same scene switching from Neutral to Landscape -- it definitely affects the Preview in Lightroom but I wouldn't think that things like Contrast and Saturation or Sharpening would be affected, and those are the main things that Picture Styles apply. White Balance is set in the camera and Lightroom does pick it up and apply its own "interpretation", which can be somewhat different between Canon and Lightroom, although starting with LR2 we have "calibration presets" which can do some tweaking to colors to bring things more in line.

The main thing, though, is that the Raw data is not affected by Picture Styles -- Contrast, Sharpening, WB and Hue are applied during the processing of Raw files in the camera or in your software.