A little something about Picture Styles

Rather than recording all the data captured by the sensor like cameras like the RED (a format loosely known as RAW) most DSLR’s when shooting video save data via a filter algorithm (known as a codec), in Canon’s case the widely used H.264 or MPEG-4.

It’s a simple flow of information from sensor through filter to card. This filter algorithm works out what information isn’t needed to be remembered for the video to still look okay. Its much like the way music is stripped of frequencies not audible to the human ear by the MP3 codec. It’s a simple case of space-saving for the card and buffer.

Now in most Canon cameras the filter algorithm is called the ‘picture style’. These are pre-set filters made by Canon, aiming to record the right information to make your video look its best, given you match what you’re shooting with what the picture style is called. So for example, if you’re shooting a landscape Canon think their ‘Landscape’ picture style would save the right mix of pixels to the card to make your video look just right.

Now these might be fine when you’re shooting photos in JPEG (they were originally designed to process photos not shot in RAW), but if you’re shooting video you’ll want to have control over what is saved to the card. Why? Well to properly colour correct your footage and get its looking its best you’ll need the right mix of properly exposed pixels to work with. So its really nice to know that Canon let you design and install on the camera some of your own picture styles. These can be designed in detail in the EOS utility and uploaded to the camera or quickly made in-camera by changing the Sharpness, Contrast, Colour Saturation and Colour Tone. You’ll also want to look at the White Balance Shift to take out any colour casts your lens or sensor may be making.

Now I know what you’re thinking, ‘Nick, what’s the best picture style for video?’ and the answer is it all depends on what you’re shooting, where you’re shooting and what you need to get out of the pictures. General consensus is that flatter and closer to a RAW photo the profile is, the more information is stored and can therefore be played with in post production. If you don’t want to put the time in messing with it in post you can always use a picture style that emulates your favourite film stock or effect. There’s loads of user defined styles out on the Internets so have a Google, load them up onto your camera and see what you like.

Personally I’d rather get a nice flat images so the camera records as much detail as possible in what will eventually be the highlights and shadows. This gives me more latitude to play with things in post and see where I want my image to sit in the grand scheme of detail and exposure. It’ll also give any colour correcting effects the maximum opportunity to keep detail in the picture.