Picture Style & Appropriate Aperture to be use?

[J-YJX]

Bros!

Have been exploring my 550D, and wish to check with you guys on the picture style and the aperture.

Notice that some users are using this settings to achieve different effects.. I have been testing however it doesn't seems right.

Read the manual, it explains how to set the picture style and the parameters such as saturation,contrast,sharpness,color tone.

Tried to fiddle around the parameters under Pic style landscape/portrait but unable to find the optimum settings.. someone able to enlighten me?

For eg: under landscape, i tried to increase the contrast and saturation so the image looks more crisp and the colour is bolder.


For the aperture, we know that we can create the blur-ness or bokeh depending on one's creativity/skills/judgement on the distance to make the picture looks good.

Wonder if there is a general guideline for us to follow in terms of the distance of the subject?

How you guys determine what aperture to use exactly for the shots? Example, 3.5f for subject under low light but the subject may be some distance like eg: 1m ? will this be the best f-stops? How to determine?

Thanks in advanced!!

 

[Rashkae]

You are looking for a magic formula where there is none.

I really would recommend reading up more on the newbies guides here. But for your specific issues...

1. The "picture styles" are, to me, for lazy photographers. I would much rather shoot in RAW and then process on my PC where I have far greater flexibility.

2. Aperture can be used to relate to how much light enters the lens, but it also affects depth of field. For example, if I'm shooting scenery, I may set to f/8-f/16 to get everything sharp. For portraiture, I may use anything from f/1.8-f/5.6, but then I also factor in focal length. Longer focal length results in a shallower DOF. This is covered in the newbies guides. Read more.

 

[spinworkxroy]

Honestly, use the picturestyles as it is named..
Landscape for shooting landscapes, you ill get very blue skies.
Portrait for shooting people or family photos etc..you will get nice skin tones.
Neutral or Standard for walkabout shooting for general objects that doesn't involve landscape or people.
There isn't a style that works for everything…
As for me personally, i use landscape most of the time because to me every background is sort of a landscape. I do shoot in both jpg and RAW so if the jpg doesn't turn out good, i'll edit with the raw but more often than not, using both portrait and landscape gives generally nice photos because those are the 2 things i shoot most...

 

[rhino123]

Yep. RAW for me... more control over almost everything when I upload my stuff into my computer.

 

[Octarine]

Don't test too much things in parallel, you will be confused by the results. Secondly, there are Picture Styles and there are Scene Modes, don't confuse them. The Picture Styles only affect the colour processing, nothing more. The Scene mode affect how the picture is taken, as in aperture, shutter speed and others. Feel free to try and watch what the camera is doing, read up and try to understand the idea behind. You simply could aim the camera at a person, using Portrait mode and Landscape mode. Look which settings will change. Repeat the same for a landscape. Watch and ponder.
And most important, as Rashkae mentioned: there is no magic formula. You need to understand how each factor affects the image capturing. Then decide according conditions, your intentions and your tolerance (e.g. image noise due to high ISO, shallow DOF in low light etc.)

 

[Csboi]

Yep. RAW for me... more control over almost everything when I upload my stuff into my computer.

What's the difference when I put RAW And JPEG(Fine)?

 

[Octarine]

What's the difference when I put RAW And JPEG(Fine)?

Thank you for not crashing into other people's thread. Your manual covers the topic.

 

[ZerocoolAstra]

What's the difference when I put RAW And JPEG(Fine)?

errrr, you get 1 image as RAW and 1 image as JPG?

 

[Csboi]

errrr, you get 1 image as RAW and 1 image as JPG?

And compare the difference ah?

 

[ZerocoolAstra]

And compare the difference ah?

You do know the difference between a RAW file and a JPG, right?

 

[rhino123]

And compare the difference ah?

You cannot keep hoping that we can spoon feed you all your way. Sometime you need to do your own research. A simple googling will show you massive number of results.

1) http://www.digital-photography-school.com/raw-vs-jpeg
2) http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/raw.htm
3) http://www.jmg-galleries.com/articles/raw_vs_jpeg_is_shooting_raw_right_for_me.html

That is just the first three of the websites that I pulled out after a quick less than 1 minutes search.

 

[SkyStrike]

You cannot keep hoping that we can spoon feed you all your way. Sometime you need to do your own research. A simple googling will show you massive number of results.

1) http://www.digital-photography-school.com/raw-vs-jpeg
2) http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/raw.htm
3) http://www.jmg-galleries.com/articles/raw_vs_jpeg_is_shooting_raw_right_for_me.html

That is just the first three of the websites that I pulled out after a quick less than 1 minutes search.

I think you meant this: http://tinyurl.com/44sux9q

 

[technoglitz87]

And compare the difference ah?

u need to befriend google that bit more..haha. i spent two months googling everything i need to know abt dslr stuff..!

 

[Csboi]

Alright thanks guys. Shall goggle myself then.

 

[konstrain]

i was exploring on custom picture styles shortly after getting my first dslr.
after a few sessions of photography and post processing, i realised that these custom picture styles leaned towards, good to have but not a must.
some photographers (e.g. kevin wang from taiwan) created their own picture styles and the photos turn out fantastic.

right now, i use picture styles more for video shooting instead.

 

[J-YJX]

Thanks all the bros here for the advise.

Think i need to cover more articles and spend more time on testing the different effects. Thanks Octarine for pointing out the diff in Scene mode and the picture style...

I have been testing on the settings such as shutter speed, aperture, ISO, exposure compensation + picture style while shooting.. at times the photos just don't turn out they way i want haha

Guess, i need to master the basic in terms of the shutter speed, aperture, ISO before i move on more in depth

I am using standard kit 1 for my 550D. Will be visiting Taiwan soon in 2 weeks time, and I really hope at least I can take decent pictures with it.Hope to learn as much as possible. Any tips for me will be greatly appreciated!!

 

[Octarine]

Guess, i need to master the basic in terms of the shutter speed, aperture, ISO before i move on more in depth

Don't forget to read your manual. Metering modes are important, too. You need to understand what your camera is doing, then you are able to 'tell' your camera what to do.