In-Camera Processing | Transcription

It’s time to talk about In-Camera Processing. Now we talked some of the creative processing effects earlier, and those are a little bit different. Those are creative effects that are really like filters and so forth. What I’m talking about now is the RAW to JPEG conversion that occurs naturally within each camera. When you fire an image it’s going to capture automatically in raw and then if you have it set to the JPEG file format, it will convert that in camera based on these post processing preferences that you have set up. On Canon, they’re known as Picture Styles. On other cameras such as Nikon, they’re known as Picture Controls but every camera is going to have these options available.

Now what these allow you to do, is to apply these different effects: for contrast, saturation, sharpness, and so forth over the image. What we have here is a little anemone. I’m going to demonstrate the different Picture  Styles that we can use on this Canon camera to shoot this scene.

Now what we’re seeing, is the image is very flat because we have this super strong reflection over the pool. The first thing I’m going to do is go ahead and cancel out this reflection that we have overhead. Once I do this we’re going to start closing up kind of first. I’m going to demonstrate what we’re going to do, and then we’re going to start just shooting.

We’re going to hold this over, and then I have to adjust the shadow speed down. I’m going to go down to about 1/20th of a second, or 1/30th of a second, that should be about right. But guys you can guys can see already that this is with the reflection, this is without the reflection. You can see how big of a difference it makes just right off that. The next thing we’re going do is add in this light. Without the light, we get a very flat look. What we’re trying to do here is add light back in. We’re cancelling the ambient light and then we’re adding our own light with a silver reflector. Olivia is going to add it from the sun, and get a close, kind of right in there, actually get more … There you go, right there, perfect. We got a nice little light coming in that gives a lot of dimension to the photo.

What I’m going to do now is just go into my menu and we’re going to see the Picture Styles that we’re going to use. Right now it is set to Auto. We’re going to take our first shot on Auto, and then we’re going cycle through all the different Picture Styles. One thing to keep in mind, is that if you’re shooting RAW, these Picture Styles will show up in-camera, but when you get that RAW file in your computer, unless you’re using the manufacturer’s specific RAW processing software, you’re not going to see the Picture  Style apply to the RAW file. Instead, when you load it in a Lightroom, or Camera RAW, or Aperture, it’s just going to reset the files, it’s going to look flat like it would normally look.

If you’re using Picture Styles and you want transfer over to a RAW, make sure that you’re using the manufacture’s profile, or the manufacturer’s RAW processing software. When you’re shooting in JPEG, these Picture Styles, are applied to the JPEG and they’re not reversible. Again on Picture Styles, I’d give you the  guidance of less is more. Remember you can always add to an image, you can add more color, more contrast, more sharpness, but you can’t take away these things. It’s going to be difficult certain things like contrast and saturation. It’s going to near impossible to take away things like sharpness and other things that you might add that may clip your shadows, or blow your highlights and so forth.

We’re set up, we’re going to go ahead and start shooting the scene. I’m going to start with my Auto Mode. Let’s go ahead and bring this reflector over. We’re going to add our light in, and we’re going to make sure that we’re not disturbing the water. I’m going to bring the shadow speed down, just a tiny bit. We’re going to right around like say, 1/10th to 1/20th of a second. Right now at 1/20th, I’m getting a really nice look here.

Again the tripod is helping out. If you have shadow release it’s a great time to use it. We can all use the 2-second timer in the camera if we don’t want to touch it, or to disturb it, just to get a sharper image. I’m pretty good with not disturbing with my figures, so we’re going to go with that round. To be quick so that these guys don’t close up on us.

Okay, let’s go ahead and take our first shot. Our focus is locked in, there is our Auto. Let’s go ahead and flip back into the Picture Style. I’m going to Standard now and capture Standard. Now I’m shooting RAW + JPEGs. We’re getting the RAW file and we’re getting the JPEG file with the process setting apply.

This is Portrait. One thing to keep in my mind, I’m going to show you in just a second how every one of these settings is actually fully customizable. That was Landscape. Let’s go through to Neutral.

Every camera has this, some of them may be referred to as different names. Might be Picture Control, Picture Setting but it’s all the same and here is Monochrome. That was Faithful, the last one, perfect. I’m going to show you guys we can actually customize these 2. I’m going to go into the User Definition 1, or the User Define 1, and actually hit information and it  will bring up the Picture  Style Settings. We can even go further and customize this in the manufacturer’s software as well, but I’m going ahead and just adjust from here.

Sharpness, I’m going to leave it at default, but what I’m going to do for contrast is boost my contrast. I’m also going to … Let’s go Contrast +3, we’re going to go Saturation +2, Color Tone, I’m going to leave where it’s at. Let’s go and take another shot here, perfect. You can see how big of a difference these Picture Styles make directly from the camera.

Picture  Styles are a wonderful tool, because it allows us to process these files directly in-camera. This is great especially when we’re showing them to the clients. If you choose the right Picture  Style in camera, or you can show your clients directly from the back of your camera and they’re going to be amazed by how awesome your images are directly in-camera.

CHAPTER 1: BASIC PHOTOGRAPHY CONCEPTS

CHAPTER 2: UNDERSTANDING EXPOSURE

CHAPTER 3: FROM AUTO MODES TO MANUAL

CHAPTER 4: SHARP IMAGES AND FOCUSING TECHNIQUES

Chapter 5: COMPOSITION, ARTISTRY, AND CREATING GREAT IMAGES

Chapter 6: LEARNING MORE ABOUT YOUR CAMERA

Chapter 7: BONUS

Total Course Run Time: 6H 30M 21S