DV Info Net - Canon Picture Styles

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Custom Colour Profile Application - Canon 5Dmk2

It is possible to set up custom colour profiles and control curves on the 5Dmk2.
Install all the software including the app called 'Picture Style Editor' on your Mac/PC.

Set up your scene for a take or on a control image taken with the camera in RAW mode. Load this RAW image into the 'Picture Style Editor' once open you can change basics like Brightness, Contrast, WB, Colour Tone, Saturation, Sharpness.

You can also control a basic curve table with points on a curve and in/out values. Other things controllable are colour replacements / swap / control. Very handy for green/blue screen control.

Once you are happy with your settings save the profile giving it an appropriate name.
Then with the USB cable still attached open the 'EOS Utility' and click on 'remote live view' then under the Shooting Menu/Picture Style click on 'User Def.1,2 or 3 and press 'Detail Set'. Load in your saved profile and apply.

Now you will see a live preview (very handy) of your adjustments. Close the app and disconnect the USB from the camera. If you look under your picture style menu you will find your custom named presets.

Even by just uping the brightness and lowering the contrast it improves the crushed blacks and clipped whites. You can make as many presets as you like i.e. 'Green_Screen','Blue_Screen','Flat' etc.

Once there is a few of these presets created it would be good to share. You can get some good looks for shooting.

James

That's great news! Thanks James. And now we ask for clips! Rolled-off highs, uncrushed blacks, lower saturation, etc. If the curve table works well we could really see some filmic footage out of the 5dmk2...

Clips / Presets are a coming.. Flat batt again, only bought 1 Do'h.

Uploading test clips now to 'Exposure Room'.

Basically clip 1 (5Dmk2 Custom Presets no.1) shows as follows:
Shot 1 My Preset (Flat1), Shot 2 'Neutral', Shot 3 'Standard'. Neutral and standard are the presets on the camera.

Clip 2 (5Dmk2 Custom Presets no.2) shows another scene with My Preset (Flat2) followed by the Neutral preset. These are all point and shoot with one 800w redhead with a 3/4 CTB and diffuser and a few 40w house lights.

Flat 1 was just by altering the Brightness and Contrast.
Flat 2 as above with curves and selective colour adjust.

I will upload my presets somewhere and post a link later. But it's nothing you can't do with a little fiddling.

(5sec preset clips).

86% on the first clip 19.53GMT

James

Excellent job, James! This is indeed great news. The flatter image (especially clip 2) looks MUCH better!

great stuff. This looks very promising!

Thanks for sharing James, looks good, and a great relief that you can control the shadows.

I notice you're in the UK... are you having issues with 50hz lighting or is the problem negligible?

Cheers, Josh

Hi Josh, I have had no problems with lighting (so far). The only thing that flickers is the light given off by the TV.

Thanks, James.

This feature makes the 5D mkII viable. It's not as flexible as RAW, where you can tweak to taste in post, but if you are willing to commit to a "look" before production, and take the time to create presets and profiles before shooting starts, the results could be impressive.

This is the video equivalent of producing a musical. With most films you write and perform the music after the edits are locked. In a musical, you write and perform the music before you shoot any scenes with singing. With the 5D, one should essentially color grade before the actors show up.

The only drawbacks I see about the 5D MkII are 1) the lack of balanced audio inputs (get a Zoom H4 - or better), the need to "fool" the camera to get the desired shutter/aperture (no big deal), and the fact that the 1080p result has aliasing artifacts, since the OLPF is set for high resolution stills (no problem, if you deliver to the web and/or DVD.)

I think I know what I want for xmas...

James,

Thanks for this great work, I've been too busy to get my head around picture styles so your efforts are really appreciated. I'm uploading your profiles now to see if it fixes my crushed blacks. I think I can get the file to match the look from my sony ex cams now, then grade as per normal in magic bullet looks.

Dan

Dan, make sure you take your reference raw image in live view using 'Neutral', to get the same characteristics as the 'movie mode'. When you have generated your custom profile in 'Picture Style Editor' and then loaded into the 'EOS Utility' use the live preview to adjust the 'WB Shift/Bkt' to bend the colours as desired.

My main goal on this was to produce a flatter image to then grade in post. It's early days and I am sure there are going to be many presets available for download on this site.

Now to work on that ISO and manual controls!

James

Added a couple more presets, still with lowers black etc but more suited to exterior shots.

WinterSun1
WinterSun2

Presets:
Index of /canon5dmk2/Presets

BR, James

great stuff James. Keep up the good work... hopefuly we can get an area to upload all our presets. I could maybe even put together a quick website where we could upload our presets and test images

Free picture styles from Stu Maschwitz