Picture Style
 

I am currently shooting with my 5Dmk3 using the following picture style and settings;

Standard
Sharpness off
Contrast off
Saturation down 2
colour tone - 0

Highlight tone priority - Off

These setting were recommened by Philip Bloom however when I shoot I find that the blacks are so crushed Its hard to bring them back in post.

I need to raise the saturation which brings in a lot of noise.
Anybody else using these settings?

Thanks

Re: Picture Style
 

I always thought Philip Bloom recommended using Neutral not Standard Picture Style but here is a video of the man himself setting up a 5D for video with Standard.
TBH I don't like any of these flat styles as you end up having to colour grade every clip. It's far better in our business to get it right in camera. We use Faithful Picture Style with default settings. It gives a nice rich contrasty image without oversaturated colours like you have with Standard. It's a bit warmer than Neutral & nice for skin tones.

Shooting flat & grading is common with big grown up cameras but there is quite a bit of debate as to whether it's appropriate at all to shoot flat on the DSLRs as the H.264 CODEC just doesn't stand up well to colour grading.

Re: Picture Style
 

I would love to know what settings the great Joe Simon uses as his colour correction is simply amazing.

Re: Picture Style
 

When I attended a workshop given by Joe & Kevin Shahinian they recommended Neutral with sharpness, contrast & saturation dialled down. However I just did a quick Google & found a video of Joe's on Vimeo in the comments he states that he used a "Custom flat picture profile based off the "faithful" setting. Post color done in Magic Bullet Looks.".

Another interesting comment regarding lighting receptions "I'm using a Lowel 200watt pro light"

Re: Picture Style
 

I had remembered correctly. In Philip's recent blog on using the 1DX Review of the Canon 1DX/ Music video for Olly Knights | Philip Bloom he says that he uses the Prolost profile & if you look on Stu Maschwitz's site you will see that he does indeed recommend starting with Neutral not Standard Prolost - Blog - ProlostFlat

Re: Picture Style
 

I'm also a "Neutral" guy. I don't care for Standard as the contrast is too high for my tastes.

I also use Cinestyle, but only when the scene dictates it. When the dark and bright end of the tone scale are the most important components, Cinestyle works great. When mid-tone skin is the most important, I avoid it.

And when shooting for Black and White, definitely avoid Cinestyle. It just doesn't have enough information when mixing colors to re-balance the luma tone levels. Shooting in Monochrome with minimum contrast is much stronger and allows the use of glass color filters and crazy high ISO settings.

Re: Picture Style
 

I use Neutral and

Sharpness - 0
Contrast -1
Saturation -2
Color Tone - 0

I find that with these settings, I do minimal grading to get shots that I like.
These are mostly interviews that are properly lit. For natural light or where extreme dynamic range is needed, this may not be the best starting point.

I used to use Cinestyle type profiles but grew tired of having to grade every single shot. This camera/profile gets me most of the way there and saves a lot of time in post.