Which color mode?

[Dionysus]

Ok first off, as an FYI, I pretty much shoot only in RAW, except in "snapshot" scenarios (out w/ family, random pics, etc).

My camera comes with a lot of preprogrammed picture modes (landscape, portrait, standard, faithful, neutral, etc.), and you can customize a couple slots as well. And as most of you probably already know, these settings adjust for contrast, saturation, sharpness, etc.

For the past month I have been using the Neutral setting, because I don't remember who and when it was on these boards, but I remember someone saying its the best one to use, because it leaves more creative room in PP.

But I just read a review just now that said, based on their tests the Faithful setting was the most color accurate setting on the camera (matched true colors more consistantly).

I looked at the settings for both, and they are all set to 0 (saturation, sharpness, contrast, etc), and as far as I can see look exactly the same as far as the details of their settings go.

SO my question to everybody is, canon and nikon users who might know alike, IS there an actual difference between these two settings, and if there is WHICH ONE should I be using as my regular, everyday setting?

 

[ANDS!]

If you are shooting in RAW and have Canon's software (if its anything like Nikons) it really doesn't matter what mode you shoot in since you can adjust that post if its not to your liking. I imagine they are there for those folks who prefer a minimal post work flow with little to no work done afterwards.

I'm confused on the whole "color" issue, since unless someone is mucking about with hue changes, none of the controls under each color profile should change the "color" so much as its saturation, sharpness and contrast between color transitions. That would just be silly.

 

[RyanLilly]

My understanding is that those "modes" don't actually affect RAW files, just jpegs. Only the choice of colorspace matters(sRGB, AdobeRgb,etc), but that can be be changed in post as well.

 

[Dionysus]

so they dont affect raw output at ALL? because it's pretty obvious when i use my ultrasaturated/contrasty custom setting that the picture in the display is a lot different than the same pic in neutral. or is this just the camera showing me a preview of what it would look like, but not actually saving it to the actual raw file.

It also seems that when i use neutral, i have more room to play with pictures before they start looking grainy and overly processed. The other modes seem to get grainy quicker when applying contrast/clarity/saturation in PP

LOL i'm confused all over again.

 

[Dionysus]

i meant picture mode, but i was retarded from fatigue last night. changed the title as well.

 

[ksmattfish]

Faithful tends to be slightly warmer than neutral. It's very subtle. I used to use faithful, but at some point I switched to neutral. I never really noticed the switch/difference.

 

[Dionysus]

awesome, just what i needed..thanks man.

 

[ANDS!]

so they dont affect raw output at ALL? because it's pretty obvious when i use my ultrasaturated/contrasty custom setting that the picture in the display is a lot different than the same pic in neutral. or is this just the camera showing me a preview of what it would look like, but not actually saving it to the actual raw file.

Your camera isn't showing you the RAW file. It is showing you the RAW file converted into a JPEG based on its own algorithims, and the sharpening/saturation choices you have made.

It also seems that when i use neutral, i have more room to play with pictures before they start looking grainy and overly processed. The other modes seem to get grainy quicker when applying contrast/clarity/saturation in PP

Thats because you are adjusting colors and already adding sharpening. Further "accentuation" sends those already saturated colors into "stupid" mode, although sharpening in post shouldn't be as evidently "wrong" as saturating in post. Shooting in Nikons VIVID mode I never do any post saturation because it really does a good job of it on its own.

 

[tsaraleksi]

When shooting raw: If you set a picture style and process with Canon's Digital Photo Pro software, then the style will be applied to that image automatically when you open it for processing. However, if you edit your raws in any third party program, they will disregard the style and apply their own conversion to the file.

The reason here is that the picture style is a tag that is attached to the .cr2 file, and only Canon's software can/will recognize it. What you're seeing on the back of the camera is the raw file's embedded jpeg preview-- that preview will, in fact, have the style applied.