With the Picture Style function, you can adjust the colour tone and the contrast to enhance the charm and appeal of the subject. By selecting the perfect Picture Style setting, you can get perfect results in expressing your shooting intent in a vivid photo. (Reported by Tomoko Suzuki)

 

Picture Style allows you to change the contrast and colour tone of the photo to your own liking

Points-to-note

- Able to adjust the settings to suit the subject and your shooting intent.
- Able to customize the settings in the preset settings.
 

Picture Style is a function that enables you to adjust the colour tone and the contrast according to your preference. You can expect it to deliver photos with enhanced and fresher colour tones, and contrasts that are sharpened or weakened to suit the scene. There has been a misunderstanding that the sharper the contrast, the better the picture, but sometimes, using more subdued colour tones or suppressing contrast to present an atmosphere of calmness and serenity can also result in photos with pleasant colours.

A number of preset Picture Styles are available: “Auto”, “Standard”, “Portrait” and “Monochrome”. You can select your preferred Picture Style according to your shooting intent and the subject to achieve special results. It is also possible to do fine adjustments to the presets by using the [Detail settings] menu. By fine tuning parameters like Sharpness or Contrast, you can create artistic photos with different finishes.

 

 

 

Common settings: EOS 5D Mark III/ EF70-200mm f/4L IS USM/ FL: 106mm/ Aperture-priority AE (f/4, 1/2000 sec, EV±0)/ ISO 100/ WB: Daylight

In the “Auto” setting, the colour tones are automatically adjusted according to the photo scene. This is especially useful when shooting outdoors or landscapes—green, blue and red are vividly produced.

The “Standard” setting is EOS Digital’s most basic colour tone setting, and usually can be used to take decent shots of most scenes.

The “Landscape” setting is designed to give enhanced sharpness and colour tone to the photos. It delivers picture results that have an impact.

“Portrait” provides softer tones. It is ideal when taking pictures of ladies and children since it gives skin a healthy glow.

“Fine Detail” is the latest addition to Picture Style and it is a handy feature to have. With “Fine Detail”, even the lines of the finer details and the textures of the subject are beautifully presented.

Once you have mastered the functions of the different settings in Picture Style, you will be able to take pictures and get your preferred results.

 

Related Concept 1: Customizing the Picture Style

Left: Normal setting
Right: Colour tone and contrast adjusted

Common settings: EOS 5D Mark III/ EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM/ FL: 47mm/ Aperture-priority AE (f/4, 1/1250 sec, EV-0.3)/ ISO 100/ WB: Daylight

Customization can be done to the Picture Style presets. On the “Detail settings” menu, select “Sharpness”, “Contrast”, “Saturation”, ”Colour tone” to fine tune the effects and get the results you prefer.

By customizing the various settings in the Detail settings menu, you can change how the photos look.

 

A: Sharpness/Contrast
B: Colour tone
C: Saturation

Adjusting the parameters in the [Detail set.] menu will affect the photo in the following ways:

When the value in “Sharpness” is turned up, you can see sharper outlines and the image comes up very crisp.
When you increase “Contrast” towards the ”+” end, the picture turns sharper and the image stands out to give you a 3D feel.
With “Colour tone”, the basic setting matches the colour of the human skin. This is most useful when adjusting the skin colour of a human subject. When increased to the “+” end, you will get a stronger yellow tone. By switching towards the “-“ range, a stronger red tone is the result.
“Saturation” changes the intensity of the colour. When increased towards the “+” end, a sharper colour is produced.

 

Related Concept 2: Toning Effect

Effect: Sepia

 

Effect: Blue

 

Effect: Purple

 

Effect: Green

Common settings: EOS M/ EF-M22mm f/2.0 STM/ FL: 22mm (35mm equivalent)/ Aperture-priority AE (f/2, 1/30 sec, EV-1)/ ISO 200/ WB: Daylight

Tone settings in Picture Style is available in “Monochrome”. You can add colour to monochrome photos with this function. This is especially useful when trying to create photos with a special atmosphere. For instance, a sepia colour can create a nostalgic mood and a bluish tint can give a serene, cool image. Purple provides an elegance of urban, big city life. A classical and historic scene is best with green.

For more on Picture Style, check out the following: more on Picture Style, check out the following:
3 Steps to Creating Custom Photos With Picture Style

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