Chapter 4: Using Color Options, Ambience Effects, and Creative Filters

The EOS 60D offers several options for ensuring accurate and visually pleasing color. The options include setting white balance, setting a color space, and selecting any of the Canon Picture Styles. The more faithful you are in setting the options for each shooting session, the better the color in your images. And the better the color, the less time you spend correcting color on the computer.

In addition, the 60D offers effects and filters that you can apply to give images a creative look. Ambience effects can be used in most of the automatic shooting modes such as Creative Auto, Portrait, and Landscape. You can adjust the filters to suit your personal taste.

Working with Color

The settings on the 60D that affect image color are Color Space, White Balance, Picture Style, and for the automatic shooting modes, Ambience effects.

Color Space. This option determines the breadth of colors that are captured in images. Some color spaces encompass a broad range of colors, and others encompass fewer colors. Choosing a color space also factors into the overall image workflow; you want to keep color space consistent from image capture through editing and printing. The Color Space option is one that most photographers set once and seldom change.

White Balance and Lighting Type. These settings determine the accuracy of color in images. To get accurate color, the camera must know what kind of light is in the scene. The White Balance setting in P, Tv, Av, M, and Bulb shooting modes, and the Lighting Type setting in some automatic shooting modes give the camera that information so the 60D can, in turn, render colors correctly. These settings are ones that you change each time the light in the scene changes.

Picture Styles. These settings determine whether the image colors are vivid and saturated, or less vivid and more subdued, and they affect image sharpness and contrast. How often you change the Picture Style depends on your preferences for color rendering, saturation, and contrast in the images and the type of scene or subject that you are photographing.

Ambience effects. When you’re shooting in the Basic Zone modes except for Full Auto and Flash Off shooting modes, you can apply Ambience effects that include Standard, Vivid, Soft, Warm, Intense, Cool, Brighter, Darker, and Monochrome. Much like Picture Styles, these effects enable you to control the color and rendering of images.

Each of these settings plays a unique role in determining image color. The following sections provide more detail on using these settings.

Choosing a color space

A color space defines the range of colors, or the gamut, that can be reproduced by a device such as a printer or computer monitor, and the way that device reproduces color. Color spaces encompass large to smaller ranges of color. The size of the color space is important because it determines the amount of shadow and highlight detail that is reproduced in the image, as well as the color saturation. The larger the space, or gamut, the more colors the device can reproduce, and vice versa.

Color spaces also represent other aspects of color including lightness, saturation, and hue.

The 60D has two color space choices: Adobe RGB and sRGB. Adobe RGB is a color space that supports a wider gamut of colors than sRGB. As is true with all aspects of image capture, the more data you capture in the image, the richer and more robust the image is. And the more robust the image, the better it can withstand image editing.

4.1 Occasionally the light source is unusual, as it was here with the warming light that illuminated the duckling. I used the Auto white balance (AWB) setting and adjusted the color during RAW image conversion. Exposure: ISO 800, f/2.8, 1/125 second.

An advantage of the 60D is that it has 14-bit files. That translates to color-rich image files that have 16,384 colors for each of the three color channels (Red, Green, and Blue) when you shoot in RAW capture. (In contrast, 8-bit files offer only 256 values per color channel.) Even if you shoot JPEG, which automatically converts 14-bit files to 8-bit files in the camera, the conversion to 8-bit files is better because it is based on color-rich, 14-bit files.

The 60D’s 14-bit RAW files can be processed in a conversion program, such as Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom, as 16-bit files that offer robust color data, and subtle tonal gradations.

As you consider which color space to choose, try to avoid shooting in one color space, and then editing and printing in another color space. This is important because when an image is converted from a large color space to a smaller color space, the device — the camera, computer, or printer — must then decide which colors to keep and which to alter or throw out.

Because I want to get all the image data possible, I avoid settings that discard or alter color data in my images. To do that, I use the Adobe RGB color space through the entire workflow, from image capture through editing and printing. Alternately, you can use the sRGB color space for capture, editing, and printing.

To illustrate the difference between color spaces, consider Figures 4.2 and 4.3. The image histograms show the effects of changing color space.

Spikes on the far edges of the histogram indicate image data that is clipped, or discarded, from the image. The higher the spike on the left and right sides of the histogram, the more data that is clipped. Ideally, you do not want image data to clip, or at the very least, you want to reduce clipping as much as possible. Clipped data contains image detail for both highlights and shadows, detail that you want to preserve. The larger the color space, the less clipping.

Does this mean that you should always choose the larger Adobe RGB color space? Not necessarily. While Adobe RGB is a great color space for capturing a wide range of colors, it isn’t the color space that provides the best image color for online display. In fact, when you view an image that’s in the Adobe RGB color space outside of an image-editing program or online, the image colors look dull and flat. For online display, the sRGB color space provides the best color. In addition, some commercial printing services use only the sRGB color space for printing. So if you want images that you can display online with no image editing and without needing to convert the color space, or if your printing service requires sRGB, the sRGB color space is the best choice.

However, if you capture images in Adobe RGB and you want to display them on the Web or send them in e-mail, you can simply convert images from Adobe RGB to sRGB after the images are edited and sized in an image-editing program. For example, I use Adobe RGB for capture, editing, and printing. But when I want to display an image on my Web site, I make a copy of the image, and then convert it to the sRGB color space in Adobe Photoshop.

Here are some things to consider when choosing a color space:

You can choose a color space when you are shooting in Program AE (P), Aperture-priority AE (Tv), Shutter-priority AE (Av), Manual (M), and Bulb (B) shooting modes.

The 60D does not automatically include, or embed, the ICC profile within the image’s files. The ICC profile is important because it contains information that’s necessary to properly convert color data between the camera and the device that you’re using, such as a computer monitor or a printer, thus helping to ensure that colors are consistent when viewed and printed on different devices. You can embed the ICC profile in Adobe Photoshop 6 or later.

ICC is an abbreviation for International Color Consortium, an organization that “promotes the use and adoption of open, vendor-neutral, cross-platform color management systems.”

For all step-by-step instructions in this chapter, you can access the 60D camera menus by pressing the Menu button. Then press left or right on the Multi-controller to highlight the menu tab or turn the Main dial, and then press up or down on the Multi-controller to highlight a menu option or turn the Quick Control dial.

To choose a color space, follow these steps:

1. In P, Tv, Av, M, or Bulb shooting mode, go to the Shooting 2 menu, highlight Color space, and then press the SET button. The sRGB and Adobe RGB options appear.

2. Press up or down on the Multi-controller to highlight the option you want and then press the SET button. The color space you choose remains in effect until you change it.

Although the color space is your choice, try to set it based on your image capture and printing needs, and then keep it consistent as you edit and print images.

Setting the white balance

The easiest way to achieve good out-of-the-camera color is to choose the White Balance setting that matches the light in the scene. In broad terms, choosing a White Balance setting tells the camera what the color or temperature of the light in the scene is so the camera accurately reproduces the colors in the scene. In practice, a White Balance setting such as Daylight is a range of light temperatures designed to provide accurate color in daylight conditions. You can select a White Balance setting when you’re shooting in P, Tv, Av, M, Bulb, and C shooting modes. In automatic shooting modes such as Portrait, Landscape, and so on, you can choose a Lighting or Scene type.

The 60D offers six preset White Balance options for common light sources, as well as a Custom white balance option that sets the light temperature to the specific light in the scene; an option to set a specific color temperature; and Auto white balance (AWB), an option where the camera makes its best guess on the light temperature in the scene.

In Portrait, Landscape, Close up, and Sports automatic shooting modes, you can set the Lighting type, which is essentially the same as using a preset White Balance option. Lighting options are detailed later in this chapter.

How do you know which White Balance option to use? Here are some approaches you can use for setting white balance:

Use a preset White Balance option or Auto white balance. The preset White Balance options are Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten light, White fluorescent light, and Flash. If the scene you’re shooting has a single light source that clearly matches one of the preset White Balance options, use a preset option. You can use the Auto white balance option in mixed light or when the light source isn’t clearly defined, such as on a playing field or in a stadium. If you use the Auto white balance option, be aware that it tends to have a bluish, or cool, color tint.

If you are new to using white balance, Figures 4.4 and 4.5 illustrate the difference it makes to have the correct white balance set.

4.4 This image was taken using the Daylight white balance setting and the Neutral Picture Style. The image has accurate color. Exposure: ISO 100, f/3.5, 1/40 second.

4.5 This image is shown using the Tungsten white balance setting that shifts the color to blue. Exposure: ISO 100, f/3.5, 1/40 second.

Set a Custom white balance. A Custom white balance sets image color for the specific light in the scene, whether it’s a single light source or mixed light. This is the option to use with mixed lighting and when the light source doesn’t clearly match one of the preset White Balance options. Setting a Custom white balance takes a little more time, but it provides very accurate color, and it is worth the time when you are shooting a series of images in the same light, especially if you are capturing JPEG images.

If you are shooting RAW capture, shooting a white or gray card and balancing images during RAW image conversion is often faster than setting a Custom white balance.

Set a specific color temperature. With this option, you set the specific light temperature on the 60D. This is good for studio shooting when you know the specific temperature of the lights, such as when you’re using studio lighting.

Here’s how to use a preset White Balance option such as Daylight, Tungsten, Shade, and so on:

1. Set the Mode dial to P, Av, Tv, M, or B, and then press the Q button. The Quick Control screen appears. You can also set White Balance options in Movie mode.

2. Press up or down on the Multi-controller to select White Balance setting, and then turn the Quick Control dial until the White Balance setting you want is displayed. The White Balance settings are shown with icons and text at the bottom of the screen. The White Balance option that you set remains in effect until you change it or until you switch to a Basic Zone shooting mode such as Portrait, Landscape, and so on.

Changing the Lighting or Scene type in some automatic shooting modes

You can change the Lighting or Scene type in Portrait, Landscape, Close-up, and Sports automatic shooting modes. While these options are denoted as Lighting or Scene types, they function much like the preset White Balance settings available in P, Tv, Av, M, and B shooting modes; however, their names are slightly different in some cases. In the other automatic shooting modes, Full Auto, Flash Off, CA, and Night Portrait, the 60D automatically chooses Auto white balance, and you can’t change it or select a Lighting or Scene type.

The 60D includes these Lighting or Scene types:

Default. The 60D makes its best guess at the light and light temperature in the scene. Typically this is a good choice when you have mixed light sources.

Daylight. This setting delivers the most accurate color under sunny skies.

Shade. This setting corrects the blue color characteristic of cool light in the shade.

Cloudy. Good to use when the sky is fully overcast.

Tungsten light. This setting is ideal for traditional incandescent household light bulbs.

Fluorescent light. This setting is best for all types of fluorescent lighting.

Sunset. This setting renders the warm colors of sunset accurately.

If you use a flash, the Lighting or Scene type automatically changes to the Default setting.

You can combine a Lighting type selection with an Ambience setting, detailed later in this chapter. If you do, it’s important to set the Lighting type first so that the camera records the image color correctly before the camera shifts the color, as it does with some Ambience options.

In addition, if you’re using a Lighting type that creates warm image colors, such as Sunset, and then choose an Ambience setting that further increases the color warmth, such as Warm, the combination may create an unnatural look. You can press the Live View button on the back of the camera to ensure that the Lighting type and Ambience setting combination creates a pleasing result.

Here is how to change the Lighting type:

1. Set the Mode dial to Portrait, Landscape, Close-up, or Sports shooting mode, and then press the Live View shooting button on the back of the camera. A live view of the scene appears on the LCD.

If you don’t want to use Live View mode, then skip to Step 2 without pressing the Live View button. The advantage of using Live View is you get an approximation of the Lighting or Scene type effect. The disadvantage is that it will be hard to see the effect on the LCD in bright light.

2. Press the Q button to display the Quick Control screen, and then press the up or down on the Multi-controller to highlight Default setting. Be sure the text at the bottom of the screen says Shoot by lighting or scene type.

3. Press left or right on the Multi-controller to select the Lighting type you want. You can also select the Lighting type by turning the Quick Control dial. If you’re using Live View the preview scene on the LCD changes to reflect the setting you choose. If the color does not appear accurate, choose another lighting type until it does.

4. In Live View, press the Q button, and then compose, focus, and make the picture. If you are not using Live View, use the viewfinder to compose, focus, and make the image.

Setting a Custom white balance

Setting a Custom white balance adjusts image color precisely for the light that is in the scene. Custom white balance is the ticket for getting the most accurate color in scenes with a mix of different types of light and in scenes where the light doesn’t match any of the preset White Balance settings. You can set a Custom white balance in P, Tv, Av, M, and B shooting modes, and in Movie mode.

The following steps show you how to set a Custom white balance. A word of caution is in order, though. You must complete all these steps to ensure the Custom white balance is used by the camera.

1. Set the camera to P, Av, Tv, M, or B, and ensure that the Picture Style is not set to Monochrome and that a Creative Filter isn’t applied.

Creative Filters are detailed later in this chapter.

2. In the same light that is used for the subject, position a piece of unlined white paper so that it fills the center of the viewfinder, and take a picture. If the camera cannot focus, switch the lens to Manual Focus (MF) and focus on the paper, if your lens has a MF switch. Also ensure that the exposure is neither underexposed nor overexposed, such as by having Exposure Compensation set.

3. On the Shooting 2 menu tab press up or down on the Multi-controller to highlight Custom White Balance, and then press the SET button. The camera displays the last image captured (the white piece of paper) with a Custom white balance icon in the upper-left corner of the display. If the image of the white paper is not displayed, turn the Quick Control dial until it is.

4. Press the SET button again. The 60D displays a confirmation screen asking if you want to use the white balance data from this image for the Custom white balance.

5. Turn the Quick Control dial to choose OK, and then press the SET button. A second screen appears, reminding you to set the white balance to Custom.

6. Press the SET button one last time, and then press the shutter button to dismiss the menu. The camera imports the white balance data from the selected image and returns to the Shooting 2 menu.

7. Press the Q button, press the Multi-controller to select White Balance setting, and then turn the Quick Control dial until the Custom white balance icon is displayed. The Custom white balance icon is denoted by two triangles on their sides with a black square between them. The Custom white balance remains in effect until you change it by or switching to a Basic Zone shooting mode.

If you cannot use the Quick Control dial, press the Unlock button under the dial first.

When you finish shooting in the light for which you set the Custom white balance, be sure to reset the White Balance option.

Setting a specific color temperature

Anytime you know the color temperature of the light in the scene, you can set that temperature using the K White Balance option. For example, I know that the temperature of my studio lights is 5300K, and so I use the K White Balance setting to set this temperature. I can continue shooting without further adjustments to the white balance because the light temperature remains constant. You can set the specific color temperature in the range of 2500K to 10,000K in 100K increments.

Here is how to set a specific color temperature for the K White Balance setting:

1. With the camera set to P, Tv, Av, M, or B, press the Q button, and then press the Multi-controller to highlight White Balance.

2. Press the SET button. The White Balance screen appears.

3. Turn the Quick Control dial to highlight the K option. If you have previously changed the temperature for the K White Balance setting, the screen reflects the last used temperature.

4. Turn the Main dial to the left to decrease the color temperature number or to the right to increase it, and then press the SET button. The Quick Control screen appears, with the white balance K displayed.

If you use a color temperature meter, you may need to do some testing to adjust readings to compensate for differences between the camera’s temperature settings and the meter’s reading.

Fine-tuning white balance

With the range of different types of lights both for household and commercial use, it is difficult to get accurate color. And even in images where the color is accurate, you may want a warmer or cooler rendering than a preset White Balance option provides. To compensate for differences in specific light temperatures and to fine-tune a preset White Balance setting, you can use one of two options: White Balance Auto Bracketing or White Balance Correction. You can adjust White Balance in P, Tv, Av, M, Bulb, and C shooting modes.

Both the bracketing and correction options enable you to bias image color in much the same way that a color-correction filter does when you are shooting film.

Using White Balance Auto Bracketing

White Balance Auto Bracketing, displayed on the camera as BKT, biases the color toward magenta/green or blue/amber. White Balance Auto Bracketing works much like exposure bracketing does: You take a set of three images that vary the color toward a blue/amber or magenta/green bias at +3 levels in one-step increments.

As you would expect, White Balance Auto Bracketing reduces the camera’s maximum burst rate by one-third. You can combine exposure bracketing with White Balance Auto Bracketing. If you do this, a total of nine images are recorded for each shot. This is a way to not only fill up a memory card quickly, but also to slow down shooting to a crawl. However, in scenes that you can’t re-create and where image color is critical, both exposure and White Balance Auto Bracketing can be good insurance.

White Balance Auto Bracketing and White Balance Correction involve similar steps. See the steps in the next section to set White Balance Auto Bracketing.

Using White Balance Correction

White Balance Correction sets a single and specific color bias rather than bracketing in multiple directions as White Balance Auto Bracketing does. This is the technique to use when you know the shift and the amount that is needed to get the image color you want. White Balance Correction is similar to using color-compensation and color-correction filters with film, with the advantage that you don’t need to buy and carry multiple filters.

You can correct color in any of four directions: blue, green, amber, and magenta. Each level of color shift is equivalent of 5 mireds of a color temperature conversion filter. A mired is a unit of measure that indicates the density of a color temperature conversion filter.

To set either White Balance Auto Bracketing or White Balance Correction, follow these steps:

1. On the Shooting 2 tab, highlight WB SHIFT/BKT, and then press the SET button. The WB correction/WB bracketing screen appears.

2. To set White Balance Correction, press the Multi-controller to set the bias you want. As you press the Multi-controller, a tick mark indicates the direction and amount of correction. The bracketing amount is also displayed under the Shift display.

To set White Balance Auto Bracketing, turn the Quick Control dial in the direction of the shift you want. As you turn the dial, the tick mark changes to three tick marks indicating the amount of bracketing. The direction and amount of bracketing is displayed in the Bracket section. You can also press up, down, left, or right on the Multi-controller to bias the bracketing toward Green, Blue, Magenta, or Amber.

3. Press the SET button. If you change your mind and want to start over, press the INFO. button. Bracketed images are taken with the Standard white balance first, followed by the blue (or magenta) bias, and then the amber (or green) bias.

Working with Picture Styles

Picture Styles are digital versions of the different “looks” just as various films provide different looks. For example, some portrait film is characterized by its subdued color and contrast while other film is known for producing saturated blues and greens and snappy contrast. As films offer various characteristics, Picture Styles produce unique looks. You can set Picture Styles in P, Tv, Av, M, and Bulb shooting modes.

If you shoot RAW capture, you can’t print images directly from the SD/SDHC card, but you can apply Picture Styles either in the camera using in-camera RAW conversion or during RAW image conversion on the computer using the Canon Digital Photo Professional conversion program.

Behind each Picture Style are parameters that set the tonal curve, color rendering and saturation, and sharpness for the images that you shoot with the 60D. The default Picture Style is Standard, and it is characterized by snappy contrast, vivid colors, and moderate-to-high saturation. Picture Styles are described in Table 4.1. Default settings are listed in order of sharpness, contrast, color saturation, and color tone.

Table 4.1 EOS 60D Picture Styles
Picture Style	Description	Contrast	Color saturation	Default settings
Standard	Vivid, sharp, crisp.	Higher contrast	Medium-high saturation.	3, 0, 0, 0
Portrait	Enhanced skin tones, soft texture rendering, low sharpness.	Higher contrast	Medium saturation, rosy skin tones.	2, 0, 0, 0
Landscape	Vivid blues and greens, high sharpness.	Higher contrast	High saturation for greens/blues.	4, 0, 0, 0
Neutral	Allows latitude for conversion and processing with low saturation and contrast.	Subdued contrast	Low saturation, neutral color rendering.	0, 0, 0, 0
Faithful	True rendition of colors with no increase in specific colors. No sharpness applied.	Subdued contrast	Low saturation, calorimetrically accurate.	0, 0, 0, 0
Monochrome	Black-and-white or toned images with slightly heightened sharpness.	High contrast	Yellow, Orange, Red, and Green Filter effects are available. Sepia, Blue, Purple, and Green Toning effects are also available.	3, 0, NA, NA

In the Monochrome Picture Style, only the sharpness and contrast parameters are adjustable, but you can add toning effects, as detailed in the sidebar. In Basic Zone shooting modes, the 60D automatically selects the Picture Style, which you cannot change. However, in these modes, you can apply Ambience selections to change the appearance of the image.

Whether you modify an existing style or create one of your own, the 60D provides good latitude in setting parameters with seven adjustment levels for sharpness, and eight levels of adjustments for contrast, saturation, and color tone. Picture Styles are designed to produce classic looks that need little or no post-processing so that you can print JPEG images directly from the SD/SDHC card. If you shoot RAW capture, you can’t print images directly from the SD/SDHC card, but you can apply Picture Styles either in the camera or during conversion using the Canon Digital Photo Professional conversion program. You can alternatively choose to convert RAW images in the camera, and then you can print the resulting JPEG directly from the camera.

You can also use the Picture Style Editor to modify and save changes to Picture Styles for captured images. The Picture Style Editor is included on the Canon EOS Digital Solution Disk that comes with the camera, and it is described later in this chapter.

Choosing and customizing Picture Styles

To get the color, contrast, and saturation results you want out of the camera, you can customize Picture Styles to suit your creative vision. And if one of the preset Picture Styles isn’t quite to your liking, you can change the settings or parameters to modify it. You can choose Picture Styles when you’re shooting in P, Tv, Av, M, and B shooting modes.

Figures 4.11 through 4.16 show the results you can expect using several different Picture Styles as compared to the Standard Picture Style. Here are the parameters that you can change for each Picture Style.

Sharpness: 0 to 7. Level 0 (zero) applies no sharpening and renders a very soft look (due largely to the anti-aliasing filter in front of the image sensor that helps ward off various problems, including moiré, spectral highlights, and chromatic aberrations).

At high sharpness levels, images are suitable for direct printing from the memory card. However, if you edit images on the computer before printing, then use a low level and sharpen images in an image-editing program.

Contrast: –4 to +4. The Contrast parameter represents the image’s tonal curve. If the setting is too high, image pixels can be clipped (clipping discards highlight and/or shadow pixels). A negative adjustment produces a flatter look but helps to prevent clipping.

Saturation: –4 to +4. This setting affects the strength or intensity of the color with a negative setting, producing low saturation, and vice versa. As with the Contrast parameter, a high Saturation setting can cause individual color channels to clip. A +1 or +2 setting is adequate for snappy JPEG images destined for direct printing.

For images that you edit on the computer, a 0 (zero) setting allows ample latitude for post-capture edits.

Color Tone: –4 to +4. This setting modifies the hue of the image. Negative settings produce tones that are more red and more blue, while positive settings produce tones that are more yellow.

To select a Picture Style, follow these steps.

1. With the Mode dial set to P, Tv, Av, M, or B, press the Q button. The Quick Control screen appears.

2. Press the Multi-controller to highlight the Picture Style icon, and then turn the Main dial to select the style you want. The Picture Style icon has a circular icon with the first letter of the Picture Style next to it, such an S for Standard. The Picture Style remains in effect until you change it or switch to an automatic shooting mode such as Portrait or Landscape.

After evaluating and printing with different Picture Styles, you may want to adjust the default parameters to get a rendition that is more pleasing to your eye. You can also create up to three custom Picture Styles based on an existing style.

4.16 This image was taken using the Faithful Picture Style, which works well with studio lights that are color balanced to 5200K. Exposure: ISO 100, f/20, 1/125 second.

For most of my photography, I use a modified Neutral Picture Style. I use this modified style for a couple of reasons: First, I always edit images on the computer and this style gives me latitude in interpreting the color tone and saturation of images; and, second, for portraits, the modified Neutral Picture Style creates subdued, lovely skin tones with pleasing contrast that I can adjust as necessary.

Here is how I set the modified Neutral Picture Style for my work. These settings work best when the lighting isn’t flat and the image isn’t underexposed. The settings are Sharpness +2, Contrast +1, Saturation +1, and Color tone 0.

To modify a Picture Style, follow these steps:

1. With the Mode dial set to P, Tv, Av, M, or B, highlight Picture Style on the Shooting 2 menu.

2. Press the SET button. The Picture Style screen appears.

3. Press the Multi-controller to select the Picture Style you want to modify, and then press the INFO. button. The Detail set. screen for the selected style appears.

4. Press down on the Multi-controller to select the parameter you want to adjust, and then press the SET button. The camera activates the control.

5. Press the Multi-controller to the left or right to change the parameter setting, and then press the SET button. Negative settings decrease sharpness, contrast, and saturation, and positive settings provide higher sharpness, contrast, and saturation. Negative color tone settings provide reddish skin tones, and positive settings provide yellowish skin tones.

6. Turn the Quick Control dial to select the next parameter, and then press the SET button.

7. Repeat Steps 5 and 6 to change additional parameters.

8. Press the Menu button. The modifications are saved and remain in effect until you change them. The Picture Style selection screen appears.

Registering a new Picture Style

If you want a greater range of Picture Styles for your work on the 60D, you can create three User-Defined styles. Each style is based on one of the Canon Picture Styles, and you can modify the style to suit your preferences. With this approach, you can retain the preset Picture Styles, either unchanged or modified, and you can have three additional modified (or User-Defined) styles to extend your style choices.

You can take several approaches to create new styles. Depending on your needs, you can use the preset and User-Defined Picture Styles in several ways. You can use each of the three User-Defined styles for specific scenes or places in which you shoot often. For example, you can set up one style for nature and landscape shooting (a modification of the Landscape or Standard style), one for studio portraits (a modification of the Portrait style), and one for a sports arena (a modification of the Standard style). Or you can use the User-Defined style for a style that you create using the Canon Picture Style Editor, a program included on the EOS Digital Solution Disk that comes with the camera. This technique is described in the next section of this chapter.

Here’s how to create and register a User-Defined Picture Style:

1. With the Mode dial set to P, Tv, Av, M, or B, highlight Picture Style in the Shooting 2 menu.

2. Press the SET button. The Picture Style screen appears.

3. Press down on the Multi-controller to select User Def. 1, and then press the INFO. button. The Detail Set screen for the selected style appears.

4. Press the SET button. The camera activates the base Picture Style control.

5. Press up or down on the Multi-controller to select a base Picture Style, and then press the SET button. You can select any of the preset Picture Styles, such as Standard, Portrait, and so on, as the base style.

6. Press up or down on the Multi-controller to select a parameter, such as Sharpness, and then press the SET button. The camera activates the parameter’s control.

7. Press left or right on the Multi-controller to set the level of change, and then press the SET button.

8. Repeat Steps 6 and 7 to change the remaining parameters. The remaining parameters are Contrast, Saturation, and Color tone.

9. Press the Menu button to register the style. The Picture Style selection screen appears. The base Picture style is displayed to the right of User Def. 1. This Picture Style remains in effect until you change it.

You can repeat these steps to set up User Def. 2 and 3 styles.

Using the Picture Style Editor

Choosing and modifying Picture Styles requires a good deal of experimentation to determine the modifications you like best. A more efficient way to fine-tune Picture Styles is by using the Picture Style Editor, a program included on the EOS Digital Solution Disk.

Canon offers a more efficient approach to fine-tuning Picture Styles: the Picture Style Editor. This program enables you to apply a Picture Style to a RAW image, and then modify the style on the computer, where you can watch the effects of the changes. Once you have perfected your modified style, you can install it in the 60D.

Because the goal of working with the Picture Style Editor is to create a Picture Style file that you can register and use in the camera, the adjustments that you make to the RAW image are not applied to the image. Rather, the adjustments are saved as a file with .pf2 extension, and then you use the EOS Utility to register the file in the camera and apply it to images. You can also apply the style in Digital Photo Professional after saving the settings as a PF2 file. Additionally, if you use more than one Canon EOS dSLR, you can register the style and use it on all your cameras. Instructions for using the Picture Style Editor are included on the EOS Solutions disk that comes with the camera. In addition to creating your own styles, you can download additional Picture Styles from the Canon Web site at web.canon.jp/imaging/picturestyle/index.html.

Adding Ambience and Creative Filter Effects

With the 60D, you have new options to apply in-camera image processing for creative color and image effects. The Ambience options are available in select automatic shooting modes. But if you want to add a Creative Filter, you can do so in any of the shooting modes, including Movie mode. And Creative Filters can be applied to RAW images, except M-RAW and S-RAW images. Then the RAW images are processed in the camera and saved as a JPEG file.

Used separately or together, these color and image effect options give you opportunities for printing creatively rendered and finished images straight from the SD card.

Using Ambience options

Ambience settings are somewhat like Picture Styles, but with a much more pronounced effect. You can apply Ambience settings only when you’re shooting in CA, Portrait, Landscape, Close-up, Sports, or Night Portrait modes. Once you choose an Ambience option, you can apply it at a Low, Standard, or Strong setting.

Here are the Ambience options you can select:

Standard. The default setting has punchy contrast and color.

Vivid. At the Standard level, this setting punches up the colors and sharpness.

Soft. This option decreases color saturation and intensity as well as overall contrast. This is a good choice for portraits of women and children.

Warm. This setting adds a noticeable shift to more prominent yellows and reds.

Intense. Just as the name implies, this setting makes saturation and contrast pronounced and the colors slightly cooler (more bluish) as compared with colors produced by Standard. This is not the option to use if you want to show good detail in the shadows.

Cool. This option delivers extremely blue skies and a cool (bluish) tint in foliage. The contrast and color saturation are both higher than in the Standard setting.

Brighter. This setting lightens the image overall, including opening up shadow detail. It is a reasonable option for a scene or subject with predominately light tones; in other words, a high-key scene or subject.

Darker. This setting creates a darker image with snappy contrast.

Monochrome. This option offers a blue, sepia, and black-and-white option. The black-and-white option delivers bright whites and deep blacks with moderate overall contrast.

If you check the exposure settings for Ambience effects, you can see how the effect is achieved in most cases. I include the exposure that the camera automatically set for Figures 18 through 26. In other Ambience effects, the 60D increases or decreases the saturation and contrast, just as can be done when using Picture Styles. A word of warning is in order. Some styles such as Brighter can cause blown highlights, so use them with care.

To apply an Ambience setting, follow these steps.

1. Set the Mode dial to CA, Portrait, Landscape, Close-up, Sports, or Night Portrait shooting mode, and then press the Live View shooting button on the back of the camera. A live view of the scene appears on the LCD.

If you don’t want to use Live View mode to set the Ambience, then skip to Step 2 without pressing the Live View button. The advantage of using Live View is that you get an approximation of the Ambience effect. The disadvantage of using Live View is that it will be hard to see the effect on the LCD in bright light.

2. Press the Q button to display the Quick Control screen, and then press up or down on the Multi-controller to highlight Standard setting. The text Shoot by ambience selection appears at the bottom of the LCD screen.

3. Press left or right on the Multi-controller to select the Ambience option you want. The preview scene on the LCD changes to approximate the look of adding the Ambience effect.

4. Press down on the Multi-controller to select Effect level, and then press left or right to set the strength: Low, Standard, or Strong. The text at the bottom of the LCD shows the current selection.

5. Compose, focus, and make the image.

Applying Creative Filters

To add some fun and creative punch to your images, the 60D offers four filters: Grainy B/W (Black and White), Soft focus, Toy camera effect, and Miniature effect. The filters are applied after image capture, and then saved as a new file, leaving the original image unchanged. Because the filters are applied in the camera, you can print a finished file directly from the media card.

There are a few restrictions when applying Creative Filters. You can apply them to JPEG and full-resolution RAW images shot in all shooting modes, but you can’t apply them to the smaller M-RAW and S-RAW images. If you shoot RAW+JPEG images, the filter is applied to the RAW image, and then it’s converted to and it will be saved as a JPEG file. If you shoot M- or S-RAW+JPEG, the filter is applied to the JPEG image.

Here are the Creative Filters you can select:

Grainy B/W. This filter creates a classic high-grain look of older black-and-white images. You can adjust the contrast.

Soft focus. This filter adds a soft blur, and you can adjust the amount or strength of the blur.

Toy camera effect. This filter replicates the popular Holga- and Diana-camera look that includes a color shift and vignetting, a darkening of the image corners. You can adjust the color tone and colorcast.

Miniature effect. This filter mimics the effect of a diorama, a sort of miniature, three-dimensional visual illusion introduced in 1821 by Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre. You can press the INFO. button to change the orientation of the white frame that indicates which area of the image will be sharp.

To apply a Creative Filter, follow these steps:

1. On the Playback 1 menu tab, highlight Creative filters, and then press the SET button. The last captured image appears. To move to a different image, press left or right on the Multi-controller. If you have many images on the card, press the Index button on the back right of the camera to display multiple images on the screen, which you can scroll through using the Multi-controller or Quick Control dial.

2. Select the image you want, and then press the SET button. The Creative Filter options are displayed at the bottom of the image preview.

3. Press left or right on the Multi-controller to select the filter, and then press the SET button. The filter is applied to the image and the level of the effect is displayed.

4. Press left or right on the Multi-controller to adjust the effect, and then press the SET button. The camera displays the option to save the image as a new file.

With the Miniature effect, you can move the frame between horizontal and vertical orientation by pressing the INFO. button. And you can press up, down, left, or right on the Multi-controller to move the frame to the area of the image that will appear sharp. Then press the SET button.

5. Select OK to save the image as a new JPEG. The image is saved and the camera displays a message noting the folder and image number for the new image file.

6. Press the SET button to confirm the message.

4.27 This image has the Grainy B/W filter applied.

4.28 This image has the Miniature effect filter applied.

4.29 This image has the Toy camera effect filter applied.

4.30 This image has the Soft focus filter applied.