Marvelcine or the Philip Bloom picture style for T2i

T

tackyattack

Active member
So, I have a T2i and want to increase the dynamic range by flattening the image coming from the camera to make it more like raw, thus making it easier to color grade/correct. My questions is, should I use Philip Bloom's picture style or marvelcine. Which one gives you more to work with? I have heard somewhere that marvelcine goes too far and makes it not sharp.
Thanks!
 
I use Phillp Bloom's. I tried all the styles you can download and they all looked good-in certain conditions. Philip's on the other had I found to be much more versatile. I can go from a controlled indoor shoot to outside in natural light and use it. No style change needed.
 
Could you shoot me the link to Phillip Bloom's T2i picture style? I googled it and could not find it. Thanks.
 
Start with Neutral
Sharpness all the way down
Contrast all the way down
Saturation down 2 notches

In post, you'll want to add some sharpening. I cut in Vegas and master in After Effects. In AE I add Sharpening between 15 and 20
 
One thing I have never understood, is why you reduce saturation. With the limited amount of data that the camera uses to record the color information, I don't get why you would get rid of it when recording, when saturation is such an easy thing to reduce in post. Adding saturation is much more difficult to get right after the fact. I understand reducing contrast, but the saturation reduction has always baffled me.
 
I've found that I get a better image for grading with the Saturation turned down, which is really the point of shooting with these flattening styles in the first place-to get a better grading image. I discovered that if I left saturation back up, I was having to pull out color after I started grading. There's just too much. Using Philip's settings, It's just about perfect for grading with Curves.
 
Saturation is related to contrast. By lowering the saturation somewhat, you are also lowering the contrast a bit more, which further increases your dynamic range.

I would also recommend the Philip Bloom settings over any of the custom ones as well. However, I would also recommend doing your own tests between the Neutral picture style and the Faithful picture style. Neutral is supposed to have the best dynamic range, but Faithful is supposed to have the most accurate color representation. With contrast at -4 and saturation at -2, the dynamic range between the two is similar, and I've had better luck getting Faithful to look right afterward, especially on skin tones.
 
tackyattack said:
What is the reason for turning Sharpness all the way down?
Click to expand...

The Sharpness control in the camera just digitally increases contrast between adjacent pixels. If you are familiar with the sharpen tools in programs like Photoshop, it's the same idea. By having sharpness at 0, you are using the camera's natural sharpness.
 
One thing about sharpness, with different picture styles, the 'lowest numeral' or whatnot is different for each - thats why any settings on neutral will always be flattest. And with sharpness, is there a chance that the lowest numeral on neutral - 0 - is actually past the point of "natural" for the camera, like if it was actually adding a blur effect stronger than what the sensor naturally captures? I hate moire as much as the next person, but I sure don't want the good details to be diminished any more than they need be.
 
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