Custom image settings

As with all machines there are bits of them that you rarely look at or adjust.

An example of this for me is the custom image. I shoot jpeg and have the image set to natural.

Does anyone have use the other options? Do you change the setting regularly and does it really make a difference?


Dave

Yes, it does make a difference. I usually use Natural as well, but I also use all the other options as and when needed. There are also lots of digital filters to play with.

I'm a jpeg shooter too and I use the default bright with EXS plus one for sharpness. I originally found the three sets of sharpness level confusing but happy with it now.

Post capture I tend to adjust brightness, contrast and sometimes clarlty as this seems to pop good images presumably to overcome the much discussed moire filter screen in my K5. I have been known to need to pull a shadow or two.

It is very rare for me to feel the need to go mess around in the RAW studio so only record original data for important projects. I try to get it right enough at the time. Amateur you see

If, I'm shooting jpeg, I too prefer natural but also CTE, I find bright loses a bit in the high end (Usually a RAW shooter so I'm a bit anal!) but pretty much all of them get used at some point, Landscape as it is with pretty much every camera I've ever shot can get a bit garish and yet sometimes it does a better job than I do when I get a RAW into Lightroom!

I generally agree with John and Bill.

I mostly shoot in the maximum size and quality JPEG file format, with the Custom Image usually on Natural, and +1 Contrast and +1 Sharpness. I find that, if exposure is controlled to keep the highlights within the histogram, those JPEGS can take quite extensive tweaking, if necessary, to give good quality photos up to A3 - the biggest I can print. Additionally, in some difficult lighting scenes, the Auto HDR Mode, with Auto Align, can produce useful JPEG files.

Cheers.
Philip

I've always thought of Camera JPEGs as essentially actually RAW images, but processed by the camera software and controls rather than by myself on a computer. Now with RAW files, I believe I get the best quality out of them by making all the key adjustments initially in the RAW converter software, working in 16bit, before I save them to a 'bitmap' type image file for any further work.

So, following the same belief, if shooting camera JPEGs, then I believe I will get the best quality out of them if the majority of the processing is carried out 'on the 16bit RAW' ... that means using the camera controls. So I think its important to take more control for each image or series of similar images, using the custom settings and fine tuning sliders to tailor the JPEG output very specifically to the style and image genre. This way all the key adjustments are actually being carried out from the RAW format (within the camera), and you are limiting the amount of additional adjustments needed in software later, which would have to be performed on the 8bit JPEG ... not as ideal.

So I guess I'm advocating an approach that says for best quality, you should not choose a set of 'your default' custom settings that you always use, and then edit more on the computer ... but rather you should consider each shooting situation and conditions, and specifically chose the best pre-set and fine tune on the camera before shooting ... otherwise you will not extract the absolute best quality JPEG output that the camera is capable of.

Nigel is right. I personally use the custom settings (five on my K5) to set optimailly as i can for Landscapes, action, night photos etc.

In turn the TAV mode has returned me to a much more manual deciding the best aperture, shutter speed first. The ISO can be of course restricted in range but (for me) gives a better chance of a quick shot than full manual.

Don't we have fascinating gear to learn to get the best out of?

I think that this is where the manual lets us down. They often show how to alter a setting but never demonstrate how and when you would use it plus the result. It would be useful to see the effect of the custom settings.

Dave