Digital Camera World - UK (2019-10)

56 DIGITAL CAMERA^ OCTOBER 2019 http://www.digitalcameraworld.com

CAMERA COLLEGE

called Picture Styles; Nikon cameras have

Picture Controls; and on Sony cameras,

it’s Creative Styles. There is some variation

in the numbers and results of these presets

between different manufacturers, too.

They all tend to offer the same core set

of options, though, ranging from a standard

colour setting to a black-and-white one,

and profiles tailored to both portrait

and landscape photography.

Despite some of the picture processing

presets sharing the same name as a

camera’s automatic shooting modes,

they only affect the look of your pictures

or movies and have no control over other

camera settings. For instance, if you select

the Portrait shooting mode, your camera

essentially becomes a point-and-shoot,

with everything from the autofocus to

the exposure being decided for you.

But all that the Portrait picture preset

does is adjust the colour tone and

reduce the sharpness to produce

softer, more flattering skin tones.

In addition to using the default presets,

you can choose to customise the settings

or develop your own mix of sharpening,

colour and contrast, and save these as

a new preset. Some cameras allow you

to adjust the parameters separately to

the main profiles. For instance, Fujifilm

cameras offer ready-made profiles based

on their classic films, such as Velvia and

Provia. But as well as selecting the Film

Simulation, you can tweak the colour

and sharpness elsewhere.

Despite some of the

presets sharing the

same name as a camera’s

shooting modes, they

have no control over

other camera settings

What processing settings are

available through your camera?

Here are some of the core digital treatments that you can override and change manually

White balance

Remove colour casts –

or add them for

creative effects.

Noise reduction

Cut long-exposure

and high-ISO

image noise.

Colour

Tweak saturation

and colour (for

better skin tones).

B&W filters

Apply digital filters for

punchier results with

mono images.

Contrast

Reveal more detail

with low contrast,

or go bold.

Sharpening

Too much can lead to

haloes around edges

and a ‘digital’ look.