PICTURE STYLE on CANON EOS 650 for later Post Production work

Hey guys
I am fairly new to editing with FCP and gone straight in with X.
So far , so good compared to Corel VideoStudio
I am about to embark on a fairly serious video project in Arizona - its a short video western.
I will be shooting all my video footage on a CANON EOS 650 D / REBEL T4i
I am just wondering what settings to use as the basis for my PICTURE STYLE on the camera to enable best choices during editing on FCPX.
Should I stick with NEUTRAL as many pros seem to suggest and apply changes in Post production - 0f which I am quite a novice in - or should I opt for something like a consistent LANDSCAPE setting on Daylight White Balance.
Am I am able to be as creative with filters etc in Post Production if I shoot ALL my original footage in say LANDSCAPE first?
Should I stick with AUTO WB or do a WB check every 2 hours or so bearing in mind I will be shooting from 7am to sunset.?
Any tips , suggestions, ideas would be great so thanks for reading and in anticipation of any replies.
Paul

"Should I stick with AUTO WB or do a WB check every 2 hours or so bearing in mind I will be shooting from 7am to sunset.?"

If you're not shooting time lapse, I'd advise adjusting your white balance with each shot (or as frequently as you can.)

"Am I am able to be as creative with filters etc in Post Production if I shoot ALL my original footage in say LANDSCAPE first?"

I'm unclear. What look are you trying to achieve? Shooting neutral may provide some latitude grading wise, but only if you're shooting footage that allows you to take advantage of it in post.

You have 2 basic choices:

1) Get the image neutral, for heavy grading in post. This will make your post job a lot longer (heavier rendering).

2) Treat the camera like a film stock, and bake the look in. You need to be sure you are happy with the look before you film (run some test shots). This will require more work testing, but less work in post. The setting 'Faithful' gives that classic Canon DSLR look that everyone seems to like. I shoot a lot of my stuff this way.

Depending on which choice you prefer, I can post some stuff up to help.

No matter which you choose; make sure you always white balance the camera (no auto). But, although a lot of people will consider this heresy, the standard WB settings in the Canon cameras are not too bad (the Daylight one works when you're in a rush and so on).

Thanks to you both. Really appreciate the advice.

Thats what I need to decide on I know - whether to shoot NEUTRAL or FAITHFUL and do lots of PP work or try and get it "baked" in with a style like either LANDSCAPE or Define one myself.
I hear that a good Used Defined setting should be used throughout and something that keeps Saturation and Sharpness down.

I take the point about doing a WB every shot or at least every hour or so - I guess more important at sunrise, midmorning, ono, mid afternoon, late afternoon and sunset and then dusk.

So, to "bake" in or leave as Faithful?
if you have some video tests that would be really helpful.
Thanks again
Paul

If you won't be doing the editing/grading, I'd suggest having the conversation with your post team now rather than later after the damage is already done.

But in either case, I'd suggest doing a lot of tests of your own now. Shoot, grade and compare. I'm tempted to say shoot it neutral, but without having more information, I don't know how well that advice would serve you.

Thanks.

I am shooting in Arizona in late May / early June. It will be hot, the sun will be high and we will be working from 7am to 7pm.
Its a short 8 minute video western and I want to try and capture that rich, classic warm feel but not overly saturated and not at all cold.
I am working pretty much alone and will be doing the directing, DOP and editing and PP when I get back to the UK.
I went for a trial run with my 650D 4 weeks ago and did come away with a fair amount of footage- most of it in LANDSCAPE setting, but I am now even more confused than I was before I went!
I am relatively new to editing with FCPX and am still working my way around all the numerous functions / settings / controls etc.
I know ultimately it will be my decision so I guess it may well be either FAITHFUL or NEUTRAL with loads of PP and rendering after.
I guess at least this way I can still "create" my LANDSCAPE look if that is what I am after, rather than trying to change original footage shot on LANDSCAPE into PORTRAIT ??
But any advice you can spare I will always read and consider, so once again, thanks.

Faithful, Landscape, Portrait etc are all 'baked-in' looks. Basically you select a preset look, tweak it a bit, and then you pretty much accept that as the look you will have for your movie. Its like using old film-stocks. You do minimal post work, very little grading. But you do lots of tests to be sure you're happy with the baked in look.

The alternative is to make the image as neutral in the camera as possible, that way you can grade it in post easier. For this you want to have a very neutral look to begin with (so the image is going to look fairly rubbish in the camera).

For the most Neutral Setting, you should investigate the Technicolor Cinestyle Profile that was developed specifically for canon DSLR's. This gives you a very good starting position for aggressive grading. But you better know what you're doing if you decide to go down this route:

www.technicolorcinestyle.com/download/

If that seems a little too daunting then you can consider this alternative setting that does the same job as Cinestyle, but you do it directly in camera (this is for the 5D but the concept is fundamentally the same):

prolost.com/flat

Similar reasoning here:

kriskoster.com/2012/09/best-settings-for-canon-5d-mark-iii/

But you need to test all of this in your own camera, shoot footage, come back and grade it. Keep doing it until you find a setting that works for you.

And lastly, some settings here (dealing more with baked in looks):

www.eoshd.com/5d-mark-iii-settings-vault

He says "The picture profile Faithful is typical Canon – a nicely warm image which is cinematic. Neutral is similarly cinematic but without the warmer hue. Portrait brings too much noise into the image, Landscape is too electronic looking. Technicolor CineStyle I find usually gives a compressed tonal range which leads to some ugliness of not handled carefully at the grading stage. Use Faithful or Neutral for great results out of the box and for convenience."

I agree with his summary on the 'Faithful' setting; its that typical warm Canon look that everyone seems to like.

Once again - I am indebted to you.
I will read and digest and then on the next bright - even sunny - day here in UK I will go out and test , test , test!!

This was one of the 1st short movies shot on the 5dmk3, by Neumann Films (they do a lot of DSLR work - right now they are the guys experimenting with getting a 14 Bit Raw Cinema DNG signal out of the 5D - exciting development!). Anyway, they happened to have shot a western movie. The interesting thing is for such a switched on company, they decided to shoot this Western in.....drumroll.......'Faithful'.

Seriously, for an out-of-the-box warm cinematic look, Faithful is hard to beat.

Heres the movie:



Info here:


As far as I know one of the first dramatic shorts using the Canon 5D Mark III.
Conceived, Filmed, Edited, and Uploaded in 8 days with a crew of three people.
Copelandia is a short film about addiction, in it's many forms.
Check out the Behind the Scenes on our YouTube channel, Neumann Films:
youtube.com/watch?v=0xm_Ne0mkUw&list=PL23F06C879788700E&feature=plpp_play_all

Filmed on the Canon 5D Mark III
Nikkor Ai-s 50mm f 1.2 and 28mm f 2.8
Faithful Picture Style
24p All-I Codec
Fader ND Filter
5 in 1 Reflector Kit
Dynamic Perceptions Stage Zero Dolly
Juiced Link Box
Rode NTG-3

Simon

Again - many thanks. That short western looks beautiful and one that I would aspire that mine might be half as good.
I will check the other one out late
Paul

Having just viewed the video again I am quite impressed with the "FAITHFUL" style.
Do you know how much treatment the video took in PP to get that effect.
Not quite as rich as I would be after in Arizona but a really nice look for a "western" .

There would have been some color correction certainly; the skin tones are all very good in that film.

But I don't think someone would choose 'Faithful' with the idea of doing a lot of color correction because it will have already baked in a lot of color that would be difficult to change. So the Faithful preset will get you in the ballpark that you want, and then a minimal amount of tweaking should get the final result.

Choosing Faithful is one thing though; then you still have to tweak the settings in camera to your liking, and then add in sharpness and whatever CC you need in post.

OK Simon - so the deal is simple.
If I shoot in NEUTRAL I will have loads of scope to be creative - AND loads of work to do - in Post Production.
Which I assume means looking at each individual shot ( maybe 200 in my short video) and adjusting them individually for colour, exposure, contrast, saturation etc.
I assume that it would not be "professional" to put one colour effect over the whole footage for a uniform look. Now that I have typed it I realise how daft that sounds!

Whereas if I "bake" in a look with, lets say LANDSCAPE, my look will be uniform throughout the whole footage, but I have less scope to correct errors in say contrast and exposure?

The other thing I need to check regularly is WHITE BALANCE - ideally every shot, but at lease every 30 mins or so?
I assume that this will be vital if I also want to keep a constant look to my day's shooting if I am trying to convince the audience that all the action is happening in say one hour or real time, when in fact I am shooting all the footage between 7am and 5pm. If the WB is left unchecked it will have different colour temperatures at different times of the day ?
AS for shadows??? Just need to ensure I don't show them!

Thanks again - hopefully your reply will wrap this up for.
I am out on Tuesday - looks like a fine sunny day - to test! Wish me luck!

Yup, thats about the size of it.

Either choose Neutral (and lower all the settings including sharpness in camera) - this way you will be shooting Prolost Flat, which is a good starting point for grading. Lots of grading. For every shot.

Or shoot a preset you like in camera (often Faithful, but Landscape will do if thats what you like) - and still tweak the settings in camera to your liking. Then minimal grading. For every shot.

White Balance either way.

Good luck!