New dSLRs continue to provide viable in-camera photo processing options. That’s right; you don’t always need to download the photo to your computer and slave over a photo editing application for hours trying to perfect a look. The Canon EOS 60D is no exception, with, among other things, robust support for Canon’s Picture Style solution.
The 60D comes with six base Picture Styles to work with (Standard, Portrait, Landscape, Neutral, Faithful, and Monochrome), and you have three “slots” where you can save your own variations (User Def. 1, 2, and 3).
The two steps of creating custom Picture Styles are customizing Picture Styles and registering (saving) the result to User Def. 1, 2, or 3.
To adjust an existing style, follow these steps:
Set the Mode dial to a mode in the Creative Zone.
Yes, you must set the Mode Dial to P, Tv, Av, M, B, or C to work with Picture Styles.
Press Menu and navigate to Shooting Menu 2.
Scroll down to Picture Style and press Set.
Use the Quick Control dial or the multicontroller to scroll down and select a base Picture Style.
This is the style you will work from and modify.
The Landscape Picture Style is selected in this figure but it hasn't been activated yet (by pressing Set). That means the current style (in this case, Standard) is blue.
Press Info.
You see all the options listed: Sharpness, Contrast, Saturation, and Color Tone.
Select as option from the list and then press Set.
Use the Quick Control dial or multicontroller to adjust the option, and press Set.
Despite what you see onscreen, press Set, or the settings won't be saved.
To quickly return all the settings to their default values, select Default Set and then press Set.
Press Menu to return to the Picture Style screen.
Changes are shown in blue (in the Landscape row).
Remember that you always base your style on an existing style, and then make changes. To then register (save) a new style to User Def. 1, 2, or 3, follow these steps:
Set the Mode dial to a mode in the Creative Zone.
Press Menu and navigate to Shooting Menu 2.
Scroll down to Picture Style and press Set.
Use the Quick Control dial or the multicontroller to scroll down and select one of the three User Def. presets. Then press Info.
That’s right: Press Info. You’ve been trained to press Set a lot to navigate the menus and select options, but Picture Styles often use Info.
If you want to base your setting on an existing style (other than the one visible), highlight Picture Style and then press Set.
Select a new style by scrolling through the options with the Quick Control dial or the multicontroller.
Scroll to the options you want to modify and change them, as in Steps 7 and 8 in the preceding list.
Press Menu to register the Picture Style.
The name of the amended style that the user style was based on appears in the Picture Style menu and is shown in blue if it has been changed from the original setting.