Picture Effects and Creative Styles on the Sony NEX-5N

I have wondered in passing about some of Sony's "Picture Effects" and "Creative Styles" in the past, but I typically shoot in RAW format.  When shooting in RAW, these modes aren't even available - they are grayed out in the menu.  The reason for this is that these are in-camera post processing effects, and JPG format is required.  The RAW photo that you take is converted to JPG and photo filters are applied before the camera saves the photo to your memory card.  So, it only makes sense that when shooting in RAW - a format in which the camera writes the unprocessed and uncompressed sensor data to a file - these modes aren't available.

I struggle a bit with understanding what the difference is between PE and CS.  I guess the difference is that PE are considered a basic set of filters, and CS allow you some degree of user control.  The Creative Styles each (aside from Black and White) allow you to control Contrast, Saturation, and Sharpness from -3 to +3 settings.  Black and White is slightly different because obviously there is no option to adjust saturation, but you can control the Contrast and Sharpness.

I wanted to set up a little still-life experiment where I could run through all the modes and see side-by-side images of these modes in use.

So, I did.

[Edit:  When I originally posted this yesterday, I slowly realized I was having some trouble with the way Blogger was displaying my images.  See this post about that, and understand that I've edited this post since then because I had to re-evaluate the images after fixing the issue.  Ok.  Onward!]

I shot in Manual mode with a speedlight in a softbox on camera right, and a reflector on camera left to fill in some shadows.  I used the golden side of the reflector to add a bit of warmth.  Camera settings were 1/15th, f3.5, and ISO 100.  The relatively slow shutter speed was to allow good exposure from the windows behind, while the flash illuminated the subjects.  I used my Minolta Celtic 135mm f3.5 lens for giggles.

Here's my BTS (Behind the Scenes) shot:

First, I took a shot in RAW format.  I was also curious about the difference between shooting in RAW vs. shooting in JPG.  I wondered what the quality difference would be.

Here is the RAW shot.

Converted from RAW to JPG in Adobe Camera RAW with no changes.

Converted from RAW to JPG in Adobe Camera RAW with changes that I typically make.  Small bumps to clarity, vibrance, saturation, curves, and sharpening.

Shot in JPG format. No Picture Effects or Creative Styles applied. Just a straight-up JPG.  

To my eye, the JPG has had a saturation boost, and slightly muddier midtones than the original untouched RAW file.

Ok, let's get into the Picture Effects.

Toy Camera: Normal

Toy Camera: Cool

Toy Camera: Warm

Toy Camera: Green

Toy Camera: Magenta

Pop Color

Posterization: Color

Posterization: B/W 

Retro

Soft High Key

Partial Color: Red

Partial Color: Green

Partial Color: Blue

Partial Color: Yellow

High Contrast Mono

It's kind of strange that the High Contrast Mono Picture Effect exists when a similar but more robust option for Black and White images are available under Creative Styles, where you have greater control over settings.  See below for more info on that.

Soft Focus: Mid 

Soft focus? I do that all the time without even meaning to. Ha!

Soft Focus: Low

Soft Focus: High

HDR Painting: Mid (3 shots)

Note: the camera takes 3 shots automatically in a burst for these.  I noticed that my flash did consistently fire twice for each of these.  But I don't think it fired a third time. I have no way of knowing which exposures it fired for, but I think that the flash's refresh rate wasn't quick enough to pop for the 3rd of each set of exposures. 

Also note that there is a completely different HDR mode under the DRO (Dynamic Range Optimization)/Auto HDR menu.  These offer you much greater control than the Picture Style here.

This apparent duplication of effects, located in different areas of the menus, in my opinion lends to the feeling that the NEX menu system is confusing to some.  Having wrestled with the menu system for each and every shot in this experiment, I definitely agree that the menu system is clunky.  I've had this camera for a year and still hunt for items in the menus.

HDR Painting: Low (3 shots)

HDR Painting: High (3 shots)

Rich Tone Mono (3 shots)

Miniature: Auto 

Miniature: Top

Miniature: Middle Horizontal

Miniature: Bottom

Miniature: Right

Miniature: Middle Vertical

Miniature: Left

Whew! That's a lot to digest.  But why stop there? MUSH, I say, MUSH YE HUSKIES!

Let's move on to the Creative Styles.

A note about the Creative Styles.  As mentioned at the top, you have user control of Contrast, Saturation, and Sharpness within each of these modes, with settings from -3 to +3.  Black & White mode is the exception, where you can't control Saturation (obviously).  I don't recall if I've changed these settings over time, but might have.  Most of them were set to 0,0,0 -- in other words, no changes.  The Vivid mode was set to 0,0,2, with Sharpness bumped up a bit.  I may well have done this myself in the past, but don't remember it.  I left it where it was on the chance that it was factory preset that way.

The numbers below represent the settings in this order: Contrast, Saturation, Sharpening.

Standard (0, 0, 0)

Vivid (0, 0, +2)

Portrait (0, 0, 0)

Landscape (0, 0, 0)

Sunset (0, 0, 0)

Black & White (0, 0)

The numbers by the Black & White photos represent Contrast and Sharpening.

A note about the Black and White style: It would be beyond exhaustive (and exhausting) to shoot every possible variation of every Creative Style, but I thought since Black & White was the one that people (and I) would use most often, that I would go ahead and run through a batch of options.  I could have taken it even further, but thought this was enough for government work, as they say.  

Except this didn't cost you a dime and took a couple of hours to complete. ;)

Black & White (0, +1)

Black & White (0, +2)

Black & White (0, +3)

Black & White (0, -1)

Black & White (0, -2)

Black & White (0, -3)

Black & White (+1, +3)

Black & White (+2, +3)

Black & White (+3, +3)

Black & White (-1, +3)

Black & White (-2, +3)

Black & White (-3, +3)

Well, there you have it. I made some mistakes along the way, and learned a bit about the Sony logic behind the menu system.  I see lots of subtle differences in these images, and a handful of dramatic ones.  I'd love to hear from you what effects or styles you use, or find most interesting.  

For me, I rather like the Toy Camera: Normal Picture Effect.  It's similar to the processing that I might add to some photos anyway when processing RAW files (although I do like to retain control of the individual settings that get me to that look).  I also like the Black & White Creative Style, and I think the degrees of Contrast and Sharpness that I'd choose might vary depending on the scene I'm shooting in.  

Another benefit of shooting these modes is that JPGs are much smaller than RAW files. I was honestly surprised when I transferred the photos over to my computer, and it was finished so quickly.  I'm accustomed to starting the transfer, and maybe taking a nap, mowing the lawn, and building a barn while I wait.

But all in all, this was a fun and informative little experiment.