A lot of you are asking where I found the CMYK formula for skin tones: I found it in a few different places online. I forget most, but one source was definitely Michael Woloszynowicz who is a great retoucher. Check him out.
Great video as always. Sean. I wonder, if you had pushed the white balance a bit warmer with the Sony, would it look closer to the Canon out of camera? It would saturate more yellows, yeah?
I’m a Sony A7iii shooter and I did expect to shown how the Canon skin tones were superior and I surprised to find that even straight out of the camera I preferred the Sony image. The reason? Because it looks more realistic. But totally agree with you Sean, I never use an image straight out of camera. I think it’s vitally important to make your own decisions in photography. Your own unique vision should be applied at every stage.
Kenji Burtley, perhaps you need to spend more time looking at real people and the actual colours that combine to make skin tones. The painter Lucian Freud used to be criticised for painting people in an unflattering way because through hours of looking at a living person in front of him he noticed that the skin tone was made up of blue, purple, green, red and yellow and combinations of all of them. Yes everything looks lovely when it’s warmed up but my point is that the Sony image looks more realistic. That is personal preference because I’m interested in the way real people look.
Note: those CMYK ratio guidelines really only apply when you're using Photoshop's default CMYK settings (SWOP v2). If you actually do CMYK work in Photoshop, you may have set something else under your Color (sic) Settings and using these ratios may give, um, less-than-great results. If you try this and find your pictures look weird (and are reasonably sure your monitor is at least close to accurate), then go to your Photoshop Color Settings and make sure CMYK is set to "US Web Coated (SWOP) v2". You can always set it back after doing your skin tone corrections.
WOW... I am in the process of editing a family portrait that a photographer provided us, and within 5 minutes I took her already edited photo and improved the skin tones using that simple formula. WHAT AM AMAZING DIFFERENCE!!!! BEST trick I have learned in a long time (and I have been doing a ton of learning in the past year!)
I shoot canon and absolutely am sick of the yellowish skin tones, this tutorial helped me to understand how to balance it out using your CMYK formula for skin tones. Thank you so much.
Great video. I especially appreciate the use of three different skin tones. Much of the online discussion/debate favors only one skin tone and doesn't accurately consider darker skin tones in these discussions.
I'd say the final edit is closer to what Sony (gen3) does SOOC... but Canon just warms up everything more SOOC, so it seems more pleasing at first impression. Especially on an un-calibrate monitor which tend to be way too blue/cool temperature. I've personally owned an A6500, and then an A7III, and I noticed a big difference in color science from Sony since the A9, A7RIII and A7III. Not only their WhiteBalance and Metering greatly improved, but their color rendering (in Standard and Portrait for example SOOC, and default in the RAW file looks much more natural and for a lot of casual social shots I don't even have to edit the pictures of people. *also that green/yellow cast people keep talking about... such a mis-match happens when people don't select their correct camera profile in Adobe Lightroom.... if you leave it at a Adobe Standard then yes it's not going to look like you shot it. Software like Capture One handles Sony and Fuji images better because it uses the camera profile by itself. And that's mainly the step people miss. (plus I work in a camera store and can test every brand I want, so I also know Fujifilm, Nikon, Canon, Panasonic, Olympus)
This is the type of content not available on any photography channels. They are all rehashing same stuff that any hobby photographer already knows let alone professional. Thank you for your content.
I just found your channel after looking into Sony's a7iii. I'm a Canon shooter and have been for years since the T3i. But their lack of competitive edge in features and tech compared to Sony (especially in AF areas and IS) is horrid. These comments are also "apocalyptic" as you've stated before in your switch video and it's hilarious. I guess it comes with the territory. Between presets, editing in post, and software like Lightroom/Photoshop, I'm surprised at how many people want to nitpick. You open the file, throw on a preset and micro adjust accordingly for the look you want. Literally takes me no more than a few minutes. And if you're a professional, you may go through a round or two of edits to ensure your work is the way you want it, so it always takes time. These comments are crazy fanboys and trolls. New subscriber though as I've found your information insightful. Thank you!
Hi Sean. Probably you already know what I'm gonna say but if not, I think is a better way to read if you need more cian..magenta.. etc. Instead of pick on curves panel . and memorize the spot where you are calculating, use the Color Sampler Tool and click over the points you want to correct the skin color, clicking once in shadows, once in highlights etc and then what you do with curves. So you'll see how your curves movements affect to the color. I think it's a bit faster. But is the same process but using multiple spots markers. I'm sorry my English and thanks for the lesson.
When I switched to Sony from Nikon 3 years ago I initially struggled with the skin tones and sony colour management over all. The tend to be either too red or green, also too contrasty straight out of camera in standard settings. This is easily sorted in creative style, simply set it to neutral from standard. For me that is enough but some adjust contrast for an even flatter image. Colour then is all about white balance so use a grey card, but I think most will find that simply changing the creatove style setting will make a huge difference. Enjoy whatever you shoot on, it is all good.
I cannot tell you how much I appreciate you providing me with a baseline for editing. Having these videos takes the millions of options that photoshop provides and pairs them down to a manageable set of steps where I won’t be spending hours making a mess out of my photos. Thank you again.
I'm a Canadian Armed Forces Imagery Technician. (Military photographer). I Just wanted to tell you that you've been a great inspiration and tutor to me. You've helped me along, not only technically but mentally/emotionally in my drive to succeed as a professional photographer. Thank you Sean. Keep up the great content.
This is by far the best comparison between these two cameras that I have seen so far. Thanks for making this and taking the time to go into such depth. Learned a whole lot about color correction too!
Very interesting comparison. It comes down to preference I guess. In some cases I like Canon, others I prefer Sony. Now I know how to adjust to suit my mood no matter which camera I use . Loved the information you shared in this video. Thank you!
Sean, as someone who struggles with every portrait I make in deciding if my skin tones are where they should be, I can't thank you enough for this video. It is brilliant in its simplicity. (And so quickly applied that any excuse for not correcting skin tones can no longer be considered valid. You are a wonderful photographer and a generous teacher. I learn so much from your videos and watch them over and over. I take notes. I test out your advice. But best of all, I incorporate so much of what you teach in my workflow. You've got me shooting B&W again. You've got me setting my exposure manually again. And you should be proud of this one, you've got me getting off my ass and taking my Sony a7ii out the door every day. I'm trying to stay in B&&W for now, and I go out looking for things that have a predominance of either shape, line or texture. Thinking in B&W definitely takes practice and its work that taxes the brain. I love it. Your inspiration causes me not to fear shooting even shooting in bright sunlight at high noon. And now I can add contrast to my portraits with unbelievable control. So again Sean, thank you. for sharing your genius and bringing added fun to shooting pictures.
This video is next level. I love it when art fits a formula! Gives you a good starting point to improve your images and a foundation to tweak and create your own style. Great stuff Sean
Very wise words! I completely agree with your statement about the strange online obsession with out-of-camera colours. I would go as far as to say that an objective colour experience does not exist, just the sensation of different flavours differs from person to person. Sure, speaking as a physicist, one can always define colours in terms of spectral properties, but this is not the way our brains process a picture or the memory of a scene. Thanks for a great video.
Given that we all want a camera that can capture the colours we saw at that time of capture and we all like wide gamut monitors which we colour profile to ICC profiles why don't manufacturers make cameras that translate their colour renditions exactly to ICC colour profies? or do you think all manufacturers actually prefer to be different in order to attract different consumers
4 года назад
A slightly modified version would be to copy a representative part of the skin to its own layer. Then apply the Blur->Average filter to this layer. The values will be fixed and there’s no need to check different parts of the face to make sure you’re working with reasonable start values. Also, the ratios you use for the skin colour can be written as 1:2:2.5 (CMY) which might be easier to use (and remember) in the calculations. As always it is a pleasure to watch your videos. I every now and then come back and watch them again in case I’ve missed something or as repetition! Big thumbs up!
I was going to say something similar. I don't think we are looking at sensor differences as much as we are looking at the way Capture One renders the raw files for each of these cameras. An ICC profile would improve the color rendering.
The reason why I don't really enjoy brand comparison videos is that the real talk get lost, most of the comments are ridiculous (ppl feeling somehow superior bc they own things of a certain brand is just weird). But the video is great, super helpful and with a lot of info as always :)
I agree with your findings. I’ve heard a few people lately say the canon colour science is better. This implies people don’t edit their work. To me, the canon has more of a shift which can be a problem, especially as I find a shift to red/magenta. The Sony is more natural and it all depends what you prefer. Can always make the Sony look like more the canon of you want. The Sony offers many other advantages.
I'm a filmeditor/colorist and as much as I'd like to agree to his statement that in the end you make it your color anyway, it is fair to say not having to make up for a camera's flaws is simply a huge timesaver. If colorscience or sensorquality/calibartion wouldn't matter at all because we fix it in post anyway, we would all just be shooting on cheap consumer camera's wouldn't we. For film being able to colorgrade a RED film is just much more pleasing than an FS7 or A7S because I can spend much more time creating an actual pretty image instead of fighting skintones.
Shebbe Music a great image is more than just colour. Higher end cameras roll off the highlights in a more pleasing way. Dynamic range is far greater etc. I agree that getting it right in camera is ideal, but I also don’t feel canon get it right in camera any more than Sony do. Both need editing was my point. I find canon tend to over do the red and magenta. Sony the greens. Both need work. However when comparing like for like the Sony’s have more detail, are often more stable etc etc. I know I’m generalising - i’m referring to the cameras I’ve personally used and the results I’ve got.
Something I found out watching this video is the fact that colors look very different depending on what device and browser you are watching the video in. I watched it on both chrome and safari I get drastically different colors, I also tried it on my iPhone and iPad and got two more different colors. Chrome looks the worst to my eye, it has an unnatural red hue to it. Great video 👌🏼, and the final portrait at 17:31 looks great, definitely better colors than the unedited ones.
Hi, I just wanted to say, I've only just found your videos, but I'm so glad I did. So far I've watched this and your video on why you switched to Sony. As a Canon boy, who loves Fuji but is looking between Sony and a 1DXII for his next body, I found your input to be the most insightful of anyone I've seen on RUclips. You're transparent and clear in thought and intention. So thank you. I don't care to see someone's workflow or buy their presets, I care to see nuance and minor things people do. The between the lines stuff that I might be missing or might want to avoid, and I really feel like I get more of that here. Also, I love the final edit on this, your color work is what I aspire to produce.
Here it is over a year later and this video added so much value to me. It absolutely worked. Thank you for demonstrating an AA skin tone as proof. I tested on different subjects and my photography was so much improved. I even did faces that were on stage under colored lights and it repaired them back to a natural look. Amazing Sean.....
As often as I've seen this video linked and shared in forums, Facebook pages, and discussions elsewhere, it astounds me it only has 71k views (currently). This video is fantastic and very well done. Thanks again, Sean.
I've come to expect great inspirational and motivational videos from this channel. Seeing how you really deliver on the techy side of things, surpassing other videos in level detail and comprehensibility, I'd like to see more of this kind of videos from you. The mix you're offering nowadays sure is impressive Sean!
I love how You smash all stereotypes every time and way of Your thinking about Your photography! You are the most inpirational Photographer for me. It's deep and full of meaning. THX!!!!
I love all of your videos man, and this one is no different. I really appreciate your view on cameras and not buying into the hype of certain brands because as you say, they are a starting point for us as photographers to add our own touch onto an image. Please never stop making these videos because as someone who is still relatively new to photography I am always looking to learn, and always learn loads from you. Thank you!
When I saw the title I was "Stop this canon color nonsense when I was using canon I was editing colors when I'm using sony... I still edit colors", then I watched the movie and I'm smiling :). good work
Oh that CMYK guideline is just gorgeous and a tool or skill that separates the men from the boys in the retouch department. Great video and explaination. Straight out of camera is really not that important since you are going to give the final image a look anyway.
Videos like this show me how much I have to learn. One might think that'll scare me off, considering that I thought photography is easy, but it's just the opposite. I feel challenged and incredibly motivated. I WANT to learn it all. I just bought a camera. A Canon 60D. Second hand, but it's my first step up from my hobby, smartphone photography. Let's see, what I can do with that with the help of the videos of yourself and other great RUclipsrs. Thx a bunch for all the inspiration, my friend! 👍🏼😉
This was an excellent video, which takes the discussion away from a polarized and entrenched view of a technology choice and stresses the importance of seeing the camera as a tool. It avoids the trap of so much content which is all about helping to reinforce a person's choice of gear. Good work, my friend. Kudos.
Thanks Ibarionex:) You think you’re getting the message across but then people still want to use the comment section to argue about cameras:( Welcome to RUclips I guess. The hope is that, between us all, we can create a community of people who want to talk about making pictures, rather than which light proof box to buy from which tech company. One day at a time:)
I don't shoot Canon or Sony so I'm unbiased. The Sony files are better to my eyes. More detail in the skin. Yes, both cameras aren't really neutral, the Sony have a magenta shift, the Canon a yellow shift. All correctable in software though so no problem.
Yes you are right about the magenta. But when you are retouching and color grading it's better "yellow" tone.... I think it's more a question of interpretation.
On your ‘settings ‘ you set your WB to flash settings. In my experience it’s very important to set an accurate colour temperature with Canon. The ‘flash’ setting is a general approximately 5500K. The nylon diffuser on the soft box will shift the colour balance at least 2-300K. In my experience an accurate ( I use a Lumu colour temp meter, I also use an Expodisc) white balance in camera setting is much more important and effective that trying to correct with a reading off a grey card.
The additional detail you got with the A7iii comes from +10% more pixels and no anti aliasing filter. The AA filter prevents most moire effects by blurring the finest details before they hit the bayer array. No filter means potentially more detail on pixel level but can lead to moire and false colors.
Sony has basically adopted the Zeiss mentality about how their stuff should look: as real as possible. Canon makes it easy to get a pleasing image but they are limiting you when that isn't your goal. Very good and informative video.
Sony color is not real. Watch the video again. Nikon gets as close to real along with Canon. Sean couldn't match Caonon color and he even said that n the video.
Agreed, and one thing biased here is the lens. Canon colors are due in part to the lens. Here the Sony image was warmed up by the canon lens. Sony + Zeiss would be a lot cooler and even more unnatural looking.
OR...... simply spend £80 get an Xrite passport colour checker, create a camera profile and use it instead of the box standard profiles In either capture one or Lightroom; if you want to be picky about it just take a picture with the passport in instead of the grey card. The issue isn’t really the different sensors/different camera make, the issue is the raw editor and how interprets the raw file, it’s true that sensors and analog to digital converters interprets the same light in a slightly different way, however it is the raw editor that instead of bothering to have a profile for each camera, just apply the standard one.
Thanks Sean, couldn't agree more about out of camera tones not really mattering, as we all edit after anyway. Love your tips and as usual you've given us another simple yet effective way to delicately refine an image.
Thanks for this video. It not only was informational and helped me understand how to better edit photos, but also it reaffirmed what i always thought, that out of camera colors aren't all that important if you can edit, cause you will most of the time anyways. Just having a good place to start is more important and then you add your own personal flare and unique aspects to fit the piece.
Great video! Since switching to Sony I have found the cooler tones to be refreshing and more intimate. All these cameras are wonderful tools. I feel like the industry has been revitalized with this shift to mirrorless.
Hey Sean, Great no bullshit video as always. Thank you for that. One thing to note though that might help some people. I would not advise to use the CMYK formula without knowing what color space you’re in. Indeed, a given combination of numbers translates into a different color in a different color space. In your examples, the color space used is the CMYK color space referenced in your color settings. That means that the formula of good skin tones is not the same if you’re set to Fogra39 (EU default) or coated swop v2 (US default) or something else. Instead I would advise to change your color picker numbers in the info panel to LAB numbers, which are always referring to the CIE LAB color space … and therefore independent of any other setting. And for LAB values, the formula is the following: - L values are around 70 for a well lit picture (but exposure and ethnicity is a big factor here) - a and b values are approximately in the range of 10-30 for both a and b in either channel - a and b values are positive and close in value (their difference should be no more than 10) Hope this helps. Cheers. Keep up the good work !
As a former long time Fuji owner (multiple camera generations) Fuji skin tones are really not all that. They are Canon ish but tend more toward an overall yellow. They certainly aren't bad, but the default "Provia" look had skin tones I really grew to hate. But RAW processing made it all good, similar to most systems. Now on Sony with no regrets. I did love the Fuji system though, and they have fixed a lot of my gripes with the Xt-3 (Had XT-1 and Xt-2)
Thank you so much for this video!!! I’ve been struggling so much to get “proper” color in skin and you have given me a valuable formula to use! I love your honesty, candor, and humour! Hoping you keep on producing videos. You’re my number person on RUclips
Yes! The biggest problem for me wasn't in color cast when I used Sony instead of Fuji (which is what we usually do) for portraits for the last four months. It was that it seemed to bring out every skin flaw. My wife picked up on it instantly, in my photos of her, and she hates it.
Just take it back out, by using negative sharpness for ooc JPEG, or in capture one just use the skin color tool. It is much better for skin color management in general than PS or Lightroom
@@Dance1617 it's not just higher resolution and sharper images, though. Canon seems to tune their CFAs so they're less discriminating to blue/teal. The skin tends to have a lot of undesirable blue components in veins and other blemishes. A side effect of that is that their deep lush greens tend to be yellower.
When you shoot raw, information is more important than color. you can always change the color you like or soft the detail as you like. But you can't bring more dynamic range back or bring details back.
Too bad most(?) camera companies advertise raw access, but deliver files with irreversible and often destructive DSP algorithms applied. (It's called bait and switch marketing and is illegal many places).
I'm sure someone has already commented this, but if not there's a tool that will save you some mouse movement. You can use the Color Sampler Tool underneath the Eyedropper stack to set a reference point. It'll show up in the Info panel so you can reference that instead of having to over back over the area you are correcting.
Personal preference always plays a role in these things. I used to be the kind to want photos to turn out EXACTLY as in real life, but the more I play with the hobby (as a filthy casual and not a professional, haha), I've found myself leaning more towards the school of thought that considers photography an artform as much as any other, and like _any_ form of artistic expression, the golden rule is "to each their own".
@@leticiali I don't have the person in front of me to really compare what I see with my own eyes and what was edited for me. However, I think the browns in the Final Edit have a richer, more chocolate-like appearance than the OOC Sony (with slight colour cast) shot. My own facial hair and skin colours seem pretty close to the white guy's colours and from my personal experience--without a tan--we both have a bit of pink in the pale areas of the skin and where the skin is tight around knuckles and elbows. Out of camera I'd say the Sony image is closer but it still requires colour correcting. Which, of course, the Canon requires too.
I found that the shadows under the Asian woman's chin were significantly more closed off in the Sony. I have done extensive retouching in my life and did it way back in the days of film but for my purposes, I usually use selective color and subtract or add values from red is enough for me to get where i need to go. Very interesting video in any case that proves you can use most modern cameras to get where you need to go with enough care and attention to detail. I have an EOS R and Fuji X T3 at the moment.
Really nice comparison video! I feel like I got some interesting and precise technical information from it, as well as some good thoughts on what it means in practical terms. As someone who mostly paints portraits instead of shooting them, I found the even, consistent yellow skintones of a Canon quite upsetting and lifeless. They do have a certain punchy, pleasant quality to them, which probably makes it a good match for fashion photography, but the Sony colours felt much more natural and rich (as in "varied", which is a good thing, at least in painting) to me.
One thing that is important to note, is that it isn't the sensor that is primarily responsible for the way colour is rendered. Yes, there's a subtle input from the filter colour transmission characteristics, but that's often more about trade-offs between the ability to distinguish colour and noise characteristics. Such things are easily measured, and DXO have appropriate metrics. What really matters is not the sensor, but the decisions made within the algorithms in the camera on how the colour is to be rendered. And yes, this does affect RAW too as the meta-data for the rendering software is passed over within the data and it's that which the software uses to provide the default rendering. Part of the aim is to make sure default RAW processing looks similar to OOC JPEGs. So, it's not (primarily) a matter for the software, but those algorithms. It also occurs to me that, with modern face-detection software, it ought to be possible to have specifically tailored profiles for skin tones according to taste. In any event, and excellent video and it can't be emphasised enough that colour for this sort of application is dictated by human aesthetic senses and not absolute accuracy. If camera algorithms weren't making decisions over the way colours are rendered according to the characteristics of particular lighting mixes we'd end up with truly hideous OOC results. Our visual perception system automatically adjusts perceived skin hues over a wide range of lighting conditions. A camera that didn't do this would show the "real" colours, which might look (say) sickly yellow under warm, tungsten light. Of course, such was the case back in those old days of film when colour rendering on slides was whatever the chemists had cooked into their magic potions.
Showing how to correct skin tones was more useful to me than all these gear review and pixel peep videos that flood YT. I noticed that the subjects’ black shirts looked more neutral in color after you corrected the skin color. Thanks.
Because in video you have no RAW.... With RAW it doesn't really matter. But for video it's a big thing though, beacuase the camera does a lot of preprocessing
@@palysmedia5276 haha of course I had, but log profiles are not nearly as good as RAW. video you have still 8 bit while raw is 14 bit. 2^8 vs 2^14. 64x more info!
Hey sean, could you share with us your process to achieve the final image between the 2 cameras? I love the final image and I too shot with canon and moved to the sony a7III. Cheers!
Ben something out of the topic,I do shoot with the a7iii and a metabones iv I experience a sort of shutterlag,is there a way around it or have you faced something like so? Thanks in advance
Thank you Sean. I spent the most recent 3 months rekindling my interest in photography as something to spur my creativity, enjoyment of life, and my passions and purpose. i,e a lot of my motivation and what some would call mental health, which in my case also includes a heightened awareness of God as I see the world around me more intimately when I capture them myself, and can view things in such a unique way, at my own time, to see details that I may not spend as much time to observe, in the real world, has now been helped by this rekindled interest. From other channels I learned the science, the Photography 101, and I consider you one of my next mentors, who is now teaching me the philosophy and some of the art as well as the advanced science of photography. Like taking a post graduate class, where one is expected to be resourceful enough to go do one's basic research or have done so already at an undergrad level,. to master the foundations of the subject matter. Your blog is so important in photography, not because you are right or wrong but because you provide a basis for advanced thinking about imaging, that enables each of us to build our own accelerated workflow, for the kinds of images, we want to take... Thanks. and Best wishes in this life.... I have been the more fulfilled and full of joy by listening to you, not because I agree with everything you say, but there is a substance of truth and sincerity, devoid of click bait, in every single one of your videos. This was a revelatory video. I wish one day you can get a little bit down in the woods, to talk from your own perspective of the behind the scenes colour profiling that causes a photo editor to arrive at the image we see, from the RAW file. In most cases, applying some color profile, it would be interesting to hear your perspective, on how different image editors using the same raw file, may not produce the same image. The reason I say this is that while it may appear that the Canon produces warmer tones, that may not be due to the sensor itself, but due to the color profiling applied to the RAW file, during conversion to JPEG, and also when the photo editor displays teh image to us, it must use some sort of profile obtained somehow, to convert the RAW file to what we see. Is this the difference between Canon and Sony - colour "profiling" being different between the manufacturers as their signature look, and not especially from a significant difference between what the sensor itself captures.... The only way to tell is to display the RAW file, without any of the default colour grading/profiling applied in Capture One, and compare this RAW file, between each of the shots taken in identical conditions by the two camera..
Sean, this was a fascinating episode and thought your final edit looked fantastic and as you said if you want to apply your own particular style, is the camera brand such an important issue at the end of the day if you can make requisite changes post production.
Thanks again Sean for illuminating common misconceptions within the photographic community, and including a tutorial while doing so! Another great video
Great video Sean! Very informative, loved it. Quick tip: Instead of making a blurred layer, when you click on the eye-drop tool, go to the tool bar at the top left and change your point sample size to 31x31(or 11x11) this will give you an average sample color of the surrounding pixels. You can also shift+click on a point while your info bar is up so that way you make sure you are viewing the same point. It will save your sample selection and can reference that point at any time. This will help increase speed of your process as well as increase accuracy of what you are trying to achieve. Hope this is helpful!
Thanks mate. I'm aware. It's a preference. I just prefer to blur and select a point so I can visually see what I'm selecting, instead of guessing the expanded extent of the pixels being selected.
Sony colors are obviously best because they're the most realistic. And realistic, neutral colors are the best basis for making adjustments to personal taste.
The amount of detail lost from the canon makes it less than ideal. It's always easier to subtract than it is to add. Anyone can tweak colors in post but it's the valuable extra information that will always give more of a artistic freedom in the end
Now that you've done that comparison I actually like the Sony better. The Canon looks awfully yellow and not true to life. Obviously, to each its own, but I don't see "Canon colors" as a benefit at all.
Superb video Sean! Great advice on correcting the skin tones! There is a way of changing the sample area in the info palette so it selects more than 1 pixel... select a larger area and it may remove the need to do the blur layer. I’ll be using that formula from now on! Thank you!
Thanks Richard. Appreciate mate. You can absolutely work that way, I just like being able to visually see what I'm selecting rather than visually estimating how many pixels are being included in the selection.
Action: Makes video with a conclusion about how in the end brands their specific colors don't really matter because of post-processing. Reaction: Comments are flooded with people talking about how one brand's colors are being superior over the other. PLAY THE MUSIC STEVE!
Sean, please do portrait photography workshops so I can learn directly from you! You're such an inspiration, I would love to meet you in perso and thank you for everything you do with your videos!
Excellent post Sean. Always fascinated how the fanboy effect causes division in these instances. It is clear that sensitive editing is required to bring either the Canon or the Sony output to what would be perceived as the closest match. As always, the photographer is the brains here, not the gear.
Finally a video that stops the nonsense about Canon "superior" skin tones. It is indeed a starting point no matter which camera and we as artists, need to then convert it into what we want to deliver. Good job!
i was surprise as well at how well sony handled skin tones. even the starting point was already good enough for my untrained eyes. whereas canon skin tones were just too darn yellow. at least in this video.
When I posted some photos straight out of the A7rIII shooters of other brands were amazed at how great it looked. I shot some of them docu style, but I still first and foremost cared about where good light was naturally happened and voila! good photos without any editing.
I don't trust this video. Canon has really good skin tones, very unlike the ones shown in this video. Canon skin is not biased toward green. Something is wrong here.
nope you're not the only one. In a blind test, Canon is rated the worst brand of all brands out there. Canon is straight trash. Even Nikon skin tones look better than canon.
Hi there ! I watched this when it came out and have been rewatching every other year to dust off and go back to the fundamentals. I'm a canon shooter (6DmkII) but have been working for 20 months for a company that used only sony gear, especially A7III. I must add that while technically similar, shooting at ISO 100 isn't the same on Sony because the sensor's base ISO is 800. That means you are working with a dimmed signal and the camera won't perform at its best (especially those dreadful skin tones, which are miles better on sony when you shoot at base iso)
That is actually really useful for people like me. I prefer a bit warmer and magenta-toned images , that's why I miss colour accuracy in many shots , especialy in bad light.
A lot of you are asking where I found the CMYK formula for skin tones: I found it in a few different places online. I forget most, but one source was definitely Michael Woloszynowicz who is a great retoucher. Check him out.
Great video, Rarely I found videos on skin tones. Please please do comparison with Nikon Z (If it's possible) Thanks!! :)
Great video as always. Sean. I wonder, if you had pushed the white balance a bit warmer with the Sony, would it look closer to the Canon out of camera? It would saturate more yellows, yeah?
This is beyond useful and I can apply this to video as well. Thanks!
lowepro protactic aw350
5D IV is more like the Sony on skin detail.
You’re unquestionably one of the most sincere, talented teachers on this or any other platform. I’m very grateful for that.
That's kind, thanks Tom.
I an not able to afford all of the fancy photography classes and learn all this editing skills. Thanks to Sean I learn to make better photos
Sean Tucker video = drop everything and pay attention
Lol i find you everywhere
Ahahaha hello Nicklas! Great minds think alike ;)
100%
I’m a Sony A7iii shooter and I did expect to shown how the Canon skin tones were superior and I surprised to find that even straight out of the camera I preferred the Sony image. The reason? Because it looks more realistic. But totally agree with you Sean, I never use an image straight out of camera. I think it’s vitally important to make your own decisions in photography. Your own unique vision should be applied at every stage.
I have been a Canon shooter and now shooting Fuji. I also did prefer the Sony colours.
There is absolutely nothing realistic about photography.
Bob Hanuman, Totally agree but we’re talking about skin tones!
It does not look more realistic. The sony colors are too cold for skin tones. it looks like the person is dead or something.
Kenji Burtley, perhaps you need to spend more time looking at real people and the actual colours that combine to make skin tones. The painter Lucian Freud used to be criticised for painting people in an unflattering way because through hours of looking at a living person in front of him he noticed that the skin tone was made up of blue, purple, green, red and yellow and combinations of all of them. Yes everything looks lovely when it’s warmed up but my point is that the Sony image looks more realistic. That is personal preference because I’m interested in the way real people look.
Note: those CMYK ratio guidelines really only apply when you're using Photoshop's default CMYK settings (SWOP v2). If you actually do CMYK work in Photoshop, you may have set something else under your Color (sic) Settings and using these ratios may give, um, less-than-great results. If you try this and find your pictures look weird (and are reasonably sure your monitor is at least close to accurate), then go to your Photoshop Color Settings and make sure CMYK is set to "US Web Coated (SWOP) v2". You can always set it back after doing your skin tone corrections.
WOW... I am in the process of editing a family portrait that a photographer provided us, and within 5 minutes I took her already edited photo and improved the skin tones using that simple formula. WHAT AM AMAZING DIFFERENCE!!!! BEST trick I have learned in a long time (and I have been doing a ton of learning in the past year!)
I shoot canon and absolutely am sick of the yellowish skin tones, this tutorial helped me to understand how to balance it out using your CMYK formula for skin tones. Thank you so much.
Great video. I especially appreciate the use of three different skin tones. Much of the online discussion/debate favors only one skin tone and doesn't accurately consider darker skin tones in these discussions.
I'd say the final edit is closer to what Sony (gen3) does SOOC... but Canon just warms up everything more SOOC, so it seems more pleasing at first impression. Especially on an un-calibrate monitor which tend to be way too blue/cool temperature.
I've personally owned an A6500, and then an A7III, and I noticed a big difference in color science from Sony since the A9, A7RIII and A7III. Not only their WhiteBalance and Metering greatly improved, but their color rendering (in Standard and Portrait for example SOOC, and default in the RAW file looks much more natural and for a lot of casual social shots I don't even have to edit the pictures of people.
*also that green/yellow cast people keep talking about... such a mis-match happens when people don't select their correct camera profile in Adobe Lightroom.... if you leave it at a Adobe Standard then yes it's not going to look like you shot it.
Software like Capture One handles Sony and Fuji images better because it uses the camera profile by itself. And that's mainly the step people miss.
(plus I work in a camera store and can test every brand I want, so I also know Fujifilm, Nikon, Canon, Panasonic, Olympus)
What is the correct camera profile for a6500?
This is the type of content not available on any photography channels. They are all rehashing same stuff that any hobby photographer already knows let alone professional. Thank you for your content.
lives at 73A uses A73 ha 👍
Never noticed that:)
Superb attention to detail take a bow!! I love when peeps point out these things it makes me smile
I also noticed it 😁🔥
Ha! My first reaction was to try to find it with street-view. I failed.
I just found your channel after looking into Sony's a7iii. I'm a Canon shooter and have been for years since the T3i. But their lack of competitive edge in features and tech compared to Sony (especially in AF areas and IS) is horrid. These comments are also "apocalyptic" as you've stated before in your switch video and it's hilarious. I guess it comes with the territory. Between presets, editing in post, and software like Lightroom/Photoshop, I'm surprised at how many people want to nitpick. You open the file, throw on a preset and micro adjust accordingly for the look you want. Literally takes me no more than a few minutes. And if you're a professional, you may go through a round or two of edits to ensure your work is the way you want it, so it always takes time. These comments are crazy fanboys and trolls. New subscriber though as I've found your information insightful. Thank you!
Hi Sean. Probably you already know what I'm gonna say but if not, I think is a better way to read if you need more cian..magenta.. etc. Instead of pick on curves panel . and memorize the spot where you are calculating, use the Color Sampler Tool and click over the points you want to correct the skin color, clicking once in shadows, once in highlights etc and then what you do with curves. So you'll see how your curves movements affect to the color. I think it's a bit faster. But is the same process but using multiple spots markers. I'm sorry my English and thanks for the lesson.
When I switched to Sony from Nikon 3 years ago I initially struggled with the skin tones and sony colour management over all. The tend to be either too red or green, also too contrasty straight out of camera in standard settings. This is easily sorted in creative style, simply set it to neutral from standard. For me that is enough but some adjust contrast for an even flatter image. Colour then is all about white balance so use a grey card, but I think most will find that simply changing the creatove style setting will make a huge difference.
Enjoy whatever you shoot on, it is all good.
This has to be the most underrated video in photography I've ever seen. I mean, wow!
I cannot tell you how much I appreciate you providing me with a baseline for editing. Having these videos takes the millions of options that photoshop provides and pairs them down to a manageable set of steps where I won’t be spending hours making a mess out of my photos. Thank you again.
Can I just say, I really appreciate how unintrusive Sean's sponsor messages are. And such high-quality content across the channel.
I'm a Canadian Armed Forces Imagery Technician. (Military photographer). I Just wanted to tell you that you've been a great inspiration and tutor to me. You've helped me along, not only technically but mentally/emotionally in my drive to succeed as a professional photographer. Thank you Sean. Keep up the great content.
Thanks my friend:)
This is by far the best comparison between these two cameras that I have seen so far. Thanks for making this and taking the time to go into such depth. Learned a whole lot about color correction too!
New-ish photographer here and I’m obsessed with your channel. You’re such an amazing teacher and you’re so insightful. Thank you!
Very interesting comparison. It comes down to preference I guess. In some cases I like Canon, others I prefer Sony. Now I know how to adjust to suit my mood no matter which camera I use . Loved the information you shared in this video. Thank you!
It's not preference. Sean has Sony and can't get Canon color any more.
pretty sure this person meant that it is down to the photographer's preference to shoot with either Canon or Sony..
Sean, as someone who struggles with every portrait I make in deciding if my skin tones are where they should be, I can't thank you enough for this video. It is brilliant in its simplicity. (And so quickly
applied that any excuse for not correcting skin tones can no longer be considered valid.
You are a wonderful photographer and a generous teacher. I learn so much from your videos and watch them over and over. I take notes. I test out your advice. But best of all, I incorporate so much of what you teach in my workflow. You've got me shooting B&W again. You've got me setting my exposure manually again. And you should be proud of this one, you've got me getting off my ass and taking my Sony a7ii out the door every day. I'm trying to stay in B&&W for now, and I go out looking for things that have a predominance of either shape, line or texture. Thinking in B&W definitely takes practice and its work that taxes the brain. I love it. Your inspiration causes me not to fear shooting even shooting in bright sunlight at high noon. And now I can add contrast to my portraits with unbelievable control.
So again Sean, thank you. for sharing your genius and bringing added fun to shooting pictures.
That's very kind, thanks Mark.
This video is next level. I love it when art fits a formula! Gives you a good starting point to improve your images and a foundation to tweak and create your own style. Great stuff Sean
If I could only have one channel, it would be this one. Sensible, grounded and such good content. Thank you again and again Sean.
Thanks mate:)
Very wise words! I completely agree with your statement about the strange online obsession with out-of-camera colours. I would go as far as to say that an objective colour experience does not exist, just the sensation of different flavours differs from person to person. Sure, speaking as a physicist, one can always define colours in terms of spectral properties, but this is not the way our brains process a picture or the memory of a scene. Thanks for a great video.
Given that we all want a camera that can capture the colours we saw at that time of capture and we all like wide gamut monitors which we colour profile to ICC profiles why don't manufacturers make cameras that translate their colour renditions exactly to ICC colour profies? or do you think all manufacturers actually prefer to be different in order to attract different consumers
A slightly modified version would be to copy a representative part of the skin to its own layer. Then apply the Blur->Average filter to this layer. The values will be fixed and there’s no need to check different parts of the face to make sure you’re working with reasonable start values. Also, the ratios you use for the skin colour can be written as 1:2:2.5 (CMY) which might be easier to use (and remember) in the calculations. As always it is a pleasure to watch your videos. I every now and then come back and watch them again in case I’ve missed something or as repetition! Big thumbs up!
Creating ICC camera profiles in case of Capture One is the easiest way to “normalize” the color rendering.
Best regards
Michael
any link to a how-to for doing that Michael?
Please.
I was going to say something similar. I don't think we are looking at sensor differences as much as we are looking at the way Capture One renders the raw files for each of these cameras. An ICC profile would improve the color rendering.
I downloaded a ICC profile for Capture One that someone hade made to make Sony color look more lite Fujifilm, that was great.
Dennis Humbla do you have a link you could share ?
The reason why I don't really enjoy brand comparison videos is that the real talk get lost, most of the comments are ridiculous (ppl feeling somehow superior bc they own things of a certain brand is just weird). But the video is great, super helpful and with a lot of info as always :)
I agree with your findings. I’ve heard a few people lately say the canon colour science is better. This implies people don’t edit their work. To me, the canon has more of a shift which can be a problem, especially as I find a shift to red/magenta. The Sony is more natural and it all depends what you prefer. Can always make the Sony look like more the canon of you want. The Sony offers many other advantages.
I'm a filmeditor/colorist and as much as I'd like to agree to his statement that in the end you make it your color anyway, it is fair to say not having to make up for a camera's flaws is simply a huge timesaver. If colorscience or sensorquality/calibartion wouldn't matter at all because we fix it in post anyway, we would all just be shooting on cheap consumer camera's wouldn't we.
For film being able to colorgrade a RED film is just much more pleasing than an FS7 or A7S because I can spend much more time creating an actual pretty image instead of fighting skintones.
Shebbe Music a great image is more than just colour. Higher end cameras roll off the highlights in a more pleasing way. Dynamic range is far greater etc. I agree that getting it right in camera is ideal, but I also don’t feel canon get it right in camera any more than Sony do. Both need editing was my point. I find canon tend to over do the red and magenta. Sony the greens. Both need work. However when comparing like for like the Sony’s have more detail, are often more stable etc etc. I know I’m generalising - i’m referring to the cameras I’ve personally used and the results I’ve got.
Something I found out watching this video is the fact that colors look very different depending on what device and browser you are watching the video in. I watched it on both chrome and safari I get drastically different colors, I also tried it on my iPhone and iPad and got two more different colors. Chrome looks the worst to my eye, it has an unnatural red hue to it. Great video 👌🏼, and the final portrait at 17:31 looks great, definitely better colors than the unedited ones.
It’s good that you shifted to Sony, and that’s good for us too, the other Sony users have learnt a bit about how does one fix the skin tones.
Hi, I just wanted to say, I've only just found your videos, but I'm so glad I did. So far I've watched this and your video on why you switched to Sony. As a Canon boy, who loves Fuji but is looking between Sony and a 1DXII for his next body, I found your input to be the most insightful of anyone I've seen on RUclips. You're transparent and clear in thought and intention.
So thank you. I don't care to see someone's workflow or buy their presets, I care to see nuance and minor things people do. The between the lines stuff that I might be missing or might want to avoid, and I really feel like I get more of that here.
Also, I love the final edit on this, your color work is what I aspire to produce.
Here it is over a year later and this video added so much value to me. It absolutely worked. Thank you for demonstrating an AA skin tone as proof. I tested on different subjects and my photography was so much improved. I even did faces that were on stage under colored lights and it repaired them back to a natural look. Amazing Sean.....
As often as I've seen this video linked and shared in forums, Facebook pages, and discussions elsewhere, it astounds me it only has 71k views (currently). This video is fantastic and very well done. Thanks again, Sean.
Funny how demonstrated facts effortlessly overwhelm misconceptions!
As photographers we can also be sort of "color scientists"
Great video Sean!
I've come to expect great inspirational and motivational videos from this channel. Seeing how you really deliver on the techy side of things, surpassing other videos in level detail and comprehensibility, I'd like to see more of this kind of videos from you. The mix you're offering nowadays sure is impressive Sean!
I love how You smash all stereotypes every time and way of Your thinking about Your photography! You are the most inpirational Photographer for me. It's deep and full of meaning. THX!!!!
I love all of your videos man, and this one is no different. I really appreciate your view on cameras and not buying into the hype of certain brands because as you say, they are a starting point for us as photographers to add our own touch onto an image. Please never stop making these videos because as someone who is still relatively new to photography I am always looking to learn, and always learn loads from you. Thank you!
When I saw the title I was "Stop this canon color nonsense when I was using canon I was editing colors when I'm using sony... I still edit colors", then I watched the movie and I'm smiling :). good work
Oh that CMYK guideline is just gorgeous and a tool or skill that separates the men from the boys in the retouch department. Great video and explaination. Straight out of camera is really not that important since you are going to give the final image a look anyway.
Videos like this show me how much I have to learn. One might think that'll scare me off, considering that I thought photography is easy, but it's just the opposite. I feel challenged and incredibly motivated. I WANT to learn it all. I just bought a camera. A Canon 60D. Second hand, but it's my first step up from my hobby, smartphone photography. Let's see, what I can do with that with the help of the videos of yourself and other great RUclipsrs. Thx a bunch for all the inspiration, my friend! 👍🏼😉
The Canon 60D is a great camera. Enjoy.
This was an excellent video, which takes the discussion away from a polarized and entrenched view of a technology choice and stresses the importance of seeing the camera as a tool. It avoids the trap of so much content which is all about helping to reinforce a person's choice of gear. Good work, my friend. Kudos.
Thanks Ibarionex:) You think you’re getting the message across but then people still want to use the comment section to argue about cameras:( Welcome to RUclips I guess. The hope is that, between us all, we can create a community of people who want to talk about making pictures, rather than which light proof box to buy from which tech company. One day at a time:)
I don't shoot Canon or Sony so I'm unbiased. The Sony files are better to my eyes. More detail in the skin. Yes, both cameras aren't really neutral, the Sony have a magenta shift, the Canon a yellow shift. All correctable in software though so no problem.
Yes you are right about the magenta. But when you are retouching and color grading it's better "yellow" tone.... I think it's more a question of interpretation.
Canon has never had a yellow shift. That's what's weird about this video.
everyone obsessed with color science should watch this video. I fully agree with Sean
This was a great and very useful video. Very few photographers know how to capture POC and I am truly impressed by your work. Thanks
On your ‘settings ‘ you set your WB to flash settings. In my experience it’s very important to set an accurate colour temperature with Canon. The ‘flash’ setting is a general approximately 5500K. The nylon diffuser on the soft box will shift the colour balance at least 2-300K. In my experience an accurate ( I use a Lumu colour temp meter, I also use an Expodisc) white balance in camera setting is much more important and effective that trying to correct with a reading off a grey card.
Wow. I've never come across this CMYK formula before. Great stuff.
Probably because it is an old formula used most of the time in UK for glossy magazines. In USA and Japan they use a different one for that.
I just tried this formula and my pictures came out sickly green (must have been doing something wrong)
@@akghosal I found that this videos finals look green as well.
The additional detail you got with the A7iii comes from +10% more pixels and no anti aliasing filter. The AA filter prevents most moire effects by blurring the finest details before they hit the bayer array. No filter means potentially more detail on pixel level but can lead to moire and false colors.
Sony has basically adopted the Zeiss mentality about how their stuff should look: as real as possible. Canon makes it easy to get a pleasing image but they are limiting you when that isn't your goal. Very good and informative video.
Sony color is not real. Watch the video again. Nikon gets as close to real along with Canon. Sean couldn't match Caonon color and he even said that n the video.
Agreed, and one thing biased here is the lens. Canon colors are due in part to the lens. Here the Sony image was warmed up by the canon lens. Sony + Zeiss would be a lot cooler and even more unnatural looking.
OR...... simply spend £80 get an Xrite passport colour checker, create a camera profile and use it instead of the box standard profiles In either capture one or Lightroom; if you want to be picky about it just take a picture with the passport in instead of the grey card.
The issue isn’t really the different sensors/different camera make, the issue is the raw editor and how interprets the raw file, it’s true that sensors and analog to digital converters interprets the same light in a slightly different way, however it is the raw editor that instead of bothering to have a profile for each camera, just apply the standard one.
I was googling this info last week and couldn't find anything useful, thank you alot!!!
Thanks Sean, couldn't agree more about out of camera tones not really mattering, as we all edit after anyway. Love your tips and as usual you've given us another simple yet effective way to delicately refine an image.
I am just in shock, this is amazing, I never knew any of this!
Thanks for this video. It not only was informational and helped me understand how to better edit photos, but also it reaffirmed what i always thought, that out of camera colors aren't all that important if you can edit, cause you will most of the time anyways. Just having a good place to start is more important and then you add your own personal flare and unique aspects to fit the piece.
Great video! Since switching to Sony I have found the cooler tones to be refreshing and more intimate. All these cameras are wonderful tools. I feel like the industry has been revitalized with this shift to mirrorless.
Hey Sean,
Great no bullshit video as always. Thank you for that.
One thing to note though that might help some people. I would not advise to use the CMYK formula without knowing what color space you’re in. Indeed, a given combination of numbers translates into a different color in a different color space. In your examples, the color space used is the CMYK color space referenced in your color settings. That means that the formula of good skin tones is not the same if you’re set to Fogra39 (EU default) or coated swop v2 (US default) or something else.
Instead I would advise to change your color picker numbers in the info panel to LAB numbers, which are always referring to the CIE LAB color space … and therefore independent of any other setting.
And for LAB values, the formula is the following:
- L values are around 70 for a well lit picture (but exposure and ethnicity is a big factor here)
- a and b values are approximately in the range of 10-30 for both a and b in either channel
- a and b values are positive and close in value (their difference should be no more than 10)
Hope this helps. Cheers. Keep up the good work !
I would have loved to have seen Fuji X-T3 in that same comparison. Your final edits are really great. Hope the subjects liked them too.
As a former long time Fuji owner (multiple camera generations) Fuji skin tones are really not all that. They are Canon ish but tend more toward an overall yellow. They certainly aren't bad, but the default "Provia" look had skin tones I really grew to hate. But RAW processing made it all good, similar to most systems. Now on Sony with no regrets. I did love the Fuji system though, and they have fixed a lot of my gripes with the Xt-3 (Had XT-1 and Xt-2)
Thank you so much for this video!!! I’ve been struggling so much to get “proper” color in skin and you have given me a valuable formula to use! I love your honesty, candor, and humour! Hoping you keep on producing videos. You’re my number person on RUclips
Yes! The biggest problem for me wasn't in color cast when I used Sony instead of Fuji (which is what we usually do) for portraits for the last four months. It was that it seemed to bring out every skin flaw. My wife picked up on it instantly, in my photos of her, and she hates it.
start shooting wide open or get better at retouching lol thats the trade off for higher resolution and sharper resolution lmao.
Just take it back out, by using negative sharpness for ooc JPEG, or in capture one just use the skin color tool. It is much better for skin color management in general than PS or Lightroom
@@Dance1617 it's not just higher resolution and sharper images, though. Canon seems to tune their CFAs so they're less discriminating to blue/teal. The skin tends to have a lot of undesirable blue components in veins and other blemishes.
A side effect of that is that their deep lush greens tend to be yellower.
I've got Fuji X-T2 and I hate its waxy skin tones. Even RAW file seem to be somewhat processed in camera so editing won't fix it.
As always, amazing. Far and away better than most channels on the subject
When you shoot raw, information is more important than color. you can always change the color you like or soft the detail as you like. But you can't bring more dynamic range back or bring details back.
Too bad most(?) camera companies advertise raw access, but deliver files with irreversible and often destructive DSP algorithms applied. (It's called bait and switch marketing and is illegal many places).
Thanks for the tremendous inside look on the different staring points. It showed one more time that the camera is just a tool and no religion.
stop getting into my mind and doing the exact videos I want to watch!
Señor Calabaza I know right! Lol
I'm sure someone has already commented this, but if not there's a tool that will save you some mouse movement. You can use the Color Sampler Tool underneath the Eyedropper stack to set a reference point. It'll show up in the Info panel so you can reference that instead of having to over back over the area you are correcting.
Canon is supposed to have the better skin tones but interestingly enough your final edit is closer to the Sony than the Canon.
I would actually say that the final edited image looks... exactly like the Sony straight out of camera!
Personal preference always plays a role in these things. I used to be the kind to want photos to turn out EXACTLY as in real life, but the more I play with the hobby (as a filthy casual and not a professional, haha), I've found myself leaning more towards the school of thought that considers photography an artform as much as any other, and like _any_ form of artistic expression, the golden rule is "to each their own".
Well true for the dark skin. The white man skin looked better on Canon to my eyes.
@@leticiali I don't have the person in front of me to really compare what I see with my own eyes and what was edited for me. However, I think the browns in the Final Edit have a richer, more chocolate-like appearance than the OOC Sony (with slight colour cast) shot. My own facial hair and skin colours seem pretty close to the white guy's colours and from my personal experience--without a tan--we both have a bit of pink in the pale areas of the skin and where the skin is tight around knuckles and elbows. Out of camera I'd say the Sony image is closer but it still requires colour correcting. Which, of course, the Canon requires too.
I found that the shadows under the Asian woman's chin were significantly more closed off in the Sony.
I have done extensive retouching in my life and did it way back in the days of film but for my purposes, I usually use selective color and subtract or add values from red is enough for me to get where i need to go.
Very interesting video in any case that proves you can use most modern cameras to get where you need to go with enough care and attention to detail.
I have an EOS R and Fuji X T3 at the moment.
Selective colour would work very well as well.
Really nice comparison video! I feel like I got some interesting and precise technical information from it, as well as some good thoughts on what it means in practical terms.
As someone who mostly paints portraits instead of shooting them, I found the even, consistent yellow skintones of a Canon quite upsetting and lifeless. They do have a certain punchy, pleasant quality to them, which probably makes it a good match for fashion photography, but the Sony colours felt much more natural and rich (as in "varied", which is a good thing, at least in painting) to me.
One thing that is important to note, is that it isn't the sensor that is primarily responsible for the way colour is rendered. Yes, there's a subtle input from the filter colour transmission characteristics, but that's often more about trade-offs between the ability to distinguish colour and noise characteristics. Such things are easily measured, and DXO have appropriate metrics.
What really matters is not the sensor, but the decisions made within the algorithms in the camera on how the colour is to be rendered. And yes, this does affect RAW too as the meta-data for the rendering software is passed over within the data and it's that which the software uses to provide the default rendering. Part of the aim is to make sure default RAW processing looks similar to OOC JPEGs.
So, it's not (primarily) a matter for the software, but those algorithms. It also occurs to me that, with modern face-detection software, it ought to be possible to have specifically tailored profiles for skin tones according to taste.
In any event, and excellent video and it can't be emphasised enough that colour for this sort of application is dictated by human aesthetic senses and not absolute accuracy. If camera algorithms weren't making decisions over the way colours are rendered according to the characteristics of particular lighting mixes we'd end up with truly hideous OOC results. Our visual perception system automatically adjusts perceived skin hues over a wide range of lighting conditions. A camera that didn't do this would show the "real" colours, which might look (say) sickly yellow under warm, tungsten light. Of course, such was the case back in those old days of film when colour rendering on slides was whatever the chemists had cooked into their magic potions.
Canon's skin tones are too warm, Sony's too cool. Thanks for showing us side-by-side!
Showing how to correct skin tones was more useful to me than all these gear review and pixel peep videos that flood YT. I noticed that the subjects’ black shirts looked more neutral in color after you corrected the skin color. Thanks.
canon fanboys: "THE COLOR SCIENCE THOOOO"
Everyone else: "Post Processing exists, even canon users do it..."
Rath Empire lol yeah “But....but color science! REEEEEE!!!!”
Because in video you have no RAW.... With RAW it doesn't really matter. But for video it's a big thing though, beacuase the camera does a lot of preprocessing
Good that i shoot RAW. I can make sony look canon and laugh for misconceptions.
@@alexmeier19 its actually not, guess youve never heard of log profiles.
@@palysmedia5276 haha of course I had, but log profiles are not nearly as good as RAW. video you have still 8 bit while raw is 14 bit. 2^8 vs 2^14. 64x more info!
You are a gift to all kinds of photographers!
Hey sean, could you share with us your process to achieve the final image between the 2 cameras? I love the final image and I too shot with canon and moved to the sony a7III. Cheers!
Check out my editing video from my Mentor Portraits. A lot of the techniques are in there.
Ben something out of the topic,I do shoot with the a7iii and a metabones iv I experience a sort of shutterlag,is there a way around it or have you faced something like so? Thanks in advance
Thank you Sean. I spent the most recent 3 months rekindling my interest in photography as something to spur my creativity, enjoyment of life, and my passions and purpose. i,e a lot of my motivation and what some would call mental health, which in my case also includes a heightened awareness of God as I see the world around me more intimately when I capture them myself, and can view things in such a unique way, at my own time, to see details that I may not spend as much time to observe, in the real world, has now been helped by this rekindled interest.
From other channels I learned the science, the Photography 101, and I consider you one of my next mentors, who is now teaching me the philosophy and some of the art as well as the advanced science of photography. Like taking a post graduate class, where one is expected to be resourceful enough to go do one's basic research or have done so already at an undergrad level,. to master the foundations of the subject matter.
Your blog is so important in photography, not because you are right or wrong but because you provide a basis for advanced thinking about imaging, that enables each of us to build our own accelerated workflow, for the kinds of images, we want to take...
Thanks. and Best wishes in this life.... I have been the more fulfilled and full of joy by listening to you, not because I agree with everything you say, but there is a substance of truth and sincerity, devoid of click bait, in every single one of your videos.
This was a revelatory video.
I wish one day you can get a little bit down in the woods, to talk from your own perspective of the behind the scenes colour profiling that causes a photo editor to arrive at the image we see, from the RAW file. In most cases, applying some color profile, it would be interesting to hear your perspective, on how different image editors using the same raw file, may not produce the same image. The reason I say this is that while it may appear that the Canon produces warmer tones, that may not be due to the sensor itself, but due to the color profiling applied to the RAW file, during conversion to JPEG, and also when the photo editor displays teh image to us, it must use some sort of profile obtained somehow, to convert the RAW file to what we see. Is this the difference between Canon and Sony - colour "profiling" being different between the manufacturers as their signature look, and not especially from a significant difference between what the sensor itself captures....
The only way to tell is to display the RAW file, without any of the default colour grading/profiling applied in Capture One, and compare this RAW file, between each of the shots taken in identical conditions by the two camera..
Sony is sharper. Sharpness is better ... you can color grade in post if you want the over-saturated look.
well mark III here, mark IV would add sharpness or 5dsr for portrait wich would be 100 iso and would be even sharper.
Sharpness isn't always better in portraits. People don't want to see their pores.
@@DreamReleases I know ... a lot of people want to have that melted skin look.
@@spondoolie6450 Mostly photographers or clients will publish in Facebook...So sharp or not doesn't change anything
@@sanzlenaic1700 Then why don't you just shoot with your smart phone if that's your opinion? There, I just saved you hundreds of dollars.
This all makes way to much sense for the Internet to comprehend. Love your work Sean. Keep it up
Sean, this was a fascinating episode and thought your final edit looked fantastic and as you said if you want to apply your own particular style, is the camera brand such an important issue at the end of the day if you can make requisite changes post production.
Thanks again Sean for illuminating common misconceptions within the photographic community, and including a tutorial while doing so! Another great video
I think its the anti aliasing at work for the Canon, that is why its soft and less super detail
Oh. Finally someone did this. I recently searched for video with this topic. Great as always Sean. :)
Thanks for amazing video
Just what I was trying to figure out recently
Great video Sean! Very informative, loved it. Quick tip: Instead of making a blurred layer, when you click on the eye-drop tool, go to the tool bar at the top left and change your point sample size to 31x31(or 11x11) this will give you an average sample color of the surrounding pixels. You can also shift+click on a point while your info bar is up so that way you make sure you are viewing the same point. It will save your sample selection and can reference that point at any time. This will help increase speed of your process as well as increase accuracy of what you are trying to achieve. Hope this is helpful!
Thanks mate. I'm aware. It's a preference. I just prefer to blur and select a point so I can visually see what I'm selecting, instead of guessing the expanded extent of the pixels being selected.
@@seantuck Makes sense!
Sony colors are obviously best because they're the most realistic. And realistic, neutral colors are the best basis for making adjustments to personal taste.
I've been waiting for this video for a week and it did not disappoint! Thank you for covering this!
The amount of detail lost from the canon makes it less than ideal. It's always easier to subtract than it is to add. Anyone can tweak colors in post but it's the valuable extra information that will always give more of a artistic freedom in the end
Except "artistic freedom" isn't what's required when getting ethnic skins tones to the customer's desire.
Your videos are always packed with so much good info. This video about skin tones is one of the best out there.
Now that you've done that comparison I actually like the Sony better. The Canon looks awfully yellow and not true to life. Obviously, to each its own, but I don't see "Canon colors" as a benefit at all.
Yeah, if I want warm it's not that hard to change global color temperature or paint it in selectively.
Superb video Sean! Great advice on correcting the skin tones!
There is a way of changing the sample area in the info palette so it selects more than 1 pixel... select a larger area and it may remove the need to do the blur layer.
I’ll be using that formula from now on! Thank you!
Thanks Richard. Appreciate mate. You can absolutely work that way, I just like being able to visually see what I'm selecting rather than visually estimating how many pixels are being included in the selection.
Action: Makes video with a conclusion about how in the end brands their specific colors don't really matter because of post-processing.
Reaction: Comments are flooded with people talking about how one brand's colors are being superior over the other.
PLAY THE MUSIC STEVE!
Sean, please do portrait photography workshops so I can learn directly from you! You're such an inspiration, I would love to meet you in perso and thank you for everything you do with your videos!
i'm a Panasonic shooter but i preferred the sony colors more than canons
Excellent post Sean. Always fascinated how the fanboy effect causes division in these instances. It is clear that sensitive editing is required to bring either the Canon or the Sony output to what would be perceived as the closest match. As always, the photographer is the brains here, not the gear.
Couldn’t agree more:)
yayy another videooo ,,, love your content
Finally a video that stops the nonsense about Canon "superior" skin tones. It is indeed a starting point no matter which camera and we as artists, need to then convert it into what we want to deliver.
Good job!
I preferred the Sony skin tones. They looked way more natural.
i was surprise as well at how well sony handled skin tones. even the starting point was already good enough for my untrained eyes. whereas canon skin tones were just too darn yellow. at least in this video.
I could be a bit biased because I'm a sony shooter myself, but I also prefered the Sony colours. The canon were too yellow, the black skin specially
I agree with you, the Canon skin tones were too yellow!!!
When I posted some photos straight out of the A7rIII shooters of other brands were amazed at how great it looked. I shot some of them docu style, but I still first and foremost cared about where good light was naturally happened and voila! good photos without any editing.
Canon is way too yellow for me. And I’m Asian
This is the type of video I've been wanting to see for so long! Thank you Sean.
Am I the only one who thinks canon has bad skin tones?
They look sickly, like they have Jaundice or something
I think Sony makes people look like cadavers. So while while Canon people may have jaundice, at least they're not dead!
Haven't seen much of these cadavers have you?
i think i learned to avoid canon for basically that (back than i couldn't pin it to that reason).
I don't trust this video. Canon has really good skin tones, very unlike the ones shown in this video. Canon skin is not biased toward green. Something is wrong here.
nope you're not the only one. In a blind test, Canon is rated the worst brand of all brands out there. Canon is straight trash. Even Nikon skin tones look better than canon.
Hi there ! I watched this when it came out and have been rewatching every other year to dust off and go back to the fundamentals.
I'm a canon shooter (6DmkII) but have been working for 20 months for a company that used only sony gear, especially A7III. I must add that while technically similar, shooting at ISO 100 isn't the same on Sony because the sensor's base ISO is 800. That means you are working with a dimmed signal and the camera won't perform at its best (especially those dreadful skin tones, which are miles better on sony when you shoot at base iso)
Well done
That is actually really useful for people like me. I prefer a bit warmer and magenta-toned images , that's why I miss colour accuracy in many shots , especialy in bad light.