New Picture Style Editor. Improved but still a bit pants...

[Andy600]

In all the excitement of recent ML developments did anyone notice the infamous Canon Picture Style Editor has had an update?

It now sports an RGB curve in addition to the luma curve and a 6-axis color wheel to adjust complimentary colours. The RGB curve is about as flexible as the luma curve i.e. it's very fiddly to adjust and frustrating to use.

It's actually a lot more versatile than the old PSE but still a long way from what it could be.

[N/A]

Seems like a case of "too little, too late"... I loved trying out new PS' s when we were limited to h264 but now that raw rage has taken over, it seems gimmicky now. Although I hope the fine folks at VisionColor put out an ACR template soon.

Also, a nice log template would be wonderful, I've tried my hand at it but the results are inconsistent. So many possibilities, so little time.

[Andy600]

Picture styles are still very useful for some things (Jpegs and H.264). I won't totally give up with H.264 as it's convenient and fast for fun shooting.

I'm not sure about ACR templates but making LUTs to match Canon Picture Styles is pretty easy. You can also use the Cineon plugin in AE for REC709 to Log conversion if you want to get a bit more serious with CC or better still, use a LUT in Resolve. I've tried a few and found some of the Alexa ones give you a good base to work from. (check the Arri website).

There are some nice Fuji and Kodak print LUTs here: http://juanmelara.com.au/print-film-emulation-luts-for-download/ and a great TUT on getting that typical 'blockbuster look' in Resolve but you need to start with a flat image so I ran some old H.264 Neutral footage out as a TIFF seq using the cineon converter in AE before trying it (haven't tried with raw files yet). It's very educational and pretty easy to follow.

TBH raw gives us so many CC possibilities that using templates is a bit of a waste and not very creative but of course, perfectly acceptable if you don't want the hassle of doing any CC.

[N/A]

I have now tasted the sweet nectar that is raw video; nothing else could possibly quench my thirst 

Seriously though, h264 max bitrate plus a great picture style can produce damn good results. I'll definitely check out those links, I never pushed the color very far on h264, even with prolost or cinestyle, so I have a bit of learning to do. I'm FINALLY getting a good eye for shot composition, framing, all that fun stuff, so color/contrast usage is my next goal.

I could see raw templates being extremely handy if someone were to shoot weddings/events in raw (once raw_rec is running more stable) and didn't want to cc every single clip. And plus there's always FilmConvert.