Have you ever wanted to have those fancy picture styles from westerns and action movies for your own videos, made with a Canon DSLR? Have you actually tried to pull it off time and time again, only to fail? Well, let me tell you folks – to get these styles, you need to start with the shooting process.

In order to get cool tinted effects, you need to shoot with a flat picture setting. Basically, this means everything is super desaturated, has low contrast, and generally doesn't look that great. However, that's just where the magic begins, and you can get this style by downloading the Technicolor CineStyle setting for your camera right now.

How To Get Started

To get started with your free Technicolor CineStyle picture setting for your Canon DSLR, you'll need to head on over to this link, but keep things tabbed for the rest of the article. After arriving, you'll have to register with Technicolor. However, since I didn't see anything that mentioned taking ownership of your firstborn (though I'm sure there are some of you who would be okay with that), it shouldn't be a problem.

After doing this, you'll go to a page that gives you the rundown on the download process. However, bear in mind that you'll need the Canon EOS Utility v2.6 or later, and you can download that update here.  Also, if perchance you lost your original utility installation disc and you're on a Mac, here's a good article that will tell you an easy way to install it without the disc. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to do much research for the Windows version (yet).

Following the directions, go ahead and install the picture setting to your camera. However, even after you have installed it, there are a couple of tips that you should know. The first one is that you should typically use an ISO that goes in increments of 160 (but 100 is okay in some cases, such as with the Canon t3i). The second is that you should set your sharpness to 0, your contrast to -4, your saturation to -2, and your color tone to 0.

Why You Should Use It

If you're using a DSLR, I'm sure you're familiar with color correction and color grading. Well, what the Technicolor CineStyle installation does is allow you to shoot in a flat, neutral style. Basically, that means all your raw footage is going to be dull, nearly colorless, and very... boring. If you're like me, you may like that color style anyway, but it is not exactly meant to be left at that setting forever.

What you can do with this lifeless image is adapt it to any color need that you may have. Since everything is so flat, there is plenty of room to play. From Michael Bay to Quentin Tarantino, you can give your film the look you want. Technicolor suggests using an S-curve shaped look-up table (LUT) while color correcting your footage. One free LUT is the Magic Bullet LUT buddy, but honestly, I found using Adobe Premiere's curves tool and three-way color corrector to be just as effective.

Granted, I am not a professional colorist, so if you find differing information from one, go with that guy (and then leave a constructively critical comment).

Conclusion

This tool will let essentially help your camera perform new tricks, and so far I have used it on both a Canon 60D and a Canon t3i (both with ISO increments of 100). I didn't have a problem with them in the least, so it shouldn't be much of a hassle to get started.

What other picture styles do you use? Do you have any footage using the Technicolor setting?