Creative Look Presets 

With a wide range of presets to choose from, users will definitely find the perfect mood for any photo or video shoot. Among the crowd favourite presets is the FL mode, which tones down some colours while enhancing the sky, greenery, and contrast. This is a great choice when shooting outdoors as it highlights natural landscapes showing the sea, sky, or mountains. 

The IN mode, meanwhile, reduces contrast and saturation, which gives you a matte look. This is recommended for achieving elegant atmospheres or stately images. On the other hand, the SH style creates a bright atmosphere with transparency, softness, and vibrancy. This is best for shoots with a soft and gentle mood. The VV2 mode, produces highly clear images with bright, vibrant colours, making it the ideal mode when shooting in extreme weather conditions to enhance dull or pale colours. 

If monotone photography is your game, you’d definitely delight in the SE mode, which offers a sepia tone, and the BW mode for black-and-white images. 

All these styles are easily customisable as you can modify the contrast, highlights, shadows, fading, saturation, sharpness, sharpness range, and clarity based on your preference. Once you have fine-tuned your Creative Look preset, you can save it as a custom look so you can quickly apply the exact same settings for future shoots.

Creative Look Gallery 

Shooting indoors with Park Sung Jin 

To showcase the fascinating capabilities of Creative Look, Park Sung Jin explored FL mode on his hotel shoot. While FL mode is recommended to be used outdoors, it is a flexible style that delivers excellent performance regardless of the location. “I use this most probably as often as everyone that uses Creative Look do. The FL mode gives a profound and luxurious feel when shooting indoors,” he said.  

Park Sung Jin conducted a portrait photo shoot in a hotel room where he used the FE 50mm F1.2 GM (SEL50F12GM) and FE 35mm F1.4 GM (SEL35F14GM) lenses to capture as much space as possible and make the room seem bigger. Upon entering the hotel, he found that the background outside the window did not turn out as what he envisioned. He initially expected to use the FL preset's on a green background, but it turned out to be in a more yellow tone. Thanks to the Creative Look FL mode, it was easy for Park Sung Jin to work his magic and the shots still turned out to be as remarkable since this preset's strong suit is making earthy hues come to life.

“Sony, even under extreme environments, delivers excellent photos. The balance is great. With FL, the results are good in mostly all situations. Just press the shutter button and you get an original image like this,” he said, quite impressed with his gear. 

Park Sung Jin also acknowledged the unique vibe that the photos have rendered. “There is a slight Japanese vibe. It’s not exactly Kyoto’s famous hot springs, but a good impression of it,” he said. 

The striking difference can be seen between the original photo and the photo taken with the applied FL preset, especially when the photos are laid out side by side. As shown below, you can see that both photos were shot using the exact same settings. However, it’s quite evident that the photo in FL mode (on the right), has enhanced colours with fine-tuned lighting, generating a more vivid visual.

“I really liked the photos because they’re in the colour tone that I really love, the beige tone,” said the model, Lee Ji Woo. “10 points for these!” she jested. 

Exploring outdoor shoots 

The second location was at Beopgi Reservoir. With its trails, tree paths, and beautiful greenery, it was exciting to see how he can elevate his photos with Creative Look. When shooting in the woods, Park Sung Jin intentionally times his shoot when the sun is way up high and the trees cover the sky, which tones down the harsh natural lighting but gives him just the right atmosphere he is looking for. This then gives him a wider dynamic range to explore and play around with his photos. Working creatively with the environment is a key skill to have as a photographer. Not only does it elevate the output, it also sharpens the creativity of the photographer. To reduce the highlights on purpose, Park Sung Jin entered the tree trails and maximised the hidden lights within. This ultimately produced an interesting interplay of light and shadow, as shown below.

In the photo below, Park Sung Jin took advantage of the backlight to complement his model. Creative Look FL was applied in the picture.  

Here, Park Sung Jin used the same backlight as direct light, which is why the photo looks brighter in this angle. “The light is covered completely, but limited light is used as direct light. It is good to use FL at this moment.” 

Creative Look FL is best used outdoors as it highlights natural sceneries and delivers a colour tone that complements yellow and green elements in the frame. Given this, he considered even the model’s wardrobe in the general concept of the shoot and ensured that it would blend well with the landscape. He didn’t want the colours to be excessive as it might overpower the general feel of the photos. 

“After taking these shots, the feeling of the light does not seem to be captured well. Also, the colour temperature was set too high, so I lowered it slightly. With Creative Look, it’s easier to fine-tune the settings, so your preferred colour can be applied instantly,” he said. “In the same position, if you put everything to Auto and take the picture, it is completely different.” 

Find the comparison between the FL, VV2, and the auto mode below. While all are great photos, it boils down to the vibe and atmosphere that you want for your shoot. 

With the variety of possible value settings to be applied, a single shot can be set to exude a multitude of atmospheres. On top of this, there is also white balance and colour filters to be considered. Park Sung Jin also established the importance of playing around with camera settings, and how it might need a bit of practice and trial-and-error over time. 

He then underscored the importance of keeping a great dynamic with the models, “The most important thing is the model and communication with the model is very important in portrait shots. I consider communication to be very important.” 

With the variety of presets to choose from, photographers will be able to convey a wide range of expressions with every photo through Creative Look. Though practice is important, nevertheless Creative Look will help users to switch between different emotions conveniently, and ultimately allows them to master their craft more quickly.

Gallery 

Conclusion 

While Park Sung Jin still likes to explore different camera settings on his own, Creative Look enables him to easily fine-tune and get closer to his preferred atmosphere in his shoots. With the range of presets to choose from, Creative Look guarantees to blend well with every shot. As it allows users to conveniently play around with different setting values, this feature is a great companion to have for those who are still finding their style or looking to further expand their skills. On this note, beginners and professionals alike will surely benefit from Creative Look! 

Allow Park Sung Jin to demonstrate how he uses Creative Look presets! Watch his adventures with Creative Look to learn how you can maximise the feature: