Well there are some other post’s out there … this is nothing new … at least if you are not a 550D newbie
The most important settings (beside shutter speed >>> 180 degree rule) is picture style … it’s crucial to flatten your image so you have some “space” in post to style your look after shooting.
There are two kind of flat-settings-flawors known and recommendable: one by Philip Bloom and another by Vincent Laforet … well i tried both … and in my workflow / opinion Philip’s got the most usable as his is the most flatten style.
Vincent’s setting is a bit too contrasty especially in low light and indoor situations (in my opinion) … anyway both settings are workable.
So anyway i got asked several times now to “share” my 550D settings…
so here you go:
here you can see my “550D screens” of my “must set” settings:

that is how my “live view” screen looks like with my 50mm 1.8 (w/ Fader ND)
for PAL LAND 25fps shuttter is set to 1/50th – ISO 100-400 are quite OK … more than ISO 1600 not recommendable
BTW sometimes ISO is called ASA that is the “same” thing as it was called back in the Film days … (rating of film stock sensitivity)

make sure you set your style to “Neutral” instead of “Standard”
… that will be a difference
you should check if “exposure” is set to “manual”
… BTW: if i don’t need any sound i deactivate it
Some say “highlight tone priority” can help in certain situations … some others say it leads to a “more” noisy picture
well i didn’t use that mode at all yet. so i don’t like more “encroachments” than necessary so i leave it alone (disabled)
Anyway, you should check Philip Bloom’s tutorial DVD’s for 5D & 7D … as he has some more great information about DSLR shooting & post as well as ProLost by Stu Maschwitz
and a really great Workshop at creativelive.com by Vincent Laforet about HDDSLR Cinema
This was shot with this settings and graded with Magic Bullet Looks:








I have been wanting to add my own “user def” settings to my Canon 550D for some time. I think I might just get round to doing it after reading your post. Thanks
awsome… thanks for your info. finaly i can shoot video with soun