Z series and In Camera Picture control

Pistnbroke

I noticed an interesting comment on Rockwell re picture control.(Z7 review)..he said his test jpegs were "over contrasty "as he had the sharpness set to +5. For years I have had all my Nikons set at +9 and taken many tens of thousands of wedding pics.
I have always maintained that Nikons come out the factory set soft ..at +3. So for those of you who shoot JPEG with Z what have you put the sharpness too ?
I also noted my d850 came set with clarity at +1. This function wrecks the pictures IMHO seeming to do something funny to the exposure so I set it back to 0.

So anyone who shoots JPEG on Z can you give us a heads up.
PS just re read this and he does have sharp at +9 but something called mid range sharpening at +5 causes a problem .
once an idiot always an idiot !

Ton14

Picture control, these are the defaults from the provided profiles (Stills) out the factory.
Then you have 20 other, I did not look at and you have C1 to C9 unused.
There are no possibilities to set JPG only, or ...??? I want my RAW's on 0 as starting point,
Here are the default numbers for the Nikon Z6, but I think the Z7 are the same.

I have an icon on the "i" screen to change it quickly.

Auto - all 0

Quick sharp
Mid-range sharpening
Clarity
Contrast
Saturation

Standard

Quick sharp +3
Mid-range sharpening +2
Clarity +1
Contrast 0
Brightness 0
Saturation 0

Neutral

Quick sharp +2
Mid-range sharpening +1
Clarity +0.5
Contrast 0
Brightness 0
Saturation 0
Hue 0

Vivid

Quick sharp +4
Mid-range sharpening +2
Clarity +1
Contrast 0
Brightness 0
Saturation 0
Hue 0

Monochrome

Quick sharp +3
Mid-range sharpening +2
Clarity +1
Contrast 0
Brightness 0
Saturation 0
Filter effects off
Toning B$W

Portrait

Quick sharp +2
Mid-range sharpening +0
Clarity +0
Contrast 0
Brightness 0
Saturation 0
Hue 0

Landscape

Quick sharp +4
Mid-range sharpening +2
Clarity +1
Contrast 0
Brightness 0
Saturation 0
Hue 0

Pistnbroke

WOW tony thanks for typing that all out !! What I deduce looking at my D850 is that the Z series incorporates a mid range sharpening that the D850 does not have .Rockwell is saying use +9 on the main sharpening but don't go over +3 on the mid range. by +5 its gone all strange...
I guess any mid range sharpening on the 850 is built in and fixed

mhedges

Well the D850 could behave a little differently due to the higher MP and lack of an AA filter also.

Ton14

Tried what to view "Picture control".

Installed Capture NX-D from Nikon to find more about "Picture Control"

In the "info panel" you can now see all Picture control settings with which the photo was made.
I put my camera on, 14-bit RAW with Picture control "flat".
The sharpening is +1. mid range +0, local contrast +0. I can now see these values in the editing panel and I can adjust all values. These are the NEF files.

Unfortunately I cannot adjust the JPG files because the settings are gray, very strange. They can be adjusted if I also import the NEF file and pressed the NEF + JPG button in the top bar, then the JPG's get the same values as the NEFs.

Perhaps a nice tool to see which "own picture control" you want as a standard. If someone has found how to edit JPG's with the "picture control panel" in Capture NX-D, put the solution here, till that time you set the camera to RAW + JPG and import all the files and delete the RAW files if you don't want them.

Edit: "Picture control edit" is not available for JPG files, the manual says only RAW.

spraynpray

Yes, that's the thing with jpegs, everything not needed is chucked.

Pistnbroke

Toni ..we are talking in camera picture control not in computer picture control.

Ton14

I know, I took some test photo's with RAW + JPG and look at the picture controls in Capture NX-D on my computer and see what those numbers does, put in other numbers to see what I like best, then I put the same numbers in the camera and see if the results are the same, they should be. It means less time in post for me.

EricBowles

One thing to consider is that the Picture Control settings are written to an embedded XMP file in the NEF file. Lightroom - and potentially others - can read that embedded XMP file. LR currently is using the ISO, sharpening, noise reduction, and Picture Control setting when it processes a NEF file. For example, the Standard Picture Control means the image is loaded in LR with a default setting of Camera Standard V2. The Detail settings in LR include a default based on Sharpening in the Picture Control and Noise Reduction based on the ISO level in the camera.

So there is some value in setting your Picture Control as close as possible to your desired LR default settings.

You can see the embedded XMP data in the NEF using RawDigger.

Pistnbroke

Eric I always thought that in camera picture control setting only affected JPEG and not RAW. They will give you a better picture on the rear LCD however

PB_PM

They don't directly impact the RAW file, it will always be flat. It's when you import into LR, it will read the setting used, and assume that is what you want. Personally I always use flat, since it gives you a more realistic histogram for later RAW processing.

EricBowles

Pistnbroke said:

Eric I always thought that in camera picture control setting only affected JPEG and not RAW. They will give you a better picture on the rear LCD however

The latest version of LR brings in Z images and applies the Camera profile. It does not come in flat any more. You can change it to Flat or any other option - but the default is the Camera profile.

This is not the same way it operates with my D850. The Z cameras are different including the embedded XMP and the file is handled in a different manner by LR.