Nikon D3, D700 and D300 Picture Control Settings
© 2008 KenRockwell.com
Nikon D3 Review Nikon D700 Review Nikon D300 Review
January 2008 More Nikon Reviews
Picture Control: STANDARD.
Picture Control: STANDARD, +2 Saturation.
This was about as far as any previous Nikon could go.
Picture Control: VIVID, +3 Saturation.
Whoo hoo! This hotel and sky didn't look this good in person.
See why I love to crank my D300 and D3?
My Nikon D300 and Nikon D3 let me get wilder colors than any previous Nikon, including film cameras loaded with Fuji Velvia 50.
Not that you want colors this wild, but I do. Art is the expression of imagination, and I dream in very vivid colors.
You probably prefer more a polite color rendition.
This will show you how to set your D300 and D3 as you like.
D3 versus D300
I get the same look from my D3 as I do from my D300 with the same settings. Thank goodness Nikon has standardized this, at least across these two cameras.
Wording
Last year, Nikon called the settings for saturation, contrast and sharpness "Optimize Image."
As of late 2007, Nikon now calls these settings "Picture Control."
Don't let Nikon's typical lack of clarity confuse you. Picture Controls are simply the settings for contrast, sharpness, saturation and etc.
Canon also calls them something else each year, like User Defined (2002-2006) and now Picture Styles (2007).
On the D300 and D3:
Press MENU.
Select SHOOTING MENU (camera icon on left).
Go right (into the menu selections) and go down to the next page to SET PICTURE CONTROL.
Go right to the four standard options, and click two down to VIVID.
VIVID is a good option. VIVID on the D3 and D300 is as vivid as the wildest way I could set all of my other Nikons.
Since I want colors loud enough to deafen a heavy-metal drummer, I crank it up from VIVID.
Once at VIVID, click right to the menu with the sub-options of Saturation and Contrast.
Click down to Saturation, and peg it three clicks to the right.
Hit OK, otherwise your modification isn't remembered.
You now have altered the VIVID setting to its maximum. In the menus you'll now see it called VI*, the * signifying that you've messed with Nikon's default for VIVID.
I always set Adaptive Dynamic Range (ADR, mislabeled as Adaptive D-Lighting by Nikon in the menus) to NORMAL. This sets the contrast and brightness automatically based on the Zone System, removing those choices from your menu options.
My Settings
Things
I always shoot with ADR at NORMAL. This eliminates the ability to control the brightness (gamma) and contrast settings.
I leave the sharpening settings alone, too.
For photos of things, I usually start at VIVID and crank the saturation all the way up to +3. This gives me the psychedelic look I love.
People
For photos of people, I usually start at STANDARD or Neutral and move the saturation up to +1 or +2.
STANDARD is less wild then VIVID, and NEUTRAL has even lower contrast.
How to Save Settings (Picture Styles)
Press MENU.
Select SHOOTING MENU (camera icon on left).
Go right (into the menu selections) and go down to the next page to MANAGE PICTURE CONTROL (one below Set Picture Control).
It's obvious from here. I name my favorite wild setting as BOLD, and it recalls as C-1 (for custom-1) in the menus This is all internal to your D3 and D300.
Weirdnesses of Picture Styles
The image also depends on the basic setting, STANDARD, NEUTRAL, VIVID and MONOCHROME, from which you make your settings.
VIVID at it's 0 saturation setting is far more saturated than STANDARD at its 0 saturation setting.
Set +3 (maximum) saturation in the STANDARD setting and it's nothing special. Set +3 saturation in the VIVID preset and it's wild.
Nikon should have done as Canon does, which is to let every setting have numeric values which always give the same results, and give us access to all the values in each menu. Nikon has chosen to keep this complex enough that people who don't read me will probably never figure it out.
How to Copy and Share Settings
Using MENU > Shooting Menu > Manage Picture Control > Load/save, you can store, recall and share these settings via CF cards.
I saved my wild setting using the SAVE option. I renamed it KenRockwell.com and put it here for you to try.
Copy this PICCON01.NCP Nikon Picture Setting File to your computer. It's a tiny 52 Byte file that downloads instantly.
After you copy it, be sure it's named "PICCON01.NCP" Rename it if your computer renamed it something else. My Mac (OS 10.4.11) didn't recognize the file type and appended .txt to it, for instance. My wife's iMac (OS 10.5.1) worked fine.
Create a new folder called NIKON at the top level of your CF card.
Create a new folder called CUSTOMPC in this new NIKON folder.
Put the PICCON01.NCP file in the CUSTOMPC folder. Computer hackers would call this directory structure something like NIKON D300/NIKON/CUSTOMPC/PICCON01.NCP.
Nikon uses all capital letters, so I'd use the same.
Put the CF card in your D300 or D3.
Load it into your D300 using MENU > Shooting Menu > Manage Picture Control > Load/save > Copy to Camera.
You now can use the same exact setting I use in my D300 into your D300, big deal.
Shortcomings of Saving and Sharing Picture Controls
Now that Nikons can make wild colors just as Canon has done these past few years, it would be nice if Nikon had a way for direct access to various "picture styles." Since I have my colors cranked, I need to tone them down for people shots, which requires resorting to menus. On my Canons, I program the SET button to let me choose among my presets with the Canon big rear dial.
None of the Picture Control settings are complex enough to warrant saving them to a CF card. They are just a few simple parameters.
I find it easier to change them in-camera than to fiddle with jamming cards in and out of cameras.
These settings don't remember the critical settings for Active D-Lighting (ADL aka ADR), Nikon's great new dynamic-range management system. You need to set or unset these manually since they are not saved or recalled as picture styles.
From what I read in Nikon's D300 Users Manual (page 160 et seq.), Nikon only intends for these settings to be transferred on memory cards, not via computers or the Internet as I've done here.
Since the PICCON01.NCP files aren't file types recognized by computer operating systems, weird things can happen when transferring them. Sometimes punctuation in the preset names don't get recalled, your computer may rename the file, or the camera may not recognize the file after it's been through your computer.
I was able to recall my PICCON01.NCP file from the Internet and restore it in to my D300 via my Mac, but it took me a few tries on OS 10.4.11. It worked the first time on OS 10.5.1. Good luck!
Using the two-button reset
When you use reset, each Picture Control is reset back to its default, and each of your saved Picture Controls is reset back to the way in which it was saved.
If you changed anything about any picture control, like Contrast or Sharpening, and want to save that, save it as a new, named Picture Control.
PLUG
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