JPEG settings

[Thomerik]

My Z5II arrives tomorrow, and I wanted to get into JPEG shooting with Nikon (not exclusively, just RAW+JPEG). I will have to setup all the settings when it arrives, and just wanted to see if anyone has any recommendations in terms of what profile to use? Maybe someone has found a good JPEG preset for Nikon Z? I have never shot JPEGs with Nikon. I simply prefer a natural look for all the times where I don't really need to process that much (low dynamic range scenes when I'm just walking around for instance). What profile do you prefer? I'd probably prefer a more natural and subtle look, but if there's some cool black and white profile, I'd probably have fun trying that out aswell.

 

[j_photo]

FYI Thom Hogan just released a guide for shooting jpeg SOOC.

 

[Thomerik]

FYI Thom Hogan just released a guide for shooting jpeg SOOC.

I know, but I won't need 300+ pages of reading material. I was just looking to see if there's some good profiles/presets to be found.

 

[skyrunr]

Camera Portrait is my new favorite for color, graphite, monochrome, and flat monochrome.

I'm getting better AF performance using higher contrast picture controls than when I used flat. If I shoot a critical sunset landscape I shoot flat and run it through NX Studio before Lightroom.

Z50II, should be similar enough to the Z5II.


24-200VR testing


85-S model was not cooperating



Z6III


Z6III - 24-200VR flat monochrome (slight drop to shadows)

--
SkyRunR
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
“The quickest way to make money at photography is to sell your camera.” – Anonymous

 

[skyrunr]

I know, but I won't need 300+ pages of reading material. I was just looking to see if there's some good profiles/presets to be found.

Yeah, in my U3 (tripod/manual/landscape) I have picture control in my "i" menu. It is fun to go through them and see the results in live view. I use the same approach with my Lightroom presets. Applying the "wrong" preset can have more artistic results as well.

 

[Thomerik]

I suppose I should add that my main use case is landscapes, scenery and macro.

 

[skyrunr]

I suppose I should add that my main use case is landscapes, scenery and macro.

That is helpful, but I use portrait for everything. I find most of the other effects too strong. People's preferences are going to be rather subjective.

However, I might switch to standard or even vivid for video. Vivid is also useful for onsite delivery or viewing on a large screen during an event (Shooting RAW+JPG of course.) Lightroom makes is very easy to preview and compare MANY of the camera profiles. Of course NXS is more accurate, but I don't need to split hairs.

 

[Thomerik]

I suppose I should add that my main use case is landscapes, scenery and macro.

That is helpful, but I use portrait for everything. I find most of the other effects too strong. People's preferences are going to be rather subjective.

However, I might switch to standard or even vivid for video. Vivid is also useful for onsite delivery or viewing on a large screen during an event (Shooting RAW+JPG of course.) Lightroom makes is very easy to preview and compare MANY of the camera profiles. Of course NXS is more accurate, but I don't need to split hairs.

 

[jthomas39]

White balance:

The Auto white balance has three choices: Keep white, Keep overall atmosphere, Keep warm colors. The manual says that Keep white and Keep warm are related to incandescent lighting, but I think late day outdoor lighting is affected too?

Most of the time, I use either Auto--keep overall, or maybe the separate Natural Light Auto if I'm outdoors.

I think the Auto choices in White Balance and Picture Control are quite effective for most scenes.

I edit raw files from my raw + jpg Fine* pairs. The jpg is for occasional use and for reference of what I saw in the camera that day. So I don't normally pay close attention to the white balance and the picture control for my pairs.

I do like shooting in monochrome sometimes. It's very interesting to see the effects on B & W scenes with exposure changes, etc, right in the viewfinder. See the world in black & white!

Picture control:

Manual page: picture controls

I see your Z5 ii allows selected standard picture controls to be removed from the display choices list. That's new, and very helpful. In my Z6 iii, there's a lot of annoying picture controls that I just scroll past.

To experiment with alternate picture controls, get the free NX Studio software for your computer. You can select one of your downloaded raw files, and then try every picture control with that raw file. The results are designed to match the camera's picture control outputs.

Custom picture controls:

NX Studio includes Picture Control Utility 2, which used to be a separate download. See File --> Launch Picture Control Utility 2 in the menu. This is an easy way to make custom changes to the stock picture controls.

I edited a couple of monochrome picture controls to adjust the contrast, etc, as I liked. I added "-MOD" to the name, so I have MONOCHROME-MOD and GRAPHITE-MOD added in my camera. These get added to the end of the list, so I can scroll "left" from the Auto to wrap around to the end of the list, and my two monochrome mods.

 

[monte12345]

BTW, I am a Zf user which is the Older and Prettier Twin to this Fraternal Twin Set. So settings are extremely similar between these two cameras. There are 4 Setting you will want to change.

Note all of the following settings are in the Shooting Menu and fairly closely grouped.

1) RAW Recording, you will want to set this to Lossless Compression. While the files are larger this format will work with about any RAW converter you can find. The HEIF files are too new and Adobe doesn't have a "handle" on this type of compression, so you will see variations of horizontal lines or blank images.

2) Primary Slot Selection. On your camera chose Slot 1. Lucky you, you have two SD UHS-2 card slots. With my Zf I have one SD and one Micro SD. BTW this is the reason why I'm so tempted by the Z5II even if I do have the prettier Twin.

3) Secondary Slot Function. You will want to set this to Raw Primary and JPG Secondary. Yes setting the primary to slot two will reverse which slot is RAW/JPG but does that really matter, both slots do the same thing (UHS-2).

4) Image Quality. This is where you set the JPG compression quality. Best setting to use is RAW = JPG/HEIF Fine *. This produces the finest Quality JPG files you can get.

 

[Thomerik]

BTW, I am a Zf user which is the Older and Prettier Twin to this Fraternal Twin Set. So settings are extremely similar between these two cameras. There are 4 Setting you will want to change.

Note all of the following settings are in the Shooting Menu and fairly closely grouped.

1) RAW Recording, you will want to set this to Lossless Compression. While the files are larger this format will work with about any RAW converter you can find. The HEIF files are too new and Adobe doesn't have a "handle" on this type of compression, so you will see variations of horizontal lines or blank images.

2) Primary Slot Selection. On your camera chose Slot 1. Lucky you, you have two SD UHS-2 card slots. With my Zf I have one SD and one Micro SD. BTW this is the reason why I'm so tempted by the Z5II even if I do have the prettier Twin.

3) Secondary Slot Function. You will want to set this to Raw Primary and JPG Secondary. Yes setting the primary to slot two will reverse which slot is RAW/JPG but does that really matter, both slots do the same thing (UHS-2).

4) Image Quality. This is where you set the JPG compression quality. Best setting to use is RAW = JPG/HEIF Fine *. This produces the finest Quality JPG files you can get.

Thank you! This is useful, but I was more looking for a specific profile to use, or maybe a good custom JPEG preset if there is any out there.

 

[monte12345]

You have a button on the top of you camera for Picture Controls. I will note it's a fairly long list but at the end there is a selection of Picture Controls that have an adjustment for the intensity of the Picture Control so you can dial in what YOU want for that profile.

You can also visit NIKONPC.com where there is an even larger variety of film simulations and a wide variety of profiles that may interest you. In addition you can use the tools there to create your own Custom Picture Control to install in your camera. This transfer can be a touch finicky but once you figure it out it's relatively simple.

Finally Nikon has their new Imaging Cloud feature where you can find even more Picture Controls to download directly into your camera. BTW, I'm just to old to have any interest in this particular feature but being Nikon I expect it's rather buggy right now. Because Nikon is not very good with this type of connection setup. Apple they are NOT, not even a tiny hint of close. So expect it will be 3 of 5 years before it will work smoothly.

Note I've recently discovered that Snapbridge is working much much better now so they have been doing some learning and work to improve it. So I could be wrong about how the Imaging Cloud will actually work. I would suggest you give it a try but if you find yourself wondering how far you can throw your phone or camera then just give up on it for 6 months and try again later and see if it's improved.

 

[musicshootr]

I really dig the following profile I built. I like to call it Chilled Out Vivid:

Base profile: Vivid

Quick sharp: 0

Sharpening: +0.75

Mid-range sharpening: +0.75

Clarity: 0

Contrast: -0.25

Brightness: 0

Saturation: -0.25

Hue: +0.25

WB: 5560K most of the time, adjust to taste

WB bias: A 2.0, M 0.75

I often expose just a smidge darker than the meter says to to preserve highlights and am typically very happy with my JPEGs and highlight retention.

 

[PZbib]

It may answer your questions

 

[Bob A L]

I am perfectly happy with standard picture control. Some friends like to up sharpening and/or clarity 1 notch. Then some like to use vivid picture control. It's all personal.

Standard picture control jpeg. from Z30 and 28-400 heavily cropped.

 

[Barleyman]

Presets will also adjust the "preview" image embedded in the raw file. So if you import the raw into Lightroom, depending on your settings, Lightroom will apply it's attempt at the preset. Thats fine with me, I use it as a starting point.

I stick with Standard as I sometime share JPEGS from my phone via Snapbridge, and want it to have a bit of processing done to it.

 

[Thomerik]

Presets will also adjust the "preview" image embedded in the raw file. So if you import the raw into Lightroom, depending on your settings, Lightroom will apply it's attempt at the preset. Thats fine with me, I use it as a starting point.

I stick with Standard as I sometime share JPEGS from my phone via Snapbridge, and want it to have a bit of processing done to it.

Thank you. What color space may I ask? For RAW only I used the one that gave me the most accurate histogram. If I were to shoot RAW+JPEG I'd rather use the one that would give the best JPEG look.

 

[Thomerik]

I am perfectly happy with standard picture control. Some friends like to up sharpening and/or clarity 1 notch. Then some like to use vivid picture control. It's all personal.

Standard picture control jpeg. from Z30 and 28-400 heavily cropped.

Very nice one! What color space do you use?

 

[Thomerik]

I really dig the following profile I built. I like to call it Chilled Out Vivid:

Base profile: Vivid

Quick sharp: 0

Sharpening: +0.75

Mid-range sharpening: +0.75

Clarity: 0

Contrast: -0.25

Brightness: 0

Saturation: -0.25

Hue: +0.25

WB: 5560K most of the time, adjust to taste

WB bias: A 2.0, M 0.75

I often expose just a smidge darker than the meter says to to preserve highlights and am typically very happy with my JPEGs and highlight retention.

I'll try it out. I remember having some fun with trying out different picture profiles on my old Ricoh GRIII. Might experiment with some different ones.

 

[Bob A L]

sRGB. All standard stuff - here's a similar bird shot from my Zfc. Same picture control and color space and jpeg.