p.1 #1 · Nikon Zf custom picture control profiles/recipes
I have been toying around with more custom image control settings on my Zf, some from the Nikon imaging cloud, but also some other custom ones I found online (Serban JPG has a few that are quite good I think).
My question is this - how can you go back and look at a photo and see which custom profile was used? When I look at the photo data on the camera it just shows flexible color was used, which is what most all of these custom profiles is based on. I am trying to actually see the name of the profile, or at least the settings, so when I am reviewing pictures later I can better evaluate which settings I really like. Is this even possible?
p.1 #2 · Nikon Zf custom picture control profiles/recipes
Ok so the only thing I have found that works reliably, so far, is if you open the JPEG in NX Studio. You can look in the exif data and find the name of the picture profile you have set in your camera listed in there. Surprised that I can't just find this anywhere in camera, but at least this is a reliable way to go back and figure it out!
p.1 #3 · Nikon Zf custom picture control profiles/recipes
Is there a thread here somewhere where people recommend profiles they have found? When I look at the gallery of available profiles listed on the Nikon site I just see names of ‘creators’ I have never heard of.
How does one even go about finding and testing profiles when they are listed so arbitrarily?
p.1 #4 · Nikon Zf custom picture control profiles/recipes
NX Studio is the only way to answer OP's question.
The recipes on the Imaging Cloud site suck SO BAD. That's why Serban and I (and a few others) are hard at work doing the actual work for the community. Also FYI, if you shoot RAW, you can convert any RAW to any photo recipe you have in camera via the Retouch menu (even changing the White Balance to the most appropriate one for that recipe). This has been a game changer for me since Nikon doesn't have recipe bracketing like Fuji.
My first 3 recipes have been well received, with the mono even making its way to Nikon Rumors. AFAIK I'm the only one on FM actively making these.
p.1 #7 · Nikon Zf custom picture control profiles/recipes
circling back to this as I have a lot more experience with the Zf now, some of the imaging cloud recipes are OK but they are under color grading rather than the recipes. The overall imaging cloud website really is a terrible UI though. Some of the in camera profiles actually look quite good but only if you tone them down to like 20-40% (I like Dream at like 30% a lot for example).
p.1 #8 · Nikon Zf custom picture control profiles/recipes
Dr_Fishy wrote:
circling back to this as I have a lot more experience with the Zf now, some of the imaging cloud recipes are OK but they are under color grading rather than the recipes. The overall imaging cloud website really is a terrible UI though. Some of the in camera profiles actually look quite good but only if you tone them down to like 20-40% (I like Dream at like 30% a lot for example).
Sunday at 40-50% is the baseline for my more colorful looks.
p.1 #10 · Nikon Zf custom picture control profiles/recipes
The Nikon PC site has some interesting ones (I like the Velvia Neutral a lot) but they were built with the older tools for older cameras and can't take advantage of what Flexible Color offers.
James over at JPEG Cookbook has put together a repository of more modern recipes and links directly to their pages so that if updates happens over time, you're getting to the most recent versions. Pretty cool site.
p.1 #11 · Nikon Zf custom picture control profiles/recipes
Really useful thread and resources.
I'll peruse through them.
The Nikon website is terrible for getting recipes because it seems to categorize them by PEOPLE instead of recipe attributes.
I've had some issues cooking my own also because Capture NX is an alien language to me. I'm not sure what settings are saveable as a profile and it seems like when I upload the recipe to a slot there are all these issues. I'm sure there's a learning curve.
p.1 #12 · Nikon Zf custom picture control profiles/recipes
There's a huge learning curve, and yes, not everything applies to a saved on-camera recipe (including, frustratingly, the secondary level of tone curves which are more powerful than the ones that ARE saved).
