New Flexible Color Picture Control

I mentioned in my previous entry that I was quite intrigued about the new Flexible Color Picture Control when the Z6III was first announced, and during the touch-and-try event I managed to get some hands-on experience using the picture controls and spoke to some of the staff regarding its development and implementation.

As a brief introduction, picture control profiles are selectable profiles within the camera when shooting (both stills and video), which comes with a set of options that the user can fine tune to their liking for a certain look, and these settings are applied to live view previews (when Apply Settings to Live View/Show Effects of Settings are turned on), applied directly to saved JPG/HEIF files, and also used for the saved JPG previews within the RAW file.

In recent years Nikon has introduced more picture control profiles, such as creative picture controls that gives a more distinct look to the images via color casts and more manipulated tone curves, or multiple monochrome picture controls for different black and white looks - very similar to what other manufacturers do for film simulations or the likes.

And now what they are doing with the new Flexible Color Picture Control is to bring the level of color customization a step further to allow users to fine tune color casts, color blending, color grading on top of tone curve (contrast) and sharpness settings.

So before I continue, no, this is not a unique breakthrough or a game-changer of any sorts (yeah we all dislike this term don’t we), since other manufacturers usually have something similar in their cameras too.

But its implementation is something that I think is intriguing and am keenly interested to see how it will unfold.

As of writing, although the Z6III is the only camera that allows you to select Flexible Color in its picture control settings, I foresee it would come to other Expeed 7 bodies via a firmware update in the near future, like how the extra monochrome or rich tone portrait profiles were added via firmware updates to the Z8.

Even if the body does not support Flexible Color picture controls now, by using the official Nikon RAW development software, NX Studio (version 1.7.0 and above), you can now apply the new picture control to any Nikon RAW files (make sure you choose “Latest Picture Control” in the dropdown menu), and use it to color grade your photos within NX Studio.

Now comes the interesting part - your “recipes” can be then saved and exported, and with the upcoming Nikon Imaging Cloud service, users can share their flexible color picture profiles with others, and also download those created by other independent users or those done in collaboration with Nikon.

More information regarding how to use NX Studio to apply, export or import the new Flexible Color picture control can be viewed on Nikon’s official guide here.

Truth be told, I know NX studio is not the first choice of a RAW developer for a majority of photographers due to speed issues and lack of shortcut key customizations, and I am not in any way trying to convince any one here to move to NX Studio for full RAW development. But it can now be used as a powerful tool to create, tweak or import custom color grading profiles for your camera, and when the in-camera support comes for the other Expeed 7-based bodies, it would be useful in many workflows, especially those of dedicated JPG shooters. On top of that, using the flexible color profiles of other users also gives a chance to experiment with trying out different looks, and also learning how such looks are achieved by looking at how the color settings and tone curves are tweaked.

Live View Exposure Preview Settings for Nikon Mirrorless Cameras

Just remembered that I did not write an update to my previous blog post requesting for a quality of life update in the live view exposure preview settings for the cameras.

To briefly recap, the initial batch Nikon Z mirrorless bodies that were based on the Expeed 6 CPU (Z5, Z6, Z7, Z6II, Z7II, Z30, Z50, Zfc) have the option to turn on or off live view exposure preview (under custom settings), which simulates and shows changes in the captured images’ exposure when shutter speed/aperture/ISO is changed.

However even when set to “On”, whenever a strobe or TTL-compatible commander is detected in the hotshoe, this setting would be nullified and switched off as the cameras assume that it would be used in a studio setting; i.e. it is a low light environment with strobes as the main light source so live view exposure preview is not needed.

This however creates a slight inconvenience for people using strobes or on-camera flashes as fill light, as we still want to know and expose for the ambient light, and the strobes are just there to fill in the shadows. I mentioned previously that I got around by setting one Fn button to toggle the a “Forced Flash Off” function, and use it to quickly check for ambient exposure.

With the Expeed 7 bodies (Z8, Z9 and Zf as of writing), this particular feature has been improved, with the user being able to now decide between having it automatically turned off when a strobe is attached, or keep live view exposure preview on even with strobes attached - exactly what I had been clamoring for!

But with Firmware 1.60 for the Z6II and Z7II, this particular setting is now available and does really improve the handling and efficiency, and I personally am really glad that user feedback had gotten through to them.

As this setting is slightly obscured with slightly different names depending on the CPU version, I have briefly compiled the instructions on how to check and activate them here:

• Z6II/Z7II (FW1.60 and above) - go to Custom Settings d9 “Apply settings to live view”, choose “On”, press the right d-pad key, and choose either “Always” for persistent preview, or “Only when flash is not used” for automatic toggling. Detailed instructions can be read on this official page.

• Z8/Z9/Zf - this option is available to all these 3 bodies from their initial production firmware, under the name “View Mode (Photo Lv)” within the Custom Settings menu, but their exact location in the menu is dependent on current firmware version - as of writing, Z8 FW2.00 is under d9, Z9 FW5.00 is under d10, Zf FW1.10 is under d9. Select “Show effects of settings”, and press the right d-pad button to choose between “Always” for persistent exposure preview or “Only when flash is not used” for automatic toggling.

As of now the 3 DX bodies (Z30, Z50, Zfc), as well as the first generation FX bodies (Z5, Z6, Z7) did not get an update to their live view exposure preview setting, so unfortunately they still have an automatic toggle to Off whenever a flash is detected in the hotshoe. I would certainly be elated if an update comes out for the first generation FX bodies, though definitely not keeping my hopes too high for that.

Changing Lens Set-up

Now that I have gotten that little bit of negativity out of my system (refer to previous short and sweet post if you’re interested), it’s time to pen down some thoughts I have recently on how to optimize my lens set-up.

I love using prime lenses, especially when using my cameras in my own personal time, but distance restrictions or movement restrictions for my paid assignments usually force me to dual-wield my 24-70/4 + 70-200/2.8 pair instead.

I’ve been toying with the idea of swapping to the newly released (and very back-ordered) Z 24-120/4, and pairing it with my lovely 105/1.4.

Or perhaps pairing it with the Z 50/1.8 might be interesting too.

But a part of me am quite worried if the lack of the 121-200mm coverage might be detrimental to my framing when physical restrictions are in place.

And also with the Z 24-120/4, I wonder how much action my current Z 24-70/4 would see.

Decisions decisions..