D800 flat picture control experiments

[armando_m]

Looking for a flat picture profile to record video I found this page with a few options to use as picture controls
http://www.similaar.com/foto/flaat-picture-controls/index.html

Seems this also work nicely for taking photos

Here are some examples of an image, I used Cnx2 to apply multiple picture controls
Of course the same results can be obtained using our favorite Raw editor, but I liked the idea of having a preview on how the image will look without waiting for the post processing

While I have not done much with video, I'm enjoying this profiles taking pictures on the D800 and the V1
I prefer the flat 10 profiles, highlights don't get clipped easily and shadows are not so dark

A disadvantage is that if the raw file is processed by a raw editor that ignores the picture controls (LR/PS/PN?) you will not see the effect

Here are some  examples resized and converted to RGB in CNX2
1. Neutral
2. Standard
3. Flat 10
4. Flat 11

[Bent Hjarbo]

Thanks for the tip.
Nice picture by the way

[Nasos Kosmas]

My d7200 has a flat picture control  for photo and video and I use it for video only
I find it very good for video,  when I use any other profile I always miss details
I had the oportunity to make some videos in a music school performance yesterday and I was pleased with the results
Thank you Armando

[Akira]

I'm always using the "Flat" picture control on my D750 and pleased with it, but sometimes other profiles like "Landscape" or "Standard" works better.

The default profile of ACR is "Adobe Standard", but you can select any picture control in the pull-down menu, if the camera has one.

You can apply "Flat" picture control in CNX-D even if the cameras are older and don't have it.  I used to apply "Flat" profile to my images shot with D7000.

[David H. Hartman]

My cameras do not support the new Flat PC which I usually don't want anyway. I've taken to shooting with the Neutral PC and a little extra sharpening. I toss the sharpening in post and do it from scratch there. I generally do sharpening just before exporting to JPG or whatever. If I need Flat which it sometimes is it's available in Capture NX-D.

Dave Hartman

---

Do I understand the linked PC(s) are available for shooting in a camera such as a Nikon D800?

Dave

[armando_m]

My cameras do not support the new Flat PC which I usually don't want anyway. I've taken to shooting with the Neutral PC and a little extra sharpening. I toss the sharpening in post and do it from scratch there. I generally do sharpening just before exporting to JPG or whatever. If I need Flat which it sometimes is it's available in Capture NX-D.

Dave Hartman

---

Do I understand the linked PC(s) are available for shooting in a camera such as a Nikon D800?

Dave

Dave,

I tried using CNXD to develop D800 Raw files using the flat PC and it didn't work, this was quite a while ago, not sure if it can be done now

The link to the PCs I shared in post #1 contains multiple flat PCs with 10,11 and 12 dynamic ranges, and I'm indeed using them on the D800 and the V1

For the photo raw files this PC can be done with any RAW development software, just takes some patience with the light curve

For video - I do not know for sure - but I do not think it can be applied to recover highlights and shadows as it happens when working with a JPG, I know next to nothing about editing a video.

[beryllium10]

Armando, I like the third and fourth versions. The third ('Flat 10') seems to reveal enough of the deep shadow detail to frame the subject without making it distracting.  Usually I like to be able to see into the shadows in my photos, so I almost always start raw processing from the camera-neutral profile in ACR, which is flat enough for me.  Then I build up the dark areas and overall contrast to taste.
I've never consciously set picture controls because I don't shoot jpeg + raw, and don't use a Nikon raw converter.  However I believe the chosen PC setting dictates how much of the captured tonal range is actually displayed in the histogram (i.e. how much of the  "clipped" range is actually recoverable).  Someone please correct me if this isn't the case.   
Cheers,  John

[David H. Hartman]

If the JPG preview in an NEF is created with a neutral or flat PC that is what the histogram should show. With a D800 one can view a white histogram which might be the green channel only or a red, green and blue set of histograms which is each, RGB channel separately.

If a custom PC is used the JPG preview should match that custom PC and the histograms would also.

Dave

[MFloyd]

As I'm only shooting raw, I should not care too much about Picture Control, except for a preview during a shooting session. I generally use LS Landscape, as the letter matches more closely to my final editing.

[David H. Hartman]

As I'm only shooting raw, I should not care too much about Picture Control, except for a preview during a shooting session. I generally use LS Landscape, as the letter matches more closely to my final editing.
[/qudote]

Picture Controls are just as useful for NEF(s) as JPG(s) if one uses Nikon CaptureNX2 or CaptureNX-D. I find myself using the Neutral PC most frequently in post so that's what I now use in camera. I occasionally use the Flat PC to recover diffused highlights.