How to Create Special, Eye-Catching Images with Nikon Flexible Picture Controls

Let’s say you see a photo you really like, and you wish you could add that photo’s look, mood or effect to the photos you take. Or let’s say you just want to make the photos you take and share something extra special.

Either way, we’ve got a cool way for you to do it. It’s a selection of Nikon Flexible Picture Controls—presets created by Nikon photographers—that you can download, add to the Picture Control menu of your Z6III [and other compatible cameras; check your camera’s user’s manual for compatibility —editor] and then apply their effects to your images as you take them.

These Picture Controls are far more than filter effects. They are carefully chosen adjustments, some bold, some subtle, that allow you to add personally-selected options to your camera’s menu and apply them whenever you want to add their creative touches to your photos.

You can get started by setting up your free account at the Imaging Recipes section of the Nikon Imaging Cloud. The recipes you’ll find there provide all the ingredients you need—the free downloadable Picture Control presets, suggested camera settings and notes from the photographers who created them.

Speaking of creators, we spoke with three Nikon Ambassadors about the Picture Control presets they created. Here’s their take on the process and the results.

D'Ann Boal

“Get exactly what you want for that moment.”  

D’Ann’s control of light, shadow and color is the signature of her baby, child and family photography. “When you take your time, when you’re exposing and lighting accurately in camera, you can get your image where you want it, and then it takes only a few small tweaks to bring out your voice, to get exactly what you want for that moment.”

The Golden Hour Glow Flexible Picture Control was created to favor the warmer tones that mark golden-hour photos while assuring that skin tones aren’t lost in shadows and color casts don’t dominate the image. “Shooting in the golden hour, you’re going after warmth,” D’Ann says, “but you don’t want the low angle of the sun to give those tones a neon-glow effect.”

The inspiration for the Painterly Light Flexible Picture Control is D’Ann’s appreciation of master painters’ depiction and dramatic use of light. “The more I learned about light, the more I realized how much I loved shadows. Shadows really define the light—it’s shadows that draw the eye to the light.”

For Sunlight and Happiness, the role of the preset was to totally idealize the setting. “Your general outdoor image is bright light and dominant greens, with or without backlight. This preset is a general adding of contrast, of deepening some of the saturation and raising midtones. It’s the one I’d use for any outdoor image.”

Gilmar Smith

“Turn it into something more magical.”

For Gilmar Smith, Flexible Picture Controls are the realization of what she already had in mind for her photos, and what she had in mind is more—more interest, emotion, attention, interpretation; even more comment. With Gilmar, more is in the mind, and eventually in the camera, of the creator.

The Color Splash preset is just such an amplification. “Photography permits me to portray what is around me and then turn it into something more magical, often with a little side of whimsy,” Gilmar says. Her point of view aims for a created “magical world” aside from “what is magical around us already, and to get that I take control of the post-production of my images while I’m planning them.”

The Moody Shadows Flexible Picture Control preset adds a bit of what Gilmar calls “the art treatment” to her images. “In the famous paintings you never see black or white. There is always a treatment in the shadows—they have a little bit of warmth, a little bit of red. And it’s the same with the highlights—you always see a little bit of yellow. That’s what I want to bring to my images to make them look more artsy.” She also acknowledges that in this particular image, the preset brings “a little bit of a mysterious look.”

The title Primary Pop reveals what this preset is all about: treatment of the primary colors, with red the most affected. “My work has a lot of red, yellow, and blue; those are my favorite colors and my favorite combination of colors. This preset deepens the red and the blue and a little bit of the yellow.”

Vincent Versace

“Gesture is the most important aspect of an image.”

“Black-and-white photography has always been my greatest love,” Vincent says. Ask him to expand on that, and you’ll get the origin story. “When I was seven, my uncle, who was a wedding photographer, showed me the magic of black and white photography. He put the paper in the enlarger, did the dodge-and-burn dance, put it into the developer and I watched the latent print materialize. I was completely and totally hooked.”

And so, he created presets that turn color photos to black and white. “I think as Jay Maisel thinks,” Vincent explains. “He has three items for key elements of a photograph: light, gesture, and color. My key elements are light, gesture, color and timelessness. To me, the black-and-white image is necessary when the gesture of an image is so strong that color gets in the way—it takes your attention away from the gesture, and the gesture is the most important aspect of an image.”

The British Film Black and White preset works best for photos that will benefit from smooth transitions of light-to-dark. It’s especially effective for pleasing skin tones. 

Vincent created the Euro Film Black and White Flexible Picture Control preset for images that feature deep shadows. It’s optimized to produce even highlights and retain detail in areas of deep shadow.

The USA Film Black and White preset is designed more for landscapes and nature-based subjects “to produce as much detail as you can get in the gradations of gray tones.”

The Creative Factors

Gilmar called Nikon Flexible Picture Controls the open door to exploration and creativity. She’s right, and for several reasons.

First, the original pictures are yours—your subjects, your settings, and your composition, posing and lighting choices. You’re the creator, right from the start. And, of course, you choose the presets that work best for your pictures.

Second, it’s possible for you to create your own presets. You can create Flexible Picture Controls for any photos taken with a Nikon Z camera, and you can use Nikon's NX Studio Desktop App to edit those pictures to your preferences, then save them to your Z6III. If you’re interested, a video that’ll get you started is right here.

Third, once you download a Flexible Picture Control, it’s yours, for keeps, and you can edit, change and customize it any way you like. “I think that opens a door for people,” Gilmar says, “especially for photographers who have a personal style. If you’re curious enough to see what was done to make a preset—one of mine, if you like—you can make it your own by experimenting and creating your unique look.”

And to keep the creativity going, the Imaging Recipes section of the Nikon Imaging Cloud will regularly be adding new Flexible Picture Control presets for you to choose from.

View more of Vincent’s work on his website at versacephotography.com.

View more of Gilmar’s work on her website at gilmarphotography.com.

View more of D’Ann’s work on her website at www.smittenandswoon.com.