Nikon Shade Control Demonstration Shot at gamma levels 1.0 - 2.5 : https://vimeo.com/108015354
Demo 2 : https://vimeo.com/108015355
Demo 2 : https://vimeo.com/108015355
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New Lee Powells Nikon Shade Controls (gamma gontrol)
- Thread starter terozzz
- Start date
Piszkos Fred
Active member
It looks great. Looking forward the "official release".
Danielvilliers
Veteran
On which camera was it shot?
Al MacLeod
Well-known member
What is the difference between the new and previous gamma control?
Thanks for the interest in my Nikon Shade Control profiles. These are updated versions of my earlier gamma control curves and feature improved shadow handling and a much broader range of curves. NSC consists of calibrated sets of gamma curves applied to Nikon's built-in Picture Profiles: Neutral, Portrait, Standard, Landscape, Vivid, and Monochrome. For each built-in profile, I provide a complete set of 13 gamma curves covering a 10:1 range of gamma adjustment. Nikon's Custom Picture Controls feature makes it easy to pre-load a seven-step set of gamma curves tailored to your preferred profile into your camera. You can then select among these curves to adjust the exposure of shadow details independently and without affecting highlight exposure. The camera's Live View, histogram, and light meter can then be used to interactively evaluate and fine tune highlight and shadow exposure.
In practice, Nikon Shade Control profiles can be used to obtain similar results as the flat or cinematic tone curves available for Nikon and Canon cameras. The intent of these curves is to fit more of a scene's dynamic range into the video recording by reducing the contrast between highlights and shadows. In addition to this, NSC offers two unique features of its own. Unlike typical flat tone curves, which attempt to handle a wide range of shooting conditions with a single optimized tone curve, Nikon Shade Control gives you the ability to select a curve that is fine-tuned to each particular shot. This is particularly important when shooting with H.264-based DSLR's which lack the wide exposure latitude of RAW cinema cameras.
The second advantage of Nikon Shade Control is that its gamma curves are calibrated to industry-standard gamma adjustment curves used in all modern post-production video editors and color grading systems. This means that the numerical gamma labels used in NSC are directly convertible to the gamma scales used for grading and video effects, allowing you to make both repeatable and reversible gamma adjustments with no loss of image quality or accumulation of mismatched rounding errors. in my post-production work, that has eliminated much of the guess work and trial-and-error from the task of matching footage shot at different camera settings.
i'm currently conducting limited testing of the Nikon Shade Control final candidate, in preparation for official release. One remaining issue, however, is whether to add support for Nikon's new Flat Picture Profile for the latest models that feature it. This would enable users who prefer Nikon's Flat Profile to fine-tune its relative balance between shadow and highlight detail. However, I don't yet have access to a Nikon model that supports this profile and may delay supporting it until I can test it on my own.
In practice, Nikon Shade Control profiles can be used to obtain similar results as the flat or cinematic tone curves available for Nikon and Canon cameras. The intent of these curves is to fit more of a scene's dynamic range into the video recording by reducing the contrast between highlights and shadows. In addition to this, NSC offers two unique features of its own. Unlike typical flat tone curves, which attempt to handle a wide range of shooting conditions with a single optimized tone curve, Nikon Shade Control gives you the ability to select a curve that is fine-tuned to each particular shot. This is particularly important when shooting with H.264-based DSLR's which lack the wide exposure latitude of RAW cinema cameras.
The second advantage of Nikon Shade Control is that its gamma curves are calibrated to industry-standard gamma adjustment curves used in all modern post-production video editors and color grading systems. This means that the numerical gamma labels used in NSC are directly convertible to the gamma scales used for grading and video effects, allowing you to make both repeatable and reversible gamma adjustments with no loss of image quality or accumulation of mismatched rounding errors. in my post-production work, that has eliminated much of the guess work and trial-and-error from the task of matching footage shot at different camera settings.
i'm currently conducting limited testing of the Nikon Shade Control final candidate, in preparation for official release. One remaining issue, however, is whether to add support for Nikon's new Flat Picture Profile for the latest models that feature it. This would enable users who prefer Nikon's Flat Profile to fine-tune its relative balance between shadow and highlight detail. However, I don't yet have access to a Nikon model that supports this profile and may delay supporting it until I can test it on my own.
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Piszkos Fred
Active member
Well I think you should release it and later you can add the support for flat picture profile for 810 and 750 users. 
Piszkos Fred
Active member
Hi Lee, when do you think you will release this?
These Nikon Shade Control samples were shot with a Nikon D5100 using a Tamron 24-70mm f2.8 lens. I've shot numerous samples with the D800 as well, both still photographs and 1080p full-frame video. I use the Mosaic Engineering VAF-D800 Optical Anti-Aliasing Filter to virtually eliminate video moire on the D800. It works only in video mode and has no perceptible effect on the use of Nikon Shade Control.
Nikon recently created a serious software compatibility problem on their Picture Control system with the release of the D810, D750, and Nikon View NX2 v2.1. These models introduced a new NP2 format for Picture Control files that is incompatible with the NCP format used by all previous Nikon cameras. The NP2 format features a new "Clarity" control, and a new "Flat" Picture Control intended for video shooting. More details here:
http://www.dslrbodies.com/accessori...lrs/software-news/view-nx2-2100-released.html
I share Thom Hogan's assessment of Nikon's self-inflicted Picture Control compatibility issues, and haven't yet decided what to do about it. I'm interested in the new Flat Picture Control, but on a practical level, I don't have a D810 or D750 to use for testing the new NP2 format. Needless to say, I would not look forward to the complications of supporting yet another sparsely documented and gratuitously incompatible file format.
Nikon plans to announce a limited firmware upgrade program to update their earlier full-frame models to support the D810/750 Picture Controls. I plan to upgrade my D800 when firmware becomes available and will evaluate its implications for a future release of Nikon Picture Controls.
http://petapixel.com/2015/01/08/lea...s-new-program-advanced-dslr-firmware-updates/