D3300 help improving picture quality

Hey folks hope you are well.

Just wondering if anyone can tell me if the 'Picture Control' setting, which has 6 presets are worth bothering with? The options/presets are 'Standard, neutral, vivid, monochrome, portrait and landscape'.

Which do you use? Up to now I have left it at Standard, but sometimes I feel my images are a bit 'flat'.

Also regards the monochrome setting, if I want to have an image in black and white is it better to shoot in this setting or edit afterwards?

Thanks in advance and sorry for the ridiculously silly questions.

The Picture Control is handy if you shoot JPEG since it allows you to steer the result into a certain direction. If you shoot RAW, set it to Neutral and ignore it for ever.

In JPEG, when cloudy, I often used Vivid with Saturation somewhere around the max and sharpness around 7 I think. It creates more err... vivid images as if you have been shooting during a sunny day. Don't use the settings during a sunny day because then they go over the top.

You can toy with them a bit and check the results; if it is too much, lower the settings.


About the monochrome, in JPEG, I prefer shooting color and eventually changing it afterwards. If you shoot monochrome first, there's no way back.

I rarely shoot jpg. But if I did, I would choose vivid. The reason being, if I am shooting jpg, it would be some quick pictures of whatever at my wife's request. The vivid shots pop a bit and she is happy with the look. Like J-see said, it can be too much at times.

Consider trying shooting raw. Then you can decide later what adjustments to apply. Try your free Nikon view nx2 software for awhile. View nx will apply your camera jpg settings right from the go.

Then download a Lightroom trial and get ready for a whole new sub-hobby of post processing (if you like it). You can automatically apply simple presets for when you don't feel like processing.

For black and white, I would definitely shoot raw and convert. You get endless opportunities to try different adjustments. Not that I am good at it by any means, but there are others here that are expert at b&w conversions. If you go with the b&w jpg, you get what you get and can't do too much with it.

I also used vivid inside when shooting my dogs. Taking photos of them that is.

For some strange reason only in vivid I got the coat exactly as I'd see it. The other colors are slightly oversaturated but for fur it was perfect.

All interesting and informative stuff! Thanks! I'll hopefully get some more snaps this weekend and post a few

I shoot RAW and then apply Vivid, if required, in post. Once you get hooked on to RAW, you will rarely shoot jpeg.

I try to limit my use of vivid. Saturation is like nicotine, at some point your photos need to have their daily dose.

Jpeg's great while exploring the D3300 but indeed, a whole new world opens the moment you start shooting and processing RAW.

Hey, this isn't in line with picture control but when shooting jpeg something I've found worth every second it takes is setting the White balance either thru the preset options or via a custom white balance, just use a bit of white card in the lighting your shooting in. Really is worth the time, auto WB I've found useless since I was introduced to custom!

When shooting JPG what I found to be a nice balance was to use Standard with +1 to Saturation and +6 to Sharpening. In fact regardless of what mode you choose here, I strongly suggest you increase the Sharpening setting to +6 or +7. For whatever reason the Nikon default setting for Sharpening is bizarrely set at something like -3 or some such. Increasing the Sharpness setting will dramatically improve your shots overall but you'll need to increase in each mode (e.g. Vivid, Landscape, Standard, etc.) separately.

Marko said:

Hey, this isn't in line with picture control but when shooting jpeg something I've found worth every second it takes is setting the White balance either thru the preset options or via a custom white balance, just use a bit of white card in the lighting your shooting in. Really is worth the time, auto WB I've found useless since I was introduced to custom!

Click to expand...

When shooting JPEG it indeed pays to check what WB setting works best. Auto doesn't get it always right. Not even almost always.

In RAW it doesn't matter since you can adjust it afterwards.

This was taken in the ground of Belfast City Hall. Always trying to get different angles when composing images, symmetry photography (is that even a thing?) is something I really like.

Shooting jpeg is like shooting film 20 years ago. We had QSS (quick service labs) which was a packaged lab, you shot a roll and gave it to them. In one hour you got your prints (it was dirt cheap - developing and 36 prints was around $6) Depending on the settings your images were great or so-so, you had no control after it came out of the camera. With jpeg you get it right then and there, practically no latitude. With RAW at least you can play around and correct most exposure errors.

I agree with most comments. I use my D3300 with RAW, but I have used JPG at times. If I shoot JPG, I leave all the settings on "neutral" without adding any in-camera adjustments. Unless you are going for a depth of field specific, I would just shoot JPG on "Auto".

Post processing, even JPGs, is a lot handier than guessing at the time of the shot. With post processing, auto (without in-camera adjustments) provides a base from which I can make the proper adjustments.


PS, in my opinion, your statue shot has excellent composition.... the climb from the left to the top of the pic, with the left side tower and dark clouds for balance. :applause: