kfoo Loc: Arkansas

What is the best setting on Nikon D7100. I am shooting in RAW. I have read some but I am still confused. Thanks in advance.

orrie smith Loc: Kansas

It is all trial and error, and there will be many errors if you are a beginner. I would start shooting in Auto for a few trips to get used to the camera and get a feel for the camera body and see what your lens will do for you. Once you get comfortable using the camera, set it on A for aperture mode. This will control your depth of field and is what will create what is called bokah, the blurring effect of the background in your photo, assuming your lens will step down far enough to create bokah. Once you get used to that, use the S mode for shutter speed control. This comes in handy if you are shooting any kind of action, as it will control the speed at which your camera shoots. After that, you might want to try M for manual mode. This will allow you to control the Aperture and the Shutter speed. All the while you are experimenting with the different modes, you will also need to learn to control your ISO, the sensitivity of your sensor. It is best to use 100 ISO in well lit situations, but increase as needed in lower light situations. In my experience with a D7100, try to stay away from situations where you would need more than 800 ISO, as the D7100 does not handle high ISO very well, in my opinion.

Have fun playing with your camera and settings. When you need help, and your manual is not understandable, try looking to You Tube for videos to help you out, or google.

kfoo Loc: Arkansas

I must have not put the question correctly. I am referring to Nikon Picture Control(Auto-Standard-Neutral-Vivid-Monochrome-Potrait-Landscape-Flat. Thanks.

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

Does not affect RAW so far as I know.

kfoo Loc: Arkansas

Thanks for the info.

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

The screen may show it, but you're looking at an embedded jpeg image.

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

If you shoot RAW those setting don't mean anything.

kfoo Loc: Arkansas

Thanks for the info.

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

If you are shooting RAW, then all the internal camera picture control settings in the world will not make any difference. These work only for shooting JPEGs.

CO

Since you are using the .jpeg files out of the camera, you'll want to go through all of the Picture Controls and increase the sharpening. Nikon sets the default sharpening for the Picture Controls very low around level 3. Go through all of them and increase that to about level 6.

spraguead Loc: Boston, MA

Check out Ken Rockwell's review. There is a link on the page with a downloadable file of his recommended settings too. Bookmark the page, it's a great resource to go back to.
https://kenrockwell.com/nikon/d7100.htm

cameraf4 Loc: Delaware

If you use the free Nikon PP software NX Capture, you can take your NEF (RAW) image and "apply" any of the Picture Controls to it to make the JPG that you want to share/print/play with, etc. You can't share RAW images since they are just "code." I have found that Standard is a good PC for general use. Landscape "punches-up" the greens without altering the reds/yellows much. Vivid (you guessed it) super-saturates all the colors --- good for Christmas lights, fire trucks, etc. Some of the Spring-flowering plants seem to only come out their true color with Neutral.

Maggielle

Excellent advice.

JTann Loc: North East, MD

If you're shooting NEF with your D7100 you can literally set the camera pretty much any way you want. What you see as a preview in camera is exactly what settings you used for color -standard, vivid etc-, contrast, color balance - daylight, tungsten, etc. They may look funky on your camera LCD and will look the same when downloaded to your editing program, such as Lightroom, but it doesn't matter. You're seeing the embedded jpeg along with the NEF file showing what your camera setting were at the time of exposure. Once you start 'processing' the file you can change anything you want to correct it or manipulate to your desired final look. One great exercise I used to use when I taught Lightroom was to have students shoot with the camera set to capture both RAW and JPEG of each shot. I also had them deliberately set things wrong, such as color balance and exposure. They shot outdoors with balance set to tungsten or shade in bright sun and also shot over and under by 1 and then 2 stops. Then when the images were downloaded/imported into LR I had them 'manipulate' the jpegs of each to the closest look of the real scene. Once that was done, they 'processed' the RAW files and then they compared the results. The name of the exercise was "RAW or JPEG, You Decide". Even diehard jpeg shooters became believers of RAW. BTW, this was in the mid 2000s and today's digital cameras have much better in camera processors and way more dynamic range. Still, RAW still beats jpeg when you want full control of your digital negative.

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

If you are shooting RAW the settings to the camera do not necessarily apply except perhaps for the WB. A RAW image has exactly that, RAW data. It is its post processing what brings back all the goodness in those files.