Set sharpness D7000

[Dig]

I am trying to set some attributes on my D7000. Under Manage Picture Control there are Selections. I chose Vivid the wanted to set the sharpness and such.

When I do it does not stay there. How do I get my choices to stay when I leave the menu?

Thanks

[Bob Nichol]

Most cameras don't let you play with the settings when in Automatic or scene modes. Check your user guide for the mode you're in. Usually Program, Aperture priority, Shutter priority, or Manual modes allow creative flexibility at the expense of having to know what you are doing.

[Dig]

This is why I abhor the digital age. There are so many settings behind so many menus just to get the camera to take a descent photo.

I changed the Active D-Lighting setting after reading about it on another website and that seemed to really make a difference. I shot some pictures today as it was a nice gray day with not strong sunshine and the picture snapped.

I had taken the same photo on the same kind of day prior to the change to Active D-Lighting and it was definitely not as good.

[tclune]

Dig, I know what you mean, but it isn't just a digital age thing. I find that just learning to use a new lens can take me months until I get a real sense of how it performs. BTW, the "royal road" to learning about the camera settings is to shoot raw and use Nikon's software -- you can apply the various things after the fact in your computer, and see the effect of Active D-Lighting settings, color curves, sharpness values, etc. So you can use exactly the same image data and not have to worry about variations between different photos. FWIW

[TCav]

The "Vivid" Picture Control is a collection of settings which are generally more along the lines of what you'd get from a P&S. (It tries to make the image look better than the subject actually is.) When you choose a Picture Control, you can't use the conventional menu options to change anything that "Vivid" includes. You can change what "Vivid" means, but once you pick "Vivid" you're stuck with its settings.

What "Vivid" generally means is greater color saturation.

One thing you should know about "Sharpness" is that it isn't. What the "Sharpness" control actually alters is Acutance, which is edge contrast. The actual sharpness of an image is controlled by the resolution of the image sensor, which you can't change. "Sharpness" just draws attention to the high contrast borders by making them more contrasty.