Nikon Creative Picture Control Recipes

A curated collection of 186 Nikon Creative Picture Control recipes (.NP3 / .NCP files) for Nikon Z-series cameras. These files can be loaded directly into a compatible Nikon camera or via Nikon's NX Studio software to instantly apply a distinct color grade or film simulation in-camera.

Up to date as of May 4, 2026.

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What Are Picture Control Recipes?

Nikon's Creative Picture Controls let you save custom combinations of tone curve, hue, saturation, sharpness, clarity, and other parameters as a reusable .NP3 preset. They can be applied straight out of camera to photos (JPEGs or RAW), or applied to RAW files directly in NX Studio.

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Folder Structure

Nikon-Recipes/
├── Nikon Creators/        # 110 official recipes from Nikon's global creator program
├── Color Grading/         # 30 official Nikon color grading presets
├── NikonPC/               #  2 Nikon Picture Control classics
└── Third Party Creators/  # 44 recipes from independent photographers
    ├── Alex Armitage/
    ├── Filmstill/
    ├── Scott Tucker/
    └── Stephen Morais/

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Collections

Nikon Creators — 110 recipes

Official recipes contributed by photographers and videographers in Nikon's global creator program. Covers a wide range of moods and styles — film emulation, cinematic looks, portraits, landscapes, street, and more. A few highlights:

Recipe	Creator	Vibe
GoldenHourGlow	D'Ann	Warm golden-hour glow
CineM / BlueM / PurpleM	LUIZCLAS	Cinematic tonal biases
VINTAGEPort / VINTAGEFla	Fuji	Vintage film emulation
DGFilmLook	Danny G	Film-inspired look
MatteBlueGray	tanco	Matte teal/gray tones
NeonGlow	Brandon W	Neon-lit street scenes
MoodyShadows	Gilmar	Deep shadow contrast
SoftFilm / DawnHues	Leno	Soft, pastel film look
CineBias series	Various	Cinematic color biases (BB, CC, TC, WC, Red, Offset)
BritFilmBW / USAFilmBW	Vincent	Black & white film emulations

Color Grading — 30 recipes

Nikon's official Color Grading Picture Control presets. Organized into thematic series:

• Bleach Bypass — desaturated, high-contrast silver-retention look
• Color Mode series (Bu, Gn, TealOr, Ye) — bold single-hue and dual-hue color grades, in both a and b intensity variants
• Negative series — diverse color negative emulations spanning cyan-blue, green-cyan, red-cyan, teal, yellow-green, and yellow tones, across multiple strength variants

NikonPC — 2 recipes

Two classic Nikon Picture Control presets:

• Kodachrome.NP3 — emulates the iconic warm, punchy Kodachrome film
• Kodak T-Max 400.NCP — emulates the fine-grain monochrome T-Max 400 film stock

Third Party Creators — 44 recipes

Alex Armitage — 5 recipes

Film-inspired emulations based on real analog stocks: Ektar 100, Kodak Gold 200, Portra 800, Provia 100F, Warm Autumn

Filmstill — 12 recipes

A diverse set of film stock simulations and cinematic looks: Classic Chrome, Filmic B&W, Filmic, Nostalgic Negative, Goldmatic, ARTE B&W, Astia, Classic Neg, Portra, Velvia, KOLORA, KOLORA Pushed

Scott Tucker — 8 recipes

Street and portrait-oriented film emulations. Full details at scotttuckerphoto.com: Gold 200, Ilford 400 (three variants), Leiter, Leiter CLR, Vintage Film, Vintage Film HI

Stephen Morais — 19 recipes

An extensive library of analog film stock emulations: Agfa Ultra 100, Cubano, Ektachrome E100, Fuji 400H, Fuji Provia 100F, Fuji Solaris 100, Kodachrome, Kodak Ektar 100, Kodak Gold 200 (standard & push), Kodak Portra 160/400/800, Leica STD, Leica Vivid, LoFi, Optima Colour 200, Lomography 3

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How I Downloaded The Recipes

Via Nikon Imaging Cloud

Requires an Expeed 7 camera and a Nikon Imaging Cloud account.

1. Connect your camera to Nikon Imaging Cloud via the camera's network settings menu.
2. Browse and save recipes at imagingcloud.nikon.com/recipe/release — add favorites to Saved Recipes, then send up to 9 at a time to your camera.
3. Shoot one RAW photo with each newly loaded Picture Control active.
4. In NX Studio, open each photo and go to Basic Edit Palettes → Picture Control → [recipe name] → Add to Custom Picture Controls and save.
5. Export the custom picture control to a file.

As you can see, this quite a manual process. That is why I went through all the profiles so that others may simply download their favorite profile with ease.

Manually via SD Card

1. Download the recipe files (.NP3 / .NCP).
2. Insert your SD card into a card reader.
3. Create a NIKON folder at the root of the SD card.
4. Inside NIKON, create a CUSTOMPC folder.
5. Copy the *.NP3 (or .NCP) files into /NIKON/CUSTOMPC/ on the card.
6. Insert the card into slot 1 of the camera.
7. Press the MENU button.
8. Open the Shooting menu.
9. Go to Manage Picture Control → Load/Save.
10. Select Copy to camera.
11. Select the desired profile and confirm.
12. Load the saved camera profile to apply it.

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File Formats

Extension	Type
.NP3	Nikon Creative Picture Control (color)
.NCP	Nikon Creative Picture Control (classic/monochrome)