This menu may be called just the Shooting Menu depending on which version of the software you have in your particular model.

Select Set Picture Control

Within this selection you will have several options including Auto, Standard, Neutral, Vivid, etc.

Vivid is a good standard setting for increasing contrast, but if you want to increase the contrast for any of these settings, select one and select to the right. You will then be presented with adjustment levers for several different parameters, including contrast.

It got me to the settings needed.

And, as far as processing, you can run the entire batch thru LR on auto and get really good results. Then the ones that need tweeking take about 30 seconds to do. I shot transparencies back in the day, but I also appreciate living in the 21st century.

The downside is I take too many pictures and don't think as much about them as much as when I had to pay for each limited shot. Even worse when I used my 4X5. Much more deliberation for each shot.

I don't have LR (assuming it is Adobe lightroom) I have looked at Gimp and one other. Wasn't thrilled with the learning curve or finding out how to get started. My attemps at ajusting one at a time met with failure. It seems that the instructions expect a certain level of knowledge of previous software use.

I jumped from Coolpix to Z series and skipped the DSLR generation entirely, but Nikon is pretty consistent with its controls and I checked this against the manuals.


Use Set Picture Control
Cheat Sheet Here: courtesy of Ken Rockwell, who loves super saturated photos.

https://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d300/picture-control.htm

Most people will use auto, vivid, standard, vivid or neutral, and each of these presets can be tweaked in the menu system for ...



Sharpening, contrast, brightness, saturation and hue.

This applies to the jpegs. Raw is raw period.

With the Z, I returned to neutral from vivid, because I adjust the photos quickly ( with simple Apple Preview app or GIMP, nothing more needed 99% of the time) and I want the result to be close to "what I saw" (or a tiny bit enhanced).

I have darktable and RawTherapee for the raw image files but I am still learning them. Results are great with the jpegs, and I come from the world of 2¼ square color.

Being an old film guy, pictures are mighty good as they hit the memory card. Minor edits, usually late evening after sunsets, work great.

I hope that Ken can help you quickly. His pics seem to be the extreme opposite of what you are seeing, so perhaps you can find a great "middle way"

Happy clicking.

Note on lighting:
Digital photos, IMO, seem to block highlights so you can't easily normalize them, so with contrasty scenes meter for the highlights ( lower exposure a bit) because shadows seem a lot easier to bring up.

There's also active d-lighting, meant to balance these, but I am usually shooting fleeting phenomena, so I'll experiment some other time. Quick edits almost always balance things out for me.

If there's HDR, I haven't used it. In my experience, nature is never "flat" 😉

I may change my mind when I process raw, but results with just the jpegs have been great.

I went in and made some changes.
Now if I had been smart..... I would have waited to go out and make a couple of test shots. Then made one change at a time to see teh effect.
Well I can get out and try it but it might not be until next month based on the long term weather report.
Rain and overcloudy forcast until Sunday, next Sunday. The trees will be happy.

Thanks for the posting.

and shoot! I understand the moon was out last night, but it missed me!

for the replies. I think I have a handle on where the controls are located.
Did make some ajustments but I won't get to test out the results for a while.
Here in Munich our forcast is rain until next Sunday. I'm not sure I can get a good pop out of grey overcast skies.