Nikon Capture NX 2

[crisscross]

I never got on with Photoshop (elements) and nearly always use Nikon Capture, which is very intuitive and avoids the struggle to fully control layers.

Is there anyone else out there who also uses it and would value a discussion of its finer points?

NB its use is not confined to Nikon or .nef images; I find I can do far better edits of previous camera output including Panasonic FZ7 and Canon 350D, the latter after doing as neutral as possible conversion from .CR2 to .tif in PSE4. Once in NX, images can be saved as .nef which then keeps all the working 'live' like .psd, but with files a fraction of the size. That is because .nef keeps a record of the operations, not the full content of each 'step' or layer except in a temporary cache.

My images are at pbase.com/crisscross all D80 are processed in NX, the older ones I am gradually re-editing, so 'recent' galleries use mostly re-edits.

Oh and further deviance - I use a mac (MacBook pro 2.4 GH 15") and use one or two progs that are mac only.

[Chelseablue]

Hello mate,

I use CaptureNX 1.3 occasionally just to use the Upoint adjustments and sometimes the D-Lighting. I also use the D80 but I tend to stick to Photoshop (CS3) for RAW conversion and further editing. I'd like to hear about your workflow in CaptureNX just in case I'm missing something.

Mark

[shreds]

Firstly, I would say that some programs are pure workflow whilst others do a lot more in terms of image editing and this needs to be born in mind. Equally not all encompass Raw converters, which for me is crucial.

For workflow together with its very useful control points for adjustments, I have used NX and now NX2. NX2 being slightly more intuitive and fixes some glitches that were apparent in NX. As I have a Nikon camera, I do find that the results seem to be more pleasing and very accurate renditions as opposed to some other programs in terms of finished product, probably because it is designed around the Nikon camera system in particular.

Second choice from the programs I have used is Capture One Pro, which if it were not for NX2 it would be my favourite workflow.

I have also used PS CS2 and find that in terms of image editing and flexibility it is very good, and is probably the most universally accepted image editing suite.

Aperture unfortunately comes in fourth, regrettably there were still basic glitches up until the recent v2.1.1 and to be honest I haven't really used it in this latest release, due to previous dissatisfaction.

There are a lot of other workflow and editing programs out there, but I am sure others can comment on these?

[crisscross]

Originally Posted by Chelseablue

Hello mate,

I use CaptureNX 1.3 occasionally just to use the Upoint adjustments and sometimes the D-Lighting. I also use the D80 but I tend to stick to Photoshop (CS3) for RAW conversion and further editing. I'd like to hear about your workflow in CaptureNX just in case I'm missing something.

Mark

NX2 has significant improvements from 1.3, principally upgrading the selection and masking functions and also very useful, now incorporating a pretty good 'heal brush'.

The workflow goes from Nikon Transfer which autostarts preview in View NX. The View NX 'F' full size preview I find good for 1st weed out. View has aditional good features (a) it stores latest edit full size and printable for occasional (1 in 4000?) .nef that gets corrupted (b) print function including 'index' for printing 2-16 small pics onto a page.

NX2 workflow default start is in 'Quickfix' (but that belies its quality) which sorts exposure correction, shadow (good), highlight problems (less good), saturation, contrast. On an image that has cross-section of colours that may be all that is needed; 10 secs then save. There is also a luminosity histogram which can quickly adjust basic contrast characteristics and, on non-nef origin, correct exposure as in a 'levels' operation.

You can backtrack to 'Camera' which tweaks for recent cameras and also Colour temp and 'Dust-off' on the raw image.

You can then progress to editing using 'adjustments' for editing in all cases either for the whole image or for a selection. The selection modes are all the 1.3 stuff, but instead of the limited and sometimes dodgy 'U-point' type allows all functions to work on the selection. Also a 'smart' control point that is a sort of cross between U-point and 'magic wand', so rather clever not only allowing correction of a light source, but the area of photo tinted by the source. Even better, after making settings on a trial area, you can add and subtract by 'brush' with live output and/or toggle to show areas masked or tinted.

By far my favourite is LCH for landscape work, followed by tweak in Colour Balance. The LCH is also excellent for non-nef as it does not introduce 'unlikely' colour effects as curve operations might, yet the 'Colour lightness' part allows curve type correction of controlled colour ranges.

NX progresses from low-res preview (what put me off PSE) to Full Size + quality in background, so no nasty surprises later.

You do need a modern computer (core2duo) ; it was far too slow on my previous PowerBook or Pentium with 2.4x nominal speed, but more importantly the processor it was designed to use shows the effect of edits and LCH toggles instantly.

Have been using for 2 months and happy to field detail questions (or be corrected).

[Chelseablue]

Ok, now I've spent the last few hours getting to grips with NX as it was a present a while ago and I've always been too lazy (too busy?) Yeah, I quite like it, but I've got so used to using photoshop I've become a bit blinkered.

Mark

[The Analog Kid]

Hi Mark.

I have PS CS3 Extended and Capture NX2. As a Nikon user, bot work fine and, if I'm honest, I feel CS3 offers a greater variety of creative options to manipulate images. It is, I understand, the current industry standard. When I use film and scanned the negatives / convert them to TIFF, CS3 is the best option.

However, I find NX2 an absolute joy to work with. The new layout and layering options suit the way I work perfectly. Mind you, I'm one of those photographers that likes to get it as right as possible 'in-camera' so I don't have to spend much time processing. My favourite tools are Active D-Lighting, Colour-Point and Gradients.

The only drawback I've found is when I use it on my missus' Mac. It works very quickly on my PC but, for some reason, it seems pedestrian on a Mac.

A definite highly-recommended from me - but only for Nikon (NEF) Raw file users.

All the best. Paul.

[Chelseablue]

'ello again mate,

I've recently upgraded to NX2 and for the life of me I don't know why. I use CS3. The only thing I ever used CNX for was upoints. But the irony is; I've just recently discovered the Nik plugins for PS, Color FX Pro most noteably. The best B&W conversion (apart from film) that I've been looking for for ages.

Mark

[crisscross]

Originally Posted by The Analog Kid

However, I find NX2 an absolute joy to work with. The new layout and layering options suit the way I work perfectly. Mind you, I'm one of those photographers that likes to get it as right as possible 'in-camera' so I don't have to spend much time processing. My favourite tools are Active D-Lighting, Colour-Point and Gradients.

The only drawback I've found is when I use it on my missus' Mac. It works very quickly on my PC but, for some reason, it seems pedestrian on a Mac.

A definite highly-recommended from me - but only for Nikon (NEF) Raw file users.

All the best. Paul.

Hi Paul

thanks for bringing up D-Lighting - this is something I have ignored imagining that the 'quick fix' did it. However I have just been having an e-seminar on skin tones from someone who is a bit of a specialist in childrens portraits and realised how far I need to go on my grandchildren from 'candid' to 'portrait'.

For that, I find the dedicated D-lighting is as much better than the quick fix is as, eg, LCH (my favourite) on saturation...and like LCH includes a fine tune on saturation (colour boost) to compensate for losses from luminosity adjustment.

One of the problems of NX2 seems to be that there are so many ways of skinning the cat, it takes a while to choose the best.

On the PC/mac business - you must have a core2duo mac as NX is written for it. My 2.4GH MacBook pro seems fine, no doubt a desktop twin would be even better, but many people are tempted by the cheaper iMacs and they may not have the umph, which one has your missus got?

Lastly I had a Canon 350D for a year and find I can get far better results by converting the .CR2 to tiff with absolute minimum adjustment in the conversion stage* and proceeding in NX2 than I used to get from either DPP or PSE4. Admittedly CS3 could alter the equation, but not convinced enough to shell out. NX2 is also excellent for earlier cameras, Pana FZ7 .jpgs and sometimes for Coolpix E4500, but 4MP is a bit thin to work on.

* if you have "GraphicConverter" on the mac, it reads CR2 with no adjustment and is superb for photo browsing, weeding oldies and library re-arranging being able to use multiple windows concurrently (exact analog of the finder) and reading nef as well as CR2. If you haven't, its well worth the £40 or whatever, I originally had it bundled and have only upgraded. Its 'unskew' is also unbeatable. Tho I use View NX for 1st stage weed & PSE4 for conversion of old CR2 as DPP won't convert on OS10.5.

Chris (own galleries at pbase.com/crisscross)