I am a life long Nikon photographer and I believe in using Nikon products whenever possible. I don’t really feel like I’m cheating on Nikon by using Adobe products like Photoshop CS and Photoshop Lightroom though, because Nikon does not have an equivalent product available.
Some photographers may argue that Capture NX is a competing product, but I consider it to be a complimentary product, one that on occasion allows Nikon users to squeeze that important little bit extra, out of their NEF (RAW) image files.
Nikon Capture NX is a very good RAW image file converter (for Nikon NEF (RAW) images only) and has a few image editing capabilities that can not be found in either Photoshop Lightroom or Photoshop CS. The most outstanding feature of Capture NX is what Nikon refers to as their U Point technology which uses Control Points to selectively adjust the size, brightness, contrast, saturation and hue of a particular color or area of an image.
There are basically two ways to use the combined power of Lightroom and Capture NX.
1. Process the NEF image file in Capture NX first, convert the edited file to TIFF and then import into Lightroom.
2. Open the unprocessed NEF image file in Lightroom first and edit in the Lightroom Edit Module, when you come across a situation that is better handled in Capture NX, access the Edit in Capture command in the Photo Menu (you have to select Capture NX as an alternate external Editor first) and edit in Capture NX.
Last week I photographed a large outdoor Buddha statue but unfortunately the sun was so bright and high, that half of the face of the Buddha was in a deep shadow. Never mind I figured it would make a good story for this website.
I opened the unedited NEF file in Lightroom 1.0 but I was not satisfied with the adjustments I could make in the Lightroom Develop Module, so I decided to apply the Edit in Capture command, which made a TIFF copy of the original RAW file and sent the TIFF image to Capture NX (1.1) for editing. After the editing process I Saved (not Save As) the image, which was then automatically picked up by Lightroom and placed in a Stack with the original RAW image file.
TIFF and JPEG files can be adjusted using U Point - Control Points in Nikon Capture NX but the image will in a sense be flattened (to borrow an Adobe Photoshop CS term) when it is saved and can not be re-edited without introducing new Control Points. Nikon NEF (RAW) files can be saved with the previous U Point settings available, the next time you open the file.
The process in Capture NX was fairly straight forward
1. Created a Control Point in the shadow area of the Buddhas face
2. Increased the brightness in that Control Point area
3. Duplicated that Control Point a number of times
4. Placed the Control Points in the areas that you consider to be too dark
5. Adjusted the individual control points for a natural look
By making a number of small Control Point areas I was able to adjust the shadow area without affecting the adjacent highlights.
I agree that its a great oversight on Adobe's part that we can't open the RAW in Capture from Lightroom. It actually defeats much of Lightrooms usability for me. It seriously screws up my workflow because I then go into windows explorer to open the raw in Capture and often forgetting to update the Lightroom database and chaos ensues. Grrrrr.
Hello everyone, I've been working with my D80 for about a year now and have always taken my pictures both RAW and in JPEG format. The only reason I do both is because for some reason, every time I try to open my RAW files in Capture NX, it always comes back saying "cannot load such and such a file". Maybe I'm doing something wrong in the loading process, but it seems pretty self explanitory. Any suggestions?
Thanks
Hi hope someone can help I am new to this
When I choose open original I have no trouble getting the picture to capture NX, however when I say edit a copy or a copy with lightroom settings, which is what I want to do, image does not open in capture NX
Can anyone help please.?
I've only just come across this post now, but I have to say, this is the worst NEF workflow I could image.
Using the "Edit in Capture NX" command in Lightroom asks Lightroom to convert the RAW NEF to a Tiff using the Adobe RAW engine, WITH THE EXISTING LIGHTROOM ADJUSTMENTS, and then send that TIff to NX. I know this is mentioned in the article, but why anyone would do it is beyond me.
The sole advantage of Capture NX - for Nikon users - over all the other better designed RAW conversion apps is that it's handling of NEF files, and the subsequent image quality of the conversions, is superior.
If Lightroom would send NEFs to NX, that would make sense. Using the two applications in this way does not. I felt the article failed to make that clear enough.
Ben
I am a Nikon Shooter as well(D80 w/MD80 Grip, 105mm F2.8 Macro VR and 18-200mm 3.5-5.6 VR Zoom) and have both the latest versions of Capture NX, Jason O'Dell's NX Guidebook and Lightroom. I have a question: What are the keying commands to import the TIFF Image from NX into Lightroom?
I liked your article and look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
Joachim Holtz
It's a pity Lightroom doesn't give you the option of configuring the external editor commands ("Edit in ...") such that you can have NX open a NEF (copy) of the original raw file. That is, you can only open it as a TIFF (or PSD) copy. I hope Adobe add this to future versions of Lightroom. Other apps like the various HDR tools, or noise reduction programs (many of which can directly open NEF raws) could also benefit from this.
Side note: I do think the NX raw conversion is slightly better than the one in Lightroom (slightly sharper, slightly better colors and slightly less noise)
Thanks for this perspective.
I'm also an avid user of all things Nikon and I love Capture NX U point technology.
As Adobe has proven in the past with every application they make, It's all about the choices!