Thank you for taking the time to visit my amateur photo web site .

RAW Workflow for Nikon users

People like to use ACR in Photoshop for raw adjustments and then use Photoshop for the editing and final adjustments. Before I started using Capture NX, that what I did as well. Nikon wants its camera users to use Capture NX and claims it has the ability to reduce raw workflow to a single stage process, thereby streamlining the post-production process for photographers. I am a Nikon user and I am not too sure about that. Having used Capture NX for some time now, I think I will always want to finish of my images in Photoshop.

However; if you are a Nikon shooter, there are certain advantages to using Capture NX when processing your NEFs. Most importantly, Capture NX is currently the only raw converter that recognises and implements all of the settings that were applied in your camera and saved in the NEF file. Most third party raw converters read the image white balance data, and sometimes tone curves, but little else. With Capture NX, the colour mode, sharpening, noise removal, and tone curve settings are all applied to your NEF in addition to the white balance measurement. Of course, you don’t need to leave these settings “as shot” (that’s one of the nice things about raw), but if you want it to, Capture can produce a JPEG or TIFF file from your NEF that would look virtually identical to a JPEG produced in the camera.

At this point, you may be asking “why should I even bother with camera settings if I shoot raw?” Well, for one thing, Capture NX incorporates your camera settings into your digital workflow. If your camera is set up the way you want it to be, the end result is less work for you in post-processing.

Conversely, because Capture and your camera share the same nomenclature for the in-camera settings, you can use Capture as a learning tool to help you understand the impact different in-camera settings will have on your images. This lowers your learning curve for using your camera, and increases the chance that you’ll get better images on those occasions when you want to shoot in JPEG. Capture’s ability to perform local adjustments in a non-destructive environment without the need for a complex understanding of tools like layer masks is sure to change the game for Nikon photographers.

To find out more about the optimal Nikon camera settings to use with Capture NX, and more about Capture NX - please use the links to the left.