Posted by Jay Martin on September 3, 2006 at 9:01 PM
Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Does anyone know why NEF images opened in CS2 and Nikon Capture would look so different. The image as opened with Nikon Capture looks like what I see on the camera back - usually much better than the CS2 image. Here is what I get:
whoops - I guess I can't post an image here.
There are a lot of image parameters to tweak. Without fine-tuning each converter will just use its default setting. Once you know how to work with either you can set these parameters to your liking but it really makes the most sense to just stick with one converter you like and really get to know it to get the best results and know all its little quirks.
Guy
Posted by Alan Olander on September 3, 2006 at 10:03 PM
Nikon Capture uses your in-camera settings when it displays the image. ACR/CS2 does not except for white balance, I believe.
Camera Raw can be set to a number of settings. Most leave the WB as the camera setting. You can leave it to an auto setting, which does a credible job. All settings apply a modest curve to the brightness. Whether you like it or not depends on your needs.
I prefer it to Nikon Capture, which has always been slow and unwieldy to me. Camera Raw is great for batch editing from Bridge as well. Like most of Adobe's stuff, it is not particularly intuitive; but once you learn it, does an effective and productive job with a good end product.
Posted by Jay Martin on September 4, 2006 at 5:15 PM
Thanks for the feedback. I guess I need to figure out the best way to open a NEF image in Adobe CS2. I just can't believe the difference between the two. The CS2 image doesn't look properly exposed or sharp and the image in Nikon Capture looks like the RAW image on the camera.
Posted by Richard Ennis on September 5, 2006 at 10:30 AM
Nikon Capture is going to read your camera settings and apply them to the NEF when you open it. So if you have your in-camera set to apply sharpening, then you will see it that way when you open it in NC. CS2 probably does not read those settings. You will have to set up the defaults in CS2 yourself.
Posted by Martin Beebee on September 12, 2006 at 10:02 PM
I prefer Nikon Capture, myself. Primarily because if you edit and save your NEF files, ACR writes the settings to a separate sidecar file. If you move (or back up) your NEF and not the extra file, you lose your settings. Bummer. In Nikon Capture, the changes are written to the file itself. Why deal with an extra file?
I don't find NC to be that cumbersome, and it opens the files directly into CS2 very quickly.
Discussion
6 replieswhoops - I guess I can't post an image here.
Guy
I prefer it to Nikon Capture, which has always been slow and unwieldy to me. Camera Raw is great for batch editing from Bridge as well. Like most of Adobe's stuff, it is not particularly intuitive; but once you learn it, does an effective and productive job with a good end product.
I don't find NC to be that cumbersome, and it opens the files directly into CS2 very quickly.
Martin