May/09

day 1 with nikon capture nx2

View Comments | Posted by matthew in technology

Fresh from an all-day class on Capture NX2, I’ve begun my effort to master the program. There’s an incredible amount yet to learn, but I do feel energized and empowered to use the program. What I discovered is that a lot of enhancements are just what I envisioned. Making adjustments with the histogram sliders is pretty eye opening. Learning how to make adjustments through curves will take some work. The color control point and selection control point are tools in Capture NX2 that will make even the slowest convert to full-strength post-processing programs (me) sit up and pay attention. I also appreciate that the program seems to be designed to make refinements to images, not substantially alter them.

I got home last night and made my first attempt at making some adjustments to a photo using Capture NX2. Here’s what I did with the image below. I started with correcting the white balance and setting picture control. I followed that with a slight nudge of the slider on the highlight side of the histogram. I made a slight adjustment to the warmth of the entire image. Then, I put a color control point near the left side of the seat of the kayak. Using the sliders available, I added brightness and a little warmth to reveal the detail that was previously obscured in the shadows. That’s it. Well, that was a lot, but I have to admit that it was pretty cool to look at the original and adjusted image side-by-side. Having spent some more time with the program (at the time of this post), I would have retained some of the warmth of the kayak. It’s a little blown out in the adjusted image.

Untouched RAW Image

Image Adjusted Using Capture NX2

afternx2

Image Adjusted Using Google’s Picasa

afterpicasa

With Picasa, I hit the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button, added a little warmth, sharpening and slight bump of shadow.

I can already tell there are a lot of tools in Capture NX2. Google’s free Picasa program does a decent job, but notice the loss of detail in the water breaking against the shore, as well as the non-selective warming (the whole picture goes brown). So, with just one photo I can see the ability to more accurately and precisely handle images with Capture NX2.

I will post more before and after images, along with a description of the steps I took to refine the image. For those who have an “I told you so” primed and ready to launch…I hear ya!

technology

Liz

Hey, Matthew - I would love to switch the boats between the two adjusted images; the values seem to be a bit similar - if you could put the darker, more saturated boat on the lighter water and vice versa, it may make for better value contrast. What do you think?
matthew

Thanks Liz. I appreciate the feedback and trust an artist's eye. Funnily enough, I was thinking the same thing as I looked at the images this morning. I would definitely go back and add a little more shadow and hue to the boat to give a bit more color contrast -- closer to the depth of the kayak in the untouched RAW image.