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D300 NEF File
Hi all, I've recently bought the Nikon D300 which I'm over the moon with, however, I'm use to using Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) to work on my pics. I have tried using Nikons CaptureNX but personally don't think it compares to ACR for ease of use. It seems the only way I'm able to open my pics in Bridge is to first convert them to a JPEG! Surely this defeats the object of shooting in raw. Has anyone else had the same problem and overcome it?
Thanking you in anticipation.......
Steve
Thanking you in anticipation.......
Steve
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Have you got the most up to date version of camera raw see here .
As a user of Capture NX I find that I get much better results then using ACR and need to spend less time using PS, usually just for cloning and adding borders. NX is slow for batch processing but this doesn't really bother me too much as I only do one image at a time. I would suggest you have a look here or here for more information on making the best of NX.
Tony
As a user of Capture NX I find that I get much better results then using ACR and need to spend less time using PS, usually just for cloning and adding borders. NX is slow for batch processing but this doesn't really bother me too much as I only do one image at a time. I would suggest you have a look here or here for more information on making the best of NX.
Tony
If you take photos in RAW whether it be Nikon or Canon you have 2 choices - open in the manufacturers software or loose potential image quality.
The main advantage of opening RAW in NX is most of the camera settings are held as file instructions which can be changed at will in NX without loosing the file information other RAW converters dump.
Most others recognise white balance only, dumping noise, contrast, colour balance, D lighting and sharpness settings. If you want to change any of these post processing you retain more file information with NX than in other converters.
The "downside" of NX is because it retains and processes all the camera settings it is slower than other systems that dump this extra information.
It all boils down to the best potential quality (NX for Nikon) or something often of lower quality that works faster.
The main advantage of opening RAW in NX is most of the camera settings are held as file instructions which can be changed at will in NX without loosing the file information other RAW converters dump.
Most others recognise white balance only, dumping noise, contrast, colour balance, D lighting and sharpness settings. If you want to change any of these post processing you retain more file information with NX than in other converters.
The "downside" of NX is because it retains and processes all the camera settings it is slower than other systems that dump this extra information.
It all boils down to the best potential quality (NX for Nikon) or something often of lower quality that works faster.
IF you are using the CS2 version of Photoshop, You will be unable to open NEF raw files from the D300, Reason the CamRaw for CS2 only goes to CamRaw 3.77.........!
YOU can however use Adobes Raw to DNG ( Using latest version ) convertor OR just use your Nikon software to convert your NEF raw to TIFF......NOT JPEG...!
Just don't make any alteration in NX and save as a 16bit TIFF.....!
TIFF files are just as workable as RAW, Probably more so....
Then work on the TIFF file in CS2......
OR dig deep & buy CS3...........
YOU can however use Adobes Raw to DNG ( Using latest version ) convertor OR just use your Nikon software to convert your NEF raw to TIFF......NOT JPEG...!
Just don't make any alteration in NX and save as a 16bit TIFF.....!
TIFF files are just as workable as RAW, Probably more so....
Then work on the TIFF file in CS2......
OR dig deep & buy CS3...........
This is very helpful, having just bought a D300 yesterday and not yet managed to load any pictures to my Mac, let alone 'fiddle' with image files. I was hoping not to have to learn and use yet another software program (Capture NX) with this camera.
So the D-lighting won't 'work' in LR/ACR? That's a shame. What about Capture 1 v4? The D-lighting looks a very desirable feature and I was hoping to make good use of it.
Speed of processing isn't usually an issue, image quality invariably being biggest concern. I do have CS3/latest ACR.
So the D-lighting won't 'work' in LR/ACR? That's a shame. What about Capture 1 v4? The D-lighting looks a very desirable feature and I was hoping to make good use of it.
Speed of processing isn't usually an issue, image quality invariably being biggest concern. I do have CS3/latest ACR.
The equivalent to "D-Lighting" is shadows/highlights controls in PS, and C1 and fill-light and recovery in LR. D-Lighting on camera and (presumably) in NX uses presets wherease Adobe and PhaseOne use sliders to control the amount.
Thanks Steve
I'm familiar with those controls and use them constantly, I thought that it was doing something a bit more clever than that. Suppose the good news is that C NX can be left in the packet for the meantime pending successful results from the other software....
Film is a much easier medium!
Bax
I'm familiar with those controls and use them constantly, I thought that it was doing something a bit more clever than that. Suppose the good news is that C NX can be left in the packet for the meantime pending successful results from the other software....
Film is a much easier medium!
Bax
It's different algorithms and the presets from Nikon on-camera do seem good.
I have the D300 and PS3..open ps3 then open the file ..this then open camera raw..
Don
Don
Quote:IF you are using the CS2 version of Photoshop, You will be unable to open NEF raw files from the D300
♪ ♫ ...Sigh...♫ ♪
(Yet another reason to be happy with my D200...
)
I would use the free Adobe DNG converter to switch them to DNG as Vince suggests, it also applies lossless compression.
Downloads for windows and mac on this page
I run all my Raw files through it as a matter of course to reduce my storage requirements.
Neil
Downloads for windows and mac on this page
I run all my Raw files through it as a matter of course to reduce my storage requirements.
Neil
Thanks all, Information has been very useful
Regards, Steve
Regards, Steve
Quote:The equivalent to "D-Lighting" is shadows/highlights controls in PS, and C1 and fill-light and recovery in LR. D-Lighting on camera and (presumably) in NX uses presets whereas Adobe and PhaseOne use sliders to control the amount.
This is wrong. Nikon captures the image with NO camera settings, and displays according to the camera settings on the rear screen or in Capture NX.
As the original NEF file is untouched in NX you substitute whatever the camera settings were with others with no effect whatsoever (i.e. none destructive) on the original NEF file.
Once opened as a tiff in NX or in any other RAW converter any changes remove some file information i.e. an information destructive process when changes are made. The more changes you make the less original information is available.
Sliders are available in NX and the original NEF file modification instructions can be removed or added to at any time without affecting the original NEF file.
LR does not destroy any data in the NEF file, the settings are held in the database. When d-lighting is applied on camera using the image editing tools, the results are put into an 8-bit jpg, so plenty of information is lost.
