Real world Nikon Capture NX 2

305 Pages·16.483 MB·English

by  Long, Ben

Real World
Nikon
Capture NX 2
Ben Long
Peachpit Press
berkeley, california
Real World Nikon Capture NX 2
Ben Long
Peachpit Press
1249 Eighth Street
Berkeley, CA 94710
510/524-2178
510/524-2221 (fax)
Find us on the Web at www.peachpit.com
To report errors, please send a note to [email protected]
Peachpit Press is a division of Pearson Education
Copyright © 2009 by Ben Long
Project Editor: Susan Rimerman
Developmental Editor: Elaine Merrill
Technical Editor: Bill Durrence
Proofreader: Suzie Nasol
Production Editor: Hilal Sala
Composition: WolfsonDesign
Indexer: James Minkin
Cover Design: Charlene Charles Will
Notice of Rights
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For
information on getting permission for reprints and excerpts, contact [email protected].
Notice of Liability
The information in this book is distributed on an “As Is” basis, without warranty. While every precaution has been
taken in the preparation of the book, neither the author nor Peachpit shall have any liability to any person or entity
with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the instructions contained
in this book or by the computer software and hardware products described in it.
Trademarks
Nikon and Capture NX are registered trademarks of Nikon, Inc.
Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks.
Where those designations appear in this book, and Peachpit was aware of a trademark claim, the designations appear
as requested by the owner of the trademark. All other product names and services identifi ed throughout this book
are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefi t of such companies with no intention of infringement of the
trademark. No such use, or the use of any trade name, is intended to convey endorsement or other affi liation with
this book.
ISBN-13: 978-0-321-55359-1
ISBN–10: 0-321-55359-4
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed and bound in the United States of America
Table of Contents
Introduction ..................................................................................................xi
It’s the Software, Stupid—and the Hardware .......................................................xii
U Point—Unique Editing .............................................................................xii
What’s New in NX 2 ..................................................................................xiii
How This Book Is Organized ........................................................................xiv
Chapter One: Installation, Interface, and Importing .....................................1
Installation................................................................................................2
Interface Overview ......................................................................................3
Tool Palettes ...........................................................................................4
Browser............................................................................................5
Folders .............................................................................................7
Metadata...........................................................................................8
Editing palettes ....................................................................................9
Keyboard shortcuts ...............................................................................9
Importing ................................................................................................10
Mac OS ...........................................................................................10
Windows ..........................................................................................12
Organizing Your Image Files ...................................................................13
Browser organization ............................................................................14
Creating new folders in the Browser ..........................................................15
Renaming fi les in the Browser .................................................................15
Moving fi les within the Browser ..............................................................16
Copying fi les within the Browser..............................................................16
Importing with Nikon Transfer ...................................................................17
The Nikon Transfer interface ..................................................................17
Adding IPTC metadata .........................................................................19
Defi ning destinations ............................................................................20
Preferences .......................................................................................21
Getting More Help .....................................................................................22
iv
Chapter Two: Workfl ow, the Browser, and Color Management ...................23
Basic Workfl ows ........................................................................................24
Importing/Organizing..............................................................................26
Adding Metadata ....................................................................................26
Choosing Selects—Rating Your Images ..........................................................27
Editing and Output .................................................................................28
Archiving .............................................................................................28
Advanced Workfl ows ...................................................................................28
Using Capture NX with non-Nikon raw fi les ...............................................28
Adding Capture NX to a Photoshop workfl ow ..............................................29
Workfl ow Summary .................................................................................30
The Capture NX Browser .............................................................................30
Metadata..............................................................................................31
Adding Metadata to multiple images .........................................................32
Metadata categories ..............................................................................33
Adding copyright.................................................................................34
Adding keywords ................................................................................34
Copying metadata from one image to another ...............................................35
Using metadata templates ......................................................................36
Rotating Thumbnails ...............................................................................39
Changing Thumbnail Size .........................................................................39
Thumbnail Badges ..................................................................................40
Comparing Images ..................................................................................40
Rating Your Images .................................................................................42
Rating strategy ....................................................................................43
Labeling Your Images ...............................................................................44
Filtering Your Images ...............................................................................46
Sorting Images .......................................................................................47
Replacing the Capture NX Browser ..............................................................48
Color Management .....................................................................................49
Color Management Basics .........................................................................50
Color systems ....................................................................................51
Profi les ............................................................................................51
Not a magic bullet ...............................................................................52
Profi ling Your Monitor .............................................................................52
Software profi ling on the Mac .................................................................53
Software profi ling on Windows ................................................................54
Hardware profi ling ..............................................................................55
Profi les and viewing conditions ................................................................56
v
Printer Profi ling .....................................................................................57
Installing printer profi les on the Mac .........................................................58
Installing printer profi les on Windows ........................................................58
Color Spaces .........................................................................................59
Color Management in Capture NX ..............................................................60
Chapter Three: Basic Image Editing ............................................................61
Understanding Nondestructive Editing .............................................................62
Opening Images ........................................................................................65
Opening with the Browser .........................................................................65
The Open Image Command ......................................................................65
Open Recent .........................................................................................65
The Welcome Dialog Box ..........................................................................66
Opening from Your OS ............................................................................66
Image-Editing Workfl ow ...............................................................................67
Zooming and Panning Your Image ...................................................................71
Zooming and Panning with the Keyboard .......................................................73
The Capture NX Edit List .............................................................................73
Anatomy of the Edit List ...........................................................................74
The Develop pane ...............................................................................74
The Adjust pane .................................................................................75
Additional controls ..............................................................................76
Deleting an Edit step ............................................................................77
Changing the type of edit .......................................................................78
Opacity............................................................................................78
Resetting an edit to its default parameters ....................................................79
Geometric Adjustments ................................................................................79
Rotate.................................................................................................80
Straighten.............................................................................................81
Crop ..................................................................................................82
Crop options .....................................................................................83
Flipping...............................................................................................83
Distortion Control ..................................................................................84
Keeping All Edit Steps Active .....................................................................85
Initial Retouching .......................................................................................86
Correcting Color Aberrations .....................................................................86
Red Eye Correction .................................................................................88
The Auto Retouch Brush ..........................................................................88
Moving On to Tone and Color ....................................................................91
vi TABLE OF CONTENTS
Histogram 101 ..........................................................................................91
Contrasty Histograms ..............................................................................94
Capture NX’s Histogram Displays ................................................................95
Adjusting Tone and Contrast ..........................................................................96
Quick Fix .............................................................................................97
Adjusting black point and white point ........................................................98
Adjusting the midpoint ....................................................................... 100
Reading the curve .............................................................................. 102
Decreasing contrast ............................................................................ 103
Adjusting curves ............................................................................... 105
Exposure Compensation ...................................................................... 107
Contrast......................................................................................... 108
Highlight Protection .......................................................................... 108
Shadow Protection ............................................................................. 109
Saturation....................................................................................... 110
Adjustments........................................................................................ 111
Auto Levels ..................................................................................... 111
Correcting color casts ......................................................................... 114
Contrast/Brightness............................................................................... 116
D-Lighting ......................................................................................... 120
Levels & Curves ................................................................................... 122
Adjusting individual channels ................................................................ 124
Levels & Curves eyedroppers ................................................................ 126
LCH................................................................................................ 129
Color Correction ..................................................................................... 132
LCH Revisited ..................................................................................... 132
Color Lightness controls ...................................................................... 132
Chroma......................................................................................... 134
Hue.............................................................................................. 135
Color Balance ...................................................................................... 135
Color Booster ...................................................................................... 136
Saturation/Warmth ................................................................................ 137
Saving Files ............................................................................................ 138
Working on a JPEG or TIFF File................................................................ 139
Working on a Raw File ........................................................................... 139
NEF Options ...................................................................................... 139
JPEG Options ..................................................................................... 140
TIFF Options ...................................................................................... 140
TABLE OF CONTENTS vii
Chapter Four: Working with Raw Files ...................................................... 141
What Is Raw, and Why Should You Use It? ....................................................... 142
How Your Digital Camera Creates an Image .................................................. 142
How a digital camera sees .................................................................... 142
Mixing a batch of color ....................................................................... 143
Digital Image Composition ...................................................................... 146
How Your Camera Makes a JPEG Image ...................................................... 146
Demosaicing.................................................................................... 147
Colorimetric interpretation ................................................................... 147
Color space ..................................................................................... 147
White balance................................................................................... 148
Gamma, contrast, and color adjustments .................................................. 149
Noise reduction and sharpening ............................................................. 150
Eight-bit conversion ........................................................................... 151
JPEG compression ............................................................................. 151
File storage ...................................................................................... 152
How Your Camera Makes a Raw Image ....................................................... 152
Demosaicing.................................................................................... 153
Colorimetric interpretation ................................................................... 153
Color space ..................................................................................... 153
White balance................................................................................... 154
Gamma, contrast, and color adjustments ................................................... 154
Noise reduction and sharpening ............................................................. 155
Eight-bit conversion ........................................................................... 155
File storage ...................................................................................... 155
Raw Concerns ..................................................................................... 156
Storage .......................................................................................... 156
Workfl ow ........................................................................................ 156
Shooting performance ......................................................................... 157
Raw Advantages ................................................................................... 158
Processing Raw Images .............................................................................. 159
What Happens When You Open a Raw File ................................................... 159
The Camera Settings Edit ........................................................................ 160
White Balance .................................................................................. 160
Picture Control ................................................................................ 164
Non-Picture Control .......................................................................... 167
Noise Reduction ............................................................................... 167
viii TABLE OF CONTENTS
Quick Fix and Raw ............................................................................... 169
Exposure Compensation ...................................................................... 169
Highlight recovery ............................................................................. 170
Highlight Protection and raw images ....................................................... 173
Highlight recovery and workfl ow ........................................................... 174
Color Correction .................................................................................. 174
Camera & Lens Corrections ..................................................................... 174
Color moiré reduction ........................................................................ 175
Image dust off ................................................................................. 175
Vignette control ................................................................................ 176
Saving Raw Files ...................................................................................... 176
Chapter Five: Advanced Image Editing...................................................... 177
Workspaces ............................................................................................ 178
Defi ning Your Own Workspaces ................................................................ 180
Managing workspaces you’ve created ....................................................... 180
Screen Modes ......................................................................................... 181
Full Screen Mode ................................................................................. 181
Presentation Mode ................................................................................ 182
Photo Filters ........................................................................................... 183
Photo Effects ....................................................................................... 183
Add Grain/Noise .................................................................................. 185
Contrast: Color Range ........................................................................... 185
Colorize............................................................................................ 187
Black and White Conversion .................................................................... 188
Installing Additional Filters ...................................................................... 188
Knowing How Far to Push an Edit................................................................. 188
Changing Color Space ............................................................................... 190
Control Points ........................................................................................ 192
Tonal Control Points .............................................................................. 192
Neutral Control Point ........................................................................ 192
White Control Point ........................................................................... 198
Black Control Point ........................................................................... 200
Color Control Point .............................................................................. 200
Using multiple Color Control Points ....................................................... 202
Other Color Control Point settings ......................................................... 210
TABLE OF CONTENTS ix
Selection Controls .................................................................................... 211
Selectively Applying an Effect ................................................................... 211
Brush options .................................................................................. 217
Selection options ............................................................................... 217
Gradient selections ............................................................................ 219
Brush control and combining selections .................................................... 226
Fill selections ................................................................................... 228
Selection Control Points ......................................................................... 229
Using the Same Selection with Multiple Edits ................................................ 232
The Lasso and Marquee Tools ................................................................... 234
Dodging and Burning ................................................................................ 235
Facial Retouching ................................................................................. 237
Additional Adjustments .............................................................................. 238
Gaussian Blur ...................................................................................... 238
High Pass ........................................................................................... 238
Noise Reduction .................................................................................. 240
Chapter Six: Version Control and Batch Processing .................................. 243
Version Control ....................................................................................... 244
Nondestructive Versions ......................................................................... 244
Creating a New Version .......................................................................... 245
Copying and Moving Settings ...................................................................... 246
Batch Processing ...................................................................................... 247
Saving Adjustments ............................................................................... 247
Loading Adjustments ............................................................................. 248
Managing Settings ................................................................................. 249
Batch Processing .................................................................................. 250
Choosing a source ............................................................................. 251
Selecting settings to apply..................................................................... 251
Renaming....................................................................................... 252
Format and destination ........................................................................ 253
Run the batch process ......................................................................... 254
Watched Folder .................................................................................... 254
Prepping for Output .............................................................................. 255