Capture NX-D- the difference between editing in Picture control and Tone

<p>Capture NX-D- Do you know what is exactly the difference between editing in Picture control and Tone tool if i am adjusting brightness, contrast and saturation? I can see, that in Tone i can adjust in a bigger amount and more precisly. But i´ve recognised, however I tried set the same effect, it si not the same. The differences are in a amount of lost highlights, change of hue,... I have tried editing several pictures and the differences are various. I can not see any rule on it. I can´t find any info about this. Sorry for my Englich, not native speaker :-)</p>

<p>Your camera is probably newer generation one as there are two kinds of picture control in Capture NX-D. One for older cameras and other for newer cameras. What You described seem newer generation Picture Control. I think Picture Control settings are best set in camera, but if altered in software the cruder adjustments of Picture Control are more suited to be applied to set of images. Tone tools are finer and best tailored to each image individually, possibly after Picture Control settings. Tone detail tools offer opportunity to fine tune cut shadows, lost highlights and lifting of shadows.</p>

<p>What Tuomas posted is very helpful. I utilize both in-camera picture control and NX-D fine tuning in the way he describes.</p>

<p>Nikon has various bits of documentation scattered around about Picture Controls - one of the more comprehensive is this guide to using them with the D800 (though much of it will also apply to other cameras):</p>

<p>http://cdn-10.nikon-cdn.com/pdf/manuals/dslr/D800/D800_TechnicalGuide_PC_En.pdf</p>

<p>I don't really use them myself, preferring the main adjustments in CNXD. One advantage of Picture Controls is that you can edit them on your computer (see guide above), then upload them to your camera for future use from the menu. The other is, as suggested by Tuomas, they give you a way of applying standard adjustments to a whole series of images, in or out of the camera. I haven't seen a comparison between using CNXD and Picture Controls with respect to lost highlights, etc. I'd probably guess it's possible to do anything from the main CNXD adjustments that you can do with a Picture Control with enough fiddling, but I certainly haven't tested this. It might be worth posting an example if you're seeing Picture Control effects you can't replicate with the main CNXD adjustments. Note that the Picture Control Utility (a standalone program that can also be launched from the CNXD Tools menu) gives you more adjustments (including Curves) than the sliders available under the Picture Control panel that comes up when you select a different Control in the main CNXD application. The Utility also has the export function that lets you upload edited Controls to the camera.<br /> <br /><br /></p>

I would recommend starting your editing with the Picture

Control parameters in NX-D. Then if you are unhappy or more

is needed, look at the other edit tools. This speeds

processing of the nef files. I have found that you can

crash NX-D with too many edits outside of PC.

 

 

Differences? Contrast in PC seems to be an adjustment of

the shape of an S curve and tends not to blow out highlights

or shadows as easily. Saturation - PC much more limited to

avoid crazy colors. For some reason I never use brightness

within PC. Sometimes I use small brightness adjustment

outside of PC to change shadows.