Capture NX2

<p>I would like to see a discussion on Capture NX2 workflow. I am getting into it and enjoy working with it. I have Jason Odell's book on Capture and went to one of his seminars. The seminar went pretty fast and I guess I understand slow... If anyone has any good suggestions on workflow I would love to hear them. Thanks Jim</p>

<p>One thing you might want to try: use View NX2 as a "front end" for Capture NX2. Meaning, View NX2 is in some ways a more graceful way to do triage on a large number of images. It's simpler to bring up a full-screen preview, score/rank, and proceed to the next image. While you're in View NX2, you're a single CTRL-O to open an image for editing in Capture NX2. This presumes a workstation with enough horsepower to keep those two apps running nicely.<br /><br />If you'd rather use Capture NX2's file browser, it really helps to assign yourself some workspace keyboard shorcuts. For example, I have ALT-1 set up to return the screen to a thumbnail browser, and ALT-2 to return to edit mode. Don't forget to explore the power of filtering your thumbnail views (applies to both View and Capture). Sometimes I'll batch score all images as a three-star rank, and then as I step through in triage, I'll just CTRL-2 or CTRL-4 to promote/demote the images as never-mind vs. keepers. If you set the filter for three-star-only images, your list of images will shrink as you mark each one, showing you only those that you've not yet scored up or down. Or just have it show you 3+, so that anything you demote disappears from view, while the keepers stay put. <br /><br />Once I'm done wandering through those, I'll create a couple of new folders in the working folder - something like "not_used" and "working" ... and I'll drag all of the demoted files (selected-for using the filtering tool) into "not_used" and all the rest into "working." That way, it's easier to do batch operations that only impact the files you really want to work on, since they're all in a given folder.</p>

<p>I agree with Matt on the use of ViewNX in conjunction with Capture NX2. My workflow has been to download files from the camera with Nikon Transfer, sending them to two different drives, then use ViewNX to view and rank images using the "star" rating system. Then, Capture NX2 will read the rankings and I can bring in only the images I deem worthy of editing. Once the editing is completed I save the edited images into a separate file marked "Edited ...", and back that file up. Then, I use Capture NX2 to convert the images I need in JPEG format, saving them into a separate file folder, and then backing up to a second drive. Seems to work pretty well although I do wind up with a lot of redundancy.</p>

<p>Question for Matt, Gary, or anyone else who cares to answer. Gary mentioned using Transfer to download the files, then using ViewNX. I typically just use ViewNX or my XP operating system to transfer .nef image files to my computer. Am I missing something? Does Transfer do something better than ViewNX, or perhaps something that View can't do?</p>

<p>Inquiring minds want to know.Thanks.</p>

<p>The only reason to use Transfer would be if you'd like to have it rename the files on the way, or have it update IPTC data, etc., on all files. I never use it - I just do a file system copy, and batch tags/titles etc later. Nothing wrong with Transfer, but it's mostly for people who don't understand that it's just a bunch of files they're moving around, and their computer already knows how to do that.</p>

<p>That's what I thought. Thanks so much for the reply, Matt.</p>

<p>one more vote for viewNX + captureNX. they do work well in tandem -- for me. my only complaint is with the new version of viewNX. i have to use it because i recently picked up a D3100 (this will also pertain to D7000 users). viewNX 2 is clunky, buggy and feature-limited. on a sufficiently robust win7 system, it doesn't do too poorly -- although i miss the absence of e-mail capability (that feature was not ready in time for release, and nikon promises it at a later, unspecified, date). on older XP machines, however, viewNX 2 will exhaust video memory and photos will sequentially un-display -- disappearing in block from right to left. after viewing a number of pics, the software will eventually refuse to display anything! and video viewing is out of the question -- even on fast machine you're better off with windows media player or the quicktime viewer. i wish that older cameras were supported in version 1.5 of viewNX, but that's not nikon's MO.</p>

<p>I also like to start in ViewNx 2, and follow up with Capture NX2.<br>

In some cases I also use Adobe Elements which i added to the menu "Open With"in ViewNx 2"<br>

Transfer I do not use anymore separatly, because its integrated in ViewNx 2 ( and Capture NX 2) now..</p>

<p>Agree also with Matt, and to add, I have little issues with ViewNX2; for me it runs better and faster than the older ViewNX. Nikon's software is a bit too temperamental in this respect. A pity. A second note in that direction: the second last update to CaptureNX 2 (2.2.5) added a nice boost in speed too, it seems. Be sure to update CNX2 to the latest.</p>

<p>For workflow, I tag (digits 1-9) depending on what I need done with the photo in ViewNX. Then I can use that filter in CaptureNX to speed up actions.<br>

One thing for sheer speed to look out for in CaptureNX is save and load settings; this can be done as batch operations so it saves enormous amounts of time. The Jason Odell book covers this well, yet still a lot of people seem to overlook it.<br>

For changing something like a picture style or predefined white-balance in batch, ViewNX does the same faster :-)</p>

<p>For what it's worth, I much like Transfer NX; it does not only rename, but can create folder automatically, add tags during import and more tricks as such. It certainly goes beyond copy/paste files, though if you don't need such things done indeed it is of zero value.</p>