Nikon Df Post Processing

<p>With a new Df in hand, I am curious to know if digital image post processors are brand sensitive. Nikon offers a basic version with the camera, and I know they offer Capture, but what about well known brands like Lightroom? </p>

<p>Is there a consensus of excellent post processing software for Nikon RAW images?</p>

 

<p>it's quite the minefield. you'll find people fanboy'ing most of the processors. the Nikon offerings are often said to be 'best' (whatever that really means) but if you use LR or C1 etc etc, you might well want to create a custsom profile for it.</p>

<p>I have Photoshop CC 2015 but I found the now discontinued View NX-2 (latest version) is sufficient for most of what I want to do in post. I don't like the NX-D.</p>

<p>As far as post processing goes, Df is just another DSLR. There is nothing specific about it compared to other DSLRs. Personally I don't particularly like Nikon software. PhotoShop LightRoom is pretty simple to use, especially it sounds like the OP is new to digital.</p>

<p>But only your preferences matter. You might not like what I prefer.</p>

<p>I would like to recommend to get Nikon View NX2 while it is still available. Maybe in next month View NX-i reaches image editing capabilities and eventually maybe replaces View NX2.</p>

<p>Nikon Capture NX-D is the current raw converter from Nikon, it has more features than View NX2. It is easy to alter for example white balance or use hilight recovery to a image and choose images from filmstrip view for tiff / jpeg conversion.</p>

<p>As Shun said; you can get excellent result with any of the well-known packages. They all take some effort to learn, and we all have different preferences to what seems logic and what not. Download trial versions, and see for yourself which package resonates best with you, and offers the features most important to you in the easiest way. The free Nikon software is an option, but packages as Lightroom or CaptureOne do have more depth, and help organise your photo which in the long run is often worth the effort.<br />It's worth investing some time in finding the right package for you, and then learn that tool properly (which costs more time and effort - but better than spreading out time and effort on several different programs, and master none of them).</p>

<p>Since you appear to be new to digital imaging, may I suggest you give DXO software a try. It can be used fully automatically or manually and gives great results. It offers lens specific corrections (with regard to sharpness and distortion) and offers exceptional noise reduction for your high ISO shots. They offer a free 30 day trial (full version) and can the download can be found at DXO.com</p>

<p>I tried DXO and it doesn't work with the RAW file from the Df for some reason.</p>

<p>I just checked and according to the DXO site, the DF is fully supported for RAW files.</p>

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<p>I tried DXO and it doesn't work with the RAW file from the Df for some reason.</p>

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<p>Which version? If it wasn't 10, then the Df was only supported in the Elite version, not the Standard one. It seems that this distinction has been dropped in Version 10 - all cameras are apparently supported in either version (Essential and Elite) - you only need Elite to unlock some of the more advanced features.</p>

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<p>One advantage of Nikon's own software is that it honours some in-camera settings (like Picture Controls) that other converters ignore. Another is that you get Nikon's idea of what a raw conversion 'should' look like by default (similar to in-camera jpegs) using Nikon's own camera profiling (which is buried somewhere in the software). Compare the output of various raw converters using the default settings and you'll see subtly (sometimes not so subtly) different colours and other image characteristics. Which output you prefer is a personal choice, and of course with sufficient tweaking you can get any result you want (with more or less difficulty) There are also other things to consider, like image management and speed of processing. Personally, I like Nikon's default colours and use Capture NX-D as my first choice converter: http://nikonimglib.com/ncnxd/ However, it's far from the fastest converter and has a less refined interface than Lightroom. As suggested above, try several and see which you prefer, considering both the quality of the conversion and the workflow. NX-D is free, most other commercial packages have demo versions, and there a few Open Source/Free Software packages like Raw Therapee.</p>

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<p>One advantage of Nikon's own software is that it honours some in-camera settings (like Picture Controls) that other converters ignore.</p>

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<p>Not to forget Active D-Lighting (ADL). Though NXD is quite annoying to use and slow, I still prefer it´s output over Lightroom´s conversions. The colors are just there immediately and need no tweaking. I also use Capture One and find it to be on par with NXD. Of course LR has the best user interface and browsing files is easier than in the above mentioned converters.</p>