Workflow NX2 and third party plugins

[stephen_lilley]

<p>I am a keen amateur bird photographer, shooting with a  Nikon D300 and 500mm P lens. Until recently I have  used photoshop elements  6 for all my editing and browsing needs. I have also used "imagenomic " as a plugin to photoshop. I have to say that I have found the noiseware removal tool to be excellent. I have had a copy of NX2 for six months  but have  not managed  to  come to terms with it, always  choosing the easier option  of "Elements" a programme  I am familiar with. I have now determined to  get up to speed with NX2, (with the help of James Odells guide") My question is, where  in my workflow  should I use "imagenomic"?  bearing in mind the platform it uses. Should I simply use  the noiseware tool in NX2 instead, or  should I invest in another editing / browsing programme  eg "lightroom "which I believe supports "imagenomic" to deal with noise before  I import into Nx2. <br>

Slightly confused<br>

  Stephen</p>

[Wouter Willemse]

<p>Hi Stephen,</p>

<p>Do not import from Lightroom into CaptureNX; frankly capture NX is much better at handling Nikon RAW-files than Lightroom - assuming you mean RAW files of course. Better to take them straight into Capture NX2, which can also do browsing and quite a bit of editing. So no need at all for Lightroom.<br>

In my opinion, CNX2 is better at noise in particular, compared to the Adobe products, and for most uses I find the noise reduction option in CNX2 to be perfectly adequate.</p>

<p>As a workflow, CNX2 replaces "Adobe Camera RAW" in photoshop Elements, and it can do some of the things that the Elements Editor can do. But there is still a place for the (full) PS Elements Editor.<br>

So RAW file into Capture NX, a TIFF comes out, if that needs further tweaks, into PS Elements. If it does not need further tweaks, you could directly export the JPEG from Capture NX2.<br>

As a browser program, CNX2 can be a bit slow and clumsy. So usually I use ViewNX (free from Nikon) to do that. It integrates nicely with Capture NX and it's a lot faster. Finally, there is TransferNX, which is a (in my opinion) very good program to transfer files from memory cards to the PC. Not strictly necessary, but it has some good options.</p>

[stwrtertbsratbs5]

<p>You can apply noise reduction as a local edit in NX 2 - and it's non-destructive. In addition, localized edits are very easy with the U-Point technology. I add standard editing steps in batch and then make specific adjustments as needed. I always add an LCH adjustment, Sharpen (I like the High Pass Filter), and a Convert Color Space step. Additional steps, such as Crop and Straighten, depend on the specific image.</p>