U point (NX2), am I being too stubborn?

[exitium]

<p>Maybe it's because I like making more work for myself, but I find I prefer manually painting in selections/masks in Photoshop compared to trusting the automated aspect of the U point control points. It is how I learned, and I feel like I have more control, not to mention the adjustments being made are reliant on me, the artist rather than the software.</p>

<p>Any opinions out there? Anyone made the change without looking back?</p>

<p>I've recently settled the Lightroom/ACR vs Nikon RAW processing debate for <strong>myself</strong>, as I found some pics looked better in Lightroom while others looked better in Nikon's software, and I find I am more comfortable in Lightroom and Photoshop. I shoot all of my RAWs with as little in camera settings as possible (no sharpening, moderate saturation etc), so I find the Camera Neutral profile in Lightroom suits my tastes of having as vanilla an image to work with.<br>

The only thing keeping me with Nikon software is the possible potential of the u-point controls...</p>

 

[Matt Laur]

<p>You can use u-points, or you can paint your masks in NX2 - whichever method you like. I use <em>both</em> in NX2, because different tasks are served best by each method. Sometimes I drop in a u-point control, and <em>then</em> use a brush to nibble away at what it's doing to some small detail I want it to avoid. Lots of flexibility, here.</p>

[exitium]

<p>Thanks for the response Matt,<br>

I like that idea, a nice blend of automation and personalization. How would you rate the brush controls in NX2 compared to photoshop?<br>

I've admittedly never given much time to the brush in NX2 or Lightroom, I've always gone to PS if I needed/wanted to do some brushwork.</p>

[don_cooper]

<p>I don't find that the software makes any 'automated" adjustments. As Matt said control points can/should be used with other masking tools and brushes to add or subtract to adjustments made by the initial control point. If used properly they can be a great aid, if not I guess they're not of much value (kind of like bad HDR). </p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>They're very effective, Peter. You can of course change the size and opacity of the brush, as well as the opacity of the entire step (layer). You can turn a display of the selection off and on, as well as displaying, or not, the image under the selection mask. Once you get the hang of it, you'll see it's very powerful.<br /><br />And, of course, you can do easy full-image masks and then use a brush shape to subtract from it, or use a gradient mask to paint a selection across the entire image (fading from one value to another), and then modify that with brush strokes as you like. It's worth spending an hour to get it figured out. Otherwise, you're really missing out on some of NX2's potential. Don't forget to play with the auto-retouch tool, too.</p>

[exitium]

<p>Thanks for the quick responses gentleman. I think I am going to do some tests, take a couple of images and limit myself to NX2 for one set, and Adobe for the other within a set timeframe and have some prints made, and see which I prefer, and how time factors in. <br>

I'll let you know how it goes. </p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>You'll find it interesting, Peter. But ... don't let <em>two</em> images be your test. That's not enough time for you to completely internalize NX2's (quite different) way of doing things. If you're a long-time PS user, NX2's going to feel awkward for a while. I now hop between editors comfortably, but NX2 took me a while. I still turn to other software for a handful of specific tasks (related to text layers, for example, or certain surgical jobs), but NX2 is where I do most of the heavy lifting these days. Have fun!</p>

[exitium]

<p>Matt,<br>

Your taking my use of the word couple too literally, or perhaps I am using it too figuratively, lol. I'll just have to keep one foot in each workflow as time permits. Enjoying the glimpses of your pics btw.</p>

[vivid_earth_photographics]

<p>After years of being frustrated with what I felt were non-intuitive features of NX2 (read: not like Photoshop Elements), I finally sat down with a book on NX2 and read the whole thing through. Turns out NX2 is surprisingly elegant, efficient, and overall terrific! I still use Photoshop Elements for cloning and re-sizing and adding borders and the very occasional more exotic type edit. But for RAW conversion, adjustments, cropping, sharpening, I find NX2 easier, more fun, and actually better in many ways. Not having to deal with layers and yet being able to still do non-destructive editing is awesome with NX2. <br>

Anyone shooting Nikon who hasn't really looked at NX2 is cheating themselves. It totally changed my workflow. I'm a convert.</p>

[jack_hogan]

<p>Kyle +1. If you are serious about evaluating CNX2 I think you would find Jason Odell's ebook very helpful. You can download it from <a href="http://www.luminescentphoto.com/nx2guide.html">here</a>.<br>

IMHO LR/ACR's brushes are brutish, especially in auto mode around sharp contrasts. U-points are easier to use and subtler. Also CNX2 has a number of very powerful tools (such as LCH) which make the need for a trip to PS less likely. </p>

[exitium]

<p>Thanks to everyone's encouragement here, I've looked up some tutorials, and I have to say now that I know about anchor points I am seeing a lot better results. Not to mention, I forgot about the U-point aspects of Viveza and the other Nik plug-ins that one can access within photoshop.<br>

I definitely agree about Lightroom's brush being less than ideal.</p>

[kyleweems]

<p>I do the majority of things with u-point controls.. once you learn to use them they can be very fast and effective. Learning to combine points that you are using to adjust with points around them to keep them in check can accomplish most of what you need.</p>

<p>There are times however when a mask is just faster.. if you need a solid area left alone (or changed) like an eye, tshirt, etc. then just brush it in.</p>

<p>I'm not sure if nx2 does it or not, but in some of the Nik software you can hold down cmd (ctrl on windows) while you are expanding/contracting the side of the control point and it will show you a live mask update. (note: if cmd/ctrl doesn't work, try alt.. I know one of them does it but I don't use it very often).. this can be a nice shortcut to see what you're doing.</p>