Lightroom 3 or Nikon NX2

[klaus_richter]

<p>I'm new to Lightroom3 (LR3) and Nikon NX2 (NX2) although I have both. I followed your thread and found it very informative although my original goal was different than discussed. I'm using LR3 for quickly saving a backup file as well as for cataloging all images, but I want to use NX2 for editing a few selects and other images that could benefit from quick editing. The question is, "can I move images from LR3 to NX2 and back again to LM3 and if so how do I do it?" What about the attached EXIF, labels, keywords, and other files? Your help would be appreciated. I really do like the cataloging, sorting, and selecting capabilities of LR3 and don't want to give those up. Thanks, Klaus,</p>

[indraneel]

<p>Only photomechanic will create iptc/xmp readable by both LR3 and CNX2. Not all iptc/xmp created by LR and NX are readable by the other (NX or LR). LR may not be able to put iptc/xmp into nef files (especially if edited by NX). I've actually started using CDwinder to search through photomechanic tagged images. There's something called spotlight for mac, also CDfinder.</p>

<p>LR to NX and back -- show in explorer and drag to NX. edit, save (and import to LR catalog if saved as tiff/jpeg). LR does not show jpeg embedded in NEF (photomechanic does).</p>

[photom]

<p>LR3 is great for most files and for keywording. Newer camera profiles are better but still not as good as NX2. I have not done much with my own custom profiles.</p>

<p>However, about 30% of my shots, that may have more difficult lighting or such, especially faces, need NX2. NX2 still is a very powerful editor if you really understand how to use all of the features, which a lot of people never get into. In particular, the various options under the LCH step, and for some reason the NX2 Nik color control point version works better than Viveza plugin. I then save the edited NEF and a TIF file that I can bring into an Adobe product.</p>

<p>Biggest problem for NX2 is that if you load up on lots and lots of adjustments it goes slow and it may crash. Avoid cropping and rotating with a lot of adjustments if you can do this in another program as part of your work flow.</p>

<p>= Tom</p>