jack_landry

Sharpening with Photoshop CS2 (Peachpit Press) is also a good book to understand sharpening theory (and practise of course)

All you have to do is to download the latest version of Adobe Camera Raw from the Adobe site and to intall it in the proper location.

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=39&platform=Windows

You won't do better conversions using CS2 for your NEF files, Nikon Capture NX does a better job than CS2. Why don't you like Capture NX? Do you have the 1.2 version?

I don't think you can buy Nikon Capture by internet using a credit card. You must first download the trial version of Capture NX 1.1, then you must buy a key from a local Nikon reseller. And finally, you can download the update for Capture NX 1.2 (this version should be faster to open NEF files...)

Go to the history menu at the right, click on base adjustments then on detail adjustments and uncheck the box for Noise Reduction. This will disable this function for the picture displayed. But you will have to uncheck the box again for each new picture you open.

You can't disable NR on a permanent basis.

I always shoot in NEF and I've tried many Raw converters, but Capture NX is the best tool for getting the full potential of NEF files. I process the NEF with Capture NX and when I'm satified, save it as TIFF (16 bits) for printing or further processing, and I use jpeg only for the Web.

And more important, when you process the NEF with Capture NX, you can save the resuly as NEF and open it again in Capture, so you have all the tunings at hand and you can fine tune them again and again to get the optimum result. When you save as TIFF, all the tunings are lost, but of course you can open the TIFF in Capture NX to process it again ...

Capture NX has very powerful easy to use tools to fine tune the NEF file and get fantastic results. Since you have Nikon camera, forget about Photoshop CS and try Capture NX.

The soft you got with camera is not a RAW processor and if you use it to save the NEF as TIFF, you won't get the same results as you would have by processing the NEF with Capture NX (or other RAW processors such as Adobe Camera RAW, Lightroom, Bibble, ...)

I bought a SanDisk memory card coming with an activation key for Capture One LE. I don't use this soft for processing my Nikon Raw files (I use Nikon Capture NX), so if you are interested I can send you this key and you will be able to process your Raw files yourself!

I have installed this soft last week on my AMD Athlon 3000+ system and it works fine. Photoimpact doen't have the layer system as in Photoshop, but Photoimpact is easy to use and have powerful auto functions. You can even process raw files from most cameras and save them in many formats (Tiff, jpeg, etc). You can try to uninstall and install again.

Before spending money, it's better to download the 30 days Trial version to see if the soft will do the right job. Just go to:

http://support.nikontech.com/cgi-bin/nikonusa.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=61

 

For the manual, you can download it free at:

http://support.nikontech.com/cgi-bin/nikonusa.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=14030&p_created=1152275796&p_sid=s1jHXRyi&p_accessibility=0&p_lva=61&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MjcmcF9wcm9kcz00MiwyOTgmcF9jYXRzPTE4NyZwX3B2PTIuMjk4JnBfY3Y9MS4xODcmcF9zZWFyY2hfdHlwZT1hbnN3ZXJzLnNlYXJjaF9ubCZwX3BhZ2U9MQ**&p_li=&p_topview=1

You certainly won't get top results shooting in jpeg mode! jpeg is good for the web or for small size prints...

I do all my BW pictures from (color) RAW files (NEF), do basic processing (curves, contrast, sharpening (unsharp mask), etc) with Nikon Capture NX and then use the included BW conversion filter. I can make more fine tunings after with Capture NX powerful tools and then save the file as 16 bits TIFF.

Sometimes, I load the 16 bits color TIFF in Photoshop CS2 and use the Channel Mixer or some filters such as Nik Color Efex Pro or Alien Skin Exposure.

I also have the D70s and I've tried many RAW processors for my NEF files. Now, I use only Nikon Capture NX 1.1 and it does a great job. Try it and you won't need anything else for your NEF files.

There is no problem at all. The NEF is 12 bit compressed (looseless) file, while the TIFF is a 16 bit uncompressed file (there are 2^16 levels for each channel). You can't do nothing about it except setting the TIFF file to 8 bits (but 16 bit is far more better for image processing).

Lightroom is a good soft, but since you are into Nikon, Capture NX would be a better choice, giving you more control in raw processing...and it's less expensive!

I've tried many RAW converters for my D70s NEF files, but now I use Nikon Capture NX because it gives me better results for color and sharpness. The unsharp mask for example is great because it works only on the luminance channel. And the new U point technology is simply fantastic (when you understand how it works...). The only thing missing is a clone stamp tool...to remove unwanted objects or dark spots (dust on captor). And you can edit any jpeg or tiff file in Capture.