Digital Photography Tips and Techniques

Some people are reporting a weird bug in Nikon Capture NX software. Enter a small value for the exposure compensation (e.g. 0.01) and the photo becomes less sharp. I had trouble reproducing this bug on my own using Capture NX 1.3 and NEF from my D200. So it appeared to be related to specific circumstances.

I then downloaded a D300 NEF file and to my surprise, it happened! I also found that if you change the exposure compensation in Raw Adjustment, you will no longer be able to change the sharpening setting in the Picture Control: dragging the sharpening slider will have no effect. If you do not perform the exposure compensation adjustment, you can adjust the sharpening level using the sharpening slider in Picture Control. As soon as you do any exposure adjustment, the sharpening will disappear. You can get the sharpening back by unchecking the Apply checkbox next to Exposure Compensation.

I think this is related to the Picture Control system in the D300. According to Nikon, the unique Picture Control system makes it possible to share image processing settings among compatible devices and software. It is likely that there is a bug in Capture NX related to the Picture Control. Nikon D200 does not have Picture Control system and is therefore not typically affected. However if you turn on the Picture Control on a NEF file from D200, you can experience the same bug! It doesn’t seem possible to turn off the Picture Control for NEF files from a D300.

There are some people who claim the Capture NX is slow, buggy, and don’t ever want to touch the software even though it comes with the new D300 and D3 free. How wrong is that?! There may be some truth about the slowness if you have an old computer or do not have sufficient memory. However the program is a great piece of software that consistently bring out the best from NEF raw images effortlessly. Here I am going to illustrate the unique control point and selection brush features in Capture NX and show you how easy it is to touch up a landscape photo in a couple of simple steps. Read More…

I shoot 100% in RAW and use Nikon Capture NX for NEF raw file editing most of the time. Until recently, I have been uploading photos to Flickr by first saving the photo as JPEG to a folder, start Flickr Uploader, add the photos, then hit the upload button. I just found out that it could be much easier by cutting off the unnecessary steps.

First, download and install Flickr uploader here if you don’t have it already.

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A vignette is a picture without defined borders. Typically the photo gradually fades into a white or black background, usually in an oval shape. In the old film days, it was created during printing exposure by projecting the image through an oval hole in a black card. For soft edges, the card is held a few inches above the paper and moved around slightly. In the digital era, this effect can be easily produced using photo editing software such as Adobe Photoshop, Gimp, and my favorite, the Nikon Capture NX. Here are the simple steps to do that in Capture NX. Read More…

From Angel Island by PicMax

I took this photo last year during a hike to the summit of Mount Livemore on Angel Island, San Francisco. It was a great hike but obviously the photo looks dull and unattractive. It was slightly hazy that day and the camera, Nikon D70, didn’t do the magic for me. No problem. Let me show you how to fix photos like this one using Nikon Capture NX in several different ways. Read More…

Nikon just made the Capture NX 1.3 (direct download link) available on its US website. This version is an upgrade-only installer, which will upgrade previous installation of Capture NX version 1.00 - 1.20 to version 1.30.

The major changes from previous versions are:

• Support for RAW NEF images taken with the D3 and D300 has been added.
• Support for Picture Control has been added.
• A Picture Control item has been added to Camera Adjustments in the Base Adjustments. The Color Mode, Tone Compensation, Saturation and Sharpening items have been moved to the new Picture Control item.
• An Active D-Lighting item has been added to RAW adjustments in the Base Adjustments, and Sodium Vapor Lamps and High Temperature Mercury Vapor (7200K) settings have been added.
• RAW images can now be saved with lossless compression. Images captured in lossless-compressed RAW format can now be saved in lossless-compressed RAW format, regardless of camera model. (Limited to use with images captured with Nikon digital-SLR cameras).
• The Vignette Control function, which was previously for use only with RAW images, is now supported with JPEG and TIFF images. (Limited to use with images captured by Nikon digital -SLR cameras).
• The function for modifying images captured with a fisheye lens, available in Lens Adjustments in the Base Adjustments, is now compatible with images captured with the AF Fisheye-Nikkor 16mm f/2.8D.
• Features for editing RAW images, previously available in the Camera Settings palette, have been eliminated.

If you have not heard it before, the Image Doctors have a detailed hands-on preview of Nikon Capture NX 1.3 podcast. I also have some Capture NX tutorials on creating LOMO effect, selection brush, high-pass sharpening, and D-lighting.

LOMO: Street fair

People love lomography, as evident in the the flickr groups for the real LOMO, or the fake LOMO. If you are not sure whether or not you want to pick up one of the real LOMO analog cameras, you can fake the effect using digital photography techniques. I have seen at least half a dozen Photoshop tutorials on how to do this. Here I am going to show you how to create the similar effect in Nikon Capture NX. Read More…

I have been having some fun with Nikon Capture NX lately. It is not Photoshop, but it has some really nice features that can make the same photo enhancements effortlessly with out purchasing the much more expensive alternative. Today, I will present a tutorial on how to remove distracting background using the selection brush in Capture NX.

The selection brush tool allows you to selectively apply effects and enhancements. You can do the same in Photoshop using layers and layer masks, but the selection brush tool in Capture NX is more intuitive and doesn’t require users to master the concept of layers and layer masks.

The selection brush tool is highlighted with a red circle in the screen capture shown above. Next to the brush icon, you can see a small “+” button and a small “-” button. These are the two modes the selection brush can work in. In the plus “+” mode, the brush will allow you to paint in the effect you have previously applied to the entire image. In the minus “-” mode, the brush will allow you to remove the previously applied effect from where you paint over with the brush. Confused a little bit? Don’t worry. It is actually much easier than it sounds. Read More…