Nikon Capture NX2 question

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Hi all,
I've been reading the manual and Quick Start guide, and checked out the tutorials, and I'm banging my head against the wall. I can't find the answer; hopefully someone here can help.
When I open my NEF RAW files in NX2, it looks like a negative! I can't for the life of me figure out how to get it to look like the JPEG (I always shoot RAW+JPEG fine) so that I can actually start working on it. Can anyone help?
Thanks! I would really appreciate it!

 

[dmccarty]

Try to reset the workspace, Window->Reset Workspace.

If that does not work, edit a photo and in the Edit List on the right side of NX2, uncheck the boxes for Camera Settings, Quick Fix, and Camera & Lens Connections and see if that makes any changes.

There is also Highlight Protection Tool, Shift+H that could make the photo look like a negative. Try toggling it and see what happens. This is a very useful tool by the way. This might actually be your problem.

If you are going to use NX2 go ASAP. Now. Not later. NOW. And buy Ben Long's "Capture NX 2" which is physical book AND Jason Odell's "The Photographer's Guide to Capture NX 2" Odell's books is PDF file not a physical book. He also sells viewlets that match his book. Buy them as well. Sometimes you just have to see the software being used to understand the concept. I had discovered a good bit of how to use NX2 without the books. Reading the books opened up so many more possibilities. There was SO much more I could get out of the photos I had taken.

Later,
Dan

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Try to reset the workspace, Window->Reset Workspace.

If that does not work, edit a photo and in the Edit List on the right side of NX2, uncheck the boxes for Camera Settings, Quick Fix, and Camera & Lens Connections and see if that makes any changes.

There is also Highlight Protection Tool, Shift+H that could make the photo look like a negative. Try toggling it and see what happens. This is a very useful tool by the way. This might actually be your problem.

If you are going to use NX2 go ASAP. Now. Not later. NOW. And buy Ben Long's "Capture NX 2" which is physical book AND Jason Odell's "The Photographer's Guide to Capture NX 2" Odell's books is PDF file not a physical book. He also sells viewlets that match his book. Buy them as well. Sometimes you just have to see the software being used to understand the concept. I had discovered a good bit of how to use NX2 without the books. Reading the books opened up so many more possibilities. There was SO much more I could get out of the photos I had taken.

Later,
Dan

Thanks. I did everything you said, and it didn't work. It still looks like a negative. The strange thing is that I tried other RAW files that I previously opened with PSCS3 and they opened fine. The reason I am trying NX2 is because I thought my PSCS3 was buggy and wouldn't open these files. I would get a pop up saying that PSCS3 couldn't open it because it is the wrong type if file. Now in NX2, I can open them but all I see is something that looks like a negative. I had been told previously that the issue was something to do withAdobe Camera RAW and that the D90 didn't exist when CS3 was made and to download the update, which I did. It still didn't work correctly. Now I am wondering if it's something wrong with my camera and if anyone else has experienced this problem. The files say they are NEF files and average 11mbs each. So how is it that there's is no data to open when I open it? I don't get it.
I really need to be able to open/edit these files. They are for a friends CD cover. I don't want to edit the JPEgs because they will get smaller and smaller and I am guessing the files size would be unusable for say a poster for example. I really appreciate any ideas or help.
Thanks. I read before where someone mentioned editing the JPEGs and saving them as NEFs. Was it YesDear? I wonder if I then turn around and save it as a JPEG will it be smaller than the original JPEG and even more compressed?
Anyway, if anyone has any more info on that or help with this other issue, I'd appreciate it.

 

[dmccarty]

I take it you have a D90.

I would THINK that NX 2 could handle the D90 but you should check. And verify that you have the latest NX 2 updates. I wonder if the version of NX 2 supports the D90. I could have sworn I have seen a list of supported cameras but I can't find it in Long or Odell's books or in the Nikon docs but maybe I missed it.

Have you saved the NEF files in PSCS3? I wonder if that is why NX 2 can't read the files. I am really guessing at this point.

A better place to ask these kinds of questions would be www.photo.net in the Digital Darkroom section. I just found a NX 2 group in Flickr but they might be able to help as well, http://www.flickr.com/groups/capturenx/

Later,
Dan

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

I take it you have a D90.

I would THINK that NX 2 could handle the D90 but you should check. And verify that you have the latest NX 2 updates. I wonder if the version of NX 2 supports the D90. I could have sworn I have seen a list of supported cameras but I can't find it in Long or Odell's books or in the Nikon docs but maybe I missed it.

Have you saved the NEF files in PSCS3? I wonder if that is why NX 2 can't read the files. I am really guessing at this point.

A better place to ask these kinds of questions would be www.photo.net in the Digital Darkroom section. I just found a NX 2 group in Flickr but they might be able to help as well, http://www.flickr.com/groups/capturenx/

Later,
Dan

Thanks for your help. Yes I have D90 and interestingly, on all the Nikon documents I've seen, including the manuals, it doesn't say that NX2 supports the D90. I assumed it did because it's the newest software they have and it does support the D300 and D80. No I actually saved them with Nikon Picture Project which I had from when I had my D80. I am copying over my pics to an external HD and will dump PP since it's old, and will install the software that came with my D90. Maybe it's an importation software issue. I hope that's what it is because I still have the originals on my SD card. I read online that I people with newer DSLRs shouldn't be using the old software, (duh!)for
obvious reasons. I hope that's what it is. n the meantime, I'll go check out those sites you posted. Thanks again!

 

[dmccarty]

The latest NX 2 is 2.2. I need to upgrade since I am at 2.1. Maybe you need to upgrade to 2.2?

It might be my imagination but it does seem like there was an issue with NX 2 supporting the D90 but I could not find any info one way or the other.

Later,
Dan

 

[NostalgicDad]

The latest NX 2 is 2.2. I need to upgrade since I am at 2.1. Maybe you need to upgrade to 2.2?

It might be my imagination but it does seem like there was an issue with NX 2 supporting the D90 but I could not find any info one way or the other.

Later,
Dan

Absolutely need to get the latest update to support the D90 on NX2.....

http://support.nikontech.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/61#Anchor-2

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

The latest NX 2 is 2.2. I need to upgrade since I am at 2.1. Maybe you need to upgrade to 2.2?
It might be my imagination but it does seem like there was an issue with NX 2 supporting the D90 but I could not find any info one way or the other.
Later,
Dan

Thanks dmccarty! I was able to view the wacky NEF files after I loaded in Nikon Transfer. I uploaded my files from there and it works now!

Absolutely need to get the latest update to support the D90 on NX2.....
http://support.nikontech.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/61#Anchor-2

Hi Danny, Thanks for that link. I am only using the 60 day trial, will it still allow me to upgrade the software?

On a side note, I have to say that for me, NX2 is a memory hog! OMG, my computer is slow while running it. However, I LOVE this software! It's a perfect fit for people using Nikons and it's so intuitive! Awesome color representations! I love how you can edit just one area of the RAW file without having color cast problems throughout the rest of the photo. I love it! This one is definitely a keeper. Thank God for online Tutorials!

 

[dmccarty]

You can download the 2.2 version and get the 60 trial. I downloaded the latest version yesterday. For some reason it did not do an upgrade but instead removed my 2.1 version and installed 2.2. After it was installed I had to renter my key.

Running as the 60 trial was on the 2.2 install.

Glad its working now. I really like NX 2. It has its quirks but I don't think its any worse than other software. I looked at 3-6 different photo slide show programs a few months back and NX 2 had most of them beat for usability.

I am running NX 2 on Vista 64 bit which is not supported but it runs just fine. The system has 4 GB of memory and with NX 2 running, browsers, Open Office, and a little of this and that memory is around 2.5GB. I have seldom seen the CPU cores pegged at 100%. They usually are max out at 30%. My IMPRESSION is that NX 2 besides needing some RAM really chews up disk space during processing. Reads and especially writes seem to take awhile. NX 2.2 is supposed to have improved batch performance. Maybe it will help increase the speed of saves. I am half seriously thinking of buying a SSD drive to hold photos that are being processed.

Go get the books I referenced early. They were tremendously helpful. I think Long had a book out for NX and I wish I had bought it when I bought NX a year or two back.

The books allowed me to fix what I thought were useless photos.

Later,
Dan

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

You can download the 2.2 version and get the 60 trial. I downloaded the latest version yesterday. For some reason it did not do an upgrade but instead removed my 2.1 version and installed 2.2. After it was installed I had to renter my key.

Running as the 60 trial was on the 2.2 install.

Glad its working now. I really like NX 2. It has its quirks but I don't think its any worse than other software. I looked at 3-6 different photo slide show programs a few months back and NX 2 had most of them beat for usability.

I am running NX 2 on Vista 64 bit which is not supported but it runs just fine. The system has 4 GB of memory and with NX 2 running, browsers, Open Office, and a little of this and that memory is around 2.5GB. I have seldom seen the CPU cores pegged at 100%. They usually are max out at 30%. My IMPRESSION is that NX 2 besides needing some RAM really chews up disk space during processing. Reads and especially writes seem to take awhile. NX 2.2 is supposed to have improved batch performance. Maybe it will help increase the speed of saves. I am half seriously thinking of buying a SSD drive to hold photos that are being processed.

Go get the books I referenced early. They were tremendously helpful. I think Long had a book out for NX and I wish I had bought it when I bought NX a year or two back.

The books allowed me to fix what I thought were useless photos.

Later,
Dan

Thanks for all that info! I'm going to definitely get the books. One quick question: Do you do noise reduction using the NX2 software or do you use an external NR software like Noiseware Community or Nose Ninja?

 

[YesDear]

My basic workflow is to do most of the fixing in NX2. If I am going to print it, I will usually run it through CS3 and run noise ninja if it needs it. I will do final sizing in CS3 as well and any borders etc.

 

[NostalgicDad]

I haven't been real happy with the NR in NX2 but I also haven't tried to work it into my workflow like I probably should either. There are different schools of thought as to what step in NX2 you should apply NR. Some prefer at the beginning, some prefer at the end. So, I typically just run it through Noise Ninja if it needs it after converting from NEF to JPG in NX2.

The one thing in NX2 that really slows down the save process is NR. My pc is a dual core AMD with 8GB RAM on Vista Ultimate 64 bit. Version 2.2 definitely improved the batch processing speeds, but I still experience a bit of slowness if NR is applied to an image. Other than that, it runs like a charm compared to the older versions. You can also play with the cache settings in the preferences. I actually have it disabled for image editing, and that also made a bit of a performance improvement.