RAW Opening and Printing: Hello Photography Friends: I have a new Nikon and for the first time have the ability to take RAW photos. However, I do not have a program on my computer to...

jimpitt

Hello Photography Friends:
I have a new Nikon and for the first time have the ability to take RAW photos. However, I do not have a program on my computer to open and/ or print. What is out there that I can install. Thanks.

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

jimpitt wrote:

Hello Photography Friends:
I have a new Nikon and for the first time have the ability to take RAW photos. However, I do not have a program on my computer to open and/ or print. What is out there that I can install. Thanks.

There should be a program that came with the camera for that. At least that is the case with Canon cameras.

Mike

Ron 717 Loc: Pennsylvania

You should have received ViewNX with your camera, It's a decent program to use. You might want to look into Lightroom 5 either as a stand alone or Creative Cloud 2014 as a 9.99 a month which includes LightRoom and Photoshop.

FredB Loc: A little below the Mason-Dixon line.

Remember, you will rarely, if ever, want to print a raw image that hasn't been processed and converted to JPEG. Raw images will look pretty bad until they've been sharpened, had contrast and saturation adjusted, and had all the myriad other little tweaks and twists done to them that you really need to do.

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

FredB wrote:

Remember, you will rarely, if ever, want to print a raw image that hasn't been processed and converted to JPEG.

Or export as a TIFF.

Mike

RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

jimpitt wrote:

Hello Photography Friends:
I have a new Nikon and for the first time have the ability to take RAW photos. However, I do not have a program on my computer to open and/ or print. What is out there that I can install. Thanks.

You can do your basic processing in ViewNX D and export as TIFF or JPEG for printing. For all you need to know about post processing programs, check the Post Processing Forum.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

jimpitt wrote:

Hello Photography Friends:
I have a new Nikon and for the first time have the ability to take RAW photos. However, I do not have a program on my computer to open and/ or print. What is out there that I can install. Thanks.

While VIEW NX-2 will work for sure, CAPTURE NX-D is the newest version, but from what I saw the speed is terrible though....maybe version 2.0?

There are other raw editing programs out there....

Lightroom 5.6 CC bundle @9.99 per month gets you Lightroom, Photoshop and Bridge.

Raw Therapee - Free
Darkroom - Free
Gimp - Free
Lightzone - Free

Among others....

Mr PC Loc: Austin, TX

Lightroom 5 or the free Picasa program from Google will both work with Nikon NEF files. I favor Lightroom for RAW and do minor tweaks on JPGs before emailing them or posting them on the web in Picasa.

amehta Loc: Boston

jimpitt wrote:

Hello Photography Friends:
I have a new Nikon and for the first time have the ability to take RAW photos. However, I do not have a program on my computer to open and/ or print. What is out there that I can install. Thanks.

You have several easy, free options:
1. Use Instant JPEG From Raw to extract the embedded jpeg and view/share that file.
2. Use View NX2 or Capture NX-D to convert the nef files to jpeg or tiff using the camera settings from when you took the photo.
3. If you are using a PC, use programs like FastStone Image Viewer or IrfanView to do simple post processing. Picasa is another free program which many like.
4. Shoot "raw+jpeg", use the jpegs for most things and use the nef files for when you want to do more advanced editing with programs like Capture NX-D, Lightroom, PS Elements, etc.

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

amehta wrote:

3. If you are using a PC, use programs like FastStone Image Viewer . . .

I use FastStone Image Viewer to edit my raw files (NEF) to either JPG or TIFF image files.

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

Nikonian72 wrote:

I use FastStone Image Viewer to edit my raw files (NEF) to either JPG or TIFF image files.

What adjustments are best done in the first step (Capture NX-D or FastStone, etc.) and which in the second (Photoshop for example)? I have been searching this topic here all night and I think I read a description of your workflow somewhere earlier but I can't find it now.

If you export a TIFF from FastStone without making any adjustments and then work on it in Photoshop, have you lost any latitude for adjustments, have you painted yourself into a corner in any way?

Mike

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

Blenheim Orange wrote:

What adjustments are best done in the first step (Capture NX-D or FastStone, etc.) and which in the second (Photoshop for example)?

I use FastStone Image Viewer. Under Colors tab: I select Adjust Colors.
Here I adjust "Brightness", "Contrast", and "Saturation" (20% is my norm).
Then I select "Sharpen" (15% is my norm). Currently, that is all I do with FastStone.
I like other programs for cropping and other tweaks.

amehta Loc: Boston

Blenheim Orange wrote:

What adjustments are best done in the first step (Capture NX-D or FastStone, etc.) and which in the second (Photoshop for example)? I have been searching this topic here all night and I think I read a description of your workflow somewhere earlier but I can't find it now.

If you export a TIFF from FastStone without making any adjustments and then work on it in Photoshop, have you lost any latitude for adjustments, have you painted yourself into a corner in any way?

Mike

I think some adjustments like color adjustments and lens distortion corrections should be made during the raw conversion. Changing white balance on an exported tiff file, for example, is not as good as doing it on the raw file, because then the colors are being changed twice. Similarly, the raw conversion is interpolating to create the RGB image, and fixing lens distortion would be best done during that interpolation.

amehta Loc: Boston

Nikonian72 wrote:

I like other programs for cropping and other tweaks.

That's interesting. Between FastStone, Lightroom, and DxO Optics Pro, FastStone is my preferred tool for cropping.

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

amehta wrote:

That's interesting. Between FastStone, Lightroom, and DxO Optics Pro, FastStone is my preferred tool for cropping.

When I crop with FastStone, it does not enlarge to new parameters, and it is difficult to "back-up". I like to crop with Picasa, because it elarges new crop, and has a "re-crop" button that moves back one step, allowing a slight adjustment of parameters. I find this quite helpful for cropping macro-photographs.