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Real World Nikon Capture NX 2

Real World Nikon Capture NX 2

by Ben Long
Publisher: Peachpit Press
Release Date: October 2008
ISBN: 9780321602534
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Book Description

Capture NX 2 from Nikon is a powerful image-editing application that lets photographers work with digital photographs with more speed and efficiency than other software programs. Its underlying technology gives photographers the ability to make selective corrections to an image with just one click. "Real World Capture NX 2," written by digital photography expert Ben Long, takes photographers behind the scenes to see how this innovative program works.  Along the way, Ben offers valuable tips and techniques for getting the most out of the software and digital cameras.

Novice and expert photographers alike will benefit from Capture NX 2. New users can make advanced image corrections without learning sophisticated masking techniques. Advanced users can perform the complex edits they are accustomed to making in other programs in fewer steps. Any image corrections made with Capture NX 2 are non-destructive, which means that the actual image data is unaltered and reversible until the photographer achieves the best results. Photographers who use Nikon cameras have access to special software features for working with raw, JPEG and TIFF images.

Table of Contents

  1. Copyright
  2. Introduction
    1. It’s the Software, Stupid—and the Hardware
    2. U Point—Unique Editing
    3. What’s New in NX 2
    4. How This Book Is Organized
  3. One. Installation, Interface, and Importing
    1. Installation
    2. Interface Overview
      1. Tool Palettes
        1. Browser
        2. Folders
        3. Metadata
        4. Editing palettes
        5. Keyboard shortcuts
    3. Importing
      1. Mac OS
      2. Windows
      3. Organizing your image files
      4. Browser organization
      5. Creating new folders in the Browser
      6. Renaming files in the Browser
      7. Moving files within the Browser
      8. Copying files within the Browser
      9. Importing with Nikon Transfer
        1. The Nikon Transfer interface
        2. Adding IPTC metadata
        3. Defining destinations
        4. Preferences
    4. Getting More Help
  4. Two. Workflow, the Browser, and Color Management
    1. Basic Workflows
      1. Importing/Organizing
      2. Adding Metadata
      3. Choosing Selects—Rating Your Images
      4. Editing and Output
      5. Archiving
    2. Advanced Workflows
      1. Using Capture NX with non-Nikon raw files
      2. Adding Capture NX to a Photoshop workflow
      3. Workflow Summary
    3. The Capture NX Browser
      1. Metadata
        1. Adding Metadata to multiple images
        2. Metadata categories
        3. Adding copyright
        4. Adding keywords
        5. Copying metadata from one image to another
        6. Using metadata templates
      2. Rotating Thumbnails
      3. Changing Thumbnail Size
      4. Thumbnail Badges
      5. Comparing Images
      6. Rating Your Images
        1. Rating strategy
      7. Labeling Your Images
      8. Filtering Your Images
      9. Sorting Images
      10. Replacing the Capture NX Browser
    4. Color Management
      1. Color Management Basics
        1. Color systems
        2. Profiles
        3. Not a magic bullet
      2. Profiling Your Monitor
        1. Software profiling on the Mac
        2. Software profiling on Windows
        3. Hardware profiling
        4. Profiles and viewing conditions
      3. Printer Profiling
        1. Installing printer profiles on the Mac
        2. Installing printer profiles on Windows
      4. Color Spaces
      5. Color Management in Capture NX
  5. Three. Basic Image Editing
    1. Understanding Nondestructive Editing
    2. Opening Images
      1. Opening with the Browser
      2. The Open Image Command
      3. Open Recent
      4. The Welcome Dialog Box
      5. Opening from Your OS
    3. Image-Editing Workflow
    4. Zooming and Panning Your Image
      1. Zooming and Panning with the Keyboard
    5. The Capture NX Edit List
      1. Anatomy of the Edit List
        1. The Develop pane
        2. The Adjust pane
        3. Additional controls
        4. Deleting an Edit step
        5. Changing the type of edit
        6. Opacity
        7. Resetting an edit to its default parameters
    6. Geometric Adjustments
      1. Rotate
      2. Straighten
      3. Crop
        1. Crop options
      4. Flipping
      5. Distortion Control
      6. Keeping All Edit Steps Active
    7. Initial Retouching
      1. Correcting Color Aberrations
      2. Red Eye Correction
      3. The Auto Retouch Brush
      4. Moving On to Tone and Color
    8. Histogram 101
      1. Contrasty Histograms
      2. Capture NX’s Histogram Displays
    9. Adjusting Tone and Contrast
      1. Quick Fix
        1. Adjusting black point and white point
        2. Adjusting the midpoint
        3. Reading the curve
        4. Decreasing contrast
        5. Adjusting curves
          1. More Levels & Curves
        6. Exposure Compensation
        7. Contrast
        8. Highlight Protection
        9. Shadow Protection
        10. Saturation
      2. Adjustments
        1. Auto Levels
        2. Correcting color casts
      3. Contrast/Brightness
      4. D-Lighting
      5. Levels & Curves
        1. Adjusting individual channels
        2. Levels & Curves eyedroppers
      6. LCH
    10. Color Correction
      1. LCH Revisited
        1. Color Lightness controls
        2. Chroma
        3. Hue
      2. Color Balance
      3. Color Booster
      4. Saturation/Warmth
    11. Saving Files
      1. Working on a JPEG or TIFF File
      2. Working on a Raw File
      3. NEF Options
      4. JPEG Options
      5. TIFF Options
  6. Four. Working with Raw Files
    1. What Is Raw, and Why Should You Use It?
      1. How Your Digital Camera Creates an Image
        1. How a digital camera sees
        2. Mixing a batch of color
      2. Digital Image Composition
      3. How Your Camera Makes a JPEG Image
        1. Demosaicing
        2. Colorimetric interpretation
        3. Color space
        4. White balance
        5. Gamma, contrast, and color adjustments
        6. Noise reduction and sharpening
        7. Eight-bit conversion
        8. JPEG compression
        9. File storage
      4. How Your Camera Makes a Raw Image
        1. Demosaicing
        2. Colorimetric interpretation
        3. Color space
        4. White balance
        5. Gamma, contrast, and color adjustments
        6. Noise reduction and sharpening
        7. Eight-bit conversion
        8. File storage
      5. Raw Concerns
        1. Storage
        2. Workflow
        3. Shooting performance
      6. Raw Advantages
    2. Processing Raw Images
      1. What Happens When You Open a Raw File
      2. The Camera Settings Edit
        1. White Balance
        2. Picture Control
          1. Managing Picture Control
        3. Non-Picture Control
        4. Noise Reduction
      3. Quick Fix and Raw
        1. Exposure Compensation
        2. Highlight recovery
        3. Highlight Protection and raw images
        4. Highlight recovery and workflow
      4. Color Correction
      5. Camera & Lens Corrections
        1. Color moiré reduction
        2. Image dust off
        3. Vignette control
    3. Saving Raw Files
  7. Five. Advanced Image Editing
    1. Workspaces
      1. Defining Your Own Workspaces
        1. Managing workspaces you’ve created
    2. Screen Modes
      1. Full Screen Mode
      2. Presentation Mode
    3. Photo Filters
      1. Photo Effects
      2. Add Grain/Noise
      3. Contrast: Color Range
      4. Colorize
      5. Black and White Conversion
      6. Installing Additional Filters
    4. Knowing How Far to Push an Edit
    5. Changing Color Space
    6. Control Points
      1. Tonal Control Points
        1. Neutral Control Point
        2. White Control Point
        3. Black Control Point
      2. Color Control Point
        1. Using multiple Color Control Points
        2. Other Color Control Point settings
    7. Selection Controls
      1. Selectively Applying an Effect
        1. Brush options
        2. Selection options
        3. Gradient selections
        4. Brush control and combining selections
        5. Fill selections
      2. Selection Control Points
      3. Using the Same Selection with Multiple Edits
      4. The Lasso and Marquee Tools
    8. Dodging and Burning
      1. Facial Retouching
    9. Additional Adjustments
      1. Gaussian Blur
      2. High Pass
      3. Noise Reduction
  8. Six. Version Control and Batch Processing
    1. Version Control
      1. Nondestructive Versions
      2. Creating a New Version
    2. Copying and Moving Settings
    3. Batch Processing
      1. Saving Adjustments
      2. Loading Adjustments
      3. Managing Settings
      4. Batch Processing
        1. Choosing a source
        2. Selecting settings to apply
        3. Renaming
        4. Format and destination
        5. Run the batch process
      5. Watched Folder
      6. Prepping for Output
  9. Seven. Output
    1. Resizing
      1. Changing the resolution of an image
      2. Changing the number of pixels in an image
      3. Resizing an image for print
      4. Resizing an image for the Web or email
      5. How much can you upsample?
      6. Fit Photo
    2. Sharpening
    3. Outputting Electronic Files
      1. Saving for the Web or Email
      2. Quick Web Preview
      3. Saving for a Print Workflow
      4. Batch Preparing for Print
      5. Saving for Use in Another Image Editor
    4. Printing
      1. Printing a Contact Sheet
      2. Printing an Individual Image
      3. Printing a Batch of Images
      4. Color Managed Printing
        1. Installing printer profiles
        2. Color management workflow
        3. Activating onscreen proofing
        4. Printing
        5. Improving soft proofing accuracy
      5. Printer-Controlled Color
    5. Backup and Archiving
    6. Where to Go from Here