What app should I use to 'develop' Nikon d70s .NEF files?

August 8, 2006 11:59 AM

Adobe Photoshop CS2 or CaptureOne PRO? Or...

What software package should I use to open and 'develop' images from my Nikon d70s? I've seen this question, but it mostly focuses on RAW vs. JPEG. I'd like to know if either Photoshop or CaptureOne are inherantly better at manipulating .NEF files -- ie is there one algorithm or many? -- whether one package is better with some image types and not others. In other words, what are the pros and cons of both packages?

Thanks!

posted by docgonzo to sports, hobbies, & recreation (10 comments total)

CaptureOne is a bit better, IMHO, for straight developing of RAW if only because it handles WB below 2000K. Photoshop (and the Adobe Camera RAW plugin) is a much better general application that can do SO MUCH MORE than CaptureOne. Photoshop has worse batch utilities but the fact that you can airbrush stray objects out of a frame instead of just cropping is a big plus.
posted by jedrek at 12:03 PM on August 8, 2006

Are you on a Mac? Now that I understand Aperture's workflow thanks to a training video on their site, I'm very, very taken with it.
posted by bonaldi at 12:21 PM on August 8, 2006

I am -- a 12-inch G4 PowerBook now, hopefully a MacBook Pro in September.
posted by docgonzo at 12:29 PM on August 8, 2006

Try Lightroom as well, it's free right now and I'm willing to put money on it being cheap as hell or part of CS3 when it's ready for prime time.
posted by jedrek at 12:33 PM on August 8, 2006

i second aperture, after i watched those training vids it helped so much cant work without it now!
posted by moochoo at 12:44 PM on August 8, 2006

Note that Lightroom is a HUGE resource hog. It's crazy. At least on the PC.
posted by antifuse at 12:47 PM on August 8, 2006

I'm digging Aperture as well
posted by neilkod at 12:54 PM on August 8, 2006

Lightroom is super slow compared to Aperture. I would second the pro-Aperture sentiments. For pure photo editing it's great. I've read that Photoshop does slightly better RAW conversions, but I'd rather sacrifice a little image quality for better workflow.

Also, since you're getting an MBP in September, you should know that Aperture is native while Photoshop is not and won't be till sometime next year. (Lightroom is also a Universal Binary, but again, it's super slow.)
posted by lunarboy at 12:56 PM on August 8, 2006

Personally, I use a combination of Nikon Capture 4 and Adobe Phososhop CS.

Quick description of my workflow for 99% of my NEF's:

1. Edit basic RAW in Nikon capture. This includes exposure compensation, Nikon color mode (a big reason I like Nikon Capture - no other prog seems to do this right), basic contrast and saturation, vignette filter, etc. Note: You can use the copy/paste edit settings feature to really speed up this process, since 90% of photos from 1 shoot will need the same tweaks.

2. Save original NEF file to update my RAW edits and serve as archive masters. Then Save As (export) 8-bit TIFF file for Photoshop edits and to serve as future editing masters

3. Open 8-bit TIFF in Photoshop. Crop, additional contrast/levels tweaks, apply any unsharp masking (sharpening), and noise removal. Advanced edits if necessary. Save TIFF.

4. Run a batch to convert every TIFF's color mode to Photoshop's working colorspace (sRGB). Save as JPEG, maximum quality, full size.

(5.) Optional - Run a batch to resize JPEGs for the web and save as copies.

Of course all these batches are tweaked per my preferences and I have a very organized folder structure for all of this. Also note that rarely do I perform this process step-by-step on each image. Usually I'll come back from a shoot, download my NEFs, and do each step on EVERY image before going to the next step.

For example, if I have 100 images from a shoot last weekend, I'll download them, perform Step 1 to every image (NEF edit in Nikon Capture), that way I don't have to jump between programs. It's really very fast and efficient when you get into it, because you're performing virtually the same (or very similar) edits to most of the images from one shoot. I can go through a day's worth of photos much quicker than I can with any other method/app I've tried, and it's extremely powerful since I have a master image for every step of the way.
posted by sprocket87 at 1:37 PM on August 8, 2006

My vote is for Nikon Capture and Photoshop CS2. Aperture's conversions are still lousy compared to Capture and even ACR. Capture One produces excellent conversions but nothing better than Nikon Capture and it will set you back $499 for a full version.

With that said, I probably produce somewhere in the neighborhood of 10k-30k raw files a month and I convert almost every one of them with ACR. Occasionally I'll turn to Canon's DPP as I'm a Canon shooter but almost never.
posted by photoslob at 3:37 PM on August 8, 2006