Nikon Capture NX2 Highlight Recovery and HSL INFO

[Jay Sheinfield]

This image was originally posted in Avian. Jay kindly answered a few questions that I had about Nikon Capture NX2. I have deleted several non-relevant comments below.

Thanks a ton Jay.

later and love, artie......... Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

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Might have had a bit more DOF............I tried unsuccessfully to open the black on the wings.
Some remains of seed in his mouth, I left in. Otherwise, her he is ....................

Comments welcome....

Nikon D3s
ISO 800
1/1250 sec @f/5.6
560mm

[Arthur Morris]

Sharp with a nice basic COMP. Yellows are a bit on the dark and muddy side. Simply lightening the image would help. How are you converting your RAW files?

ps: me bad. I had neglected to adjust the angle of my laptop monitor. The yellows look much better now :o

[Arthur Morris]

Art, I'm a Nikon shooter. I have tried ACR but, got some advise from the BPN discussion forum to stick to Nikon Capture NX2 for my RAW conversion. Thanks folks...............Jay

Thanks Jay. That is one that I am not familiar with. Try to find if Hue/Saturation/Luminance adjustments for the individual colors are available. Also, we would appreciate learning how you recover the highlights in NX2.

[Jay Sheinfield]

Thanks Jay. That is one that I am not familiar with. Try to find if Hue/Saturation/Luminance adjustments for the individual colors are available. Also, we would appreciate learning how you recover the highlights in NX2.

Art,

There are a few ways to deal with specific color adjustments in NX2. I occasionally use the function LCH (Light Color Hue) where global or color specific adjustments can be applied. As in all NX2 functions, selections can be made in a variety of ways, but I use an ink dropper to select a specific color for adjustment. There is also an NX2 integrated NIK function called Color Control Point (resembles Viveza Control Point pluggin in PS) which enables various HSL functions based on control point selection.

Recovering Highlights is done through a Highlight Protection slider available in the Quick Fix pallet in NX2. Shadow protection slider recovers details in shadows. There is an additional shadow recovery function called D-lighting which works quite nicely in some cases.
There is a slick view of the Histogram called Double Threshold that shows all blown highlights and lost shadows in the image (I haven't use this much).

I use NX2 generally for RAW conversion, unless there is an exposure problem needing correction, where it excels. Otherwise I convert to .TIF and use PS.

I am still new to digital photography, so I'm sure there are other Nikon shooters that can chime in...........

Cheers, Jay

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Jay, You have written a short but very fine tutorial. I will copy it to the ER now.

[Nancy A Elwood]

Art,

There are a few ways to deal with specific color adjustments in NX2. I occasionally use the function LCH (Light Color Hue) where global or color specific adjustments can be applied. As in all NX2 functions, selections can be made in a variety of ways, but I use an ink dropper to select a specific color for adjustment. There is also an NX2 integrated NIK function called Color Control Point (resembles Viveza Control Point pluggin in PS) which enables various HSL functions based on control point selection.

Recovering Highlights is done through a Highlight Protection slider available in the Quick Fix pallet in NX2. Shadow protection slider recovers details in shadows. There is an additional shadow recovery function called D-lighting which works quite nicely in some cases.
There is a slick view of the Histogram called Double Threshold that shows all blown highlights and lost shadows in the image (I haven't use this much).

I use NX2 generally for RAW conversion, unless there is an exposure problem needing correction, where it excels. Otherwise I convert to .TIF and use PS.

I am still new to digital photography, so I'm sure there are other Nikon shooters that can chime in...........

Cheers, Jay

Jay, you are right, those sliders work wanders with Nikon NEF's. Also, I always go to the top menu, view and click on lost shadows and the lost hightlights. Those show you excactly what color or colors are hot and what shadows might need opening. I always use NX2 for my RAW post processing, and as you Save As a 16- bit Tiff for any further work in CS5.

[Jon Saperia]

I have been using NX2 for about two years, just a bit shorter that I have been taking Avian pictures. I prefer it for all the known reasons. That said, I have found sometimes that the shadow protection and highlight recovery do not get me exactly the result I want and I use the Curves sub function of the LCH function noted above and can occasionally get a more pleasing result than with the standard recovery functions. Also as others have pointed out, you can apply this so selected areas of the photo pretty conveniently while still working with the raw file.