Dave Hartley

Recently, my wife was using Capture NX (1.3.3) to process a Nikon NEF file. After modifying various parameters, she did a “File -> Open with…” to export the file into Photoshop. This will render the file as a TIFF and automatically pass it to Photoshop. Normally this works fine, but this time, when Photoshop opened, instead of showing the image, the Adobe Camera RAW window popped up. This should not have happened. Somehow, the Adobe preferences had got screwed up (from my experience, corruption of Adobe preferences can randomly occur). To resolve this issue, open Adobe Bridge CS3, go to the Bridge CS3 menu and select “Camera RAW Preferences…”. At the bottom you will see JPEG and TIFF Handling. If these boxes are ticked, then Photoshop will use Adobe Camera RAW when you select a JPEG or TIFF file. In our case, these preferences were somehow enabled, and hence when we exported from Capture NX to Photoshop, it automatically went through Adobe Camera RAW. To prevent, this, simply ensure these boxes are un-checked.

Previously, when processing my raw files, I would look at the image and depending upon whether there was a predominance of red or blue I would pick either Nikon Capture NX (for reds) or Adobe Lightroom (for blues). The color of the reds I was obtaining using Adobe Raw converters was always below par, whereas the Nikon Capture NX software would give me the vibrant reds I was expecting.

With the release of Lightoom 2.0, Adobe has also introduced beta versions of it’s new camera profiles. These can be downloaded from the Adobe Labs website. Now, when I use the develop module, I can go to the camera calibration panel and select the camera profile . This mimics the various color modes that Nikon Capture NX supports. The images below show a Ring-necked Pheasant that was taken at sunrise; hence, I had some beautiful golden light. On the left hand side is the standard conversion in Lightroom using ACR 3.1; the reds and browns are really poor. The middle uses the new camera calibration with the camera profile set to D2X Mode 3 beta 1; the reds and browns are much more vibrant. Finally, the right hand image shows the output from Nikon Capture NX; this has great reds and browns. You can click on the image to get a larger view

With the new camera profiles, I’m not sure whether I need to go to Nikon Capture NX anymore, as now I can get great reds directly from Lightroom. This will greatly ease my work flow.