hey peeps, I had to do my CaptureNX tute allover again, as I had made up one way back on '06 and it got vaporised when the server had a crash a while back. No mind.. It needed a bit of an update anyhow.
I've been using CNX since it first came out, and immediately upgraded from Nikon Capture.
I first had PSP7(or 6) to begin with at the very start, but was given a copy of PSv something by a family member that had upgraded to a newer version. So I started using both Nikon Capture(totally different to CNX software) and PS at about the same time.
AND! no prior background with any image editing software, before I had to start a journey on image editing.

First things first.. I found PS to be a convoluted POS! trying to do anything of importance.. like cropping may be easy once you learn how to do it.. but up til that point it's about making too many mistakes before hitting the downhill run. PSP(paint shop pro!!) and Nikon Capture were miles ahead in that respect. And that respect was from a noobs perspective!
PS may be a technical tour de force, but you needed to have the force with you, to make any use of it(to begin with). I get frustrated easily and PS sat idle for many years at a time, only occasionally coming out for cloning/healing work.

So with that small bit of background I make no apologies for my dislike of PS and how much easier and quicker it is for me to edit photos using CaptureNX.

Of course CNX does have a few serious limitations, but at the price difference it's really kind of acceptable too based on price.
(All comments about serious limitation in CNX will be highlighted in red, like that)
At 1/5 of the price you get far more(for photo editing!!) that 1/5th of the product.
have I mentioned how PS is a piece of...!
So LR cost close to 3x the price as a download. I got my boxed upgrade for approx $100.
Had I known that Nikon were to give away v1 of CaptureNX with every D300/D3 back then, I wouldn't have bought my copy! .. oh well!
The moral of the story is that CaptureNX is dirt cheap compared to other software.

Other software of importance is ViewNX.
Now as I only deal with Nikon NEF files, any other branded raw file users can just sit back and watch(only!!)

I'm going to start with ViewNX which can do very basic global processing work.
If you use LR for your images simply to do global exposure compensations and highlight/shadow recovery and that's it.. you can also do that with ViewNX.
In a very few way(maybe only 1), ViewNX's batch conversion tool is slightly better than CaptureNX's one. I'll get to that point later. One thing that really annoys me tho is that you can't edit or convert any images that have been processed with CaptureNX, using ViewNX. You know this by the use of a small icon in the ViewNX thumbnail of an image. It has the Nik software Colour Control Point Icon/logo meaning edited by Capture. It'd have been nice if you could at least batch convert the NEF files created by CaptureNX, into jpgs or tiffs using ViewNX.
Sometimes I find that I have a series of images where many don't require the use of CNX, but if one does, I have to convert/resize any NEF's using CNX only. So that means having to stuff about with two programs to do the one job.

Start with ViewNX:


As a basic NEF editor it's ideal.
I like the interface. It's not confusing(like LR is!).
I just don't get the concept of exporting.. sorry! when all other programs use the concept of saving files, adobe need to confuse you with extortion!.... oops 'exportion' or whatever the new trendy name ends up being in the next incarnation (ok! I've stopped ranting again). Save file, save it to where I want. I can upload with a proper upload tool when I want too.. with security measures that I know are safe!.. ok.. ranting again

In VNX you see your thumbs. I have two screens and in saving the screen shot, I didn't realise that it'd save both screens. So I see this, the main thumbnail screen and my loupe on my secondary monitor. If you have this setup, with an image active(clicked), wherever the mouse is on that loupe view, if you hit the Shift key it gives you instant 100% view. Good for deciding which image is sharp or not. As you quickly navigate though your thumbnails, hit the numerical keys to give the image a rating. The rating Nikon use can be made to coincide with Adobe ratings.. but I hate Adobe Hitler, and Adobe should be tortured into submission... to Nikon's much better system! ... Oops, I know I'm ranting again.
My system is that I rate up to 7(look closely and you see a pinkish dot under each thumbnail, that's the numbered system). 7 is more of a purple colour, and stands out more. I use that as my base keeper rating. 99.99% of images rated less than 7 are trashed, eventually. I do have a few 6's but they are so bad they'll never be displayed. They may be images of my kids or something of intrinsic value. Maybe 1 or 2 images over 75K images.. I can afford that. I'll also have a series of of similar/same images, like a birder does when they 'spray and pray'. I then use Ctrl + 1-5 on the number keys to rate them even more detailed. So an 8 means upload to AP and other places, and the star ratings are based only on how each image rates against the others in the series. things like exposure/sharpness/moment of capture/etc... all contribute to the star rating.

I'm not going to go into VNX too much other than; up top is a link to CaptureNX.
easy way to open an image in CNX from there(green arrow).
You can configure VNX to add any other application to it's list of "Open with" dialogue, but you can't add a quicklink to the toolbar(silly!.. but not important).. Only CNX exists.

Other Icon of note is the Geo Tag icon. If you want to share geo information about the image, this takes you to a new page where you get to Google Maps, and you select the location of the image from the maps. This simple feature has delayed the purchase of a GPS for me to tag my NEF's with. I once tried using a tried and tested program to add geo info into an NEF and the NEF got corrupted!.. never again will I do that, on any important images.

..... /2 Starting CaptureNX.