Question about ViewNX2...

[ameerat42]

Well, here I am supposed to be helping a mate who has just started off with an old(er) Nikon D70.

Yes, I got and installed View NX2, pulled in an image he took, and went.... [not very far, actually]
Here is a screen capture but I am using an (apparently free sample) image I downloaded from the Internet because I 4-got to take some with me that he took.

What do you do with ViewNX? How do you do it. I have found some rudimentary adjustments, like rotate, and can convert NEFs to tiffs/jpegs.

What do you Nikoners do?

(Actually I found some better adjustments in Adobe CS2 Camera Raw (or Bridge). Yep, I'm ▬-ed if I can do much with VNX. (Guess I've been spoiled by much-optioned and much-dismissed Sigma Photo Pro.)

Ta, Am.
ViewNX2.jpg

[I @ M]

Expand the red outlined tab to reveal the adjustment list Am

[fillum]

Did you try the help file that comes with the software ("Help" menu on top)? Should be some info there...


Cheers.

[ameerat42]

Fa-o-o-o-lks

(Thanks for that. See below. However, it seems a bit awkward to use... Maybe some practice.)
Am.

ViewNX2Help.jpg

[arthurking83]

As already said.

ViewNX is a free basic(read: rudimentary) way to view and convert NEF files into jpg/tiff files.

As Andrew pointed out, you use the editing pallette on the RHS to set various basic image enhancements.

eg. underneath contrast and brightness are the highlights and shadows control sliders.
if you;ve blown highlights or lost shadows, use these first. Try to keep adjustments to values not too far past about 35(possibly 50 or so).
Any more doesn't seem to do all that much.
If you still need to regain more detail in the shadows or highlights, you could lower contrast by -2 to -5. This minimises any unwanted clipped data, that may lead to inaccurate printing.

To view lost highlights and shadows, you simply press the H(highlights) or S(shadows) keys on the keyboard. Press again to return to normal view.

Set WB, set a Picture Control type to your preference etc, etc.

Immediately underneath the Picture Control type name, is a box labelled 'Launch Utility'.
What this does is to launch a separate sub program that allows you to adjust images via a more intricate slider mechanism.

You adjust this to taste and save the editing as a new Picture Control type, with a new name.
Doing this then saves the new Picture Control to the PC(location unknown) and you can also upload it to the camera to use directly on the camera if you wish.

Modern cameras with Picture Control image enhancements only!!(ie. D70 will not recognise this system).

To use it on older cameras you can only do so via the PC with this Picture Control edit saved.
You can export to also use these Picture Control edits onto other PC's with ViewNX2 or CaptureNX2 installed on them as well.

There are various home brew Picture Control edits availble for download from a few sources .... Nikon proper is one of those sources, if anyone wants more, I should be able to supply the others I've downloaded(they are free).

Think of these as being similar to Lightroom's presets and batch edits.

My main purpose for using ViewNX is to catalogue(keyword) and rank my images.

Easy peasy: in the film strip, your highlighted image appears on the main screen. To view at 100% view momentarily, set the mouse pointer to the important part of the image(say the focus point) hit the Shift key on the keyboard. This is an easy and quick way to view image sharpness at the point of focus. From there, you view other images in a similar manner.
You rate your image according to taste.
Keyboard shortcuts for this are: hit a number between 1-9 for a numeral rating and the image is tagged with a number followed by a colour coded box around it.
(In Am's screen dump, the ratings/colours are shown in the lower left hand corner... 1 (red) - 9 (pink) each number rating has a colour coded box to easily identify them.
To set a star rating, whilst pressing Ctrl, hit any number between 1-5 and this sets a star rating to the image as well.

To zero out any ranking/rating hit the number(s) 0 and the rating is then deleted(not set to a value of 0).

There is a floppy disk icon in the lower RH corner. To save these ratings on the images the save icon needs to be set, else a warning box pops up asking if you want to save the new settings, if you navigate away from the current view.

If you set any ratings for any images, I use numbering for good to bad and the stars for ordering the better ones within a given number ranking.
I use 7 as my base line, where in general less than 7 is deleted. BUT!! I also use the stars to differentiate bad keepers from bad deletables.
That is, image is crap.. blurry or badly framed or exposed or whatever .. but the image may contain a 'precious moment' of some type.
So I may set it to 6 with stars .. which tell me years later to keep it as it may have sentimental value but is still a bad image.

To use these rankings within VNX or CNX you use the 'Filter' icon up in the top RH corner in Am's screen cap.
This opens up a new sub bar along the top of the main part of the view screen with various ratings values.
To view all images of a specific rating click that specific rating number,and only those rating with this number or star rating will be displayed.
If you want to view more ratings types, you click the appropriate values.

eg, if you want to view all of the 7's and 8's, you click the numbers 7 and 8, and only those rated with a 7 or 8 will be displayed.

I use this to delete the bad eggs.

If I know that 7 is my min and that any stars in the lower values represent an image of sentimental value, then I click on all of the ratings number BELOW 7(ie 0-6) and be sure not to click any of the stars, but in fact click on the null icon(circle with diagonal line) in the star section.
This displays any image that is rated 6 and below and with no stars. These are the images I safely delete. [Ctrl]+[A] highlights all of the images in the film strip, [Del] deletes them.
(note you can't [Shift] Delete them as you can within Windows itself .. only send them to the recycle bin).
When the images are deleted from the folder, the folder then appears empty.. because the images with those low ratings are no longer there.
Click the filter icon or the ticks in the boxes to display all images again, and now only your higher ranked images remain.

If you are used to another program, then as Am says.. it may appear 'awkward' to use. But in fact I find it quite intuitive and super easy to use.
I only wish it had just a few simple edit tools that are found on other free software .. like a clone/heal brush for removing simple spots, and a edit brush, where you could vary the strength of various edit steps .. (eg vignetting, or something like that).

It's only recently that Nikon even gave us a crop tool!

Beneath the Adjustments Tab on the RHS, there is also the Metadata section.
These two will not display concurrently. It's one or the other.
(whether this is a good or bad aspect is open to debate .. I don't mind this system as I use them independently anyhow).
With an image highlighted and displayed, you can add any Metadata variable your heart desires as you see in the list.
I basically only use keywording (and description) to describe image content.

You can set all manner of metadata variables as well if this is important, and you can also do it as a preset/batch job, but you need to create the presets before you start adding data.
I can see that this would be an annoying way to add author/copyright/contact info into images in this manner.
If you use Nikon transfer(as I do), you easily add this info at the card to PC upload session(and I do it on a per session basis anyhow).

If you don't use Nikon Transfer, you can access the metadata preset interface via the Options menu. In ViewNX2 you go to Edit->Options and scroll down to XMP/IPTC Preset section in the prefs menu.
Create you metadata presets there and then you highlight the images in the film strip that you want to set with each preset.

May sound convoluted to non users, but in reality it's quite the opposite, and hence very simple and easy to use.
I find Lightroom much more convoluted in most aspects.
And I've haven't used ACR for many years.

BUT the power of ViewNX is really only when you've shot in the Nikon NEF format.
For jpgs and tiff files, I prefer to use FSViewer for quick file browsing and resizing/resaving.

For me, I think that one of the main reasons to use Nikon's software is that when you shoot NEF, you literally get on your computer, what you shot in camera.
Other raw converters have their own interpretation of how the NEF file should be rendered .. which is usually way off what you shot in camera!

FSViewer displays the NEF file as shot in camera, with a histogram 99.9% as per the camera's, but when you convert from NEF to bitmap image type, the resultant image is not the same.

[ameerat42]

Thanks for the comprehensive description AK. I read it through once, but will again. The important point I got was in your 2nd-last sentence. I will not just shelve VNX now that you have pointed out its worth.
Ta, Am.

[kiwi]

re "miles off".

I dispute that, the current Nikon profiles (2010) that Adobe have are very close, originally they were miles away Id agree