Nikon NX Studio
Nikon’s latest free so ware allows Nikon camera users to view, process and edit images in one package. Angela Nicholson gives it a whirl
In early March this year, Nikon introduced NX Studio which merges the functions of its earlier image-viewing software, ViewNX-i, and imageprocessing and editing software, Capture NX-D. NX Studio is free to download, which means that Nikon photographers are now able to view, process and edit images in a single application.
Nikon also announced that support for ViewNX-i and Capture NX-D is ending and that users should update to NX Studio. Thankfully, that’s easy to do, just head to Nikon’s Download Centre which is listed under ‘Service & Support’ on the homepage, and type ‘NX Studio’ into the search bar to get a link to the download page, and you’re all set.
When you install NX Studio it automatically removes ViewNX-i if you have that installed, but NX-D remains.
Getting started
Like ViewNX-i, NX Studio works with your computer’s existing
ling structure. This means you can use it to view images that you have previously stored or imported into folders on your computer or a connected drive.
It’s also possible to import images onto your computer or a connected storage drive using NX Studio using the ‘Import’ icon in the top left corner of the screen. This opens a Nikon Transfer 2 window that enables you to specify the source of the les – for example, a connected camera or a memory card reader – and set the destination folder. If you wish, you can create a subfolder for their storage and rename the
les during the transfer. Helpfully, it’s also possible to import the
les to a second ‘Backup Destination’. Using the options in the Preferences tab, you can also set the software to transfer only new les so you don’t end up with duplicates if you didn’t clear your card between imports.
Viewing your images in NX Studio is as simple as clicking on the appropriate folder in the ling structure on the left of the screen. This reveals thumbnails of all the les within the folder. Whether it’s a NEF le or a JPEG, double-clicking on a thumbnail opens the image at the centre of the screen while the thumbnails move to a row along the bottom of the screen. The adjustment controls are in a column on the right. Pretty standard stuff.
The large central preview lets you check your images one at a time for sharpness etc, and you can add star ratings and/or colour tags as you scroll through. As well as the single image view, NX Studio has options to allow you to view two or four images side by side. These are helpful when you’re trying to nd the best shot in a sequence.
Once you’ve rated and tagged the images in a folder, clicking on the grid icon in the top left corner of the screen switches to the thumbnail grid view and you can use the ‘Filter’ or sort options at the top to reveal your highestrated images. It’s also possible to use some key EXIF data such as the shoot date, modi ed date, aperture, shutter speed and ISO to lter the images until you nd the ones that you want.
Editing images
As I mentioned earlier, the adjustment controls are arranged in a column on the right of the screen. These are grouped into eight logical sections,
each of which can be expanded to reveal the controls by clicking on the arrow next to the section title.
Along the top of the adjustment panel, there are also shortcuts to access the Retouch Brush, Color Control Point, Crop and Levels tools as well as a grey-pointpicker for adjusting the white balance of raw les.
Although all the adjustment controls are visible, some such as the Picture Control, White Balance, Exposure Compensation and Active D-Lighting are marked with a ‘RAW’ label because they can only be used with raw les. While that’s understandable to some extent, it would be good to have a quick and simple way of warming or cooling a JPEG. Instead, you have to use the colour curves under ‘Levels & Curves’ or the Hue adjustments under ‘Lightness, Chroma and Hue Adjustment’.
When you’re working on a raw le in the Picture Control section of the ‘Basic Edit Palettes’, a dropdown list lets you swap between the different Picture Control settings (Standard, Neutral, Vivid etc), and there are sliding controls available to tweak the same parameters that you can adjust in-camera – Quick sharpening, Sharpening, Mid-range sharpening etc. You can also access the Creative Picture Controls and any Picture Controls that you’ve created in Picture Control Utility 2. However, it’s frustrating that you need to actually click on a Picture Control name to see its effect, you can’t just hover to preview it. Also, once you’ve clicked on a Picture Control, the selection options vanish, so if you want to change it, you have to expand the dropdown list again and scroll the next option that you want to try.
Most of the controls in NX Studio use simple sliders, but it has also inherited Capture NX-D’s powerful curves adjustment tools that enable you to manipulate the exposure, contrast and hue of images. These are found under ‘Levels & Curves’ and in ‘LCH’ in the ‘Lightness, Chroma and Hue Adjustment’ section. Both allow you to add points to a curve to pull it up or down to adjust speci c areas of an image.
Selecting the ‘Color Lightness’, ‘Chroma’ or ‘Hue’ option in LCH enables an intuitive way of adjusting the brightness, saturation and hue of individual colours. You can either select the tone that you want to adjust on the graph itself, or you can use the ink dropper tool to select it on the image. Using the dropper puts a marker on the graph, which you can then drag up or down to adjust the hue, saturation or brightness. Using the width slider underneath the graph allows you to adjust a broader or narrower range of tones.
Once you’ve nished adjusting an image you can save the
adjustment settings for each parameter so that you can reapply it to another image. Alternatively, there’s an option in the ‘Adjust’ dropdown list to save all the adjustments made to an image so that they can all be applied to other images.
Helpfully, when a saved adjustment is loaded to another image, the edits that are applied are shown in the adjustment panel and they can be turned off or adjusted to nesse the picture.
Expanding the ‘Versions’ section reveals any changes made to NEF raw les in Capture NX Enhancement Steps or Capture NX 2 Adjust section. They can be applied in NX Studio using ‘Apply adjustment steps’.
Local adjustments
In addition to global adjustment tools, NX Studio has a simple Retouch Brush for getting rid of small dust marks and a Color Control Point tool for making colour, brightness and contrast adjustments to speci c areas of the image.
The Retouch Brush isn’t particularly sophisticated and it’s only possible to adjust its size. As you can’t select the area used to repair a dust mark, you can end up with less-than-ideal repairs. For the best results, zoom into the image and use a brush that is just large enough to cover the offending mark.
The Color Control Point feature employs U-Point technology and is very intuitive to use. The rst step is to click on the part of the image that you want to adjust. It can be helpful at this point to put a tick in the box to show the affected area, which switches the image to black & white with the area that’s selected shown in white. The software does a remarkably good job of targeting the right tones for adjustment. Then, with the preview returned back to normal, it’s just a case of dragging the sliders on the adjustment point until you’re happy with the image. I found that the preview turned black a few times as I made the adjustment, which is inconvenient, but it reverted back to the normal view once the adjustment was made.
It’s not immediately obvious, but if the Color Control Point is selected, the ‘Copy’ and ‘Paste’ options in the Edit menu can be used to make duplicates that can then be dragged to other parts of the image.