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Capture NX Performance Tip

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That approach works.
Jason Odell said:
I agree witht the OP's performance tip. I have NR disabled in my
camera for that very reason.

But there are a couple of other things to remember, too.

First, if you shoot at ISO Hi-1 or above (actually, depending on
your camera ANY of the "above spec" ISOs), then NR gets turned back
on in Base Adjustments.

Second, ANY operation performed in Base Adjustments will severly
hinder performance. Base Adjustments is essentially the Capture
4.4 rendering engine. Use it sparingly for best performance. Why?
Because Capture NX uses disk temp files/cache for the Edit Steps,
but not for Base Adustments.

For processing shots with NR, I recommend doing the following:

1) Turn OFF Sharpening in Base Adjustments
2) Apply NR (I do this as a separate Edit Step, because NR is OFF
in Base)
2) Sharpen LAST. (Or at least towards the end of the workflow). I
recommend using a low intensity, high radius sharpening step, like
USM 15/25/10. This will keep the high-iso luminance noise from
reappearing when you sharpen.

Sharpening and NR are like Yin and Yang. They can complement each
other, but they can also oppose each other.

-Jason

--
Jason P. Odell, Ph.D.
Author, 'The Photographer's Guide to Capture NX'
http://www.luminescentphoto.com/capturenx.html

Co-host, 'The Image Doctors' at Nikonians Podcasts
http://podcasts.nikonians.org
Click to expand...
--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/k-blad/
 
Brad:

The reason for that (doing all sharpening in PS) being what?

I have been doing all of my 'capture' sharpening in NX and leaving other sharpening steps to PS.
 
Sharpening should be the very last step that you do before your final output as sharpening can create artifacts that if done only once are not noticable. Additional manipulation on files that have already been sharpened will amplify the artifacts and reduce your image quality

--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/k-blad/
 
Hi there.

I think I remember some advice from Ron Reznick to disable in-camera sharpening altogehter but apply some USM (with camera-dependent values) to get rid of the "blurr" caused by the aa filter.

I understand this is not meant to be an optional step but is recommended for every picture, in addition to (or in fact: preceeding) any final sharpening that would, of course, depend on the final use of the picture (slide show, online, print, etc.).

Then again, it could be I misinterpreted Ron, or I'm missing some important facts …

Maybe someone (Ron?) could comment?! Thanks a lot.

Greetings from Germany and happy shooting,
Jürgen
 
Every digital camera that has an anti-aliasing filter will produce images that look slightly soft if no sharpening is applied.

How and when you apply that sharpening is where opinions differ.

I have created a suite of "capture sharpening" settings for all the Nikon DSLRs that are presets for Capture NX. You can download them from my website for free (it's about a 20k ZIP archive).

However, since this post is about Noise Reduction, then you need to be careful how you sharpen, because it could enhance the noise you are trying so hard to remove-- especially if you have luminance noise. I have a chart in my eBook that shows the effect of different combinations of NR intensity and sharpening settings for the Capture NX Noise Reduction tool. NR and sharpening work antagonistically, and you need to find a setting that is a reasonable compromise between noise removal and detail retention.

If you are using Capture NX to remove noise, then I would recommend adding a "capture sharpen" step at the end of your Edit Steps. If you are going to remove noise in Photoshop, say with Neat Image, then I'd take a different approach-- turn off all sharpening, send a TIF to Photoshop, do your NR, and then sharpen at the end.

Either way, you will get MUCH better results if you turn off the in-camera sharpening in Capture NX before doing any noise reduction work.

-Jason

--
Jason P. Odell, Ph.D.
Author, 'The Photographer's Guide to Capture NX'
http://www.luminescentphoto.com/capturenx.html

Co-host, 'The Image Doctors' at Nikonians Podcasts
http://podcasts.nikonians.org
 
Found it on the net somewhere...lol,
--

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming - ' Wow! What a ride!'

 
I agree with that
Jason Odell said:
Every digital camera that has an anti-aliasing filter will produce
images that look slightly soft if no sharpening is applied.

How and when you apply that sharpening is where opinions differ.

I have created a suite of "capture sharpening" settings for all the
Nikon DSLRs that are presets for Capture NX. You can download them
from my website for free (it's about a 20k ZIP archive).

However, since this post is about Noise Reduction, then you need to
be careful how you sharpen, because it could enhance the noise you
are trying so hard to remove-- especially if you have luminance
noise. I have a chart in my eBook that shows the effect of
different combinations of NR intensity and sharpening settings for
the Capture NX Noise Reduction tool. NR and sharpening work
antagonistically, and you need to find a setting that is a
reasonable compromise between noise removal and detail retention.

If you are using Capture NX to remove noise, then I would recommend
adding a "capture sharpen" step at the end of your Edit Steps. If
you are going to remove noise in Photoshop, say with Neat Image,
then I'd take a different approach-- turn off all sharpening, send
a TIF to Photoshop, do your NR, and then sharpen at the end.

Either way, you will get MUCH better results if you turn off the
in-camera sharpening in Capture NX before doing any noise reduction
work.

-Jason

--
Jason P. Odell, Ph.D.
Author, 'The Photographer's Guide to Capture NX'
http://www.luminescentphoto.com/capturenx.html

Co-host, 'The Image Doctors' at Nikonians Podcasts
http://podcasts.nikonians.org
Click to expand...
--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/k-blad/
 
Well, not using the Nikon libraries as they apparently haven't been updated yet, so be sure to read the release notes for turning off the Nikon libraries if your using the D80.

As it turns out, mine were off anyway, and for viewing purposes at least that's no big deal, particularly because I use the embedded JPEG for thumbnails, viewing, slide show, etc... and I normally use NX as my editor of NEFs by sending it from TP to NX via a button press.
Brad Morris said:
sfisher said:
cocovanna said:
sfisher said:
I shoot NEFs alone and use and external viewer/cataloger
(ThumbsPlus Pro) that knows to read and display the embedded JPEG.
Click to expand...
How do you do this? I'm unable to see anything but a 160x120
thumbnail?

Kim
Click to expand...
Kim, I'm assuming you have thumbsplus pro and the latest free
Digicam plugin for it. and I don't think it supports D80 yet...

look under Options~file plugins~Digicam~general page

need more info to help more.

--
-Steve
===================
Dodging and burning are steps to take care of mistakes God made in
establishing tonal relationships. Ansel Adams
Click to expand...
--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/k-blad/
Click to expand...
--
-Steve
===================

Dodging and burning are steps to take care of mistakes God made in establishing tonal relationships. Ansel Adams
 
I would also recomend that selective/masking sharpening over the Camera's / or Computer's full image sharpening is a much better way to go. It makes it much more easy to control luminance noise especially in the shadows.
Jason Odell said:
Every digital camera that has an anti-aliasing filter will produce
images that look slightly soft if no sharpening is applied.

How and when you apply that sharpening is where opinions differ.

I have created a suite of "capture sharpening" settings for all the
Nikon DSLRs that are presets for Capture NX. You can download them
from my website for free (it's about a 20k ZIP archive).

However, since this post is about Noise Reduction, then you need to
be careful how you sharpen, because it could enhance the noise you
are trying so hard to remove-- especially if you have luminance
noise. I have a chart in my eBook that shows the effect of
different combinations of NR intensity and sharpening settings for
the Capture NX Noise Reduction tool. NR and sharpening work
antagonistically, and you need to find a setting that is a
reasonable compromise between noise removal and detail retention.

If you are using Capture NX to remove noise, then I would recommend
adding a "capture sharpen" step at the end of your Edit Steps. If
you are going to remove noise in Photoshop, say with Neat Image,
then I'd take a different approach-- turn off all sharpening, send
a TIF to Photoshop, do your NR, and then sharpen at the end.

Either way, you will get MUCH better results if you turn off the
in-camera sharpening in Capture NX before doing any noise reduction
work.

-Jason

--
Jason P. Odell, Ph.D.
Author, 'The Photographer's Guide to Capture NX'
http://www.luminescentphoto.com/capturenx.html

Co-host, 'The Image Doctors' at Nikonians Podcasts
http://podcasts.nikonians.org
Click to expand...
--
-Steve
===================

Dodging and burning are steps to take care of mistakes God made in establishing tonal relationships. Ansel Adams
 
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