Lightroom 3 & CNX2

Hi there,

I am very new to PP and recently purchased CNX2 and then, shortly afterwards, got a very good offer (to good to resist on LR3) and so now have both software on my PC.

My question is this, i recognise that the Star rating system is recognised by both, which is great, however i would like to rate my photos using the colour tags/labels but cannot see a way to label the colours in CNX2 and then import or replicate those settings in LR3, likewise if i assign a colour label in LR3 it is not recognised in CNX2.

Has anyone tried to do this and succeeded or do i just need to stick with the Star rating capabilities.

Sorry if its a dumb question to the experienced PP users, however i have tried and cant see a way to resolve my problem, any help you can offer will be appreciated.

Thanks
Rich

There's a more basic consideration. Do you really want to use both programs?

Each is designed to do much the same thing. Start with a RAW file and manipulate it to get a desired result. Then, if the image needs treatment that LR or NX2 can't do, go to a program like Photoshop, ACDSee Pro, etc. for work at a finer level of detail.

The two programs don't play well together. Each saves the changes in a way that the other can't recognize, unless you save the results as a TIFF file - but then you've lost the main advantage of each program, which is the ability to do non-destructive edits on RAW files. (Before you pp experts flame me, yes, I know that there are some ways to at least partially wiggle around this, but the OP clearly says he's just a novice at pp.)

The best practice is, I believe, to pick one or the other as your only initial editing program for working on RAW files.

Forgot to add: I much prefer NX2 to LR - much easier to work with individual edit steps, you can choose to edit in a color profile that your printer can more nearly handle, etc.

If you choose to go with NX2, Jason Odell has an essential e-book on how to use NX2. See his Web site a Luminescence of Nature. If you work through this book slowly and carefully, repeating as necessary to make sure you've grasped the concept, you'll be well versed in NX2.

Thanks SantaFeBill for the information. My original plan was to work with NX2 and become accomplished to the level that i am satisfied with.

I am aware of the Jason O'Dell book and website, which is very useful. I have also just finished reading the "After the Shoot" by Mike Hagen which is also very helpful.

The thing that attracted me to LR3 was the cataloguing tool, right now i want to perfect the PP skills that i need too in NX2, but use the cataloguing capabilities to create sets etc in LR3 which i believe it does reasonably well, hence thje question about rating...
Right now i have little desire to try and learn PP in 2 dis-similar systems

LR seems to be a little more user friendly when it comes to viewing catalogues and finding pictures based around keywords etc that might be spread across multiple folders etc but maybe i am just enamoured a little with the I/F which is better than NX2.
Thanks again

DickyMint said:

The thing that attracted me to LR3 was the cataloguing tool, right now i want to perfect the PP skills that i need too in NX2, but use the cataloguing capabilities to create sets etc in LR3 which i believe it does reasonably well, hence thje question about rating...

Click to expand...

As SantaFeBill said, there are some real problems in using both. LR can't see any edits in raw files that you make in NX2, so (in NX2) you have export to Tif, and then import the Tif to LR.

If you import NEFs into LR, then you could could edit in NX2 so long as you do nothing in LR except view (and you'll see only the unedited images). Don't try to move, print, export, create slide shows, create web sites etc in LR. In other words, you'd be using almost nothing of LR.

DickyMint said:

Right now i have little desire to try and learn PP in 2 dis-similar systems

Click to expand...

In which case, my suggestion would be stick to either NX2 or LR.
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Simon

If you haven't already, I suggest you take a look at Photo Mechanic. It's not as good at cataloging as LR, but it is used by many professionals and organizations that deal with very large numbers of images.

I also has the advantage IMHO of working with the familiar Windows folders, so it doesn't create its own special kind of file in order to organize images. So you don't have to worry about the catalog getting corrupted and losing image data.

The only exception to this is that PM lets you create a type pf folder called 'favorites' which allows you to assemble other folders into a kind of virtual folder where the images in the original folders are easily accessible. Even then, the original folders aren't modified, so if for some reason you decide to stop using PM, the original images are still where they were and accessible.

PM is also very strong at key words, working with metadata, batch operations, etc. It can use various variables which allow you to further automate operations.

Finally, PM is optimized to use in combination with NX2. For example, you can set up PM/NX2 so that the color tags mean the same thing in both programs. And of course you can have PM automatically open a NEF file in NX2 when you specify that you want the file to be edited.

Another vote for PhotoMechanic. And as was said, it workes with YOUR file strukture you create. That's great if you have a good system in place.

It works very well with NX2 and Photoshop, as long as you don't use Bridge or LR. Because Bridge / LR write all information into sidecar files. These can be read and written to by Photomechanic, but not by NX2. Therefore, ALL captioning, labeling, rating is done through Photomechnic all the time and embedded directly into the file. So the information stays with the file no matter what you do (and with all the copies you create).
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Regards,
JH
JH-Pphotography