Capture NX-D -> PS

Sergey_Green · Apr 20, 2017

So here is one and the same image, side by side; left NEF opened in capture NX-D, right extracted to TIFF and opened in PS - they clearly do not look the same - can someone tell me why?

At some point I was almost convinced that NX-D does not default to exporting in the selected color settings (selected through the picture control utility), but falls back to the in-camera selection instead. If so, then why do I have picture control selection in the NX-D to begin with? If it is not so, then would not it be unreasonable to expect the opened NEF and resultant from it TIFF to look identical? Well, they do not look the same to me at all :-/

Any hints, suggestions, thoughts?

--
- sergey

briantilley · Apr 20, 2017

When opening a NEF, Capture NX-D will apply the in-camera Picture Control setting that you chose. Photoshop will not.

The fact that NX-D uses the in-camera setting does not stop you changing it in postprocessing - it just gives you something to start from, if that's what you want

Sergey_Green · Apr 20, 2017

briantilley said:
When opening a NEF, Capture NX-D will apply the in-camera Picture Control setting that you chose. Photoshop will not.

The fact that NX-D uses the in-camera setting does not stop you changing it in postprocessing - it just gives you something to start from, if that's what you want

Yes, this is correct. But after I edit the image in NX-D, export it to TIFF, which then I open in PS, should not that image look identical to what was exported? I would think so. But they do not.

Jurwees · Apr 20, 2017

Apart from a very slight decrease in contrast in the PS image, on my calibrated screen both images are practically identical.

Jack Hogan · Apr 20, 2017

Couple of things to check off the top of my head:

1) What color profile do you use upon opening in PS? Also PS uses the Adobe Color Engine which takes some liberties with the standards to keep things more under control (e.g. Adobe RGB in the deepest shadows).
2) There may be differences in screen resizing algorithms. Try viewing them both at 100%. The PS image looks sharper to me, which is one of the effects of 'bicubic' downsizing.

Jack

Glen78 · Apr 20, 2017

I would recommend printing them both with the same settings and seeing if you notice any differences.

j_photo · Apr 20, 2017

Sergey_Green said:
So here is one and the same image, side by side; left NEF opened in capture NX-D, right extracted to TIFF and opened in PS - they clearly do not look the same - can someone tell me why?

At some point I was almost convinced that NX-D does not default to exporting in the selected color settings (selected through the picture control utility), but falls back to the in-camera selection instead. If so, then why do I have picture control selection in the NX-D to begin with? If it is not so, then would not it be unreasonable to expect the opened NEF and resultant from it TIFF to look identical? Well, they do not look the same to me at all :-/

Any hints, suggestions, thoughts?

--
- sergey

They look same to me on my work monitor.

If there is a difference, the possibility that you have changed color profiles in PS comes to mind. Or perhaps your display is causing issues.

Glen78 · Apr 20, 2017

j_photo said:
Sergey_Green said:

So here is one and the same image, side by side; left NEF opened in capture NX-D, right extracted to TIFF and opened in PS - they clearly do not look the same - can someone tell me why?

At some point I was almost convinced that NX-D does not default to exporting in the selected color settings (selected through the picture control utility), but falls back to the in-camera selection instead. If so, then why do I have picture control selection in the NX-D to begin with? If it is not so, then would not it be unreasonable to expect the opened NEF and resultant from it TIFF to look identical? Well, they do not look the same to me at all :-/

Any hints, suggestions, thoughts?

--
- sergey

Click to expand...

They look same to me on my work monitor.

If there is a difference, the possibility that you have changed color profiles in PS comes to mind. Or perhaps your display is causing issues.

Colors definitely look the same to me. The right image looks a bit softer but I suspect this has something to do with either the scaling or render settings in photoshop.

Air Cooled Nut · Apr 20, 2017

Okay, I was reading this thread on a [cheap] LED TV via HDMI. It's way larger than my laptop screen which is why I use it when working from home. I can see the difference, the right image definitely has less "pop"...colors are a bit muted.

Reading the replies I could not believe that they looked the same to others. So I dragged the browser window over to my laptop screen and...well I'll be damned, no difference!

I learned something new, a monitor -- or TV -- can make a BIG difference! Glad I saw this thread.

Dyun27 · Apr 20, 2017

I see the difference between the two, but when I export TIFF files from Capture NX-D or View NX-i and place them in Lightroom, they look just as I remember them looking in Nikon's software. What version of PS are you using and what color profile?

bobn2 · Apr 20, 2017

Sergey_Green said:
So here is one and the same image, side by side; left NEF opened in capture NX-D, right extracted to TIFF and opened in PS - they clearly do not look the same - can someone tell me why?

At some point I was almost convinced that NX-D does not default to exporting in the selected color settings (selected through the picture control utility), but falls back to the in-camera selection instead. If so, then why do I have picture control selection in the NX-D to begin with? If it is not so, then would not it be unreasonable to expect the opened NEF and resultant from it TIFF to look identical? Well, they do not look the same to me at all :-/

Any hints, suggestions, thoughts?

--
- sergey

Could be all sorts of things. Maybe you could save the tiff from PS without modification, then open the two tiffs on a neutral viewer app. It would tell you whether the difference is in the file or simply the display routines. It appears that they are treating the black level differently.

--
Tinkety tonk old fruit, & down with the Nazis!
Bob

Sergey_Green · Apr 20, 2017

Jurwees said:
Apart from a very slight decrease in contrast in the PS image, on my calibrated screen both images are practically identical.

That slight decrease in contrast is what bothering me. This is the same image we are looking at, in the same color space.

Sergey_Green · Apr 20, 2017

Jack Hogan said:
Couple of things to check off the top of my head:

1) What color profile do you use upon opening in PS? Also PS uses the Adobe Color Engine which takes some liberties with the standards to keep things more under control (e.g. Adobe RGB in the deepest shadows).

I use Adobe RGB (1998), same as in NX-D. So exporting to lossless TIFF apparently does not really do it, as it looks.

Jack Hogan said:
2) There may be differences in screen resizing algorithms. Try viewing them both at 100%. The PS image looks sharper to me, which is one of the effects of 'bicubic' downsizing.

I am looking at the shadows and the colors in both images.

j_photo · Apr 20, 2017

On my home calibrated monitor, they are clearly different.

Sergey_Green · Apr 20, 2017

j_photo said:
On my home calibrated monitor, they are clearly different.

But if the same image is opened in the same color space, on the same monitor, but in two different programs, then the calibration of the monitor has no longer any meaning for it, does it?

Sergey_Green · Apr 20, 2017

bobn2 said:
Sergey_Green said:

So here is one and the same image, side by side; left NEF opened in capture NX-D, right extracted to TIFF and opened in PS - they clearly do not look the same - can someone tell me why?

At some point I was almost convinced that NX-D does not default to exporting in the selected color settings (selected through the picture control utility), but falls back to the in-camera selection instead. If so, then why do I have picture control selection in the NX-D to begin with? If it is not so, then would not it be unreasonable to expect the opened NEF and resultant from it TIFF to look identical? Well, they do not look the same to me at all :-/

Any hints, suggestions, thoughts?

--
- sergey

Click to expand...

Could be all sorts of things. Maybe you could save the tiff from PS without modification, then open the two tiffs on a neutral viewer app. It would tell you whether the difference is in the file or simply the display routines. It appears that they are treating the black level differently.

My suspicion is that NX-D is showing what it actually is not. And once the given file is converted into the format that most other image editors can read and understand, this image will not look the same as it was seen in the NX-D. What I find even more strange is that when opening that same TIFF file in NX-D again, it again will show that higher contrast with the pop that the other editors (PS-CS 2017 in my example) seem to be missing. Very strange. How does one edit the image when knowing it will not look as seen once saved?

--
- sergey

j_photo · Apr 20, 2017

Sergey_Green said:
j_photo said:

On my home calibrated monitor, they are clearly different.

Click to expand...

But if the same image is opened in the same color space, on the same monitor, but in two different programs, then the calibration of the monitor has no longer any meaning for it, does it?

--
- sergey

Sure, but that's not what I'm saying. I'm just reporting what I can observe from the single image posted by the OP. When I viewed it earlier today on an uncalbrated monitor, I could not discern a difference. Now home, and viewing the image on a calibrated monitor, I can clearly see differences between the two parts. I assume that my calibrated monitor is a more accurate rendering of the image.

For whatever reason, there do appear to be differences between the two screenshots contained within the image. (The NX-D image appears to me to be higher contrast.) I'm not saying I know why. Just sharing what I can observe.

bobn2 · Apr 20, 2017

Sergey_Green said:
bobn2 said:

Sergey_Green said:

So here is one and the same image, side by side; left NEF opened in capture NX-D, right extracted to TIFF and opened in PS - they clearly do not look the same - can someone tell me why?

At some point I was almost convinced that NX-D does not default to exporting in the selected color settings (selected through the picture control utility), but falls back to the in-camera selection instead. If so, then why do I have picture control selection in the NX-D to begin with? If it is not so, then would not it be unreasonable to expect the opened NEF and resultant from it TIFF to look identical? Well, they do not look the same to me at all :-/

Any hints, suggestions, thoughts?

--
- sergey

Click to expand...

Could be all sorts of things. Maybe you could save the tiff from PS without modification, then open the two tiffs on a neutral viewer app. It would tell you whether the difference is in the file or simply the display routines. It appears that they are treating the black level differently.

Click to expand...

My suspicion is that NX-D is showing what it actually is not.

Don't understand that. What is it supposed to be?. The Tiff file defines the image, then there are two questions. Is the tiff file the same? If so, then the issue is with the rendering of the tiff file, not what it is.

Sergey_Green said:
And once the given file is converted into the format that most other image editors can read and understand, this image will not look the same as it was seen in the NX-D.

In which case, the issue is with NX-D's rendering of the file.

Sergey_Green said:
What I find even more strange is that when opening that same TIFF file in NX-D again, it again will show that higher contrast with the pop that the other editors (PS-CS 2017 in my example) seem to be missing. Very strange. How does one edit the image when knowing it will not look as seen once saved?

Then that seems to be a problem with NX-D. What does the file look like when printed? It might be the NXD is trying to give an accurate rendition of printed appearance.

--
Tinkety tonk old fruit, & down with the Nazis!
Bob

agrumpyoldsod · Apr 21, 2017

Air Cooled Nut said:
Okay, I was reading this thread on a [cheap] LED TV via HDMI. It's way larger than my laptop screen which is why I use it when working from home. I can see the difference, the right image definitely has less "pop"...colors are a bit muted.

Reading the replies I could not believe that they looked the same to others. So I dragged the browser window over to my laptop screen and...well I'll be damned, no difference!

I learned something new, a monitor -- or TV -- can make a BIG difference! Glad I saw this thread.

Tim S · Apr 21, 2017

It's a puzzle, I right click on my image in Nikon NX-D and choose open in photoshop is this what you do? You talk of exporting first.

Capture NX-D -> PS

Forum Pro

Veteran Member

Forum Pro

Jurwees

Guest

Veteran Member

Senior Member

Veteran Member

Senior Member

Well-known member

Senior Member

Forum Pro

Forum Pro

Forum Pro

Veteran Member

Forum Pro

Forum Pro

Veteran Member

Forum Pro

Leading Member

Leading Member

Similar threads

Keyboard shortcuts