Creating jpg from nef using Nikon Capture NX-D

[NadaThiru]

Hi,
I shoot my photos with D5600 in both NEF and JPG formats and am wondering if I can create the jpg file on the computer using Capture NX-D from the NEF file that would ****match**** the JPG from the camera. Of course I can convert nef to jpg. Problem is matching to that from the camera. These are the questions I have

Can it be done with ncp file?

How to download the ncp file from the camera?

It looks possible but I am not sure how to do it. If I can do this, then I can just shoot in just NEF format and it wont be necessary to shoot in both NEF and JPG format. I will have more space on my memory cards to take more photos and with NEF I will be able to do more processing which I cant do with JPG.

Could you please help me?

Thanks

Thiru

 

[Doug Haag]

Hi,
I shoot my photos with D5600 in both NEF and JPG formats and am wondering if I can create the jpg file on the computer using Capture NX-D from the NEF file that would ****match**** the JPG from the camera. Of course I can convert nef to jpg. Problem is matching to that from the camera. These are the questions I have

Can it be done with ncp file?

How to download the ncp file from the camera?

It looks possible but I am not sure how to do it. If I can do this, then I can just shoot in just NEF format and it wont be necessary to shoot in both NEF and JPG format. I will have more space on my memory cards to take more photos and with NEF I will be able to do more processing which I cant do with JPG.

Could you please help me?

Thanks

Thiru

I don't understand your reference to an "ncp" file. Perhaps you meant to write "nef" and that is a misspelling.

Anyway, I use NX-D to convert my raw nef files and then immediately relocate the result (as a 16-bit tiff) to other software for further processing because I prefer its editing functionality to that of NX-D. (Note: my preferred editing software, that was one of the first when digital photography first became a thing, does not have raw conversion capability just like PhotoShop lacked any raw conversion ability for the first thirteen years of its existence.)

Nef conversion in NX-D software does indeed perfectly match the look of the jpeg in its default settings. Of course these can be changed for a different output. But I have zeroed in on certain camera Picture Control settings that automatically give me a converted output I like for the starting point for further editing. So I do, in fact, use NX-D in default mode to duplicate the jpeg look. But the result has the bit depth of my settings for raw (either 12 or 14 bit) instead of the 8-bit limitation of the identical looking jpeg. That's why I prefer it for further processing even though it starts out looking just like the jpeg.

I also shoot raw+jpeg and was thinking about no longer shooting raw since that is what I process in NX-D. But that changed recently when I discovered a couple corrupted raw files from an old shoot, whereas the high quality jpeg versions of those corrupted files were OK. I have never had a space constraint on my memory cards from shooting raw + jpeg for two reasons.

1. I am not a spray & pray shooter but am very selective about pressing the shutter release. So I don't generate thousands of images from a single photo shoot.

2. I download my images (and save a duplicate backup) immediately after a shoot because I am interested to see and process the results. Then I reformat the card. So I am seldom using more than a small portion of the card's capacity.

In terms of downloading, I am not familiar with any "import and cataloging function" in NX-D. So I just download the pictures into a properly labeled file folder and then specify that particular folder in the place where NX-D allows you to specify a particular folder. NX-D may have DAM capability, but I don't use it if it is there.

 

[NadaThiru]

Thanks Doug.

NCP is explained here Support Articles (nikonimgsupport.com) .

I do not fully understand how this works.

My understanding is that we can load this file type (which can be created in Nikon Picture Control Utility or downloaded from Nikon Picture Control Editor (nikonpc.com)) to the Camera and set the Camera to produce jpg as we wanted.

So I thought there must be a way to download the built-in ncp file that comes with factory setting from the camera and use it on the computer with Capture NX-D

Hi,
I shoot my photos with D5600 in both NEF and JPG formats and am wondering if I can create the jpg file on the computer using Capture NX-D from the NEF file that would ****match**** the JPG from the camera. Of course I can convert nef to jpg. Problem is matching to that from the camera. These are the questions I have

Can it be done with ncp file?

How to download the ncp file from the camera?

It looks possible but I am not sure how to do it. If I can do this, then I can just shoot in just NEF format and it wont be necessary to shoot in both NEF and JPG format. I will have more space on my memory cards to take more photos and with NEF I will be able to do more processing which I cant do with JPG.

Could you please help me?

Thanks

Thiru

I don't understand your reference to an "ncp" file. Perhaps you meant to write "nef" and that is a misspelling.

Anyway, I use NX-D to convert my raw nef files and then immediately relocate the result (as a 16-bit tiff) to other software for further processing because I prefer its editing functionality to that of NX-D. (Note: my preferred editing software, that was one of the first when digital photography first became a thing, does not have raw conversion capability just like PhotoShop lacked any raw conversion ability for the first thirteen years of its existence.)

Nef conversion in NX-D software does indeed perfectly match the look of the jpeg in its default settings. Of course these can be changed for a different output. But I have zeroed in on certain camera Picture Control settings that automatically give me a converted output I like for the starting point for further editing. So I do, in fact, use NX-D in default mode to duplicate the jpeg look. But the result has the bit depth of my settings for raw (either 12 or 14 bit) instead of the 8-bit limitation of the identical looking jpeg. That's why I prefer it for further processing even though it starts out looking just like the jpeg.

I also shoot raw+jpeg and was thinking about no longer shooting raw since that is what I process in NX-D. But that changed recently when I discovered a couple corrupted raw files from an old shoot, whereas the high quality jpeg versions of those corrupted files were OK. I have never had a space constraint on my memory cards from shooting raw + jpeg for two reasons.

1. I am not a spray & pray shooter but am very selective about pressing the shutter release. So I don't generate thousands of images from a single photo shoot.

2. I download my images (and save a duplicate backup) immediately after a shoot because I am interested to see and process the results. Then I reformat the card. So I am seldom using more than a small portion of the card's capacity.

In terms of downloading, I am not familiar with any "import and cataloging function" in NX-D. So I just download the pictures into a properly labeled file folder and then specify that particular folder in the place where NX-D allows you to specify a particular folder. NX-D may have DAM capability, but I don't use it if it is there.

 

[Nabilon]

Thanks Doug.

NCP is explained here Support Articles (nikonimgsupport.com) .

I do not fully understand how this works.

My understanding is that we can load this file type (which can be created in Nikon Picture Control Utility or downloaded from Nikon Picture Control Editor (nikonpc.com)) to the Camera and set the Camera to produce jpg as we wanted.

So I thought there must be a way to download the built-in ncp file that comes with factory setting from the camera and use it on the computer with Capture NX-D

Those default ncp files are already included in Capture NX-D. If you load your NEF file in Capture NX-D, by default it should look identical to the jpg. You can also change the picture profile to other profiles of your camera (like neutral, vivid, etc.). They are all already there.

By the way, are you not talking about NX Studio ? NX Studio has replaced Capture NX-D, it is the newer version.

 

[NadaThiru]

Thank you Nabilon.

"Those default ncp files are already included in Capture NX-D."

I did not know that.

"By the way, are you not talking about NX Studio ? NX Studio has replaced Capture NX-D, it is the newer version."

May be an year ago I tried NX Studio and I did not like the working environment. I like Capture NX-D's environment.





Will try Studio soon.

Thank you Nabilon much appreciated.

Thanks Doug.

NCP is explained here Support Articles (nikonimgsupport.com) .

I do not fully understand how this works.

My understanding is that we can load this file type (which can be created in Nikon Picture Control Utility or downloaded from Nikon Picture Control Editor (nikonpc.com)) to the Camera and set the Camera to produce jpg as we wanted.

So I thought there must be a way to download the built-in ncp file that comes with factory setting from the camera and use it on the computer with Capture NX-D

Those default ncp files are already included in Capture NX-D. If you load your NEF file in Capture NX-D, by default it should look identical to the jpg. You can also change the picture profile to other profiles of your camera (like neutral, vivid, etc.). They are all already there.

By the way, are you not talking about NX Studio ? NX Studio has replaced Capture NX-D, it is the newer version.

 

[bclaff]

Hi,
I shoot my photos with D5600 in both NEF and JPG formats and am wondering if I can create the jpg file on the computer using Capture NX-D from the NEF file that would ****match**** the JPG from the camera. ...

Perhaps I misunderstand but there is a full sized JPG embedded in the NEF that you can simply extract with something like ExifTool.

 

[Doug Haag]

Hi,
I shoot my photos with D5600 in both NEF and JPG formats and am wondering if I can create the jpg file on the computer using Capture NX-D from the NEF file that would ****match**** the JPG from the camera. ...

Perhaps I misunderstand but there is a full sized JPG embedded in the NEF that you can simply extract with something like ExifTool.

Bill ....

Is that the highest quality jpeg? I have assumed it was not, so I have continued to shoot raw (which I primarily process) plus high quality jpeg in case that is all I want (rare ocassions).

 

[bclaff]

Hi,
I shoot my photos with D5600 in both NEF and JPG formats and am wondering if I can create the jpg file on the computer using Capture NX-D from the NEF file that would ****match**** the JPG from the camera. ...

Perhaps I misunderstand but there is a full sized JPG embedded in the NEF that you can simply extract with something like ExifTool.

Bill ....

Is that the highest quality jpeg? I have assumed it was not, so I have continued to shoot raw (which I primarily process) plus high quality jpeg in case that is all I want (rare ocassions).

I think I investigated this is the past and found the image matches the JPG you get by shooting RAW+JPG

 

[NadaThiru]

Hi,
I shoot my photos with D5600 in both NEF and JPG formats and am wondering if I can create the jpg file on the computer using Capture NX-D from the NEF file that would ****match**** the JPG from the camera. ...

Perhaps I misunderstand but there is a full sized JPG embedded in the NEF that you can simply extract with something like ExifTool.

Thank you bclaff.

I did not know the existence of ExifTool and JPG embedment in NEF .

Thank you so much for theses information.

Thiru

 

[NadaThiru]

Hi,
I shoot my photos with D5600 in both NEF and JPG formats and am wondering if I can create the jpg file on the computer using Capture NX-D from the NEF file that would ****match**** the JPG from the camera. ...

Perhaps I misunderstand but there is a full sized JPG embedded in the NEF that you can simply extract with something like ExifTool.

Thanks again bclaff.

I tried few examples It works very well.

One thing I noticed - the size of the jpg produced by exiftool is nearly 1/5th the size compared to the corresponding jpg from the camera.

On the screen both images looks exactly the same for the naked eye.

Windows10\Photos\info tells me the size of the photo from the camera is 6000x4000 300 dpi and that from the exiftool is 6000x4000 96 dpi

So the next step for me is to see if I can maintain the same resolution

 

[Ernie Misner]

Hi,
I shoot my photos with D5600 in both NEF and JPG formats and am wondering if I can create the jpg file on the computer using Capture NX-D from the NEF file that would ****match**** the JPG from the camera. Of course I can convert nef to jpg. Problem is matching to that from the camera. These are the questions I have

Can it be done with ncp file?

How to download the ncp file from the camera?

It looks possible but I am not sure how to do it. If I can do this, then I can just shoot in just NEF format and it wont be necessary to shoot in both NEF and JPG format. I will have more space on my memory cards to take more photos and with NEF I will be able to do more processing which I cant do with JPG.

Could you please help me?

You got some interesting replies. Another option is to use the in-camera edit function which converts the raw file to a jpeg. It gives you a lot of choices as to size, WB, ADL, Picture Mode, and more. It is fun to do.

Thanks

Thiru

 

[bclaff]

Hi,
I shoot my photos with D5600 in both NEF and JPG formats and am wondering if I can create the jpg file on the computer using Capture NX-D from the NEF file that would ****match**** the JPG from the camera. ...

Perhaps I misunderstand but there is a full sized JPG embedded in the NEF that you can simply extract with something like ExifTool.

Thanks again bclaff.

I tried few examples It works very well.

One thing I noticed - the size of the jpg produced by exiftool is nearly 1/5th the size compared to the corresponding jpg from the camera.

The tests I did shows a slightly smaller embedded JPG because there is no Exif in it.

1/5 is not what I was experiencing.

On the screen both images looks exactly the same for the naked eye.

I did an apply image using difference in Photoshop and the histogram of the result was 100% zero.

 

[NadaThiru]

Thank you all for the suggestions.

This is the command I used to extract the jpg from my Nikon nef

exiftool -config example.config -bigimage -b --ext jpg -w _preview.jpg DIR

(which I found at Extract largest embedded jpgs from cr2/nef/dng in one line (exiftool.org) )

Not sure what other options to add to the command line to maintain the original 300 dpi

Hi,
I shoot my photos with D5600 in both NEF and JPG formats and am wondering if I can create the jpg file on the computer using Capture NX-D from the NEF file that would ****match**** the JPG from the camera. ...

Perhaps I misunderstand but there is a full sized JPG embedded in the NEF that you can simply extract with something like ExifTool.

Thanks again bclaff.

I tried few examples It works very well.

One thing I noticed - the size of the jpg produced by exiftool is nearly 1/5th the size compared to the corresponding jpg from the camera.

The tests I did shows a slightly smaller embedded JPG because there is no Exif in it.

1/5 is not what I was experiencing.

On the screen both images looks exactly the same for the naked eye.

I did an apply image using difference in Photoshop and the histogram of the result was 100% zero.

 

[sybersitizen]

Hi,
I shoot my photos with D5600 in both NEF and JPG formats and am wondering if I can create the jpg file on the computer using Capture NX-D from the NEF file that would ****match**** the JPG from the camera. ...

Perhaps I misunderstand but there is a full sized JPG embedded in the NEF that you can simply extract with something like ExifTool.

Thanks again bclaff.

I tried few examples It works very well.

One thing I noticed - the size of the jpg produced by exiftool is nearly 1/5th the size compared to the corresponding jpg from the camera.

On the screen both images looks exactly the same for the naked eye.

Windows10\Photos\info tells me the size of the photo from the camera is 6000x4000 300 dpi and that from the exiftool is 6000x4000 96 dpi

So the next step for me is to see if I can maintain the same resolution

If both versions are 6000x4000 pixels, the resolution is the same and the dpi figure is irrelevant. However, be aware that the extracted JPEG will probably have no noise reduction or sharpening or other processing tweaks applied to it.

Also, you might want to try this GUI app:

https://www.fastrawviewer.com/RawPreviewExtractor

--
PLEASE NOTE: The system causes delays in the timing of my posts and prevents me from replying to private messages.

 

[bclaff]

Thank you all for the suggestions.

This is the command I used to extract the jpg from my Nikon nef

exiftool -config example.config -bigimage -b --ext jpg -w _preview.jpg DIR

(which I found at Extract largest embedded jpgs from cr2/nef/dng in one line (exiftool.org) )

Not sure what other options to add to the command line to maintain the original 300 dpi

Hi,
I shoot my photos with D5600 in both NEF and JPG formats and am wondering if I can create the jpg file on the computer using Capture NX-D from the NEF file that would ****match**** the JPG from the camera. ...

Perhaps I misunderstand but there is a full sized JPG embedded in the NEF that you can simply extract with something like ExifTool.

Thanks again bclaff.

I tried few examples It works very well.

One thing I noticed - the size of the jpg produced by exiftool is nearly 1/5th the size compared to the corresponding jpg from the camera.

The tests I did shows a slightly smaller embedded JPG because there is no Exif in it.

1/5 is not what I was experiencing.

On the screen both images looks exactly the same for the naked eye.

I did an apply image using difference in Photoshop and the histogram of the result was 100% zero.

FWIW, for NEFs it's simpler to use -JpgFromRaw and omit the config business.

 

[Edsonrosario0410aaaa]

Hey guys. I'm resurrecting the questions. I'm a photographer from Brazil and I use a Nikon Z50 most of the time.

About the issue of pictures controls. I wanted to know if I can transform the NCP files that I extracted directly from the NIKONPC.COM website into a presets file or something like that in Lightroom. I was unable to add the files as a color mode, since Lightroom Classic has this function. I thought I could add it, but I couldn't. Can someone help me? Thanks