Nikon Capture NX2

Lightroom has been my Raw convertor of choice since it was first released and I have found on the whole to be happy with its workflow. However there has always been a part of me that just didn't really like the way it dealt with files and more importantly the way it dealt with Nikon raw files.

So I set myself a target of finding a new and better raw convertor, or should I say better for me. I downloaded trial versions of most of the top raw software packages including Aperture, Capture One and many more.

Well I am please to say that after much testing and changes to my entire workflow process I have made the move over to Nikon Capture NX.

It should have really come as no great surprise that Nikon software deals with Nikon files the best. I can say from my testing Capture NX brings things out of the Nikon files I had not even seen when using lightroom and some of the other software packages.

I am sure Lightroom will be a big part of my life for a long time to come, and if I was a Canon user then lightroom would still be my convertor of choice. Most of my training clients seem to shoot with Canon cameras so there will be a big need to keep my Lightroom skills up to speed.

I have gone back and re worked a few images and will possible look at doing more reworks over the coming weeks and months.

As part of the workflow review we have also made a few changes to our computer equipment and software packages.

My main image editing computer is now a 27" iMac Quad Core with 8GB of RAM. Our very old and long serving Mac Book Pro has been replaced with a superb new 15" i7 4GB new version.

In terms of software As mentioned Nikon Capture Nx2 is the main Raw convertor now supported by a new version of Photoshop CS5 which is proving to be a very worthy upgrade from my old CS3

The learning curve with the new software has been very easy to be honest, but a lot of time has been spent looking at better ways of backing up data and archiving our ever growing stock catalogue of images. The bank of 1TB hard drives is now six deep.

I will let you know how the new equipment and software performs in the long term, but for now its back to more post production.