Most accurate preview from NEF??

[Les Doerfler]

I am using PM as my main app for sorting through my NEF images before working on them in NX2.

On my first pass through, I am viewing the images at a 1:1 zoomed preview to check sharpness and tag any that don't make the cut.

My concern is that I may delete an image because I think it is not sharp enough when it may well be. Are there any settings I should be looking at to ensure that the zoomed 1:1 preview I see is accurate as far as sharpness goes?

TIA,

Les

[Hayo Baan]

The embedded JPG that the camera produces is quite good in itself and is certainly very usable to judge the sharpness (and other things).

Note: This of course depends on the camera settings in place, if you have turned-off sharpening in the camera, the embedded jpg will have no sharpening either. For this purpose I always shoot with sharpening set to 6. When I then process the files in Cpature NX, I reset this to 0 (i.e., none) and perform my sharpening with an USM edit step.

Another note: processing the NEF through Capture NX, updates the embedded jpg with a high quality jpg which is bigger than the camera embedded one so I reckon has slightly better quality as well. But as I said, the original camera one is certainly good enough as well.

Hope this answers your question,

[Les Doerfler]

Thanks Hayo. I guess the only thing I was not sure about is whether PM used the embedded jpg automatically to display the preview mode or whether there was a setting I needed to make sure that happened.

[rjp]

Thanks Hayo. I guess the only thing I was not sure about is whether PM used the embedded jpg automatically to display the preview mode or whether there was a setting I needed to make sure that happened.

If you are using a mac then yes, there is an important setting you need to set in order to make PM use the embedded JPEG in the NEF file. This is because the mac version has the option of using Apple's built in RAW converter from their OS. You definitely do not want this.

On a PC I don't believe any such option exists.

[Les Doerfler]

rjp - can you point me to where the setting might be located in the preferences. I am on a Mac and I do see the the ability to turn on Apples RAW rendering under the RAW tab in Preferences. I do not have that box currently checked.

Thanks for everyone's help.

[rjp]

rjp - can you point me to where the setting might be located in the preferences. I am on a Mac and I do see the the ability to turn on Apples RAW rendering under the RAW tab in Preferences. I do not have that box currently checked.

Thanks for everyone's help.

That is the setting I am talking about. There may be another setting under one of the other tabs too, perhaps for previews? I forget. Perhaps one of the Camerabits guys will tell you for sure. Just go through each tab and make sure there are no options to render RAW selected and you will be assured of using the embedded JPEG.

[Hayo Baan]

The setting on the RAW preference pane is indeed the only one. Sorry, should've mentioned that one on my first reply I guess for extra clarification. If you use Capture NX to edit your RAWs, you should never check this box as it will render all your edits useless (for previewing).

Cheers.