Capture NX2 users, come help out a new user

[wkteoh]

Hello all,

I have just started using Capture NX2 for post-processing. As some of you know, the interface is not that straightforward at times (esp. in view of me being used to Paint.NET).

My plan is to update this first post to keep a list of questions (resolved and unresolved) and the answers (provided by fellow CS-ers or by self-discovery) so that it might be helpful to others as well.

Ok here goes:

[Unresolved]
Is there any way to turn Plus Selection Control Points into Minus Selection Control Points?
- Say I used several Plus Selection Control Points to increase saturation of selected parts of the image. Now I want to blur out everything except those parts. Achieving the above would make the operation very convenient.

[Resolved]
Is there a way to keep all the adjustment steps applied even as you edit an earlier step?
Solution: Check the box "Keep all steps active..." under Preferences > General

Is there any way to paste a picture on top of the current picture?
- An example of application is when you want to export an image to an external program for noise reduction (I find Capture NX2 NR to be inadequate) then say, overlay the NR'ed image atop of your current image; my rationale: exporting the image as TIFF and just post-processing the TIFF would mean abandoning the edit steps prior to NEF-TIFF conversion.
Solution: Not supported in NX2.

 

[Squid]

Is there any way to paste a picture on top of the current picture?
- An example of application is when you want to export an image to an external program for noise reduction (I find Capture NX2 NR to be inadequate) then say, overlay the NR'ed image atop of your current image; my rationale: exporting the image as TIFF and just post-processing the TIFF would mean abandoning the edit steps prior to NEF-TIFF conversion.

Nikon CaptureNX and CaptureNX2 are not built to accept multiple images during processing like generic image manipulation programs. One image is processed at one time. CaptureNX2's steps are actually "effect" overlays.

Generic image manipulation programs' masks and brushes are handle by these functions in CaptureNX and CaptureNX2:

• Selection Control Point tool
• Lasso and Marquee tool
• Brush Selection tool
• Gradient Fill tool and
• Fill or Remove tool

User may custom varying degree of noise reduction at different parts of the image by having several noise reduction steps with varying degree of noise reduction intensity and sharpening with each noise reduction steps controlled by the tools mentioned in above list in combination with the opacity setting of each steps.

 

[wkteoh]

Thanks for the reply Squid. I guess it's a "no" to my question. I think noise reduction using the methods you described above would not work very well with processing bird pictures at 100% size where keeping fine feather details is crucial.