It’s essentially an organiser and image editor in one. Upon first loading up, Corel had a fairly easy and clear layout, arranged logically. I’ll be testing each one using the same four criteria: exposure tweaking / editing, retouching and sharpening, black and white conversion, and toys and fun filters.
#Nikon capture nx2 vs photoshop elements free#
(Cos, well, we’ve already looked at the free ones.) As a portraiture photographer first and foremost, I decided to take the same, straight out of camera, unedited image and try to get the most out of it using these four different packages: Well read on, budding image makers, for I have tried and tested four different lower-price solutions for you. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to just tidy up those minor niggles that pop into your pictures sometimes? Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to do it without sacrificing central heating and eating nothing but rice and “no frills” tinned tomatoes for a month, just to save up enough money? While this is true, take a portrait of anyone you know who is even the slightest bit vain and your vision of keeping them “just as they are”, complete with dark circles under the eyes from working late and that bit of spinach in the teeth from tonight’s dinner, might not be met with the standing ovation you were expecting.
Now I admit, you can end up getting a bit OCD about image editing (see first paragraph). Y’know, I think her hair is a slightly darker shade of red than that OH GOD IT’S WRONG IT’S ALL WRONG. And she won’t thank you for that bit of hair she has on her lip there. It’s a shame about that big spot on her chin though.
I say “reasonably” because, well, as opposed to paying $40 a month for the for liquid-smooth performance of Photoshop CC? That breaks down to a savings of $1.30 a day.Wow, that’s a really nice picture. And as far as the few seconds of delay goes, I usually nail a good 90 per cent of my exposures anyway, so there’s very little guesswork involved with my adjustments, and so the delay ultimately is reasonably minimal. You know, for a program that cost me nothing, that’s pretty damned good. In today’s photo, I am underexposed against an egregiously overexposed sky.Ĭapture NX-D recovered more detail in the sky (and exposed my face without noise) than Photoshop CC.
What was most interesting, however, was the performance in detail recovery. What it doesn’t offer, which Photoshop RAW does, is in-browser options for dodge and burn, and creating an exposure gradient – easily done with any old paint program, or in my case my CS6 edition of Photoshop. Perspective correction, tilting, rotation, cropping, lens correction, exposure recovery – it’s all there in NX-D just slower.
An adjustment to any of the sliders takes 2-3 seconds to appear in the preview panel, whereas Photoshop users will be accustomed to the change happening in real-time. RAW processing on Capture NX-D is a slower-clunkier affair. So, knowing that you get what you pay for, I was automatically prepared for disappointment. The first thing to note about Nikon’s Capture NX-D is that it’s free.
#Nikon capture nx2 vs photoshop elements upgrade#
That means I either have to upgrade to Adobe’s monthly subscription service on Adobe CC (which I am fundamentally against) or find an alternative. I used to do all of my RAW processing through Photoshop CS6, but unfortunately it doesn’t support Nikon’s new D850 RAW files. I had my first opportunity to put the RAW processing capabilities of Adobe Photoshop CC against Nikon Capture NX-D today. Day 85: Adobe Photoshop CC vs Nikon Capture NX-D