Nikon Capture NX

Photo answers review

Photo answers rating

The Control Points are the main feature of Nikon’s Capture NX, so it’s reassuring to find they are actually incredibly simply to use and understand. Just place one (with a single mouse click) on a particular colour and you have control over that area of colour. You can change hue, saturation, brightness, contrast, red, green, blue and warmth by sliding the relevant control. It’s really that simple. If that doesn’t quite cover the whole area you want, you can adjust the selection easily or simply add another Control Point. They are intelligent, too, so don’t clash with each other at all. If you want to get really advanced, you can start to use layer masks and a host of other features that will help you improve your RAW files.

The good news for photographers who use Photoshop too is that the majority of shortcuts are the same, so you don’t have to learn all new key commands to improve your workflow. Unfortunately though, there aren’t enough shortcuts to make it really easy and many of the options you will use regularly require quite a few clicks before you get going. All of the controls and features are on palettes that can be docked, minimised, or freely positioned where you would like them. Capture NX fills the needs that many photographers have regarding RAW files, and will certainly improve your pictures.

While the results may be stunning and the technology fantastic, how quickly and easily you can use it is a little lacking. Just as with Nikon Capture before it, the emphasis is more on sorting out one picture, than quickly processing several. You can batch images but it doesn’t have the same ease as just doing one. One handy feature is that images can be resaved as NEF RAW files again. To finish, you can either save as JPEG or TIFF or simply export to another editing application like Photoshop. To run the application well, you will definitely need at least the recommended system requirements, especially when dealing with high-resolution camera files.

NX isn’t supplied as standard with Nikon cameras for the simple answer that it’s probably a bit too confusing for basic users. At £119 it’s not cheap, but it’s well worth the cash. Capture NX offers almost total control over NEF RAW files, leaving non-Nikon photographers jealously gazing at this superb RAW converter.