Real World Nikon Capture Nx [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

After enduring several publishing delays, I eagerly dove into Ben Long's book on Nikon Capture NX when it was released. Signals of the disappointment coming appeared with the first words in the book, as Long states, "If you had asked me a year ago if I would ever end up writing a book on Nikon Capture, I would have probably laughed and said, `Uh, I doubt anyone will ever write a book on Nikon Capture.'" In fact Long was wrong because Jason Odell had his eBook on the market before Long's appeared.

Long goes on to say that among the fairly unquestionable photography rules is that "image editing programs made by camera vendors are always far inferior to standalone image editors." Although Long tries to mitigate this statement by explaining that Nikon enlisted the aid of nik Multimedia in improving the latest version of Capture, he doesn't change the reader's impression that he is not an admirer of NX--damnation by faint praise is his forte.

Regardless of his personal opinion, Long should realize that readers of this book believe that NX is of importance to them, or else they would not be willing to buy a supplement to the Nikon User's Manual in order to fully utilize the program's features. His attitude really surprised me as I have purchased several other books in the Real World series, and they have always been superlative.

Despite expressed contempt for NX, Long does handle some topics well, but his lack of enthusiasm is clearly evident in other parts of the book. The chapter coverage comprises:

Introduction

Basic Theory

Interface and Basic Workflow

Preparing to Edit

Basic Image Editing

Advanced Image Editing

Version Control and Batch Processing

Output

Long offers some meaty, well-done sections, which discuss selection brushes, control points, high pass filter, facial retouching, and contact sheet printing. Unfortunately, the remainder of the book slides downward from there. Long wastes 31 pages on basic theory of digital photography. While mine may be a minority opinion, I think that users of NX will know the basic workings of a digital camera, the difference between JPEG and RAW, and how to read a histogram. If they don't, their camera manual will provide that information. He also wastes a number of pages on workflow descriptions that are so elementary that they are useless, along with the tried and true admonitions to profile your monitor and use color management.

A comparison of Long's book with the Nikon User's Manual is enlightening:

Long

-Page count: 230

-Photos: Color

-Summary/appendix: None

Nikon

-Page count: 233

-Photos: B&W

-Summary/appendix: Short-cuts, RGB Profiles Supplied, Advisories & Additional Notices

Throughout his book, Long merely steps through each of the menus and dialogs in a manner much like the Nikon manual, except that Long repeats the material. I lost count of the number of times he tells the reader that NX can only process RAW images if they are from a Nikon camera. His coverage is incomplete. He assumes that the reader is knowledgeable all of the File menu items, because he talks about only a few, and the Help menu is skipped entirely. Among the topics not covered are:

Red-eye control point

Linking enhancements

Swapping enhancements

Definitions of blending modes

Shortcut keys (with a few minor exceptions)

Preferences (except for grid)

Long prefers to use detailed adjustments instead of the base adjustments, which may be more a matter of preference than a real advantage. He, however, fails to point out that detail adjustments cannot be modified using selective tools.

Every NX user can plow through the Nikon manual and learn the basic menu and dialog operations without Long's book, which does the same. What Long should have provided was how to put these operations together to accomplish photographic effects, which the Nikon manual reader may not be able to figure out alone. Some possibilities might include how to achieve the look of certain types of film (such as Kodachrome), or even how he made the hand colored/tinted photo he shows in the book (with no instructions on how to copy the effect).

Overall, Long's book offers little new to NX users that is not already covered (often more completely) in the manual.

My first impression was received when I picked up the Amazon.com box and felt how light it was. This CAN'T be it. I'm used to the REAL WORLD series containing very thick and detailed books. I was surprised by the 220 page book, and felt that $35 was probably a little steep, but looked on the bright side - a 220p book is a heck of a lot easier to tote around than a 400p bible. I put my impressions aside and dug in.

Ben divides the book into 8 chapters: 1) Intro; 2) Basic Theory; 3) Interface & Basic Workflow; 4) Preparing to Edit; 5) Basic Image Editing; 6) Advanced Image Editing; 7) Version Control and Batch Processing; 8) Output.

Basic Theory is a quick intro to terms like Raw, jpeg, white balance, non-destructive editing, and it walks the beginner through reading a histogram. The Interface & Basic Workflow chapter introduces users to the NX toolbars and defines the steps in a basic workflow as: Importing, culling, adding metadata, sorting, editing for "picks", outputting and archiving. Ben gives a brief description of each, such as "you can import your images directly from your camera using a cable connection to your computer. Nothing new here, and it has very little to do with Capture NX. However, this could serve as an informative overview for someone just beginning digital photography.

Chapter 4, preparing to edit, is a basic (very basic) overview of color management. This is, again, geared toward the beginner, and not very specific to Capture NX. It doesn't go deep, but this is a book about NX, not Color Management. So, about 75 pages into the manual we finally get into Chapter 5 and editing with NX.

In Chapter 5, Ben walks us through his recommended sequence of edits: Geometric corrections, remove color casts, adjust tone & contrast, perform color correction, final tweaks, sharpen for output. He introduces us to the tools used to make the edits and does a good job of clarifying the difference between Base Adjustments and Edit Steps and why (whenever possible) Edit Steps should be used instead of Base Adjustments. Rotating, straightening, cropping, flipping and resizing are covered, as are auto levels, auto color, and levels and curves. While most of this book is geared toward the beginner, I didn't feel that there was enough of an explanation within the levels and curves section to give a solid understanding to the beginner. If you are looking to learn NX levels and curves, you are probably better consulting a Photoshop book like REAL WORLD PHOTOSHOP CS2 and taking that understanding to the NX curves tool.

In all, I was pretty disappointed by the depth of the material. This book spends too much time teaching you how to do basic things like rotate and crop (if you can't figure out how to do this yourself, you are in trouble) and doesn't spend enough time discussing techniques like how to sharpen in NX. In fact, Ben glosses over image sharpening in about two pages by giving a brief definition of Intensity, radius, and threshold, but not mentioning how he uses these three settings to create sharper images for the web or print output.

In Advanced Editing, Ben walks through creating masks for image edits, and through color control points. Finally, the Batch Processing and Output chapters look at these features within Capture NX. Note: I've found batch processing to be very slow, but the book offers no hints on how to speed it up.

In all, I was disappointed with the content. There aren't many books available on Capture NX and it would have been great to have a comprehensive bible around this tool. Unfortunately, this book is more like an expanded version of the Nikon (Nik) manual and offers little new material to someone who has played with Capture NX and knows a little about photo editing.

Other notably missing topics are: Optimizing your PC to use NX, troubleshooting NX, any tips & tricks, creating templates or sets. Overall, for a very good software product, this is a disappointing guide.

I had been waiting for the release of this book for some time in the belief that it would help me get in to Capture NX to a greater degree than the manual had. Unfortunately, this book is superficial and, on the whole, disappointing (although I will admit to learning a few things I didn't know before).

It would have greatly benefited from an accompanying CD-ROM so that you could work directly on the computer on the same images from the book. Reading the book and then turning to the program and trying to duplicate a lesson with one of your own images is too fractured a teaching process.