I am finding that The new Nikon NX Studio is very nice to touch up and post process my Nikon D810 files. The package is somewhat basic as it does not have the layers and masking type of settings, but you would not really expect those types of settings in a free software package such as this.
Grasshopper On Miniature Rose
The image below of the Grasshopper on the miniature rose has been captured with a Nikon D810 camera and Nikkor 200mm f/4D Micro lens. The image has been processed in the Nikon NX Studio software as have all the images in this review blog.
I made several modifications to the file using the following:
- “Touch-up”/”Retouch Brush” to tidy up a couple of protruding branches around the edge of the rose petals.
- “Adjust Brightness and Color”/”Color Highlight Protection” to darken the lights on the rose petals.
- “Touch-up”/”Color Control Point” to slightly darken the rose.
- “Touch-up”/”Color Control Point” to very slightly increase the green in the grasshopper.
- I used “Adjust Details,” “Noise Reduction” to reduce any noise in the darker background.
- I used Adjust Details/Sharpness Adjustment/Unsharp Mask to sharpen up the whole image.
Fungi
This image of the Fungi has also been captured with the Nikon D810 and Nikkor 200mm f/4D Micro lens.
- Several blemishes on the fungi have been eliminated using the “Touch-up”/”Retouch Brush” together with a few bright spots in the foreground and background.
- The tops of the fungi have been darkened slightly and the saturation slightly increased using the “Touch-up”/”Color Control Point” tool.
- The background and foreground has been darkened by using the “Touch-up”/”Color Control Point” tool at around five different areas.
- The tops of the fungi have been slightly darkened and also the saturation slightly increased using the “Touch-up”/”Color Control Point” tool.
- I used Adjust Details/Sharpness Adjustment/Unsharp Mask to sharpen up the whole image.
Noisy Miner
The Noisy Miner bird below has been processed with a few different sliders in Nikon NX Studio. The image was captured with the Nikkor 200-500mm f/5.6E lens and the folllowing adjustments were made to the image.
- “Adjust Brightness and Color”/”Color Highlight Protection” has been used to darken some of the foliage around the bird.
- For this image I gave the whole image a boost with the “Color Booster”slider it was not enough to give it an unreal look but enough to make the colors look a little richer.
- I used “Adjust Details,” “Noise Reduction” to reduce any noise over the whole of the image.
- I used Adjust Details/Sharpness Adjustment/Unsharp Mask to sharpen up the whole image.
Sunset Gold Coast, Australia
This sunset image is one of the first images from the reltively new Nikon Z50 Mirrorless camera. It is my wife’s camera and I was just trying it out to see if it could bring out some of the detail in these dark hills in this sunset image. Unfortunately this was not a RAW image as the camera was set to basic JPEG only, but I suppose it is a reasonable test on a JPEG image. I normally set all my cameras to record RAW + JPEG fine for the best results.
- For this image I gave the whole image a boost with the “Color Booster”slider it was not enough to give it an unreal look but enough to make the beautiful tones of the sunset colors look a little richer.
- I used “Adjust Details,” “Noise Reduction” to reduce any noise over the whole of the image.
- I used Adjust Details/Sharpness Adjustment/Unsharp Mask to sharpen up the whole image.
Considering this image was a basic JPEG to start with I am quite happy with it.
Basically it is all about the resulting images, Nikon knows their RAW file structure and they do know how to process their RAW files, so it all looks good.
In general I would recommend this Nikon NX Studio software as a basic post processing package. Keep in mind that it is FREE, it is fairly basic with its limitations (no layers or masking) and it is very good to excellent at processing all Nikon camera images.
If you need any camera gear similar to what I use, I recommend you try B&H on the link below for your purchases.