RAW editing(NEF files)

Hello eveyone. I don't post very often but I'm here every once in a while. I want to start editing my NEF files but I'm not really sure where to start. Well, that's not exactly true. I would like to but Photoshop CS3 but that isn't going to happen anytime soon. I do have Nikon Picture Project and Corel Painshop Pro X2. I know the corel program has some editing capabilities but I'm not finding any white balance adjustment feature and that's kind of what I often would like to do. Anyway, anyone have any suggestions(besides learning to shoot better photo's)? I'm definitely an amateur but I really want to produce the best photo's that I can with my camera.

Gregg

I shoot Nikon Raw NEFS exclusivly.

I use all 3 of Nikons main programs in my workflow.

I downloaded Nikon's free Nikon Transfer application, which is more robust than Picture Project for transfering from the card to the computer.

I Downloaded Nikon's free ViewNX to preview and rate the pictures. It also does some easy quick editing for when I want to turn around pics quickly.

My main editing software is Nikon's CaptureNX2. It is an awesome raw converter. It does 90+% of what CS3 does at 1/3 the cost ($189 vs $600+). Unlike CS3, it is non-destructive.........you can undo anything you do in the pic itself. Unlike CS3, it recognizes all of your Nikon In-camera settings, so your starting point is what you would have gotten out of the camera.

The downside of it, if you are used to CS3 is that it's User interface takes some getting used to and it is slower in doing batch processing of large quantities of pictures.

Jason Odell has a great e-book on using it to it's max. http://www.luminescentphoto.com/nx2guide.html


It's not perfect, but for a large % of users it's the perfect balance between features and cost....IMO.

Len

I don't have that many programs but Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 works quite well.