ole kvaal schreef:

PSE5 will do. I use it also with my Nikon D40.
Nikon Capture is more expensive and is a totally different kind of
program. It has a totally different interface then I was used to work with.

My advice with PSE5-CameraRaw:
Don't do too much when you convert your  NEF to JPEG.
Only White balance, exposure (may be some tone correction if really
necessary) NO sharpness at this point !!

In PSE5 you can do the rest. My workaround :
1) Levels  (Ctrl-L)  move the sliders left and right towards te
beginning/end of your Histogram.
   If your Histogram is already from the total beginning till the end :
   leave the sliders alone !

3) If necessary some Color enhancements

3) Shadow/highlight  (not too much Highlight !)
   Mover your midtones contrast a little up (visual control)

4) May be some Brightness  (NO Contrast here !!)

5) Now make a new layer an select this one.

6) NOW Contrast-enhancement with Unsharp Mask (!!!)
   - amount 15 %
   - Radius 25 pix
   -Treshold 0
   With Opacity-slider of this layer move back to say 50-60%
   (visual control : see before/after)

7) Merge the two layers

8) Sharpness : make a new layer and select this one.
   -Go to Filter => Other => High Pass
   -Set radius to 1 or 2 or even 3 pixels  (different for each picture)
   -OK
   -Set Blending Mode to Overlay
   -Set Picture View to 100%  (important to see what you are doing)
   -With Opacity-slider of this layer move back to say 40% .
    Be carefull not sharpening too much (visual control)

9) Merge the to layers

10 Save as JPEG (Quality 11)

-=Rob

Capture NX gives you a free 30 day trial so I'd say install it and try it
out and see if you prefer this or PSE.

I'd say that PSE is mainly aimed at post processing and NX more at RAW
conversion.  I was not that keen on the RAW conversion utility that comes
with PSE (ACR plugin) as it did not seem to get the colours quite as good as
NX, and since I don't tend to post-process beyond the RAW conversion stage
then NX suits me fine.   If I did more post processing I would probably
convert using NX then import as a TIFF into PSE (or even CS3) for further
processing.

NX is not that good for browsing your NEFS, so I'd recommend using Nikon
View for this (freely downloadable from Nikon's website).

cheers adrian www.boliston.co.uk

Capture probably does a little better job of raw conversion (Nikon
should know how to convert their own files) but I just don't like the
interface or performance (Nikon is a camera maker not a software
company) and then you still need PSE or something to do editing like
cropping, straightening out the horizon, cloning out gunk, etc. Capture
isn't an editor. I like the raw conversion interface in Photoshop & it
opens up ready to clean up in the editor. The one nifty feature of
Capture is remote control by USB cable... kind of an obscure trick but I
had fun with it for a while.

I shoot RAW plus fine jpeg... often the jpeg doesn't need editing & the
RAW file is just there in case you want to do a big enlargement or the
white balance, exposure or contrast needs adjustment. I only keep the
RAW files for the images I cull out to be worthy of possible future
refinement. I sort the jpegs into a 'seconds' folder & don't delete
unless it's really awful.

I've got an earlier version of Elements (PS3) and a copy of CaptureNX.
There are a lot of things that Elements can do that you cannot
accomplish in CaptureNX.  I like PSE3 because this version was before
Adobe closed the interface that allowed easy access to features that
were "hidden" such as curves, and such.  The downside is the newer
versions of ACR won't run on it, but that is OK because my cameras are
compatible with the latest version of ACR that runs on PSE3.

I'm certain I'm going to get lambasted, but here is my opinion.
Unless you are going to get the Nikon Camera Control software in
addition to CaptureNX, I would select PSE5.  My reasoning behind this
is the Nikon Camera Control allows you to upload custom curves to the
camera which allow the user to tweak the camera response to the users
desire.  The downside to these curves is the only software to utilize
them is Nikon Capture and CaptureNX.  You can get very good NEF
translation from PSE5.

I happen to like CaptureNX a LOT because it's user interface is
different than the Photoshop standard.  I was never really able to
make PSE3 sing, but I can make CaptureNX dance.

It really depends on what you are trying to do.

Good luck
===========================================================================
Chris