.NEF Files : Simple process to Edit?

[casademurphy]

I'm just getting started into photography editing and I was wondering if there was someone out there who could point me in the right direction regarding editing .NEF files.

Where do I start? What do I need to do? How can I make the picture sharp? Etc.

I'm just so lost...

 

[Misled]

A NEF file is a RAW image in Nikon format. Do you have photoshop? If not, load the software that came with your camera. I've never used it though, so I can't tell you what it has.

 

[casademurphy]

But for some reason my pictures don't look very crisp. Is there something that needs to be done to .NRF files to sharpen them up?

 

[Misled]

That may be just you. Kinda need to see what you're talking about. Are they tank pics?? Did you use a tripod? Camera? Lens??

 

[BlueCorn]

RAW files NEED processing. If you're not doing anything to them but converting them to JPG then JPG straight out of the camera is going to be sharper.

Download a trial copy of Lightroom for starters.

 

[casademurphy]

Where should I start with photo processing? If you could suggest to process 3 things to get started, what would they be? I'm just trying to get the hang of this.

RAW files NEED processing. If you're not doing anything to them but converting them to JPG then JPG straight out of the camera is going to be sharper.

Download a trial copy of Lightroom for starters.

 

[tyoberg]

Post examples.

The photos should appear fairly sharp to begin with. If they're not sharp in an obvious way, you need to look at what you're doing--use a tripod, appropriate camera settings, etc. Low quality filters certainly won't help image quality.

Sharpening can help a little bit. It's typically the last step in photo editing after adjusting white balance, exposure, levels, cropping, etc.

 

[davidk]

http://www.capturenx.com/en/index.html

Take a look at the video tutorials and you can also try out a trail version for 30 days.

Good luck.

 

[JohnM99]

First, I would not use raw ( .NEF) for very much. Go with jpeg medium - it will not make a noticeable difference for most usage.
If you haven't tried it - download Google's free program Picasa - really useful, nice web posting features. Very practical and quick.
If you want to go into more depth, and end up with say Photoshop, you can take any picture and open it as though it were a raw file and get all the powerful white balance / exposure editing you want.
I really wouldn't use Raw at first - files are too big, can't see them on a lot of viewers, and you just don't need it.

 

[JohnM99]

Also - if you are having to rely on sharpening a lot - you need to focus better, and use an f stop that is not at the extremes.

 

[xtm]

I'm just getting started into photography editing and I was wondering if there was someone out there who could point me in the right direction regarding editing .NEF files.

Where do I start? What do I need to do? How can I make the picture sharp? Etc.

I'm just so lost...

I know I've explained this to you in your previous threads....

Anyways, you need to download ViewNX from NikonUSA.com
It's a free program that does very basic stuff, nothing too advanced.
It has a "folder tree" window, kinda like explorer (windows) or Finder (Mac) you basically browse your NEFs and open them for editing.
You can sharpen, saturate, desaturate, darken, soften, etc.
Finally you can EXPORT the image as JPG. You're done.


clear as mud?

 

[BlueCorn]

Also - if you are having to rely on sharpening a lot - you need to focus better, and use an f stop that is not at the extremes.

Actually that's wrong. To make the capture, your camera sensor actually blurs the image. RAW conversion, whether done in the camera when shooting JPG or on the computer with RAW, needs to address that blurring.

Sharpening doesn't make an out of focus image sharp but it is a very necessary process if you're shooting RAW.