Image Adjustment

Curves

Although your Nikon digital camera will reproduce colors accurately if settings have been adjusted appropriately, it will usually be necessary to adjust contrast, tone (brightness) levels, and color balance to make maximum use of the tone range and color gamut offered by a particular output device, such as a printer or monitor. Nikon Capture offers two tools for performing these tasks: the Color Balance palette (see “Color Balance” later in this chapter) and the Curves palette. Of the two, the Curves palette offers the more precise control. The Color Balance palette is useful when, for example, you want to adjust brightness or color balance for all pixels in the image. The Curves palette, in contrast, allows adjustments to be made to specific portions of the tone range, making it possible to enhance the image while preserving detail.

Curves—an Overview

To view the Curves palette, select the tool palette containing the Curves palette from the View menu (the default location for the Curves palette is Tool Palette 1) and click the triangle at the top left corner of the palette. To enable the tools in the Curves palette, turn the Apply button on ().

Apply button

Current channel

Histogram button

Auto Contrast button

White Point button

Midpoint button

Curve edit display

Black Point button

Tone Curve Point button

Reset Active Curve

Reset All Curves

The main editing tool in the Curves palette is the curve edit display, which contains a curve showing the relationship between input (the tones in the original image) and output (how the tones in the input will be represented in the final image). Separate curves control the relationship between input and output for the image as a whole (the “master curve”) and for each of the red, green, and blue color components, or “channels.” The default curve in each case is linear, meaning that tones will be output exactly as they are input.

Opening NEF Files Saved in Nikon Capture 3.5x or Earlier

In Nikon Capture 4, changes to color balance apply before changes to curves In earlier versions of Nikon Capture, changes to curves applied before changes to color balance, with the result that settings may change when the images saved in Nikon Capture 3.5x or earlier are opened in Nikon Capture 4.

Preferences > Advanced Color

Auto contrast, shadow, and highlight settings can be adjusted in the Advanced Color tab of the Prefer- ences dialog.

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Nikon 4 user manual Curves-an Overview, Opening NEF Files Saved in Nikon Capture 3.5x or Earlier