I am an advanced user of Photoshop and started with CS working my way to CS4 Extended, so I have a lot of experience with the interface and all the features. There are many people in this forum that swear by Photoshop and LR and you can easily get into the kind of arguments you get between Apple and Windows users. So despite my extensive years of experience with Photoshop and my skill level with it I now use NX2. For some it is the cost as Photoshop is much more expensive than NX2. For those who don't use NX2, they are looking for a better catalogue tool and non destructive tools so like LR. For people who have never used Photoshop, learning it can be daunting, where without a preconceived notion of what an interface should be, find NX2 intuitive and easy to learn 9a few hours). Will NX2 do everything Photoshop can do? Not by a long shot. But what NX2 can do that Photoshop can't is read and change all your camera settings after the fact. While Adobe has come out with presets that SIMULATE the Nikon Picture Control setting pretty well, they are not the actual readings. If you use Photoshop it cannot read any of Nikon's RAW data other than WB. So if you have purchased a next Gen camera like a D300, a D700 or a D3, many of the new settings you paid for are useless to you. for example setting Auto Direct lighting in the camera actually changes the RAW file, by first lowering exposure and secondly actually moving highlight and shadow data via a Nikon algorithm. Only NX2 knows how to apply the algorithm to retrieve the data accurately. When you open a RAW file in NX2 all of the camera controls you set are read and applied to the RAW file so you see what you saw on the LCD display. You can decide to change WB, color Controls, ADL, DL, black and white points, etc. It is all changable. Adobe not knowing the settings applies their own interpretation, and get fairly close, but you will usually wind up doing more things in an Adobe product to get to the point you start in NX2. As another example NX2 will automatically correct lens distortion. It will automatically defish a fisheye. You don't have to learn how to use layers because U-point is so powerful it makes masks for you. I started using NX2 in ernest when I realized I could process my RAW image to completion in a minute or two where I would have had to do much more work with the image in Photoshop and I also would need more skill. In NX2 all your changes are non destructive and are saved in the file and not in a side car. But if you are doing HDR or pano's or blending multiple images NX2 won't do that and you will need Photoshop. I suggest you download the trail version of NX2 and be prepared to be amazed.

Bob Baldassano
My Nikonians Gallery

"Nikonians membership - My most important photographic investment, after the
camera"

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