Board index Photography Technical Questions nef

Technical Questions

nef

Discuss technical aspects of photography
jimva
 
Posts: 26

nef

Post Tue Aug 11, 2009 1:07 am


How do I upload nef files. I tried one and it was to large?

prinothcat
 
Posts: 662

Re: nef

Post Tue Aug 11, 2009 1:31 am


Simple answer is that you cannot upload a .nef file. You need to convert them to .jpg, as .nef is Nikons native file format. It's how they name RAW images. For more info google search RAW converters, also read the manual that came with the camera. It shoiuld tell you how to convert .nef to jpg. The easiest option is to shoot .jpg in camera. If you're into complete control over your image, you start with RAW (.nef) and work it through Photoshop or something similar to get the image you desire. There are entire websites and publications devoted to that end of photography.

jimva
 
Posts: 26

Re: nef

Post Tue Aug 11, 2009 10:47 am


Thanks! I do convert from RAW to JPEG in the camera but I lose some quality. For instance a blue sky will turn turqouise. The sky usaully is behind some trees so it does not dominate the background. Any help is appreciated. Also I am trying to learn how to obtain better images when shooting birds against a blue sky. I pretty much get a shilouette.

prinothcat
 
Posts: 662

Re: nef

Post Wed Aug 12, 2009 12:09 am


jimva wrote:Thanks! I do convert from RAW to JPEG in the camera but I lose some quality. For instance a blue sky will turn turqouise. The sky usaully is behind some trees so it does not dominate the background. Any help is appreciated. Also I am trying to learn how to obtain better images when shooting birds against a blue sky. I pretty much get a shilouette.

OK sky changing colors is off the wall. I've never seen anything like that in my experience.... but stranger things have been known to happen. Are you setting a white balance or are you letting the camera do it for you? How much of the image is in your control and how much are you placing in the hands of the camera? Without knowing what experience you have and your background in digital, I would suggest that you play with the white balance, as well as the contrast settings on the camera, until your colors come around to what you want. I shoot Large Fine .jpgs with my D-200, and get images that come out as I visualized them with out any extensive computer work (post processing). I've never played around with RAW (.nef) image data, I just don't want to spend the time. If I did, I would (and do) shoot film. If you continue to shoot RAW, you want to learn about RAW converters for your computer. These are stand alone software packages that interpret the RAW image, which is simple the data collected by the sensor with no information on how it should be rendered in to an image. You set the converter to make the data look like you visualized the photo in the field. Then you get to learn Photoshop or one of it's clones, to finish the process.
There are a number of Birders here, that can improve your bird photos, but basically shooting anything small on a large blue sky backdrop is going to give you a silhouette. To minimize this you will want to experiment with the metering options on your camera. Also experiment with Bracketing, and pay attention to which exposure values give you the results you want. Basically you are going to be looking to add a stop or maybe more to the exposure. This will over expose the sky, but render the silhouette as a bird and not a black spot. The best solution is to find birds that are roosting away form the sky of course.

hope this is useful,
Chris

jimva
 
Posts: 26

Re: NEF

Post Wed Aug 12, 2009 11:28 am


Chris, thanks for your time. I have been shooting film recreationally along with a point and shoot small digitial for a while. I very recently decided to enter the digitial realm where (as you can tell) I am in a steep learning curve. I am pursuing this on a more serious level. I will be setting the white balance myself for the conditions as I have been letting the camera (Nikon D90) do to much of the work which will not help me learn. Again thanks for your very helpful advise. I plan on using it.

Lots to Learn

ssim
 
Posts: 75

Re: nef

Post Wed Aug 12, 2009 5:05 pm


I am not a Nikon shooter but know many of them and they don't have issues with white balance on any of their cameras. If you are in a steep learning curve and plan on setting your white balance each time, you are going to have to check this in different lighting conditions. I have worked in pretty much nothing but AWB for years and have never had an issue. I would check to make sure that you have not set any jpg processing parameters in your camera that would make this sky issue happen. Better yet, shoot RAW and convert. Unfortunately I don't think that Nikon has any sort of RAW converter so you will have to choose one of the many that are available. I honestly can't see this as a camera issue but it has been known. I would first start by resetting your camera to factory defaults and see what happens and then use some of the suggestions given in this thread.

jimva
 
Posts: 26

Re: nef

Post Wed Aug 12, 2009 6:38 pm


ssim I appreciate your response. I am relatively new in the digital world and perhaps I got in over my head by shooting RAW without a good understanding of what takes to work in that setting. This evening I am going back to basics by checking my factory defaults, shoot jpeg fine and enjoy myself. Thanks for the advise.

prinothcat
 
Posts: 662

Re: nef

Post Wed Aug 12, 2009 11:40 pm


I'm going to throw out one more thing to look at and then leave you to do some experimenting. I was reading another thread, and it made me think of this. What color profile (color space ) is your camera set to? The choices are AdobeRGB and sRGB for Nikon (based on the color space options in the menu of my D-200). You want to make sure your camera and all of your viewing and editing software as well as your computer monitor are using the same profile. This only affects .jpg images since you would set this option when you convert RAW's. The web standard is sRGB, and many apps will misrepresent colors if they are trying to render an AdobeRGB in sRGB space, and vice versa. Finally, your monitor and printer settings will affect the rendering of color, so I'm thinking the turquoise sky may not be in camera rather in the rendering by your monitor or printer (you didn't say which you were viewing..). So in conclusion, I second resetting your camera to factory defaults, and use that as a basis for further trials. Then make sure your monitor and all of your image rendering software is using the same color profile. Lastly, remember that anything you upload to the web needs to be in sRGB colorspace. Anything else will not display correctly.
To think you thought all you had to do was figure out the camera.... :) It's actually not all that complicated, it just takes some diligence.

Shoot some images, play with em, post em and really just have some fun...
Best of luck, Chris

jimva
 
Posts: 26

Re: nef

Post Thu Aug 13, 2009 11:51 am


Thank you for all the very useful info! I did reset the factory settings in the camera. Colorspace is set sRBG as is the case with the 60 day trial version of Nikon Nx2 I have been checking out. The monitor appears fine. I did edit a few raw images and they came out fine or should I say jpeg fine. I will put this down as human error and move on. Once again your time is appreciated!


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