Nikon D3 and Adobe Camera Raw

[Driftwood]

I have spent the last couple of weeks playing with my new D3. (Woohoo! - )

Sorry ...... got carried away there for a minute.

I have noticed something that I hope somebody can help me with.

Firstly I am shooting in Raw.
Images I shot yesterday (for example) at a camera club awards evening showed good exposure on the camera histograms, with only a few very small areas of burnt out highlights (Reflections from trophies etc.) The screen image also looked good.

However, when I opened the files in Adobe Camera Raw the preview showed much larger areas of burnt out highlights.
The default settings in ACR were Brightness +50, Contrast +25, with the curve set to "Medium contrast".
I reset the contrast and brightness settings to zero, and the areas shown as burnt out decreased significantly but were still much bigger than shown on the Camera Histogram and highlight warning.

There is plenty of detail available in the highlighted areas as I can easily pull back detail by reducing the exposure setting in ACR. I don't think this should be necessary though.

Opening the file in Capture NX gives highlight warnings much closer to the camera histograms.

Has anyone else noticed this with the D3 and ACR, and can anyone offer any opinions as to why I am seeing this difference.

Grateful for any help and advice you can offer.

[cyclohexane]

Has anyone else noticed this with the D3 and ACR, and can anyone offer any opinions as to why I am seeing this difference.

Capture NX uses the same algorithims as the camera's "EXPEED" (yay marketing) image processing engine, and therefore gets the best optimal quality from the files.

Adobe Camera RAW doesn't convert files as well as most of the RAW software options available from individual camera manufacturers. Sometimes your "As-shot" WB will be off.

Also, if you're shooting below ISO 200, at say, ISO 100 (Lo 1.0) the camera takes what is essentially ISO 200 data and runs a bit of voodoo processing with in-camera highlight recovery to get you your final image. Nikon Capture NX automatically optimizes this for you when you open the file, but ACR isn't nearly as good at it, if it does it at all.

[Driftwood]

Well I noticed the effect initially on shots taken at ISO 3200 so it isn't the second item you mentioned.

I have been making comparisons and I think I am going to have to begin using Capture NX.
I am not sure about the colour balance at the moment, tending to prefer the white Balance displayed by ACR. Though I am not familiar with Capture NX yet so it might need a bit of tweaking.

Overall though, NX does seem to be giving better results straight out of the camera than ACR does.

Unfortunately it means I am going to have to learn Capture NX and alter my workflow.

aaah well!

Thanks for the reply.

I would still be grateful for other opinions and anyone elses experience of using the D3 with ACR.

[cyclohexane]

Also, try turning down the midtones a little. The D3 and D300 push up the midtones a ton by default, though it shouldn't affect what you see when you open a NEF in ACR.

Unfortunately it means I am going to have to learn Capture NX and alter my workflow.

Capture NX used to be slow as molasses and incredibly-counterintuitive; I gave up on it and switched to Capture One LE for my NEF processing for a while before returning to a combination of ACR and Capture NX. Then I ended up working at a paper which pretty much only uses JPEGs, so right now I'm shooting very little RAW. I guess I don't feel like having multiple workflows...

[blumesan]

Originally Posted by Driftwood

The default settings in ACR were Brightness +50, Contrast +25, with the curve set to "Medium contrast".
I reset the contrast and brightness settings to zero, and the areas shown as burnt out decreased significantly but were still much bigger than shown on the Camera Histogram and highlight warning.

Did you try to reset the curve to linear. That adjustment is the most likely candidate for causing some of the highlights to blow out.

Your experience is unusual in that it is much more frequent to see blown out areas in the in camera histogram which turn out to be well within the range when viewed in ACR.

I wonder if something can be done with the camera calibration function in ACR that will bring it more in line with what you see in the in-camera histogram.

Cheers/Mike

[D.Rodgers]

I've noticed highlight issues with the d300 thought it was just me.
I still work with ACR the work flow in NX closer to the camera but too slow for me .