NikonGear'23

Gear Talk => Processing & Publication => Topic started by: MEPER on June 09, 2020, 10:21:19

Title: Flip / mirror an image
Post by: MEPER on June 09, 2020, 10:21:19
I am looking for a function in NX-D that can mirror an image. It does not exist?
It is an old printed image that was processed reversed I want to flip.
Title: Re: Flip / mirror an image
Post by: Birna Rørslett on June 09, 2020, 11:56:24
Photoshop and other imaging processing software have such functionality -- why bother in the RAW converter? Surely, NX-D cannot be the end station for your image.
Title: Re: Flip / mirror an image
Post by: MEPER on June 09, 2020, 12:50:37
So far NX-D has been the end station. Now NX-D has got "color control points" which I liked in NX2.
I used this online app: resizepixel.com to do the mirror.......it seems to work.
Title: Re: Flip / mirror an image
Post by: Birna Rørslett on June 09, 2020, 20:05:00
There must be something here I don't understand. So you are using NX-D to process NEFs to TIFs, then no further processing/editing/resizing etc. is applied? Then the NEF + TIF seem quite overkill and going directly to a jpg made in-camera would suffice.

Correct me if I got the wrong end of the handle on this.
Title: Re: Flip / mirror an image
Post by: Jack Dahlgren on June 09, 2020, 20:28:21
There must be something here I don't understand. So you are using NX-D to process NEFs to TIFs, then no further processing/editing/resizing etc. is applied? Then the NEF + TIF seem quite overkill and going directly to a jpg made in-camera would suffice.

Correct me if I got the wrong end of the handle on this.

Two things. I recommend free IrfanView to do things like flip, resize, batch rename etc. It is quite useful.

Though it may be incomprehensible to Birna, it has been common for me to do simple processing (adjusting framing, colors, exposure etc.) in NX-D and outputting a final jpg. These are better than doing in camera.
95% of my work just requires those basic things, and in-camera jpgs are not sufficient. I expect that more than just MEPER and I have a similar workflow.
Title: Re: Flip / mirror an image
Post by: ColinM on June 09, 2020, 22:44:24
There must be something here I don't understand.
So you are using NX-D to process NEFs to TIFs .....

...going directly to a jpg made in-camera would suffice

Just to add that like MEPER and Jack i shoot in RAW and use NX-D to apply edits, crops, colour control points, resize etc then save a jpg version for posting online, getting prints done etc.

I never get involved in TIFFs.

Very occasionally, i use Adobe tools, but generally keep other PP to a minimum.
Title: Re: Flip / mirror an image
Post by: Matthew Currie on June 09, 2020, 23:53:14
If you just want to flip an already done JPG, Irfanview is probably quickest, since it does so from the initial viewing page.  Other programs with a bit more processing power that also flip include Faststone Image Viewer, Photoscape X Pro, and Raw Therapee.  Faststone works nicely but does not always read Raw files accurately, and if you try shooting in very low key, for example, it will make a mess trying to compensate.
Title: Re: Flip / mirror an image
Post by: Birna Rørslett on June 10, 2020, 01:13:43
--
Though it may be incomprehensible to Birna, it has been common for me to do simple processing (adjusting framing, colors, exposure etc.) in NX-D and outputting a final jpg.  --

Exactly the reason why I asked in the first place. So thanks for the heads-up. It all might boil down to what images subsequently are used for, which for me is submitting to photo library/ies or other clients.
Title: Re: Flip / mirror an image
Post by: Matthew Currie on June 10, 2020, 03:36:18
Exactly the reason why I asked in the first place. So thanks for the heads-up. It all might boil down to what images subsequently are used for, which for me is submitting to photo library/ies or other clients.

If you're ending up with JPG but don't want to compress the file twice, you could save from Capture NX-D in Tiff.  Irfan can read and write nearly any format, except it can't write NEF, so you can wait until the last minute for any compression.

If you do use one of those programs, make sure you have the maximum quality options set.  Irfan and some others have various choices not only for quality but algorithm.
Title: Re: Flip / mirror an image
Post by: MEPER on June 10, 2020, 08:00:56
There must be something here I don't understand. So you are using NX-D to process NEFs to TIFs, then no further processing/editing/resizing etc. is applied? Then the NEF + TIF seem quite overkill and going directly to a jpg made in-camera would suffice.

Correct me if I got the wrong end of the handle on this.

I use NX-D to perform the basic adjustments (from NEF to JPEG).
If NX-D knows the lens it can do some auto-corrections like geometric distorsion / CA. Then I use curves, crop, sharpen and sometimes D-light (if is ofte too "aggressive"). I like that NX-D is a very simple tool, is free and can do the basic editing.

The reason to ask about flip/mirror was that I did some hand hold repro from and old family photo album and one the the old images was processed "mirrored". Then I think I might have overlooked that function in NX-D. Before NX-D I used NX2 and it was a setback when the first version of NX-D was released. But now NX-D has got some nice features as well. It is a bit slow.....but I live with that.
Title: Re: Flip / mirror an image
Post by: MEPER on June 10, 2020, 08:02:12
If you're ending up with JPG but don't want to compress the file twice, you could save from Capture NX-D in Tiff.  Irfan can read and write nearly any format, except it can't write NEF, so you can wait until the last minute for any compression.

If you do use one of those programs, make sure you have the maximum quality options set.  Irfan and some others have various choices not only for quality but algorithm.

Thank you.....I will have a look at Irfan.......have never heard about it! :-)
Title: Re: Flip / mirror an image
Post by: Peter Forsell on June 10, 2020, 10:06:10
FastStone Image Viewer is my favorite quick and nimble image editor — despite the ’viewer’ in its name it has plenty of useful features.
Title: Re: Flip / mirror an image
Post by: John Geerts on June 10, 2020, 18:52:52
FastStone Image Viewer is my favorite quick and nimble image editor — despite the ’viewer’ in its name it has plenty of useful features.
Yes, my favo too. Fast and Usefull.
Title: Re: Flip / mirror an image
Post by: Fons Baerken on June 10, 2020, 19:06:25
1 more for FastStone Image Viewer
Title: Re: Flip / mirror an image
Post by: MEPER on June 10, 2020, 19:19:05
I will have have a look at FastStone also.

If a Nikon lens is used with CPU contacts can these 3rd party image editors perform the same corrections from a RAW image as NX-D can do?
I am thinking of the auto corrections like geometric distortion and CA?

It seems when a new Nikon lens is released there is also an update to NX-D for this purpose?
Title: Re: Flip / mirror an image
Post by: Matthew Currie on June 11, 2020, 00:04:32
I also use Faststone a lot, as it is one of the most versatile programs of its type.

My main complaint about it is that it does read NEF files oddly sometimes.  It tends to over-brighten shots that are purposely dark or low key.

In answer to MEPER's question,  Faststone does not do the same operations on Raw files as the Nikon programs do.  It does a lot, but does not change white balance, exposure comp, etc. in the same way.  But it does do a good job of level correction, and seems to have a better facility for recovering highlights than most programs, including the Nikon ones.

e.t.a. interrupted by dinner, I should mention that you can fine tune the reading of files in Faststone, and it's possible one can get it right with enough effort.  I tend not to be very diligent about color purity, but in recent efforts to do low-key macros with flash, I've found it better to use some other program to do the basic conversion to JPG even if I end up using Faststone in the end for convenient finishing.