5 Easy Steps for Lightroom's Lens Corrections

After I published the RAW (NEF) File Rendering Comparison post here back in March, when I discussed how well Nikon's Capture NX2 and Adobe's Lightroom 4 render RAW image files, I posted my “findings” on the LinkedIn Nikon Photographers and Adobe Lightroom User Group groups. The replies, especially from the Lightroom group, were very enlightening.

Apparently Capture NX2 automatically applies certain lens corrections, at least for Nikkor lenses. The Camera & Lens Corrections panel provides lots of options for making additional corrections, i.e.,

Lightroom also provides functionality for these corrections – you just need to know how to apply them.

Here's how:
In Lightroom’s Develop module use the Lens Corrections panel to correct perspective and other lens flaws.

1. At the top of the panel, click Profile.


2. Select the Make, Model and Profile for one of your lenses, and then check Enable Profile Corrections.

3. Click Color.


4. Check Remove Chromatic Aberration. (You can mess about with the settings if you like, but that may not be necessary.)

5. From the Presets panel on the left, click +. Type a Preset Name, e.g., Nikkor 18-200, select the Settings you want to include in the new preset, e.g., Lens Profile Corrections and Chromatic Aberration, then click Create.

You can now apply the preset when you import new images (use the Apply During Import panel) or when you use the Develop module to work with individual images captured with that lens.

NX2 does a much better job of reporting camera settings at the time of capture, at least for Nikon bodies. However, given everything else that Lightroom does for me, it is all I use these days. From what I have seen of the new Advanced Healing Brush, I'm about to upgrade to Lightroom 5 for that feature alone.
Happy correcting!

RAW (NEF) File Rendering Comparison

A recent post on the Nikon Photographers LinkedIn group asked for opinions about the merits of Adobe Lightroom (LR) versus Nikon Capture NX2 (NX). A number of replies to the post suggested that NX produces the best results.

As a long-time user of NX and a relatively recent and reluctant adopter of LR, I decided that it was time for me to do some tests of my own.

About the Tests
For the test I used a couple of images from our visit to South Africa last year taken with my D7000 and my AF-S Zoom-Nikkor ED 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF DX VR.

First I opened the the same RAW (NEF) image in both applications. Next I created a TIF from each application. Finally I used NX to enlarge and crop the TIFs and then create the JPGs.

Test Results
Here's the NX JPG:

And here's the LR JPG:

When I viewed the NEF in LR at 100% I noticed the green fringing around the text on the sign.

When I enlarged it even more to make the final JPG, I noticed significantly more noise throughout the image than what I saw in NX JPG.

The colours in the NX version also seem much richer to me.

I performed the same test with a similar image:

Here's the NX JPG:

And here's the LR JPG:

Conclusion
While I haven't tried this test with other images, I am yet again re-thinking my workflow.

I would love to hear from anyone who has had a similar experience comparing how these products render RAW files, especially for the D7000.

Happy rendering!

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