White balance/Gray balance/ RAW Nikon NEF Files

I have a Nikon D 70. I'm shooting RAW images (Nikon's NEF files), and have to white balance them or gray balance, which I think is the same thing.

I'm slating the images with a zebra card (white/black like a zebra, with a 3 inch 18% gray stripe on it as well. I can buy Nikon Capture to gray balance the images, color balance them, then turn them into jpeg or tiff files.

Can I use Photoshop CS to do the same thing? I hear there are plug ins to do this stuff. If I can use Photoshop, then I can avoid buying Nikon Capture, and learning yet another complex software. What do you think?

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The Camera RAW plug-in included in CS has a slider to adjust color balance, and it will export to Photoshop in any of the usual image formats. You need to download the latest version (2.2 I think) to support the D70.

There are many ways, these are just two.

1) Use the CS ACR 2.2 to open the NEF files. The ACR eye dropper will do a very good job with just about any neutral tone. I would avoid white or black with this tool.

2) Use PS Levels or curves (new layer recommended, 16-bit recommended). The eyedropper will allow you to set the white point and black point. I would avoid using the mid point eyedropper for this. There is also an auto levels option that “sometimes” works.

I recommend Camera Raw. Read up on the file manager and ACR and you can automate the settings in multiple images at one time. Nikon Capture and Nikon View override ACR. If installed, you will need to remove their plug-ins.

Cheers, Rags :-)