This is a difficult question. NX2 as an external editor in aperture will give you viveza like controls among other things but will not do the RAW conversions. If you are a Nikon shooter and you only want Viveza it is a good cheap substitute while giving the additional advantage of supporting new Nikons as soon as they are released and give you an option for using a Nikon RAW conversion for some of your photos although convoluted when using Aperture.

If you want the other stuff in the Suite NX2 will not be a good substitute that should be obvious. Now here is the really really big question – Do you go with Aperture + Nik plugins only or not. My advise may not be intuitive but this is what i have settled on.

If you use Photoshop at all they do not buy the Nik suite for Aperture – buy it for Photoshop. Why? Because when you use the Nik tools in PS you can render all of them as smart objects and do not require multiple TIFF files/multiple steps with no ability to change any of the parameters unless you start from scratch. I much prefer storing multiple adjustments/filters in one PSD that I can open and tweak the parameters vs having to start from scratch.

I hope that my explanation makes sense to you. The bottom line is that if you don’t have or ever want to have PS the Aperture plugin suite makes sense – if you have PS and use it at all or only use it as a plug-in platform than the suite rendered as smart objects in one PSD file makes more sense.

This could all change with the next version of Aperture but as it sits now that is what I think.

RB

I’ve played with control points in NX2 and want it. I’m stumped on which way to go, however. I use (and don’t intend to switch) Aperture and almost never use PS.

I am trying to decide between CaptureNX2 and the Nik Complete Suite for Aperture.

Any thoughts on the pros/cons of each approach?

Thanks for the great site.

Take care,
Jeff

Thank you for calling attention to this – One the CSS happened to be broken from my intent, that is now fixed and the text on the post is the color originally intended. This should solve the issue that you pointed out. It wasn’t always like that.

As for the actual size of the text – if you still cannot read it I have a couple of suggestions because the size is fine on monitors between 96 – 106 DPI (standard for modern LCDs) and should get scaled according to the OS and browser’s settings. Soooo,’

If you are using an LCD that squeezes HD resolution into 17″ or something equally as ludicrous – stop.

Two scale the font up in your browser so it can look like crap and all playskooly just for you.

Get your eyes checked.

RB

Ps – I have no issue with the Nik products fonts/sizes.

I use Viveza, Dfine and Sharpener Pro and really have a difficult time reading instructions and finding various command buttons on the application Home pages.

I called the NIK customer service dept., and when I told them my concern – especially considering the cost of these programs – I was told “We know. Nothing can be done about it now”! Period!

A good example is this particular page. Just look at the text under the first few photos. Extremely difficult to read and discern. This combination of background colors and text (font) size makes for a frustrating experience. Doesn’t the web master check to see if the work can be read easily, before deciding on posting a format – that goes double for the NIK software applications.

I agree with your assessment of the D700. However, if you’re using Aperture, you may want to try looking at RAW images as converted in Aperture and RAW images as converted in Nikon’s software. There is a big difference in the RAW processing by both these programs.

RB has an article about this whole thing elsewhere on this site.

This seems to be an issue between Nikon RAW and Aperture. The Canon (and I assume other manufacturers) folks don’t have the same discrepancy.

If possible, you may want to include a screen-shot showing the plug in specifically with the “show selection” active. I think that this would give readers a better visual idea of how Nik’s Control Points intelligently select and blend areas to be adjusted and how simple it is to make either broad or very selective adjustments.

The ease and speed at which very complex selections such as faces, hair, eyes, or in your case, sky and water can be made is amazing.

Also, you cannot overstate what a pain it is to make adjustments after the image has been processed using a plug-in. The only way that I’ve found and stay completely in Aperture, at least where Silver Efex is concerned, is to create a preset after I have my initial adjustments made. I can then reload the preset and make additional adjustments on a new version and compare the two side by side.