help on viewnx 2 please

[xphoto_kirstyx]

I'm hoping someone can help me.

I'm using the viewnx 2 nikon software for image editing and i am struggling to turn photos from colour to black and white and also cannot find out how to stitch photos together??

I'm not finding it that user friendly, any suggestions for any other programs?

thank you

[Eyeayen]

Do you have a budget ?

If you do try GIMP ( Gnu Image Manipulation Program ), it's completely free, if you're not used to software it will be okay for you to pick up as it will just be like learning any other program. http://www.gimp.org/

Other free programs are Google Picas, which is meant to be easy to use and effective.

The obvious choice because it gets the most coverage is Photoshop / Photoshop Elements, the later being a cut down version of the pro one and at a fraction of the price, well worth it.

PaintShop Pro - I have no idea what this is like.

I don't know if these will do what you want but I know they're highly rated - Adobe Lightroom and Apple Aperture ( if you have a mac... ).

[mike_k]

Hi,
If it's not to late to help, you can change RAW files to black and white as follows in ViewNX2 -

- open the file using ViewNX2 - it must be a RAW file
- in 'Picture Control' the default will be 'Recorded Value'
- click on the arrow in the box and one of the options should be 'Monochrome'
- choose this and the file should be converted to B&W. It can take a few seconds to convert, so be patient.
- if you click on 'Launch Utility' you can change the default settings for any of the listed options and save them with a different name, then it shows up in the drop down list in 'Picture Control' so you can use it again.

Personally, I use GIMP most of the time, but it was useful exploring ViewNX2 to find out how to that works.