If you lose the detailed RAW editor and just get RAW Adjustements dialogue, it’s most likely you have installed Nikon Capture or Picture Project.

Lose this:

And end up with this:

Pictures from: earthboundlight.com

This stupid software installs a plugin to Photoshop without your permission and overides the default RAW handling.

You can find the Nikon NEF plugin at

Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop CS\Plug-ins\Adobe Photoshop Only\File Formats

There you can delete it, after that you may get an error message such as:

could not complete your request because it is not the right kind of document

After you can go to the Adobe Camera RAW site and download the latest version (3.6 at this time).

Adobe Camera Raw and DNG Converter for Windows

After you’ve download this plugin put it in:

Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS\Plug-Ins\File Formats

And all should be well!

I start this post with a couple of pictures. The first photo was how the sky looked like in the evening, processed from the RAW file with minimal adjustments. The second is the photo after some level tweaks in Adobe PS. Which catches your eye more?

Before manipulation

After manipulation

This brings me to the thoughts where photographs can be altered for various reasons. I am not posting this to start a debate on what is right and what is not but you can feel free to share with us your thoughts on this.

Since the dawn of photography, some photographers have strived to change reality pre and post exposure. Salon photographers pay cyclists to cycle in the sunset to capture their silhouttes and they also pay old men to dress up as monks so that they could be interesting subjects. Today, in the digital realm, the manipulation of reality is more prevalent with tools like Adobe PS being ubiquitous and graphics artists use such tools as tool to create fantastical creations.

The only stance I take firmly is if a photograph, used for purposes of documentation, is altered. I do not agree to this.

Many people like to use their onboard B&W conversion when shooting with their cameras. Or simply use the Desaturate function in Photoshop (PS). Here’s a quick and dirty method that will give you more flexibility for converting colour photographs into B&W. Note there are 1001 ways to do the conversion but I like using the Channel Mixer.

The Channel Mixer is a relatively powerful tool. It can be accessed in PS by these menus – Image > Adjustments > Channel Mixer. I actually use this in the Layers mode but that is another discussion for another day. Once you understand this concept, you can easily apply it to any photo for conversion.

Here’s the original photo…

Now, click on Monochrome and pull the Red channel to 100% (leaving the other two channels as zero)

If you select 100% of Green…

And Blue 100%

Achieving the desired result requires you to mix and match the percentages of Red, Green and Blue channels and they do not necessarily have to add up to 100% (you can go beyond). Here’s what I chose for this. There are specific guidelines as to how your black and white photos should look like but they are only guidelines not gospel.

Final Result Red 80%, Blue 20%

Compare it with the simple Desaturate function…

You will see that the Channel Mixer method yields more details and contrast in the clouds and the reflections especially.

Good luck!