NX2screen.jpg

A shot taken using flash in a situation when I really hate the cold colour resulting.

Top of screen right: 'Version' now allows one to toggle between original, last saved and current - very useful
Next down bottom of the 'Quick fix' pane. It includes the Master Luminosity (showing) & saturation as in LCH; then exposure comp (previously in RAW adjust) and Highlight & Shadow 'protection', very powerful adjuster algorithms & simple 'contrast'.

As the shape of the curve I have put on the master luminosity shows, I usually find something more precise than universal 'contrast' fix is needed - its the contrast within particular sub-sections of a pic that usually matter, not overall.

As the hard white light from flash was about the last thing I wanted, this is adjusted for the whole pic in 1st 'colour balance' adjustment. Various corrections made for subsidiary things far too bright or attention diverting. The High pass is confined to the small chess figures using the new selection/mask tool, but not convinced it is any better than brush for soft objects.

Finally, crop - this is best done much earlier, but unless you turn on a preference to keep everything live, for which they warn a high processor speed is advised, adjustments turn themselves off if you go back to 'quick fix'. This used to happen in 1.3, but can now be avoided by guys like Stephen with a fast desktop twin.

I have arranged the screen for my 15", ie I can't afford to lose anything. The tool pallettes now only float or dock, no minimise, but the vertical panes are left as in 1.3, confusing for newcomers I should think, but then the whole thing is probably a non-starter for them until some new tutorials come through. Tool settings appear above the tool bar, hence a space is left for it. On Portrait orientation pics, I shove these overlapping something, on mac half off screen possible. This is a huge down-grade for me, as previously the boxes were squarish and easier to place and temporarily minimisable to just the drag-bar.

The interface is identical for PC except that on PC the menu bar items are very small and way over to the left. Note semi-invisible grey on grey sliders, one of the most stupid new items, in fact a candidate for all time wooden spoon