Nikon D800 and D800E Retouch Menu

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Nikon D800 and D800E User's Guide:
Retouch Menu
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Retouch Menu

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How to Get Here

Select the Retouch Menu by pressing MENU, moving to the left and then up or down to select the brush icon second from the bottom. You'll then see RETOUCH MENU on the top of the color LCD.

Trick: You also can hit OK while an image is playing.

What it Sets

This is a silly menu that lets you twiddle with images you've already shot. The originals are unaltered. The D800 and D800E create and save new versions of the images.

Concatenation: The D800 and D800E is sneaky enough to know if a file was created with these trick modes, and often won't let you apply the same filter twice. You can concatenate different filters, but not the same one trying to get a stronger effect.

If your original image is an NEF or TIFF, it will be saved as a FINE LARGE JPG. Otherwise, it's saved the same way as the original image.

Firmware Defect: The new images are saved with a file number one more than the most recent image. The EXIF create time is unaltered, so you'll have to sort images by create time if you can.

This defect means that the file numbers of the newly created versions are scrambled from the originals. If you're playing with the most recent image the file numbers are close, but if you're playing with an earlier file, its file number will be unrelated to the original.

The correct way to have done this would be to retain the same file name and append -edit, -edit1, -edit2, etc. For instance, if you make a new version of DCS_0123.jpg, the new file might be called DSC_5837.jpg. Good luck sorting them out! If done correctly, the new version would be named DSC_0123-edit.jpg.

The D800 and D800E are improved from earlier cameras, at least the files all begin the same way as the original file, regardless of how you set it. Pity the D40 owners who use these Retouch gimmicks, because the D40 changes the file prefixes as well!

Here's what each does:

D-Lighting top

This lightens dark shadows. It doesn't touch highlights.

You have three levels of lightening: Low, Normal, and High.

If you set ADR to AUTO for shooting as I do, you shouldn't need this. Remember: shadows are supposed to be dark.

Red-Eye Correction top

This attempts to rectify flash-induced red eyes.

This filter is sneaky enough to know if you used flash or not to make the image, and won't let you use this filter if you didn't use flash!

I've never had a problem with red-eye with my D800 or D800E, so all the better. When I was able to cause red-eye, this filter only corrected half of the eyes!

Trim top

This creates cropped versions of images.

No pixels are moved or changed in size.

Trim removes unwanted pixels from the sides of an image and saves a smaller image.

Monochrome top

This creates black-and-white images.

It has three modes:

Black-and-White

Sepia (Brown-and-white)

Cyanotype (Blue-and-White)

Have fun!

Filter Effects top

This creates images with warmer colors. You've got your choice of:

Skylight

Very slightly pinker.

You can forget the skylight filter.

Warm Filter

Slightly warmer (more orange).

The Warm filter usually improves casual images, especially if you didn't set WB shift to A3 as I prefer by holding the WB button and spinning the front dial before shooting.

Red, Green and Blue Intensifiers

These filters enhance Red, Green or Blue.

Cross Screen

This filter attempts to put sunstars on bright points of light.

Soft

Softens the image.

It severely blurs a copy of the image, and then adds this as a semi-transparent layer over the base image, so it works more like a fog filter.

Color Balance top

This one's slick. It calls up a better control panel than Photoshop's color balance tool, which dates from the 1980s.

Nikon's tool reminds me of what we have on million-dollar Hollywood telecine color correction machines used to color correct motion pictures.

The Nikon D800 and D800E shows three histograms (reminiscent of Tektronix' WFM700 waveform monitors) and the D800 and D800E's Up/Down/Left/Right key becomes the telecine color-correction track ball. Click it left and right to alter blue-red, and up down for magenta - green.

If you have something neutral, watch the waveforms, oops, histograms, until they are about equal. Left - right on the Up/Down/Left/Right key slides the red and blue in opposite directions, and green - magenta slides the red and blue equally left or right. The green stays put.

This allows you to correct in any color, and if you want to warm an image (that I do most often in Photoshop), allows more flexibility than the fixed Warm filter above.

Image Overlay top

This lets you create a double exposure from any two NEF files.

I think its silly, but others use it for HDR by combining two files made at different exposures, and others use it for in-camera additions of moons into otherwise blank skies.

NEF (RAW) Processing top

This lets you create and save a JPG on your card if you only shot NEF.

Resize top

This lets you save a new file at a smaller size, keeping the same composition.

Quick Retouch top

This does a little of everything that Nikon thinks your photo might need.

Straighten top

This lets you correct for crooked or tilted pictures.

It only works in one axis, roll.

Distortion Control top

This lets you attempt to remove geometric distortion.

This is a leftover feature from earlier models that couldn't correct this automatically when shot, as can the D800 and D800E.

Fisheye top

This lets you warp the image to imitate a fisheye lens.

Color Outline top

This lets you create an imitation of a pencil drawing.

It's not in color; it's making an image you can give to your kids to color.

Color sketch top

This lets you create a fake watercolor.

Perspective Control top

This lets you correct images where the camera wasn't held parallel to the subject.

It works in two axes.

Miniature effect top

This lets you make a picture of a real subject look as if it's a photo of a much smaller model.

The way this works is by blurring the top and bottom, limiting the apparent depth-of-field.

The reason this makes the subject look like a model is because models have to be shot close-up to look as big as the real thing, and this close-up strongly limits the depth-of-field.

This sounds complicated, yet our subconscious recognizes this instantly, which is why this works.

Selective Color top

This lets you create a black-and-white image, retaining one item in color.

Edit Movie top

You can trim clips from your movies in-camera.

Better, you can pull-out single frames!

Have fun!

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Nikon D800 and D800E Review

AUTOFOCUS

Setting the D800 and D800E's Autofocus System

KNOBS and BUTTONS