A while ago I had a post about how much I was enjoying the combination of Capture One and Fuji X-Trans files. I wrote about how I really like the way Capture One renders Fuji Raw files, in both terms of details, and colour. I didn’t go into much detail though about some of the settings that I use and how I manage my workflow when working with Capture One. I’ve been wanting to write up a sort of guide to my common settings, and also some workflow tips for each of the various applications that I use, and so, here is the first one.

Over the past few years I’ve written a lot about processing Fuji X-Trans files in both Lightroom and other software. I’ve experimented lots of times with ways to improve the look of files from Lightroom, and in particular, on how to minimise the smearing effect that can sometimes occur with Fuji X-Trans files and fine details, especially foliage. I’ve worked out some sharpening settings in the past and posted them here, but that was a good while ago, and I’ve updated them several times with various different attempts. In order to save a bit of confusion and make it easier for everyone, I’ve put them altogether into one download, together with some new versions that I haven’t shared in the past.

I was back out shooting some street photos in Dublin this past weekend, and I had a great time doing it. It's been a bit of a challenge shooting street photography in the city here recently because of the massive amount of road and construction work going on. Basically they're extending one of the city's existing tram lines, which originally terminated at the south side of the city centre, to cross right through the heart of Dublin, and out the other side.

I’ve been working on some new premium Lightroom presets, which should be available soon, but while I was experimenting I got sidetracked and ended up creating some Faux Film presets for Fuji X users. I was trying some different techniques and I have saved various “ingredients” which I use to then create whole looks. While playing around with some of these I decided to try combining some of what I was working on, with the fuji picture profiles that come with lightroom. I liked he results so I decided to keep going. The result was a set of film like presets that I think you might like.

One of the interesting tidbits, buried in the list of bug fixes for the Lightroom CC update that was released yesterday was a mention of improvements to Fuji X-Trans processing in Lightroom. Any long term follower of this blog, knows that Lightroom’s poor quality X-Trans rendering has long been a bug bear of mine, and I’ve sought ways to minimise it and ways to avoid it altogether. In the announcement yesterday, Adobe has dealt with the first problem, that of the colour blur, and the company has stated that they are working with Fuji to improve edge rendering and detail on X-Trans files.

I've recently been going through some of my older images, and re-processing some photos that I'd never been particularly happy with. One such set was some of the images I took when I was in Oslo a few years ago with the X100. I was using the little Fuji as a back-up camera at the time, and I've never really done anything with the files properly. I had done some rough processing in Aperture, but I hadn't given them the love they deserved, so I decided to import the project into Lightroom and re-process a few of them.

I posted some of my images from the recent trip that I took to Nice, in the south of France last week. As I wrote, most of the time I just used my iPhone to take photos, mainly because we were there to relax and take it easy. I did have my little fuji with me too though, and I did get to take some shots with that too.

If you're an Iridient Developer user and a Fuji X-Trans shooter (X-Pro 1, X-E1, X-E2, X100s, X100t etc) the developer of the software has posted film simulation presets to match the ones that are available in camera. They've actually been available for a little while, but they've just posted some updated versions. 

I’ve been using Capture One to process my X-Trans files more and more lately. I had posted some initial findings before about this, and since then, Capture One has pretty much become my standard application for processing files from my X-E1. I’m really happy with how the software performs, and it does a really good job with Fuji’s files. Not only does it produce nice and sharp artifact free images, but the colour is really great too, even without having to do anything.

Iridient digital has released a major upgrade to it’s Raw Processing software Iridient Developer. I’ve covered this software numerous times on the blog, in particular in relation to it’s ability to decode Fuji X-Trans files. Version 3 is a significant upgrade over version 2 and has a lot of new features in it. The update has addressed most of the (few) criticisms that I’ve had of the software in the past, and it now has a lot of functionality for processing images.

I’ve written a lot on this blog about using different RAW converters (other than Lightroom) to get the best from Fuji X-Trans files. In the past I’ve discussed using Photo Ninja, Iridient Developer, and Aperture but there is one big piece of software that I haven’t really covered in depth and that’s Capture One. The main reason was that I didn’t really have the time to properly use the software to judge it fairly. The few times I had tried it, I wasn’t satisfied with the results, but I’ve gotten comments from many readers who swear by it so, over the past few months I’ve been spending time with the software whenever I had a chance to see how I could get the best results from it.

After a very mild winter so far here in Dublin, we had the first severe frost of the year yesterday. I awoke to a beautiful covering of white across the ground. The fields surrounding where I live were glistening with their white crystal coverings, and the rooftops were as white as if it had snowed. I had been planning to head out to do some photography anyway, so the winter scene was a bonus.

I spent a few days in London a few weeks ago, and I spent most of the time in the lovely Russell Square area. I did't get much time for photography, but I did get to take some shots around the square with my Trusty Fuji X-E1. The weather was pretty miserable and gloomy, but that just made for some more moody images. These were processed with Lightroom using my Monolith for Lightroom Presets

There was an unusually foggy day here in Dublin about two weeks ago. Not just a little foggy, but pea soup kind of fog. I had been heading into the city anyway, so I brought my trusty little Fuji with me to get some pictures of the murk. 

Lately I've been writing a lot about using Photo Ninja in conjunction with Lightroom for processing files from Fuji's X-Trans sensors. I've been promising to write about the workflow for using Photo Ninja with Lightroom for some time, so here it is, finally!