I’ve been promising this for a little while now, and I’m happy to announce that my guide for Iridient X-Transformer is now available. It took me a bit longer to get it finalised that I had thought because I kept doing different tests and tweaking the results and I also kept tweaking the text till I was happy. Called “Processing Fuji X-Trans Files with Iridient X-Transformer and Lightroom”, This guide is designed to help you understand and get the best results from using Iridient’s X-Transformer Software in Conjunction with Lightroom to process Fuji X-Trans raw files. 

I’m delighted to announce that my latest set of Lightroom Presets, FilmLUX 2 is now available. FilmLUX 2 was designed to create a subtle “film” like look to digital images, without them looking overly processed. With many presets, and even when processing manually, it can be easy to take your images too far and have them look like they’ve been heavily treated. With FilmLUX 2 I wanted to create a set of looks, that could enhance an image without it looking like you’ve done an extensive amount of work to it. 

Yesterday Phase One released a new update to their Capture One Software. Despite being just a point release, it is actually a pretty significant update. It contains a number of very important feature changes. If you’re a Fuji X-Trans shooter, the software also includes some big changes to X-Trans support too. I’ve actually been using the beta version of 10.1 and I’m excited now that it is finally released and I can talk about it. There are three major changes that I want to talk about in this post. 

I’ve been working on a few new Lightroom presets, and I have two new packs which are due for release pretty soon, hopefully this week. The two are “FilmLUX 2” and “Industrial Iron”. The first is a sequel to my Film Lux set of presets, and the second is the latest in my “metals” series. I have a sneak peek of these new sets, including some information about them below. 

For some time now I’ve published several guides on Processing Fuji X-Trans images in various pieces of software. One of the first ones that I wrote was for Capture One, and it’s been on my store for several years now. I have recently updated it and added new information regarding capture one 10. While I have received mostly positive feedback about this guide, I received some negative comments recently, and I need your help to know if I should stop selling it or not.

During my recent stay in the German city of Darmstadt, I was scanning google maps one evening looking for places to go, when I noticed that down the road from where I was staying, there seemed to be a rather large area of forest. This was strange in and of itself, because where we were staying was in an industrial estate, with big modern buildings, but just down the road was a huge forest. 

While exploring the German Town of Darmstadt, I came across an impressive sight. I was walking out through the town, when I wandered into a large open square with a very unique looking set of concrete structures and an imposing, but starkly beautiful building down the far end of it. I had read about it previously in the guide books, but it was something else to see it in person. It was like something out of a science fiction movie. It was the Darmstadt State Theatre.

There are articles you see all the time on Photography blogs and websites that go something like: “5 Common Mistakes Photographers Make when…”. YOu’ve all seen them. I hate those pieces, as they always come off as patronising and insulting to other photographers, even though they mean well. So, Instead of telling you all the things that you’re doing wrong, I’m going to tell you the stupid things that I do on a regular basis, so you can avoid my mistakes.

Welcome to the first of a new series on the blog. This will be similar to my Street Photo Diary series, only for travel. I’m going to be travelling a good bit over the next little while, and so I thought I would keep a running diary of sorts of my photographic adventures along he way. At the moment I’m in the German city of Darmstadt, which is just outside of Frankfurt.

Despite being widely rumoured, Sony still managed to make quite a splash when they announced the new A9 earlier this week. The new high end camera looks like it could be a genuine game changer for mirrorless cameras, and could cement Sony’s place at the number 2 spot, if not push it to number 1. I have been using Sony cameras on and off for the past few years, and I was eagerly waiting to see what this new high end alpha might entail. The camera is exciting in and of itself, but whats more exciting is Sony’s approach to the camera market. Let me explain.

As you have probably figured out by now if you’re a regular reader of this blog, I really love the Cherry Blossom season. There is something so beautiful and magical about the pink petaled flowers and their fleeting lifespan that is special to watch every year. I had been tracking the progress of the blossom from the first buds appearing on the bare branches, to the final few days as the flowers begin to fall.

A little while ago I posted a quick tip for Lightroom, where I showed you the way to adjust the brightness of an image using the curves tool. I was using the curves adjustment, as I wanted to make the distinction between a brightness adjustment and an exposure adjustment. In Capture One, if you want to make a brightness adjustment, rather than an exposure change, there are actually 4 different ways that you can do this. 

Over on my Store Blog, I have another sort of behind the scenes post describing how I use some of my presets in real world projects. For this article, I looked at how I used QuickLux 2 on my recent Street Photo Diary post. You can see the full details including some before and after examples on my Store Blog.

It’s been another month, and so it’s time for another issue of my Street Photo Diary series. Every time I do one of these I always end up having difficulty coming up with an intro for the piece. Having just watch “The Big Bang Theory” and Sheldon’s “Fun With Flags, behind the flag, a retrospective” I’m tempted to do a humorous take on that, but instead, something else occurred to me.

As spring is here once again, the Cherry Blossoms are blooming, and I just love the beauty of these fleeting flowers. On a beautiful sunny day I was in a local park here in Dublin and I was taking some images of the beautiful cherry trees there. I shot the photos using a Fuji X-Pro 2 and for post processing, I wanted to go with a nice film look, and so, after trying out a few different presets, I eventually settled on using my own FilmLUX set as my starting point.