My Fuji X-Trans Sharpening Settings for Lightroom 4

I have been working on setting up a good sharpening template for using my XE-1 images in Lightroom. I've actually been working on it for a while, even before I got my XE-1 using old images I had shot using the X-Pro1. Originally the goal was to see if I could minimise the de-mosiacing anomalies that Lightroom produced when working with X-trans files, but since then Adobe have mostly fixed that problem. I still find the default settings  a little soft though. What I wanted to do was create something that didn't just whack up the sharpening, as I often find this leads to a very "digital" image. I was aiming for something more organic and film like. I also wanted something that wouldn't exacerbate the Lightroom X-Trans idiosyncrasies when it comes to fine detail. The result is probably something that may seem a little odd at first when you look at the settings I've used , but I like the result and it seems to work. I'm not saying this is the best possible way to sharpen your images, or svn the right way, but it's a way that I find produces a fairly organic looking image while still bringing up the sharpening a little.

It's hard to provide a good before and after crop that really shows it off as it needs to be pretty small to fit on a web site but here's a go. You'll need to click on the images to see it properly

Before...

and after...

So here's what I did...

After a substantial amount of time playing around wight he sharpening settings, and multiple versions, here's what I came up with.

Amount 31

Radius 1.9

Detail 96

Masking 23

As I said earlier, this may seem bizarre, but it seems to work. There's a few more settings too though.

Clarity -8

I turned the clarity down slightly as it gives a nice subtle soft glow to highlights that looks film-ish. You can of course turn it back up again.

I also added a little grain. I find this makes a world of difference. Even a small amount helps. The settings i used are...

Grain

Amount 14

Size 10

Roughness 50

You may want to turn this down a bit, depending on the image.

If you want you can download these settings as a preset. I'm providing this as a courtesy and is supplied as-is. In other words I can't offer support.

It may not be for you, but give it a look and let me know what you think (please be nice :-) )

[UPDATE - Fixed Broken Link to download preset]