Apr 29

Apr 29 Rethinking My Fujifilm Lightroom Recommendations

It’s been a while since I updated my recommendations for Lightroom processing of Fuji files. Since then, Lightroom has been changing quite a bit, and so, while I had planned it before but never got around to it, I’m now in the pre-production stages of re-writing my Fuji Lightroom guide. One of the big things I’m changing is how I recommend people process their Fuji files for the best results.

In the past, I suggested that for best results, people consider using X-Transformer with Lightroom. However, having done a lot of research over the last few weeks with sample files from X-Trans 4 cameras, I now believe that Adobe’s “Enhanced Details”, which is soon to be renamed to just “Enhance” in Lightroom (it already is in Camera Raw) will give the best, and most natural results. The only real downside to this is the file size.

In the past, I didn’t suggest this as the best method, partly because at the time, there were still lots of people who may have had incompatible GPUs, but that was a few years ago now, and I suspect that the number of people with older graphics cards have declined significantly since then.

Incidentally, on an M1 Mac it takes about 2 seconds to convert a file in Lightroom (and that’s running under Rosetta)

While X-Transformer gives decent results, I always found that it still has a certain texture to the files, even though it’s much better than the “worm artefacts” of Lightroom’s default conversions. Having scrutinised the results of “Enhance Details”, especially from newer cameras, it gives much more natural, “unprocessed” looking files.

I will still suggest it as a third option for those who maybe can not run Enhanced details, or do prefer X-Transformer for some reason. After all, a lot of this is down to personal choice too. However, I think in the long run, if you can get as good, or better results without external software, then that is the way to go. Which leaves the disk space issue.

For some people, file size is more important than image quality. I’ve had readers complain about even creating DNGs in the first place, regardless of the size. For those for whom storage is more important than image quality, I suggest leaving the default conversion, then just tweak the sharpening settings. If you have an issue with a file, then just run enhanced details on that individual file or files. If you really do want to convert every file, but still want to not use too much disk space, then the only real option is to use X-Transformer. Or switch to Capture One.

For others, I’m working on a workflow to minimise the amount of space used. I would never suggest running enhance on every file, as it would use up too much time, space, and is unnecessary. Instead, I suggest a way of marking your selects, and then just converting those. I’ve even come up with a simple(ish) way to separate the DNG files once they’re created into a sub folder. I will probably do a video on how to do this once I’ve finalised my workflow.

Using Capture One which has superior demosiacing for X-Trans files also solves this problem, and you don’t need an intermediary step. For many though, switching applications may not be an option or they may just not want to. Despite how much I like Capture One, I still use Lightroom 30-40% of the time.

At the end of the day, the ideal solution would be for Adobe to just fix the damn conversion process properly and not have these hoops, but I don’t think that will ever happen at this stage, but who knows. The ACR processing engine is starting to show its age, and needs an overhaul in my opinion, but I can’t see that happening any time soon.

Anyway, I’m still at the planning stages, so I would welcome any feedback, or thoughts you might have on this - so feel free to leave a comment below.

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