Thomas is a professional fine art photographer and writer specialising in photography related instructional books as well as travel writing and street photography.
All tagged X-Trans
I’ve been exploring the challenges of processing Fujifilm X-Trans files ever since the original X-Pro 1, sharing tips, sharpening methods, and even an eBook along the way. Historically, Lightroom struggled with these unique raw files, demanding extra workarounds. But with Adobe’s latest update, that’s finally changed. Processing Fujifilm files is now straightforward, and it mostly comes down to one simple checkbox.
DXO labs recently added Fujifilm support to PhotoLab 5, the companies Raw processing application. The support is currently in beta, but my initial testing shows that it gives promising results, that are among the best you can achieve. DXO’s Raw Pre-Processing application, Pure Raw, currently does not support Fuji files. However, if you want to use DXO’s technology with Lightroom, you can still use PhotoLab as a way to pre-bake your Fujifilm Raw files for use with Adobe applications.
While Lightroom supports Fuji Film Simulation modes via colour profiles, you still have to set them manually. This means that if you have shot using multiple modes on a single shoot, if you’re working with the RAW files in Lightroom, it can be a pain to replicate the right ones manually. While Capture One will set the right modes automatically based on what you shot with, there’s no way to do this in Lightroom natively. There is however a plug-in that will do this for you.
I’ve released a minor update to my X-Transformer guide that addresses some of the recent changes in the application. This is a free update to anyone who had previously bought the guide.
Ever since Fuji released its first X-Trans camera, and Adobe added support, many of us who have shot Fuji over the years have been unhappy with how Lightroom handles Fuji files. There are issues with the way it handles fine details, certain repeating textures and so called “worm artifacts”. People have been hoping that Adobe would eventually fix the problem, and turned to other solutions, such as Iridient X-Transformer. Others have switched away from Lightroom together to something like Capture One. Today, Adobe has released a new version of Lightroom which finally addresses the X-Trans issue. Well, sort of, as it’s probably not the solution that many were expecting.
A few people have been asking me for this, so I’ve finally managed to put together a bundle of my various X-Trans eBooks that deal with Lightroom. This is a three book bundle and included my original Lightroom processing guide, the X-Transformer guide and my Fuji Jpeg guide which also covers some Lightroom topics.
Despite the fact that Fuji’s X-Trans cameras have been out for several years now, and despite the fact that the issues with Lightroom are well known, there is still a surprising amount of misinformation being spread about this. What’s worse is that some of it comes from what you would think would be reliable sources. One of the most confusing issues surrounds what people call “worm artefacts”. Here is my attempt to set the record straight.
When Skylum released the latest version of Luminar last month it had some significant improvements to the RAW processing engine. This included some much-needed features such as a significant speed increase and automatic lens corrections. I wanted to see how well it could now be used as a RAW processor for Fuji files, and so I put it through its paces and came up with some basic workflows.
In this video I take a look at using X-Transformer and Lightroom for Processing Fuji X-Trans files from an X-Pro 2. I walk through the process from the start to finish, and I demonstrate some of the techniques that I have in my eBook guide on using X-Transformer.
Now that Iridient X-Transformer has been out on the Mac for a little while I’ve had a chance to play around with it for a bit. After lots of testing and trying various combinations, I’ve come up with what I believe is the best approach to take if you prefer natural looking images. In this post, I’ll outline the settings that I’m now using and some other tips for using the software. As always, I based these on my preferences, and so, you may prefer a different approach. However, if you’re looking for somewhere to start, then have a look, try the recommendations, and judge for yourself.
A while ago I wrote about Iridient’s new product, X-Transformer. It was only available for Windows at the time. I don’t have access to a Windows computer, but I did try it under parallels at the time, and I was impressed with the results. However, because it was just too clunky to work with under emulation, I didn’t do too much with it, as a mac version was promised.
I’ve been busy with a few ongoing projects at the moment and I wanted to provide you with a few updates that I thought you might be interested in. I’m working on a few interesting things here for the blog, and also a few new interesting products for my store, so stay tuned for that. In the mean time, here are a few updates that you might be interested in...
I have just updated my Fuji X-Trans Lightroom guide with some significant changes. I’m calling it “version 1.5” and it contains some updated information, including some notes on processing 24mp X-Trans files, such as those from the X-Pro 2. I also tried to incorporate as much of the feedback and questions that I’ve received since the initial release. I also used the opportunity of releasing an updated edition to make some other changes and include some additional detail. If you had previously purchased this guide, the updated version is available for free to download from your account
When I finished writing and published my recent Iridient Developer X-Trans guide, I wanted to try and see what a print copy would look like, so I uploaded it to Blurb and ordered some copies. I got the copies in the post today, and I’m really happy with the results. The print quality is pretty good for print on demand, and the binding and cover is great. Because they came out so well, I’m making them available for sale via Blurb, so if you would prefer a print copy to the e-book then you can get that now too.
I am in the process of writing my third Fuji X-Trans guide. This one will be a compressive guide to working with Iridient Developer. It's actually turning out to be the biggest one of these guides yet, and I go into a good bit of detail on how to use the software, and cover workflows for working with Iridient Developer and Lightroom. However, as I've been writing this, I keep thinking about some of the questions that I often get asked by email about using one converter over another.
I came across an interesting photo editing app in the Mac app store the other day. I’d seen it come up in the suggestions a few times and I’d even bookmarked it to come back to and have a look at later. I finally got around to trying it the other day, and I’m really impressed by the application. It’s called Polarr Photo editor, and it’s just $19.99. It’s available for Windows too, but in this short first look, I’m only talking about the mac version (as that’s all I’ve used)
A couple of years ago I wrote a blog post about choosing a raw converter for Fuji X-Trans files. I spoke about which was my favourite piece of software at the time, and I did a pros and cons list for some of the various different converters on the market. Since that was back in 2014, a lot has changed since then. There are major new versions of several of the applications out now, and I’ve changed my mind as to which I prefer personally.
As many of my long time readers and followers will know, I’ve posted lots of articles and blog posts on this site over the years about processing Fuji X-Trans files. Over the last few years, I’ve covered lots of different aspects, and I have quite a bit of information on here. I’ve been working to collate all those separate blog posts into a single guide (well, a guide for each application) and I’ve previously posted my guide for working with Capture One. Since that time I’ve been hard at work on the guide for Lightroom, and I’m delighted to say that it’s finally finished and available on my store.
