#grain

Where Shadows Fall ... There’s Light, Merry Xmas!

December 25, 2019

First off, with this post I’d like to wish a merry Xmas to my faithful followers, and to any of youse who’ve visited my site thank you for looking by! Also a special thanks to all of youse who’ve left positive and critical comments here over the last year, by that giving me the opportunity to learn & improve my photography! For today I wanted to share some thoughts on how the fall of shadows manifests the existence of light, and how that’s also a good analogy for life (… a fitting topic for the season, don’t you think?). Anyways if interested please read on!

Deck chairs sparkling in the sun, captured on X-Pro2 with XF18mm F/2 @F/8, 1/150 sec, ISO 200

I discovered the above motif while enjoying a few days vacation with my wife in our beloved Italy (isola d’Elba to be precise): It was early in the morning and the first rays of the sun were just coming over the mountains, lighting up these old deck chairs around our B&B’s pool and casting their first light into the dark shadows with the promise of a lovely day to come. Of course you never know if that day’ll really turn out nice but it don’t harm to think it will & look forward to a great day with a smile on your face regardless! I wanted to animate people looking at my image to always think positive & look eagerly forward to what’s to come … To create that analogy my exposure was based on the bright reflections of the sun on the metal bars, thereby plunging the shadows into deep blackness (i.e. I was actually underexposing by about 1.5 stops vs. a ‘correct’ exposure). Trust Fuji X-Trans! The impressive dynamic range of that sensor ensured I didn’t loose all detail in the dark areas of the image and I could easily recover sufficient detail in post by upping the shadows slider!

Bicycle wheel shadowcast, seen on X-Pro2 with XF18mm F/2 @F/8, 1/550 sec, ISO 200

For me the above image goes the opposite route. Whereas in the deck chairs image the first sunlight was carving details out from the darkness, the shadows in the above image are actually covering them: Look at the pavement - the low angled sun’s rays are revealing every detail of the cobblestones. Only where the shadows of the bicycle’s wheel fall the details are obscured. The life analogy to this is for me that there are some dark sides to every situation. Be aware of them but don’t stress too much over them and especially don’t let them spoil your day! So in this image I actually over exposed a bit and then used the highlight slider in post to bring detail back into the highlights. Of course that works best in RAW but being an old (Fuji ACROS-R) JPEG aficionado I found that Fuji’s JPEG’s have sufficient dynamic range to pull that stunt off!

White sofa in the afternoon sun, discovered with X-H1 and XF23mm F/1.4 @F/5.6, 1/550 sec, ISO 200

Finally, in the above image I was confronted with quite an extreme contrast but wanted to still see details in the shadows and the highlights. So I exposed for average grey (ignoring that my histogram was freaking out on both sides) and hoped that my JPEG’s dynamic range would still cover it (knowing that I’d still have the RAW file to save my a** if it wouldn’t have been enough 😉). Luckily it was still OK (barely) and I could recover some detail in the darkest shadows and brightest highlights by maxing out Lightroom’s shadow and highlight sliders. So it’s the JPEG you see here, actually quite amazing! As I’d already said many times I just love Fuji JPEG’s in combination with the ACROS-R film simulation because of that simulation’s tonality dependent grain effect, which is very similar to what I was used to in the old days when using film (remember Tri-X? Man the images shot on that film had such beautiful grain!)

OK, with that I’d like to wish y’all a very merry Xmas (crazy how fast time’s flies, it was ‘just’ Xmas yesterday and now it’s the 25th again 🙃!) … and of course I wish youse a great start into the new year - may your photographic (and other 😉) dreams all come true and may you have all health, fun and success in 2020!

If you got any questions, or wish me to cover a specific topic in one of my next posts, please leave me a message in the comments section below or on my ‘about’ page - your email will not be disclosed & I promise to answer every single message! Thanks so much for visiting and wish y’all a wonderful holiday season,

Best regards,

Hendrik

If you like you can support me by sending me a small donation via PayPal.me/hendriximages ! Helps me run this site & keeps the information coming, many thanks in advance!

Fuji X-E3's Unacceptably Aggressive JPEG Sharpening?

March 03, 2019

I thought that getting an X-E3 was gonna give me X100F kinda compactness (both have similar size) & performance (both have the same stellar X-Trans III sensor), with the added possibility to change lenses! But after some testing I discover that the X-E3 seems to have pretty aggressive in-camera JPEG processing! WTF? … For a “fine-art junkie” like me the resulting JPEG's are unusable! So, if you’re a JPEG guy, who loves to print big, save yo'self some trouble & money by not buying an X-E3 for the wrong reasons: Take a look at the red arrows in the image below and please read on … scary!

Look at those X-E3 JPEG sharpening artifacts! Yeah right, I copied the red arrows in afterwards ;-)

Now why would someone want to use JPEG's for fine art? Simple reason is ACROS! This Fuji JPEG film simulation incudes a tonality dependent grain enhancement (see here, here and here) which creates ab-so-lutely gorgeous black and white PIECES-of-ART with subtle film-like grain (provided you don't just photograph brick walls, and even then those will look amazing too ... ;-) FYI y’all gonna miss out on this grain enhancement if you try to replicate ACROS via presets after conversion in Lightroom or other RAW converters. Large enlargements off original Fuji JPEG's taken with ACROS look amazing & like no other digital file! ACROS is one of the main reasons I'm stuck on Fuji!

So, back to the topic: As mentioned above, after looking thru images taken with my X100F and my meanwhile sold X-Pro2 & X-T2 it became clear that the in-camera JPEG sharpening of the X-E3’s way more aggressive than on Fuji´s Pro-line cameras. However, to be fair, if you mainly work with RAW files and/or use JPEG’s only for online sharing you’ll probably never even notice anything & you’ll enjoy your X-E3 as a fast, light & compact camera with excellent output. After all these artifacts only become visible in JPEG’s in further distant, small details (especially if they’re against uniform darker backgrounds …)

But if you’re a real ACROS aficionado and you love creating large blow-ups of your JPEG’s? You. Will. Notice. I do print BIG from JPEG’s and so I do see those ugly artifacts. Hell, even dialing down the JPEG sharpening to -4 ("softest") didn't fully get rid of them (and then the whole image looks kinda mushy now), see below ...

Even with JPEG sharpening dialed down to minimum (-4) the X-E3’s JPEG artifacts still remain visible …

The reason for all this is that many camera manufacturers tend to apply stronger JPEG sharping on their consumer level products compared to the algorithms on their pro models. This makes sense given that casual photographers (the main target group for consumer grade cameras) usually only post their images on social media & usually don’t aspire to print large images. And they want their pics to look tack sharp right off the bat, with minimal effort (i.e. with no or minimal post processing)

Long story short, the aggressive JPEG sharpening of the X-E3 renders it useless for my workflow and so I’ve decided to trade it in for an X-H1, which (acc. my trusted Fuji dealer) is supposed to be less aggressive. Some people over at DPR also seem to agree. Luckily they were right, coz the X-H1 does cost more than twice as much than the X-E3 and is also a fair bit larger / heavier too. Ok, to be fair it’s also playing in a different league, with IBIS (In Body Image Stabilization), a much larger & more beautiful EVF, tilt LCD screen, … etc. Anyway, y’all can probably understand my relief when I checked out the first test images taken with my X-H1 and wasn’t finding any weird artifacts (see below & compare to the pictures above):

Luckily no JPEG artifacts on the X-H1 (focus plane was the wall at the lower edge of the image)!

Just out of interest I also compared the Fuji X-E3 (with XF 35mm f/1.4R) to my Nikon D850 (with AF-S 58mm f/1.4G. Again, on the X-E3 image you can clearly see the JPEG sharpening artifacts (look at the people’s faces and the wrought iron grating at the windows). The D850 image is much clearer (Ok it has also nearly twice the resolution ;-) but more important you don’t see any sharpening artifacts (see face on bottom left corner):

X-E3: JPEG sharpening artifacts visible @100% crop

D850: No JPEG artifacts at same magnification!

Ok, I concede these images ain’t gonna win no laurels for artful content, but they’ve served me quite well to compare various pieces of kit and decide which camera is the best for me: The X-H1 it is! So on that note I’d like to share my usual daylight settings for the X-Trans III sensor on my X-H1 (of course these settings influence only the JPEG’s and are sometimes tweaked depending on image content):

ACROS-R film simulation
Auto ISO limited to 800 max. (thanks to IBIS ;-)
Auto White Balance & Dynamic Range
Grain Off (ACROS has already a tonality dependent grain feature)
Noise Reduction -2 or -3
Hi-light Tone 0
Shadow Tone +3
Sharpening 0 or +1

This gives me punchy JPEG’s w/o visible sharpening artifacts!

I hope you enjoyed this post and would be happy if I was able to give some of youse some advice on which camera to go for in case you love Fuji’s ACROS JPEG’s and enjoy enlarging your images!

Summarizing I am very satisfied with the X-H1’s performance, the JPEG’s are amazing and the slight weight / size disadvantage vs. the X-E3 is more than compensated by having image stabilization, a flippy screen, better, more ergonomic grip and a fantastic EVF!

If you have any questions or comments, please share in the comment section below and I’ll answer you ASAP.

Many thanks & best wishes for 2019,

Hendrik

I hope this post was helpful / interesting for you - If you like you can support me by sending me a small donation via PayPal.me/hendriximages ! Helps me run this site & keeps the information coming, many thanks in advance!

Into the Light: Look for the Shadows (Fuji ACROS-R Settings)

March 18, 2018

Shadows. What do they mean? Depends on your point of view & mood: darkness? melancholy? pessimism? Or do they point towards the light, leading the viewer´s eyes to the bright tones in your image, creating an impression of brightness, hope, and optimism? You decide! Use those shadows to manifest the existence of light. Want to learn more? Please read on to find out!

Into the Light, with Fuji X100F, 23mm f/2 @f/2.8, 1/34sec ISO1600 developed in LR CC mobile

Difficult image, this one. Dynamic range clearly exceeds the latitude of the JPEG file, but I wanted the shadows to come in black as ink to strengthen the impression of moving into the light at the end of the corridor. That's why I usually use Fuji´s ACROS film simulation with shadow tone set to +3 (very hard). As some of youse may know I do nearly all my post processing on my iPad Pro on Lightroom CC mobile, using Fuji´s magic ACROS JPEG´s

However, when diving into the corresponding RAW file I can discover a couple more stops of dynamic range in the shadows by dialing down the shadow contrast. But I didn't wanna make ´em visible as this would've created too much of a HDR effect for my taste. But if y´all interested I could do a follow up post showing how that looks, please leave me a comment below if interested! ;-)

Courtyard doors, Fuji X100F, 23mm f/2 @f/5.6, 1/60sec ISO400 developed in LR CC mobile — Courtyard doors, Fuji X100F, 23mm f/2 @f/5.6, 1/60sec ISO400 developed in LR CC mobile

Also above image got a shadow tone of +3. Gives me solid black w/o detail between the doors for my trouble. But if I reduce the shadow contrast to 0 or -1 I get a too flat gradation in the door panels. The door panel shadows are too close to black making it difficult to get sufficient contrast separation, so I left the image as I´d originally taken it. Below image is much better balanced:

Table by the window, Fuji X100F, 23mm f/2 @f/5.6, 1/75sec ISO400 developed in LR CC mobile — Table by the window, Fuji X100F, 23mm f/2 @f/5.6, 1/75sec ISO400 developed in LR CC mobile

The table and chairs have a special glow to them, coz I usually use a medium soft highlight tone of -1 which gives me more tonality and flatter gradation in the lighter tones of the image. However you gotta watch it: Don't use -1 or lower highlight tones in images with predominantly lighter tones (eg. with a lot of sky) as the resulting contrast is too flat and you don't get no more pure white. For me the image below´s on the edge in that respect: Contrast in the floorboards and the wall is maybe a touch too flat:

Chinese hallway, Fuji X100F, 23mm f/2 @f/2.8, 1/42sec ISO1600 developed in LR CC mobile — Chinese hallway, Fuji X100F, 23mm f/2 @f/2.8, 1/42sec ISO1600 developed in LR CC mobile

The below image has a broad gradation from black over mid-tones in background to white, nicely bringing out the texture in the wall and the floor:

Chinese doorway, Fuji X100F, 23mm f/2 @f/5.6, 1/220sec ISO400 developed in LR CC mobile — Chinese doorway, Fuji X100F, 23mm f/2 @f/5.6, 1/220sec ISO400 developed in LR CC mobile

Summarizing my preferred ACROS settings are:

ACROS-R (red filter) or ACROS-Y (yellow filter)
Dynamic range on Auto or max. 200% (400% flattens gradation too much)
Highlight tone -1 or 0, depending on the amount of light tones in the image
Shadow tone +3 to deliver those punchy black shadows
Noise reduction -3
No additional grain (ACROS has an ISO dependent grain built in)
Limit ISO to 1600 for architecture & landscapes to limit grain

Hope you enjoyed the read, please let me know your comments or questions below (or leave me a note on my about page), I will be most happy to answer them as soon as possible. Many thanks for visiting, best regards

Hendrik

Fuji Image Processing Contest: JPEG Mobile vs. RAW Desktop

January 20, 2018

Those of youse who been following my blog'll know I ain't the kinda photoshop geek who loves to spend his whole life playing around on his computer. No sir. I'd rather be out snappin', actually using my Fuji gear to capture the wonderful world around me! My mobile JPEG based workflow is what allows me to minimize time spent processing images. But that little voice in my head just don't give up: "wouldn't RAW still have been better?". Please read on if you're interested in the answer!

Fuji X-T2 with XF 16-55mm / f2.8, ACROS JPEG file developed in Lightroom CC Mobile

This image seems to be an appropriate guinea-pig: lots of contrast & lovely gradations of grey in-between! I always shoot RAW+JPEG, so I import:

The JPEG's to my iPad, for mobile development using Lightroom CC Mobile, Snapseed, and
Selected RAW's to my MacBook Pro, for desktop processing using Capture One Pro 11

Mobile development’s really fast, hey just 30secs max per image (only tweaking of curves & highlights / shadows). And really good results to boot (OK no sweat, everybody knows about the amazing quality of Fuji ACROS JPEG’s, which are mostly more than enough to get the job done!). This significantly speeds up my workflow & I can limit the more time consuming RAW development at a later point of time for those images where I really need the RAW file´s increased highlight headroom, see below the same image as above developed from RAW in Capture One Pro 11:

Fuji X-T2 with XF 16-55mm / f2.8, RAW file developed in Capture One Pro 11

And here some crops from the above images. Gotta say that the Fuji ACROS JPEG's are good. Really good! Can't really see a big difference between the two. OK, so the Capture One RAW has maybe a bit more definition but you really gotta do serious nitpickin' to identify it:

But what if you wanna do that serious nitpickin' (aka pixelpeepin')? Like what about the grain? Yes, GRAIN! People grown up in the digital age don't know nothin' about it. This is what makes our images come alive, giving them character and emotion. Harking back to those magic days & (especially) nights in darkrooms, where images materialized from a blank piece of paper in the developer tray under the light of a red darkroom sun. Let's just take a look at that grain for a minute now (200% crops):

Grain in Capture One Pro 11 Pro RAW crop

My adjusted Capture One Style BW-15 on the left (grain dialed down from 80 to 60) does quite a good job, but I gotta admit it don't hold up to the magic Fuji´s ACROS film simulation is doing on the JPEG (right picture). Not at All! As you can see Fuji somehow manage to vary the strength of the grain depending on tonal values, reducing the effect in the highlights and accentuating it in the darker tones (just as silver halide films do). See here an interesting article explaining how this works!

Please decide for y´self what you prefer, but for me it´s really a difficult choice. So difficult I often I print my fine-art prints off slightly tweaked Fuji ACROS JPEG´s to retain this magic film-like grain effect. I can't get that from any RAW processor! Somehow a print off a "digital" looking RAW file don't seem to create that emotional connection for me (much like music played off vinyl records comparing to a CD). Call me old fashioned but I'm afraid that's how it is ;-)

Just so y'all don't get too bored looking at the same image for the umpteenth time, I added another pic I took in a Marriott hotel lobby in a far away place:

Marriott hotel lobby, Fuji X100F with Fujinon 23mm / f2, developed in Capture One Pro 11 — Marriott hotel lobby, Fuji X100F with Fujinon 23mm / f2, developed in Capture One Pro 11

So now I'm curious what you think! Did I make a convincing pitch to use JPEG´s with Fuji´s fantastic ACROS film simulation, or d´you still prefer doctoring around for long hours glued to computer screens with your RAW´s? Hey, think of it. If that extra time spent don't deliver significantly better results it´s time lost, can't ever get it back! Ain't it better to spend that extra time out taking photos? It´s up to you. With that somewhat philosophical closing line I´ll let y'all go - Hey, at the end it´s YOUR decision ;-)

Look forward to your opinions & comments - please leave me a message & I´ll answer ASAP, many thanks for your attention & for visiting! Here's to wishing you great images & a great weekend!

Best regards,

Hendrik

Capture with Style!

November 06, 2017

Been some time since I posted ... Was kinda busy movin´ house & couldn't find my camera ;-) Now I´m back with Style! Capture (-ing) with Style, using Capture One Pro 10 with a modified Style (never liked the "canned" stuff, always like to do my own thing!). Please read on to find out more!

Into the Sun, with XF 35/2 WR on X-Pro2, Capture One 10 with modified BW-15 Style

In Capture One Styles are sets of presets driving several adjustments simultaneously, while presets adjust only a single parameter, eg. "grain". Means you can dramatically speed up your post processing workflow by applying such Styles during image import. By selecting a Style suiting your needs you can automatically adjust eg. gradation curve, sharpening, noise reduction, etc. of your images when importing your images into Capture One and you´re already 90% done without lifting a finger!

Bridge in the Park, with XF 35/2 on X-Pro2, Capture One 10 with modified BW-15 Style — Bridge in the Park, with XF 35/2 on X-Pro2, Capture One 10 with modified BW-15 Style

As already mentioned here my favorite Capture One Style is the BW-15 (grain) black & white Style, which IMO comes closest to Fuji´s amazing ACROS JPEG film simulation. But the grain´s too much salt in my soup and the default sharpening settings seem a bit too aggressive. So I was trawling (not trolling, mind you ;-) the net for optimal Capture One settings in combinmation with Fuji´s 24mp X-Trans III RAW files & stumbled across Thomas Fitzgerald´s "X-Trans-Files-in-Capture-One-Guide". A great read, costing only 4€ and well worth it in my opinion!

Red Chair on Stone Patio, XF 16-55/2.8 WR @16mm, X-T2, CO 10 with modified BW-15 Style

Using Thomas´ settings for 24mp RAF files in Capture One 10 as a starting point I modified Capture One´s BW-15 (grain) Style by reducing grain level to 60 and optimizing sharpening and noise reduction settings slightly (of course you can also use your own favorite settings). The trick is to select an image, apply the style, adjust the various settings to your satisfaction and save it all as a new Style (take care to deselect those items which are image dependent):

Deselect presets which are image dependent!

This ensures the same film simulation, gradation (tonality curve) and grain are saved in your new Style but image specific parameters, like exposure, contrast, etc. are not affected!

Apply saved Style & auto adjust on import!

Then select your new Style and "auto adjust" in the import menu. This makes Capture One apply your Style and auto adjusts exposure parameters automatically during import, resulting in 90% ready images, which only need minor final tweaking (if at all)

View from Villa Sermolli over Buggiano in Tuscany, Italy, X-T2 with XF 16-55/2.8 WR @23mm

Summarizing, Fuji JPEG´s are good but RAW files just have that extra flexibility: If you want to get the best outta your images you gotta go RAW, allowing you eg. to change color sensitivity (like applying color filters during post processing) and offering that extra bit of highlight headroom. Looking forward to your comments, questions, and critique, thanks so much for looking by,

Best regards,

Hendrik

I hope this post was helpful / interesting for you - If you like you can support me by sending me a small donation via PayPal.me/hendriximages ! Helps me run this site & keeps the information coming, many thanks in advance!

Into the Light, with Fuji X100F !

July 15, 2017

Aren´t we photographers all seekers? Always searching for the best. Always experimenting, trying, testing. Best images, best light, best gear, best software, best deal, best whatever? Last week´s favorite turning into this week´s dog? To those of youse been following me, relying on me to stay true: I´m sorry, ashes on my head, I lost it. Really. I´m leavin´ my trail & gettin´ outta my comfort zone. Hey, I kid you not: just recently I was singin´ praise for just doing ACROS JPEG´s & an easy workflow. Now I´m sold on doing RAW´s in Capture One! Interested why? Please read on!

Into the light, found by Fuji X100F´s 23 mm, processed in Capture One "with Style" ;-) !

At least some consolation: I´m still a black & white guy! Color´s just not my thing, Never been. I always look for the light. And shadows. And contrast - color´s just in the way. Found out that´s why I never liked developing RAW´s in Lightroom & Co. Hated seeing my black & white´s appear as color thumbnails (And no, I´m not into cosmetics ;-) kinda disrupts my workflow...

Together but still alone, captured by Fuji X100F, 23 mm, developed in Capture One B&W style — Together but still alone, captured by Fuji X100F, 23 mm, developed in Capture One B&W style

That all changed when a window popped up on my Capture One workspace the other day, advertising "Styles" ("Jeezus, Spam", I thought. OK, just get rid of it ...). But C1´s promise kinda intrigued me & I clicked the "Learn more" button! First thing I "learned" was that this was gonna cost me like 80 Dollars. What? 80 bucks? Whoa daddy, a kinda steep price for a bit of learning!

500 shades of grey, seen with Fuji X100F, 23 mm, developed with BW-15 (grey) style in C1

But luckily they got a freebie samples download with one "BW-15 (grain)" style, which I activated in my Capture One´s import menu (together with auto adjust). This automatically imports RAW´s into C1, does some basic dynamic range optimization, applies this BW-15 (grain) style and spits out be-ooti-ful black & white thumbnails in C1´s browser plane

Stairway alley, Fuji X100F, 23 mm and Capture One with BW-15 (grey) style

The real surprise comes when you open ´em and just tweak exposure, contrast, brightness and levels a bit: Into the Light is all I can say. And the gradation & grain´s close enough to by beloved ACROS, it´s got MOJO, man! See below image of my lovely wife during a recent trip to Sicily:

Italian fashion shoot with Fuji X100F, developed in Capture One BW-15 (grey) style

I hope y´all enjoy these images & experiment for y´self, it´s easy. And fast. No Lightroom where you can go have lunch while its processing. So, if you got any questions or suggestions, like or not like the images, or wanna share your stories, please leave me a note in the comments below or on my contact page! Thanks for stopping by & wish a great weekend!

Hendrik

Forget RAW and go ACROS - The Definitive Review !

March 19, 2017

For all those of youse love fussin´ with RAW files I got news: Forget RAW and go ACROS! If you want your images to look less "canned" (i.e. digital) and more real (analogue-like), that is. As a bonus you get to spend less time hulking in front of a computer & can go out shooting ! Why ? Please read on if interested ...

First spring sun in Bayreuth, Fuji X-Pro2 with XF 23 mm / f2, SOOC ACROS JPEG

Don´t dare to shoot only JPEG´s ? No problem, just select RAW+Fine JPEG image quality! Then you always have both & can stop worrying (like I do, but ever since my hard-drive´s filling up with unused RAW files ;-) But hey, I kid you not: There´s just no way you can get Fuji´s unique in camera ACROS analogue film like appearance from post-processing!

So, what´s all this ACROS excitement about ? See Fuji´s website for details: During in camera JPEG conversion a subtle random graininess is selectively added to image areas the darker their tone is. This effect is amplified the higher the ISO setting is, giving the images a wonderful analogue film-like aura (in contrary to the "digital" grain effect applied uniformly during post-processing on the computer, resulting in the ubiquitous, artificial "processed" look). This can only be achieved with Fuji´s X-Trans CMOS III sensor & X-Processor Pro technology!

To demonstrate what I mean I´ve prepared a number of comparisons at ISO 200, 800 and 2000 using the in camera RAW converter vs. post processing in Lightroom (apologies for the somewhat mundane image, but it includes many details and textures to better compare the grain effects ;-)

1. Monochrome-R JPEG film simulation in camera w/o any grain application:
I find that w/o any grain effects the images tend to have a "synthetic, digital" look!

2. Monochrome-R JPEG film simulation with separate grain effect "Grain=Low" added in camera:
The uniformly added in camera grain effect makes the images look even more artificial (even at "Low" setting) IMO ...

ISO 200, Mono-R, Lo Grain — ISO 200, Mono-R, Lo Grain

ISO 800, Mono-R, Lo Grain — ISO 800, Mono-R, Lo Grain

ISO 2000, Mono-R, Lo Grain — ISO 2000, Mono-R, Lo Grain

3. RAW files developed in Lightroom with post processing ACROS-R film simulation applied:
Trying to add grain in post processing using Lightroom´s ACROS-R preset appears to add an additional layer, not at all comparable to Fuji´s in camera applied film simulation ...

4. ACROS-R in camera film simulation, using Fuji´s unique differentiated grain application:
Fuji´s in camera ACROS film simulation definitively creates an analogue, "Film-like" look, achieved by differentiated grain application to darker image tones and amplified at higher ISO settings!

I hope this post was an interesting read & has brought some light into the mystery of Fuji´s amazing ACROS film simulation! The fact that no external RAW converter can achieve a similar analogue film-like look is for me an additional incentive to focus on using JPEG´s (on top of the already simplified and faster workflow)!

Please let me know if you have any questions, I´d be most happy to help and learn from your comments & critique!

Have a relaxing Sunday eve, best regards

Hendrik

I hope you enjoyed reading this post - If you like you can support me by sending me a small donation via PayPal.me/hendriximages ! Helps me run this site & keeps the information coming, many thanks in advance !

Hendrik's Blog

Welcome !

Here i share my personal experiences and opinions on photography, gear, image processing, etc.

Please enjoy & feel free to comment below, or send me a message via my Contact page, thanks for reading !

Hendrik Hazeu

www.hendriximages.com

Featured links:

Great Fuji X Scoop.it! sites:
- Fuji X APS-C sensor camera
- Fuji X-Pro1

Great blogs to explore:

- Donald Barnat’s Blog 50’Lux
- Thomas Menk's Blog
- Patrick LaRoque´s Blog
- Philip Sutton´s Blog

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