Sunday 28 April 2013

April colours

I decided to re-process some of my X-Trans raw files with recently updated Aperture.


Saturday 27 April 2013

Testing Aperture 3.4.4 with X-Trans support

Today I decided to test Aperture one more time, just to see if my first impression was right.


I took Fujifilm X-Pro 1 with Fujinon 35mm on a short walk along the trail in the area.  And then I processed all raw files in Aperture only.

Thursday 25 April 2013

Lightroom 4.4 (ACR7.4) vs. Capture One Express 7.1.1 vs. Aperture 4.05 (X-Trans)


Hi All,
As usually I do not pretend that my test is a scientific research. I was looking for a Fujifilm X-Pro 1 raw file converter  that works for me and would like to share my findings. I excluded supplied RFC (SilkyPix) from this comparison simply because I don't  like its interface and hardly can imaging using it in the future. But don't  get me wrong, RFC is very capable raw converter.    
I leveraged Raw Photo Processor 4.7.0 (excellent free raw converter) to see how much details Aperture can resolve.
For test purposes I used my own files and raw files available from DPReview and Ryan Williams (Respective Owners, thank you and let me know if you would like to remove them from this review)


The file above was processed (with some adjustment) with three different engines  but results look very similar. Why? 

Saturday 20 April 2013

Dry Leaf Study

Leaves, as photographic object, have always fascinated me.  Simplicity and yet such complexity.



Thanks,
vkphoto

Friday 19 April 2013

Spring, geese, snow


the spring is coming...


... no, not really. April 20, 2013

thanks,
vkphoto

Saturday 13 April 2013

After the icy rain

April 12, 2012.
Looks like spring is well behind the schedule here in Ontario.

X-Pro 1 + Nikkor 28mm, f/2.8 AI-s + Capture One Express

X-Pro 1 + Fujinon 35 mm f/1.4 + Lightroom (my preset)

Thanks,

vkphoto

Wednesday 10 April 2013

Italy with Panasonic DMC-LX5 (Rome)

In Rome I felt much better, but still  din't want to cary DSLR with me all the time, and probably 70% were taken with LX-5. I used Canon gear exclusively only in Vatican.

I also had very small and light Polaroid tripod with me that worked well with tiny LX-5.


Colosseum at night, taken with LX-5 mounted on tripod.

Italy with Panasonic DMC-LX5 (Florence)

Couple days ago I was asked if Panasonic LX-7 is good enough to take on a trip to Italy. I never used LX-7 but about a year ago I had LX-5 with me on a trip to Florence and Rome. I checked archives and realized that although I had Canon DSLR and several L lenses I mostly used LX-5.



Why?

Sunday 7 April 2013

My two Lightroom 4.4 presets for X-Trans CMOS

Last week Adobe released Lightroom 4.4 with enhanced support for Fujifilm X-Trans CMOS. This upgrade was result of joint Fujifilm and Adobe efforts, you can read the full story here.

With this release Adobe significantly improved demosaicing algorithm to address previous so called "water colour" and "colour bleeding" issues with X-trans CMOS raw files, albeit not 100% but they were reduced to a negligible level.

Great news. But  I was disappointed to see that default output looked somewhat soft and dull. Sure I spent time working on sharpening and colour adjustments to make X-Pro 1 raw files look to my liking.