Fuji sharpness, noise reduction and other settings

Luke

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Location
Milwaukee, WI USA
Name
Luke
As I was resetting everything yesterday after installing the latest firmware, I was wondering if anyone had done any "testing" or playing around with different settings. I had everything set at standard, but was wondering considering setting noise reduction to low figuring I can do noise reduction later if it's needed and possibly benefit from having more detail in all my shots. Also, I wonder about sharpness. Standard seems to make the most sense, but I do love a sharp image. Especially since I shoot wide open a lot....I could use the extra sharpness, but will this just add faux sharpening and introduce noise? The color and shadow and highlight detail I have always left at standard.

Opinions and experience welcome.
 
Its all personal preference, as usual. But a good way to get a handle on what you like is to take a few representative shots in raw and then use the in-camera raw converter to process them a few different ways. The settings you choose from in processing the raw files are exactly the same as the settings you have available for shooting jpegs. Which makes sense because its essentially doing the same thing - the only question is whether the jpeg is created when you take the shot or later. So take a shot and process it with each level of sharpness, NR, shadow and highlight protection, etc. And different film emulations. If you find a combination you like, set your jpegs to the same settings and you're good to go...

-Ray
 
Why didn't I think of that. Thanks Ray! I'm not sure I'll be able to see a difference on the small screen, but I guess the software would do the same thing. Now.....do I have it is the question.
 
One of the strange things when using RAW on the X100 is that in camera review image can't be magnified as much as JPG's. So the first few times I was reviewing RAW images, I kept thinking that there was something wrong with the file size. As soon as you do an in camera conversion to JPG, you can magnify the JPG much more. I find the in camera JPG engine quite good, and have a hard time doing a better job in LR.
 
Armanius, I do believe if you shoot RAW+JPEG you can have your cake and eat it too - you'll get the ability to instantly review your image at magnification. If you like to chimp and check the focus point, it's handy.

If you are using something like Lightroom which sucks the raw and jpeg files in during import, you can either live with that, or periodically prune your collection of JPEGs (assuming you don't want any of them). I have a saved search in Mac Finder that pulls up all the jpegs created by a certain camera (the GXR in my case) within my Lightroom master directory; once in a while I delete them. The GXR does the same thing as the X100, requires you generate at least a "Normal" (Fine works too) resolution jpeg to give you the max in clear magnification via the finder or rear LCD.
 
Thanks for the pointer Mike. I have pretty much come to rely on the X100's JPG's nowadays. I rarely shoot RAW with it. Maybe I'll give RAW a shot again, because I haven't worked with a X100 RAW in LR 4 yet.
 
Why didn't I think of that. Thanks Ray! I'm not sure I'll be able to see a difference on the small screen, but I guess the software would do the same thing. Now.....do I have it is the question.
You don't need to review it there. Shoot a raw, process it 15 ways (if you want!), make some notes about what settings you used for each, and then upload them all and see 'em in all of their glory on your computer. You can process a raw as many times as you want (I think, several times at least)...

-Ray
 
I always leave everything "in camera" as standard - the only in camera setting I use is the the plus or minus exposure stop facility depending on the scene and camera i use

99% of shots are in A or S mode depending on the situation - only really use S mode for longer lens


I shoot in RAW and make all adjustments in LR - I find it simpler that way
 
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