X-T2 is out, (offically) Who is interested

[rdonson]

Thanks for sharing your experiences and workflow.  It helps me and hopefully others as I look for approaches for the X-T2.  I hope more people share their experiences and settings.

It may be that Pete and Martin have different goals.  Pete seems more focused on the final print and Martin, in his article, on replicating the look that people get with Capture One. 

[john beardsworth]

So Pete says to start with a detail of 80 and Martin says to start with a detail of 15. Wow, that's quite a difference of opinion!

You need to add in the Sharpening values. Pete goes low, Martin higher, which isn't surprising - higher Sharpening tends to lead to lower Detail and vv.

[Eric Brody]

Regarding masking in Lightroom sharpening... the above recommendations of 0 masking seem unusual to me. FWIW, I usually run the masking slider up until I've not sharpened large open areas, eg sky, and try to do proper "edge sharpening." Are others using zero masking and if so, why?

[Rand47]

Regarding masking in Lightroom sharpening... the above recommendations of 0 masking seem unusual to me. FWIW, I usually run the masking slider up until I've not sharpened large open areas, eg sky, and try to do proper "edge sharpening." Are others using zero masking and if so, why?

+1  IMO, every file needs at least minimal masking to keep from introducing weirdness somewhere, e.g. blue skies, and broad areas of facial skin.

Rand

[David Sutton]

Regarding masking in Lightroom sharpening... the above recommendations of 0 masking seem unusual to me. FWIW, I usually run the masking slider up until I've not sharpened large open areas, eg sky, and try to do proper "edge sharpening." Are others using zero masking and if so, why?

I usually leave masking at zero because either the subject matter has little skin/sky or I'm not printing large enough for artefacts to show. Large prints with a lot of sky are another matter.
Furthermore, if I've used LR for the raw conversion I use a low amount on the sharpening slider and follow up with deconvolution sharpening in Photoshop. Then that layer is carefully masked in a way not possible with the mask slider in LR.
YMMV. For my part, this is the first step for the "look" I'm after with the Fuji images. The files from the X-T1 have a sort of malleability I haven't seen with other cameras. The result is hard to describe. Lot of detail but a sort ethereal colour.
I hope to buy an X-T2 next month and it will be interesting to see if this workflow still is applicable, or it's back to square one.
David

[rdonson]

David, I think you'll truly enjoy the X-T2.  I think mine is a big move up from my X-T1 and I loved that one.  As far a Lr processing and especially sharpening goes it seems we're all on the learning curve. 

I do hope we continue to share experiences and thoughts.

[David Sutton]

I do hope we continue to share experiences and thoughts.

Likewise. I've had the most tremendous amount of fun with photography, but the X-T1 has been the most fun with any camera I've owned.
David

[rdonson]

As I take more and more shots it appears to me that Pete Bridgwood's settings are indeed suspect.  He did warn he was using a pre-production X-Pro2 camera with pre-production firmware.

Tonight I worked on shots from my wooded backyard.  Spider webs, yard art, deciduous and conifer trees and tonight the settings that looked most natural to me are:

Amount  - 20
Radius   - 0.8
Detail    - 40
Masking - 50

Tomorrow may yield different results as I continue to learn.

[Alan Smallbone]

Thanks for posting your settings. I just got back from a 6 day trip for fall color and have yet to process any of my images so I will get a lot of experience over the next couple of weeks, so I will try to add to the sharpening thread.

I also got my RRS l-plate yesterday, another well made article, a bit thicker than the previous X-T1 plate so it acts a little like an extension, it looks like they made it thicker to accommodate a quick release strap system. The vertical component of the l-plate is adjustable, you can set the distance from the camera body. The plate is nicely beveled so it does not interfere with the lcd in any position. Expensive but really nicely made.

Alan

[Dan Wells]

Interesting to see how different Fuji's and Sony's design decisions are... I'm a Fuji shooter (X-Pro 2, soon to add an X-T2 replacing an X-T1 backup body), and I love Fuji's full set of quasi-mechanical controls - they are all feeding into the computer, but they are made to look and feel like mechanical controls of old. For some reason, Fuji ALSO uses a full set of digital controls on the SAME camera (an X-Pro 2 has dual command dials and four arrow buttons, despite having dedicated controls for Shutter Speed, Aperture, Exposure Compensation and ISO plus a joystick to move the AF point). The X-T2 adds dedicated controls for drive and metering mode (I count SEVEN dedicated control points (admittedly, including the aperture ring on the lens) - WHAT is left to use the digital buttons and dials for? You can control the whole camera without ever using a non-dedicated control (well, other than 1/3 stops of shutter speed). It has menus, but really only for setup!

In contrast, the new Sony a6500 (an X-T2 with an E-mount and IBIS, for all practical purposes), has only 1.5 dials, none of them dedicated. There's one nice dial on the top deck plus one really lousy one shared with the four-way controller on the back. You can't even control all the basic exposure variables (aperture and shutter plus ISO, or one of them plus exposure comp and ISO) at once. The old NEX-7 actually did better - the extra top dial meant that you had your two primary variables on nice top dials, with ISO on the very mushy rear dial - not as nice as a bunch of dedicated controls, but very usable. The A7 series has a dedicated exposure compensation dial, but the small front and rear main dials don't get great reviews (they're similar to Fuji's, but you don't need them on a Fuji, because shutter and aperture have dedicated controls)..

[Ken Bennett]

WHAT is left to use the digital buttons and dials for? You can control the whole camera without ever using a non-dedicated control (well, other than 1/3 stops of shutter speed). It has menus, but really only for setup!

I turn off most of the function buttons and especially the 4-way controller -- otherwise I can inadvertently change settings while out shooting.

[armand]

Interesting to see how different Fuji's and Sony's design decisions are... I'm a Fuji shooter (X-Pro 2, soon to add an X-T2 replacing an X-T1 backup body), and I love Fuji's full set of quasi-mechanical controls - they are all feeding into the computer, but they are made to look and feel like mechanical controls of old. For some reason, Fuji ALSO uses a full set of digital controls on the SAME camera (an X-Pro 2 has dual command dials and four arrow buttons, despite having dedicated controls for Shutter Speed, Aperture, Exposure Compensation and ISO plus a joystick to move the AF point). The X-T2 adds dedicated controls for drive and metering mode (I count SEVEN dedicated control points (admittedly, including the aperture ring on the lens) - WHAT is left to use the digital buttons and dials for? You can control the whole camera without ever using a non-dedicated control (well, other than 1/3 stops of shutter speed). It has menus, but really only for setup!

In contrast, the new Sony a6500 (an X-T2 with an E-mount and IBIS, for all practical purposes), has only 1.5 dials, none of them dedicated. There's one nice dial on the top deck plus one really lousy one shared with the four-way controller on the back. You can't even control all the basic exposure variables (aperture and shutter plus ISO, or one of them plus exposure comp and ISO) at once. The old NEX-7 actually did better - the extra top dial meant that you had your two primary variables on nice top dials, with ISO on the very mushy rear dial - not as nice as a bunch of dedicated controls, but very usable. The A7 series has a dedicated exposure compensation dial, but the small front and rear main dials don't get great reviews (they're similar to Fuji's, but you don't need them on a Fuji, because shutter and aperture have dedicated controls)..

I don't know about usability but the Sony does bring many things to the table that are competitive or are superior to Fuji. Where I think the difference is and why I have no desire for the Sony is the lenses. Fuji has almost all that I need. I would really like a 16-70/85 F4 WR OIS for backpacking purposes but otherwise I'm practically covered. I might get a prime there and there that I don't have a real need, more out of curiosity. If I was a macro shooter I guess the 80mm macro can't come fast enough and I hear some want faster telephoto primes.

[john beardsworth]

Do any of you use the Fuji film simulations much? If so, I've got a plugin working that reads the film simulation from the Exif and sets the corresponding Lightroom profile in the Camera Calibration tab. I've only tested it with my X-T2 but think it's promising. Anyone interested in trying it?

John

[Alan Smallbone]

John,

That sounds like an interesting plugin, I would be interested it in it. I usually either shoot everything in velvia or in a bw mode when shooting. Be nice to have them match what I saw in the VF before capture, I can always alter it later.

Alan

[wtjones]

John,

I would also be very interested in testing your plugin. One of my frustrations with lightroom for the Fuji raw files has been the automatic selection of "Adobe Standard" in Camera Calibration. I use the Mac version of Lightroom.

[armand]

John,

I would also be very interested in testing your plugin. One of my frustrations with lightroom for the Fuji raw files has been the automatic selection of "Adobe Standard" in Camera Calibration. I use the Mac version of Lightroom.

You can set other defaults with each import. Get into the edit mode in one file, set the color simulation (plus other things you want in a particular way, e.g. sharpening) then hold Alt and click on set as default (on the right bottom, under the develop panel). It will apply those settings in the future with the next import.

This plug in seems to go the extra mile though and do it on a file by file cases, real time.

[john beardsworth]

This plug in seems to go the extra mile though and do it on a file by file cases

That's right. The other day I went for a long walk and switched between various B&W emulations depending on the scene, and I also shot some as colour. Lightroom applied a custom default as you describe - making everything use my default Provia look. So I ran the plugin and each image's Profile was individually set in the Camera Calibration tab. A non-exporting keyword was also added, so I can search by film simulation.

John

[Alan Smallbone]

You can set other defaults with each import. Get into the edit mode in one file, set the color simulation (plus other things you want in a particular way, e.g. sharpening) then hold Alt and click on set as default (on the right bottom, under the develop panel). It will apply those settings in the future with the next import.

This plug in seems to go the extra mile though and do it on a file by file cases, real time.

Or another way is to make develop presets for the different simulations and you can have it use a preset when you import. Although John's plugin is very nice, tried it out last night on some files from a shoot. I ended up changing the film simulations at lot, tried most of them, it was nice to see the proper simulations after importation to LR. John's plugin went through and changed them all, very cool.

Alan

[skirkp]

After a week and a little over 500 exposures with my T2, I'm seeing excellent results, except for one scenario, where the images are corrupted.  Here's an example:
https://flic.kr/p/MxZ13D
In high range lighting situations, backlit scenes or low light shots with a strong light source near the desired subject, the live view image flickers between too light, and too dark, and the resulting picture has the spots and highlight banding seen in my example.  Sending the camera back (if I am the only person who has experienced this, and the coming firmware upgrade doesn't fix it) is going to be painful, so  has anyone else experienced this?

scott

https://www.flickr.com/photos/133969392@N05/albums

[Ken Bennett]

Hi, Scott,

Is this what the in-camera jpeg looks like? What is your dynamic range setting (DR100, DR200, DR400, or DR-Auto)? I have found odd results sometimes with anything other than DR100 (which is basically "off").

Ken