My X-T2 finally bit the biscuit and so I got myself a new (used) X-T3. As I have been going through the menu and getting myself up to speed with this new camera, I’m suddenly hearing about Iridient-X Transformer. Two questions that may or may not be related: 1) Should I set my my "RAW RECORDING setting to “lossless compressed” - will that risk problems in post processing - or should I just stay with the larger file size of “uncompressed”? While getting myself acquainted with my X-T3, I’m hearing a lot about Iridient-X Transformer and I’m wondering if this is worthwhile for me or not. While I download through Lr and do some basic post processing there, I do the bulk of my post processing in Ps because of the ease of use with the TK8 panel. I would like to hear from Fuji users on both these issues. Thanks.
I have tested everything extensively for x-trans sensors, I did use Iridient for a while, but then Adobe added the ‘Enhance Details’ feature to help with the worms problem, so now I just use Lr/Ps and get great results. Here’s the overview: https://www.exploringexposure.com/blog/fujifilm/my-fujifilm-sharpening-workflow-in-lightroom/
I also have an action in Ps to add microcontrast that makes a huge difference: https://www.exploringexposure.com/blog/post-processing/creating-micro-contrast-in-photoshop/
@David_Kingham - David this is terrific. Not only have you saved me a few dollars (not buying Iridient-X) but have probably saved me a lot of extra work in post. I find that no matter how careful I am, by the time I get to the end of my post processing I have annoying artifacts only visible when I zoom to a %100 or more, but still annoying to me. The only problem I can see with this work flow is that if I wanted to export my RAW file to Ps as a smart object, well, that would no longer be possible since the file will already have been converted to a DGN or Tiff. While I can still make smart objects in Ps using Camera Raw they won’t be the same in many situations as bringing it in from Lr. Still, I find there are often small pixel changes I want to make near the beginning of my workflow, so export from Lr as a smart object usually doesn’t make much sense anyway. But that raises a question. If I plan to make pixel changes, like removing a bit of tree branch or the like, would you do that after you’ve done the Enhance in Lr and the Microcontrast action in Ps? And finally, knowing that you are a Fujifilm user, do you set your camera for “Uncompressed” or “Lossless Compressed”?
Thanks for the microcontrast action, David. I use an old Topaz plugin for it and every time PS has an update, I’m afraid it will become incompatible with the new version. This is a very good backup for me.
Actually, a DNG is still a raw file so you can still open this as a smart object and edit in Photoshop as a raw file. Either way, I would save the microcontrast as the last step. Enhance just needs to happen before you go to Photoshop.
I use lossless compressed, it creates smaller files with no loss of quality.