The X-Pro1 Users Guide to jpg Settings

[tom in mpls]

In view of the limited options to convert from RAW, and the spectacular results that can be achieved with jpg, I am hoping to learn more about the jpg settings on this camera. I have shot RAW exclusively for years, but now it's time to learn jpg.

I am asking for others to share their tips for the best in jpg on the XP1. Help me and others shorten the learning curve.

What are your favorite settings for color, sharpness, highlight and shadow tone, and noise reduction?

I am also completely ignorant on the uses of Velvia, Provia, PRO Neg Std., and PRO Neg Hi. I have no past film experience, it's all new to me. I did read the manual, but it is so very brief and inadequate.

 

[Braeside]

Tom, one thing you can do is to capture RAW + JPG, and in camera you can reprocess the RAW using different film simulations which is quite useful to get a handle on the differences.

If you are shooting just JPG the main thing is to watch you don't blow the highlights, so sometimes a minus Exposure Comp is advisable. You can also play with the DR settings for JPG, it does tend to up the ISO though, but the camera is so noise free it rarely matters too much.

Agree on the manual.

 

[Derek Zeanah]

If you use auto-DR then you'll often get JPEGs that are pretty flat looking. This was the same as the S5 produced, but they had enough detail that you could tweak to a reasonable degree in Lightroom and get good results. The results were good enough that I just used JPEGs for most wedding work. Well, that, plus the S5 was terribly slow the RAW write speed. Back to the X Pro 1.

I'd say that, to me:

• Velvia was good for landscapes because it produced intense, unrealistic color (especially in greens). This wasn't good for color accuracy, but it was for emotional weight and overall pop. Kind of like Ansel Adams B&W images of Yosemite -- the overall interpretation was probably more dramatic than what his camera actually "saw," but as someone who spend a significant chunk of my childhood in those mountains I can say that he nailed it emotionally. Velvia is likely not a good choice for skin tone renditions.
• Provia is still pretty saturated, but it does fine for people's skin. This is probably a reasonable default, and it's what I use.
• Astia was a gorgeous film for people shooting, but it was chrome rather than negative film, and as such it had a fairly limited ability to deal with high contrast scenes. Of course, metering for a backlit face and letting the background blow out could create a very nice image too. I think this was sold as more accurate for colors than Provia or Velvia, but I only shot a few rolls of it.
• Pro neg will probably get you boring results. Play with it -- it might work great under strobe lighting (what it's probably made for), but when I think about pro neg films for wedding and portrait work I tend to think "muted," and something I would only send to a wedding/portrait lab that was set up for it so I'd get good, predictable results at an affordable price.

In the end you'll need to play with it a bit and see what you like. Luckily, you can bracket your film setting choices so comparisons should be easy.

 

[Terry]

In view of the limited options to convert from RAW, and the spectacular results that can be achieved with jpg, I am hoping to learn more about the jpg settings on this camera. I have shot RAW exclusively for years, but now it's time to learn jpg.

I am asking for others to share their tips for the best in jpg on the XP1. Help me and others shorten the learning curve.

What are your favorite settings for color, sharpness, highlight and shadow tone, and noise reduction?

I am also completely ignorant on the uses of Velvia, Provia, PRO Neg Std., and PRO Neg Hi. I have no past film experience, it's all new to me. I did read the manual, but it is so very brief and inadequate.

Tom two things you can do:
Shoot RAW and develop in camera (Page 66 of manual - PDF version)
Film bracketing selection is on the drive mode button on the left.

 

[Gbealnz]

I guess I'm in a similar situation to Tom, just too shy to ask.
I always used RAW (well DNG with my last camera), but this new fangled Fuji has me ring back to JPEG's for at least until Adobe come to the party.
Adding to the injury is the fact that little on the supplied CD works with my computer, running Lion on a Mac of course. Yes, I can get SilkyPix to work, but coming from a reasonable understanding of LR and Photoshop I don't think I can be bothered.
lus, if you believe the masses, the JPEgs are superb.
So, shoot JPEG's for a while, and be happy. Do you just leave them as set, or do you tweak them a touch. I'm old enough to remember all the films, and some, but it is more the sharpness settings etc that I am looking for guidance on. So far I have just played with the default settings.
Good on ya Tom for asking.
Gary

 

[Terry]

Gary the brilliant thing is if you want to experiment you can shoot RAW and then develop many different ways in camera and sharpening is a parameter you can change. So in essence you can take one raw and make many jpegs with different sharpening settings etc. until you get the look you like.

 

[tom in mpls]

I had not seen this in the manual when I read through it. Although flexible, it seems awkward. I'm hoping to learn to use the in-camera jpg. BTW I have been shooting RAW + jpg; memory is cheap so why not.

 

[Gbealnz]

Thank you Terry, I went and re-read the manual as well. I'll give it a go.
I'm with you Tom, memory is cheap, bought another couple of cards over the weekend.
Gary