Help with lightness in B&W photo ..

[ntz]

guys, what a great and in-depth and descriptive answers and your input in here .. I am very very grateful ... I am still in phase where I am rereading your points and trying to understand ..

thank you so much, you're awesome !!!

edit: Hmm, that sucks ... my RawTherapee doesn't work well with these FUJI x-trans sensor RAFs .. in reality, the outcome is rather catastrophic .. time for some plan B

 

[ntz]

Hello guys,

I want to again thank you very much for your help ... I still like to original lightness of my photo .. I've created a this version and removed that "muddy" look as you've mentioned earlier - thank you very much for that, it was indeed muddy .. now this is my final edit from RAF file


42761 by ntz on ThePhotoForum: Film & Digital Photography Forum

do you think that's acceptable now ? - in regard of muddiness, sharpness and contrast ?

Also I have one additional question: isn't that FUJI's film emulation adding there that muddiness ? isn't that artistic intention of that ACROS=R filter ?

 

[Ysarex]

Hello guys,

I want to again thank you very much for your help ... I still like to original lightness of my photo .. I've created a this version and removed that "muddy" look as you've mentioned earlier - thank you very much for that, it was indeed muddy .. now this is my final edit from RAF file


42761 by ntz on ThePhotoForum: Film & Digital Photography Forum

do you think that's acceptable now ? - in regard of muddiness, sharpness and contrast ?

Also I have one additional question: isn't that FUJI's film emulation adding there that muddiness ? isn't that artistic intention of that ACROS=R filter ?

That's much better -- big improvement over your original posted images. However, you still don't have black in this version of the photo. That black point matters; make sure it's there.

The lack of contrast, muddiness, that you originally got in your camera JPEG did not result from the Acros film simulation. It resulted from your use of the camera's DR400 mode. Fuji designed the DR modes to create lower contrast JPEGs with pulled back highlights. They use a combination of forced exposure reduction (raise ISO) and the application of a lower contrast tone curve to produce the JPEG. The DR400 mode is appropriate for higher contrast conditions than you have in this scene.

Artistic intention is something that you're capable of -- not your camera. Every algorithm in your camera that seems to be making decisions is only applying a rule of averages programmed by the Fuji engineers. Sorry to sound preachy there, but it's my job -- I'm a teacher.

 

[ntz]

.. However, you still don't have black in this version of the photo. That black point matters; make sure it's there ..

thanks much, I will drag myself through some self-study about this matter .. to be honest, I am not familiar with it ..

..The lack of contrast, muddiness, that you originally got in your camera JPEG did not result from the Acros film simulation. It resulted from your use of the camera's DR400 mode..

I have this camera only short time .. I am new to these Fuji specialities like DR modes .. so in the other words, generally speaking (there might be situations where it's good to use it ofc ..), the Fuji's DR400 mode will produce toxic results and I should avoid using that ? Normally with Nikon there's nothing like that and I am 95% ISO 100 guy with tripod hunting compositions somewhere out .. I've set here those AUTO-ISO and DR-AUTO mode because it sounded sexy for my original purpose that was/would be raw-less shooting using those built-in film-like simulations

Artistic intention is something that you're capable of -- not your camera. Every algorithm in your camera that seems to be making decisions is only applying a rule of averages programmed by the Fuji engineers. Sorry to sound preachy there, but it's my job -- I'm a teacher.

I am very happy for every your input .. I just felt at the beginning to love with all that concept of raw-less shooting that I normally don't do with Nikon and all my landscapes .. Seems I still need to learn howto use best my new camera then and learn more about its strengths and weaknesses ..

 

[Ysarex]

.. However, you still don't have black in this version of the photo. That black point matters; make sure it's there ..

thanks much, I will drag myself through some self-study about this matter .. to be honest, I am not familiar with it ..

..The lack of contrast, muddiness, that you originally got in your camera JPEG did not result from the Acros film simulation. It resulted from your use of the camera's DR400 mode..

I have this camera only short time .. I am new to these Fuji specialities like DR modes .. so in the other words, generally speaking (there might be situations where it's good to use it ofc ..), the Fuji's DR400 mode will produce toxic results and I should avoid using that ?

It's a tool. Learn what it can do and how to control it. The DR modes are for JPEG shooters and do not help if you're going to process a raw file. If you want to further pursue getting good results from the camera's JPEG software you can do that. In this photo you didn't get a great camera JPEG. Again I'd suggest because your original scene wasn't as high contrast as DR400 would assume.

Normally with Nikon there's nothing like that

Nikon has ADL to do much the same thing. It takes a different approach than Fuji but the intent is the same.

and I am 95% ISO 100 guy with tripod hunting compositions somewhere out .. I've set here those AUTO-ISO and DR-AUTO mode because it sounded sexy for my original purpose that was/would be raw-less shooting using those built-in film-like simulations

Artistic intention is something that you're capable of -- not your camera. Every algorithm in your camera that seems to be making decisions is only applying a rule of averages programmed by the Fuji engineers. Sorry to sound preachy there, but it's my job -- I'm a teacher.

I am very happy for every your input .. I just felt at the beginning to love with all that concept of raw-less shooting that I normally don't do with Nikon and all my landscapes .. Seems I still need to learn howto use best my new camera then and learn more about its strengths and weaknesses ..

Getting good SOOC JPEGs is certainly one of the attractions of the Fuji cameras and if you follow them on some of these various forums you'll find lots of people committed to the same. I have two Fuji cameras that I'm very happy with but I'm not willing to devote the time and effort into trying to coax good SOOC JPEGs from them -- too much work for me.