Isaac Hilman

My favourite method for converting Color photos to B&W, has to be Photoshop Gradient map. I watched a video which walked through about 8 different methods, but the gradient map seemed to retain the largest tonal range of colors when converted into B&W. I shoot 100% of my photos in color, but end up converting a lot to B&W in post. Usual method is to fully edit for color in Lightroom, transfer to Photoshop only to apply the "Gradient Map", then bring it back to lightroom and adjust levels to taste.
 
Here's an example of the look when finished:
 

 
I've tried just editing in Lightroom by switching to the B&W panel, but for some reason it often reduces the overall tonal range of colors. Gradient map is visibly better, every time (and it's a very simple conversion!)

The Eastern Edge of Vancouver Island, Victoria BC by Isaac Hilman, on Flickr
 
Fuji XT-1, Rokinon 12mm, 10 Stop ND + Graduated ND Filters, 45 second Exposure.

I've just written up a new blog post here, outlining the settings I've worked out to get the most out of Iridient Digital's new X-Transformer conversion software. I did some rather rigorous testing over the past couple of days, to see if I can find an optimal starting point when working with Iridient + Lightroom.

I was searching everywhere for suggested settings, but it being such a new product I was unable to find any real direction. 

Please have a read, and let me know what you think! I think the results are wonderful, but would love to hear others opinions. This is just a base starting point, prior to any further processing, but it makes a freshly converted X file look perfect.

Cheers;

Isaac

Hey everyone!
 
I just wrote up a new blog post this morning outlining the settings I use for Iridient X-Transformer (Windows PC version) + Lightroom, which completely removes this muddy / watercolor texture problem - leaving with a perfect looking image file to work with. It's pretty easy if you batch import with Iridient - using the settings i outline, and then import into Lightroom with a quick Preset I developed.
 
Everything is in the post, please check it out! I think you'll be very happy with the final result.
 
Cheers!
 
Note: I was shooting with a Fuji XT-1, and have yet to try it on one of the new 24.3mp sensors. Please try it and let me know what you find out!

The Eastern Edge of Vancouver Island, Victoria BC by Isaac Hilman, on Flickr
 
Fuji XT-1, Rokinon 12mm, 10 Stop ND + Graduated ND Filters, 45 second Exposure.

The Eastern Edge of Vancouver Island, Victoria BC by Isaac Hilman, on Flickr
 
Fuji XT-1, Rokinon 12mm, 10 Stop ND + Graduated ND Filters, 45 second Exposure.

The Eastern Edge of Vancouver Island, Victoria BC by Isaac Hilman, on Flickr
 
Fuji XT-1, Rokinon 12mm, 10 Stop ND + Graduated ND Filters, 45 second Exposure.

- Increased frames for Bracketing (2-9).
 
- Increase the maximum allowed time selection in T mode, not maxing out at 30 seconds.
 
- Increased frames in Multi-Exposure mode (2-9), as well as an Auto Gain on / off setting, AND make it produce RAF files instead of only JPG. (I used to love Multiple Exposures on my Nikon FX cameras, but feel like it's just a minor afterthought in the Fuji cameras.) It even has it's own spot on the drive dial, so please make it shine!

Awesome shot! Really like it!

The best snap I've made so far. It was the photo of the day at Smithsonian.com, a Daily Dozen at National Geographic, and in the featured gallery at Lensculture.

Xpro2 35/F1.4
 
 
 

catwalk. by Peter Zimmer, auf Flickr

The Eastern Edge of Vancouver Island, Victoria BC by Isaac Hilman, on Flickr
 
Fuji XT-1, Rokinon 12mm, 10 Stop ND + Graduated ND Filters, 45 second Exposure.

I've just written up a new blog post here, outlining the settings I've worked out to get the most out of Iridient Digital's new X-Transformer conversion software. I did some rather rigorous testing over the past couple of days, to see if I can find an optimal starting point when working with Iridient + Lightroom.

I was searching everywhere for suggested settings, but it being such a new product I was unable to find any real direction. 

Please have a read, and let me know what you think! I think the results are wonderful, but would love to hear others opinions. This is just a base starting point, prior to any further processing, but it makes a freshly converted X file look perfect.

Cheers;

Isaac

The Eastern Edge of Vancouver Island, Victoria BC by Isaac Hilman, on Flickr
 
Fuji XT-1, Rokinon 12mm, 10 Stop ND + Graduated ND Filters, 45 second Exposure.

This was an excellent help for me. Thank you so much for suggesting turning off the Iridient sharpening and noise reduction. I am getting consistently better processing using your method thus far.

I've just written up a new blog post here, outlining the settings I've worked out to get the most out of Iridient Digital's new X-Transformer conversion software. I did some rather rigorous testing over the past couple of days, to see if I can find an optimal starting point when working with Iridient + Lightroom.

I was searching everywhere for suggested settings, but it being such a new product I was unable to find any real direction. 

Please have a read, and let me know what you think! I think the results are wonderful, but would love to hear others opinions. This is just a base starting point, prior to any further processing, but it makes a freshly converted X file look perfect.

Cheers;

Isaac

View of San Francisco Bay from Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, California, USA
 
Camera: Fujifilm X-E1
Lens: XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6R LM OIS WR
 
 

San Francisco North Beach District from the Bay Bridge: 
 
Camera: Fujifilm X-A1
Lens: XC50-230mmF4.5-6.7 OIS
 

XT-2 (prefer the multi-tilt screen, and the dslr style)
 
Bought an XT-1 just this christmas to test before deciding on if I wanted an XT-2, or would save my money. I owned and enjoyed the X100s, but preferred dlsr style cameras. I love the XT-1 so much, that I've sold all of my Nikon FX Camera gear to buy more lenses + XT-2. The new camera should be coming in the mail in a few days , and I am excited!

To be honest I recently upgraded from the X-T1 to the X-T2 because I was never totally happy with how the RAW files were rendered in LR. I thought the extra resolution of the X-T2 would help, but the improvement is modest at best, and still suffers heavily from the watercolour/worms effect that is well documented.
 
I downloaded a beta copy of Irident Developer today, and was hugely impressed with how it renders the RAF files. As an experiment I used it with an X-T1 image and then upsized the file to 6000 x 4000, and then made a direct comparison to the same photo taken with an X-T2 which had been processed in LR. They were identical!
 
I genuinely believe that if you are currently using an X-T1 with LR to process RAW files you could just buy a copy of Irident Developer, instead of buying an X-T2. I was going to sell my X-T1 and buy the X-T20 as a second body, but I'm not going to bother now.

Noise isn't information. If you take an 8MP image, and upscale it, then add fake noise, you'll find at some point you've matched the (noisy) high ISO image of the same scene shot at 24MP, because the noise in the 24MP image was just that... noise. Not actually information from the scene. Or conversely, if you take a noisy ISO 6400 24MP image and start scaling it down, you'll reach a point where the noise becomes imperceptible (it averages out). This is why you never see noisy photos on instagram... The images there are only displayed at like 3MP.
 
People fall into this trap every time a new, higher megapixel image sensor comes out. They look at a 16MP ISO 6400 image at 1:1 and compare it to the 24MP ISO 6400 image at 1:1. That's not a valid comparison. If you downscale the 24MP image to 16MP, then maybe you can compare. But chances are nobody but the photographer will ever see the image at 1:1 anyway, they'll see some 3-6MP downscaled version on the web.
 
The moral of the story is: if you want to crop a lot or make a giant print (i.e. benefit from that 24 megapixels) then you're going to have to shoot at ISO 200. If you accept that you will only make smaller prints or only display on the web, then you can crank the ISO as high as you want (the higher you go, the smaller the dispaly MP you can support without the image appearing noisy).

My favourite method for converting Color photos to B&W, has to be Photoshop Gradient map. I watched a video which walked through about 8 different methods, but the gradient map seemed to retain the largest tonal range of colors when converted into B&W. I shoot 100% of my photos in color, but end up converting a lot to B&W in post. Usual method is to fully edit for color in Lightroom, transfer to Photoshop only to apply the "Gradient Map", then bring it back to lightroom and adjust levels to taste.
 
Here's an example of the look when finished:
 

 
I've tried just editing in Lightroom by switching to the B&W panel, but for some reason it often reduces the overall tonal range of colors. Gradient map is visibly better, every time (and it's a very simple conversion!)

My favourite method for converting Color photos to B&W, has to be Photoshop Gradient map. I watched a video which walked through about 8 different methods, but the gradient map seemed to retain the largest tonal range of colors when converted into B&W. I shoot 100% of my photos in color, but end up converting a lot to B&W in post. Usual method is to fully edit for color in Lightroom, transfer to Photoshop only to apply the "Gradient Map", then bring it back to lightroom and adjust levels to taste.
 
Here's an example of the look when finished:
 

 
I've tried just editing in Lightroom by switching to the B&W panel, but for some reason it often reduces the overall tonal range of colors. Gradient map is visibly better, every time (and it's a very simple conversion!)