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Exposure X3 fromAlien Software


Guest Him

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Has anyone tried this software, it comes with an incredible number of film presets including of course Fuji ones!

 

I like the interface too. On my tests so far it seems to be highly capable and fast.

 

I see Tomasz at Fujilove loves it too and will do a review soon.

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Hi

 

I'm using this software since years as a plugin of Photoshop ...

 

I am trialling it at the moment, but as I become more used to it, I am finding it is fast, has a great interface and has innumerable presets (which is what attracted me in the first place). I tried Luminar too, but that is so slow. I have Pictorial too and it is as fast as Exposure X3 but not as talented. So presently I use Pictorial when I know I will not need much change to an image, and Exposure when I need more changes to be made.

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Hi

I recently started trial of Alien Skin E3 i will try write down some though. My journey with LR ended when they come up with subscriptions and gone to Affinity Photo and FastRaw Viewer. Serif team made great job developing Affinity Photo for price and osx platform but they don't fully focus on RAF files support. I had AP quite long time and mostly my work was on usual RAW files, but when i fully decided switch from canon to fuji i approach some issues working on fuji files with Affinity Photo. I posted bugs on their forums but no one didn't come back with proper answer. So shooting with my fuji was 100% pleasure but editing nightmare i needed start looking around after software. I downloaded some trials and started doing simple edits, it appear that Alien skin i was opening mostly.

Simplicity of interface, presents, non-destructive RAF, file browsing without importing, quick software loading, fast files preview, fast enough rendering, all things made my day better. Alien skin very interesting tool for my Fuji but there is some lacks what competitors are stronger. I don't know why but for me in this price range fundamental adjustments are missing such as Chromatic aberration, De-fringing, vignette lens correction, some simple print module with selection of color space.
I still don't understand need for separate Sharpness and focus adjustment. Nosie reduction is good but if you zoom in picture rendering somehow not applying in preview, but when you zoom out it seems ok, sometimes i could refer same to sharpening and focus. Another aspect is Layers, i really don't understand behave for example if you set only contrast in main layer to value 30 and create second layer with same contrast value 30 you will get different effects, seems like layer two is boosting more brightness even layer one is off.

Apart of listed above i feel is impressive software with layers support, masking, brush selection for edits like Dodge-burn, import module, external software edit option and more.
I recomend for Fuji owners, price bit high comparing to what competition offers, but i found very intuitive to use.

 

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My journey with LR ended when they come up with subscriptions

 

 

 

That is where my journey has now taken me with any subscription software. I am now using either Pictorial when I need less powerful image adjustments and Aperture X3 for everything else.

 

I asked for my Adobe ID to be cancelled. Can you believe it takes them 6 weeks to do that? The height of efficiency that is.

Edited by Him
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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

I've switched completely to EXposure X3 now. Pictorial does something to my exported jpgs (from GFX 50S) and I don't like that. Yesterday I exported an image of a landscape. lake and birds in flight. One of the birds when the image was displayed on my Mac desktop screen was definitely jagged. It was exported at as taken size i.e. full size. I had made some minor changes to Highlights and shadow. My wife saw it before me, so I opened that batch of photos again in Exposure X3, and exported straight away no changes except RAW export JPG. No issues with the birds.

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Update testing results:

 

Let's start with what I 'm missing:

What I'm missing is the possibility of using LUT's and the possibility to remove the CA.

 

And with heavy use I noticed some instability. Did change the memorie/speed I use in Exposure X3 and so far it seems to be alright.

The instability:

Suddenly there was no action anymore on my MacBook Pro, something that seldom, really seldom, happens. Did a restart, tried X3 and that told me the test period was over. After completely removing X3 and installing it again my test period started all over again.

 

The daily practice:

It turns out I don't use many of the presets ( that's where this program shines imo) and the ones I use like really look the same as the one I made in Affinity.

But of course there will be updates, like the last one with the Fuji film simulations which they gave for free. In Picktorial you need to pay for it, but very cheap, but they only work with Fuji Raw's. I'm not sure if the Fujisimulations in X3 work with non Fuji camera's, did not (yet) tested that.

 

The future:

Maybe Affinity together with Nik and Picktorial is enough for me, I even have Luminar2018 which get absolutely no use. But let's do some more testing, not yet time to take a decision.

 

Before I forget,

It seems that you had some problems with Picktorial. Did you email them? I had some problems too with Picktorial and they promised to change it, but it seems to take them more than a couple of weeks.

 

Regards,

Jos

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