How to edit a RAW image in 3 minutes with Fuji X RAW Studio

Fujifilm have earned themselves a great reputation for updating the firmware for their cameras on a regular basis. They not only offer firmware updates for their leading cameras (X-T2 and GFX 50S) but also for older models.

With their latest firmware update (Ver 3.0 for X-T2) they also released their RAW editing software, Fuji X RAW Studio. Not only is the software free, it offers native editing of Fuji RAW files using the internal CPU of your camera. It offers access to the same Film Simulation modes that you have available if editing your RAW files in camera. 

The image above was taken the other day whilst out walking locally late in the afternoon. The sun was low in the sky, it was a typical late autumn day in Essex and the warm tones created an appealing image, at least in my eyes!

In my earlier post I talked about the features that X RAW Studio offered and what it brought to the table. Well, above is an example of an image edited in the software in less than 3 minutes!

Once I had loaded my images into the software it was very easy to try out some adjustments before saving the final image back to my hard drive. Here is a screenshot of the settings used. The screenshot shows the 'before' and 'after' images. By using the options (righthand panel) I was very quickly able to tweak the image to my liking. I first switched to the Velvia/Vivid Film Simulation. This suits landscapes and produces tones close to the Velvia film that Fuji still sells.

I then tweaked the Shadow, Sharpness and Noise Reduction settings to my liking then hit the 'Convert' button and the software applied my settings and then I saved the image to my computer. The whole process took less than 3 minutes and it's possible to apply your settings to all your images. You can save them as a Profile and as you can see, I have two user profiles already created and saved. I recommend naming your own profiles with a name that will help you remember what images you used it on originally. This will help when you use the software again to recall what type of image you created it for. With my two user profiles I have created already I have included location information and other useful information.

So, in conclusion, I would say that it's perfectly possible to edit an image in less than 3 minutes using X RAW Studio and the fact that you can use the same settings you have available in camera is a really useful feature, indeed it's the USP of the software and gives it an advantage over rival solutions. I am certain that the developers of rival software will be busy trying to catch up with Fuji. Whether they can is another thing. Fuji will always have the advantage by virtue of the fact that it has come up with an application that uses the same technology that is in it's cameras.

No doubt too that Fuji will already be working on the next set of improvements to the software. They need to in my view as the software has some minor bugs and could do with some features that are missing.

The bug I discovered is a minor one that doesn't impact on the actual editing. You can adjust the height of the panel at the bottom as well as the widths of the panels above. However, when you adjust the bottom one, all your thumbnail images disappear whilst you are doing so. rest assured though, as soon as you let go of the mouse button, they reappear! Also, I haven't found a way to hide the side and bottom panels to view your image without being distracted. The usual keyboard shortcuts don't work. If you are used to editing images in Lightroom or Photoshop you will miss this feature. Let's hope Fuji add it the next update.

Another thing I don't like is that when you convert an image the processed image is sent to the far right of your lower panel. The problem is that you then have to slide scroll back to where the original is in the panel. This takes time and is clunky. Much better if it was saved next to the original image so you could quickly move on to the next image. You would also be able to see which images you have already converted next time you use the software as the original and converted image will be side by side. 

These are minor issues and don't stop you quickly editing your images and having access to the same options that you have in-camera. Can't wait to see the next update!