Recently (April, 2010), I purchased a FujiFilm HS-10.

This camera will shoot Raw images, and comes supplied with a Raw File Converter (RFC).

One of the good things about the supplied RFC, is that it can also be used to process the Jpeg images from the camera.

The HS-10 delivers beautiful Jpeg images, if it is used correctly. At times though, they still need a little help.

In the illustrations below, I will describe some typical step by step processes which can be used to correct Jpeg images.

Note : This is the second example in this series. A third example is here

If you are not familiar with the controls of RFC, please look at the first example. If you wish to see the first, click here

In this example, I have put yellow outlines only around controls, which I did not use in the first example.

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Step One - Opening and displaying the image

As with all applications, simply select File/Open, and then select the Jpeg file you wish to work with in RFC.

Once the file is open, right click on the image and select the display size you wish to work in.

To start, I normally select the size as 25%. I then right click again, and select the 'Zoom Tool'. This allows me to adjust the size of the image, to comfortably fit the display, and move it around the screen.

Here, I have enlarged the image to 33%, and have positioned it to the left of the display.

Step Two - Adjust the Tone (contrast)

My main concentration in processing this image is to get a little more life in the colours, some more sharpness, and also more contrast.

The camera has done a good job with the exposure. It has tried to balance the dynamic range, and keep shadows light, and highlights from clipping.

The end effect is OK, but also 'flat'.

The first thing to do, to correct this image, is to get some of the flatness out of it.

I simply select the Tone (contrast)  and adjust to suit.

You can see the values I have used in the illustration below.

Step Three - Fine tune the Exposure

The next step is to make a slight adjustment to the overall exposure.

Simply, I have increased the exposure very slightly to +0.10. This is one tenth of one stop adjustment, positive.

Step Four - Fine tune the White balance

This child has very dark coloured skin, and I wish to keep his natural look. This is more a 'honey' colour, than pink. Also, his hair should be quite black

So, here I am simply reducing the 'magenta' cast from the white balance.

See my values below. Original values were 6500, 3, 0.

Step Five - Adjusting color (saturation)

Adjusting the white balance has helped, but I still have a slightly washed out look, both in skin tones and background colours.

My next step is to adjust the saturation, to restore some of the depth to the colours.

Here, I am using the Color tool to add some saturation.

The default value is 1.00. I have simply increased this to 1.16.

Step Six - Adjusting Sharpness

Another step I wish to take, is to slightly adjust the sharpness.

As this was taken at ISO 100, I have quite a lot of latitude for sharpness adjustment. Many HS-10 images need some sharpening.

The values I have used are shown below. I have also selected 'Pure detail'. It may be my imagination, but I feel this is a little smoother than simply using 'Normal sharp'.

Step Seven - Adjusting smoothness using Noise reduction

An after effect of sharpening an image, is that it can be a little too 'crisp' looking.

This image does not need any noise reduction, here I am simply adjusting the NR controls to help give it a little more smoothness. The changes are subtle but help to make the image areas blend a little better.

You can see the values I have used below.

Note : There are several white 'flecks' in the image. These are neither hot pixels, nor artifacts. Simply dust on the subject.

Step Eight - Saving the image

Well, that is all I am going to do. A few simple steps.

All I have really done is to correct the contrast, colour, and sharpness of the image.

Now, I am going to save the image.

To do this I simply select the Development icon and the 'Save As' options window will open.

I am using the file format of DSCF4001 JPG RFC Adjust.jpg. This is so I know that it has been processed in RFC, and this is my adjusted version.

I have also elected to add a very small amount of extra sharpening in this step. Here I have applied the values of 30, 0.3, 3.

That's about it. So, I will simply click the Save button.

The two images shown together. The original (top), and the adjusted image.

The changes have resulted in an image with the sort of 'depth' I saw in the original scene.

Below, is the Jpeg image as it came from the camera, and then below that the adjusted version as done in RFC.

The image as finished using the RFC adjustments as described in the process steps above.

A third example is here