Just picked up an XT1 at a good price to scan my film, and soon encountered the infamous Fuji Worms from sharpening the converted positive. Any tips on how to negate these worms? I’ve read online about using the Enhanced Details function; should I use it before or after converting the negative since it creates a new DNG file? Any other alternatives in Lightroom?
Hi,
I use “Photos > Enhance Details” as a first step on all my Fuji XT2 files and it least for me, it seems to work very well.
Beyond this, is you still have “worms”, you can try decreasing the sharpness settings in the Lightroom panel, and instead, use some form of “unsharp mask” in photoshop as a final step (or even use Lightroom’s internal post-process sharpening in the export panel, as this is similar to an unsharp mask).
-Nate
Many thanks for your advice Nate!
I would suggest you download Iridient X-Transformer. Iridient Digital - Iridient X-Transformer This excellent app is very configurable with regard to RAW conversion parameters and which Lightroom settings you would like have honoured or ignored. It is renowned as the best converter for Fuji files for quality, colour and sharpness - and definitely NO Worms.
I have used it extensively with Fuji files and wouldn’t use any other software for Fuji. I have also tried various ‘recipes’ for sharpening without worms (most rely on setting Detail at 100%) and although one or two work well, none can match the quality of Iridient X-Transformer. You can try it for free. I have no affiliation with the company. It’s simply a great product.
What settings do you use for X-Transformer to make sure you aren’t losing the natural grain detail?
Whatever grain you see in your RAW image file in Lightroom, X-Transformer will not alter it. Worms are a product of sharpening - not grain.
I make basic colour and WB corrections in LR (including lens corrections) and open in XT.
In XT RAW Options there are a number of options but the important one is to turn off LR sharpening and check the XT options for sharpening, clarity and masking. Noise reduction is optional - either use XT or LR but not both!
Similarly, lens corrections can be applied in either LR or XT but not both.
It just depends on which rendering you prefer.
DNG Baseline Noise Tag - Adobe Default.
Then in DNG Options I check Iridient Standard V2.
JPEG preview options according to personal taste.
I hope that helps to get you started. You will need to experiment a bit with the RAW options to get the exact result you are looking for but as long you stay away from LR sharpening, you will get a nicely sharpened image with grain intact and no sharpening artefacts (worms).
Thank you! This was super duper helpful!