Fuji X-Pro1

We’ve updated VSCO Film 02 for LR 4 and ACR 7 to include Custom Camera Profiles for Fujifilm professional cameras, including the X100S, X-Pro1, X-E1, the X100 and the X10. If you are an owner of VSCO Film 02 for LR 4 or ACR 7, this update is FREE. Login to your vsco.co account and re-download the Film 02 pack. If you don’t own VSCO Film 02, it is 15% off till end of day Friday, May 3rd, 2013. Additionally, as an owner of VSCO Film 01, Film 03 and or VSCO Keys, you are eligible to receive an additional 25% off with your VSCO Loyalty Discount. We’ve also updated the Film 01 and 03 for LR4 and ACR 7 to include support for Fujifilm’s outstanding X100S. Login to your vsco.co account and re-download and install the respective pack. For more details on how to update your existing VSCO Film pack with the new Fuji Profiles, check out this article in FAQ. Provided below are a collection of spectacular sample images by Jonathan Percy, a photographer and producer based out of New York. Jonathan is currently an Executive Interactive Producer at the advertising agency BBDO & shares his personal imagery on his blog. All of Jonathan's images below were processed with VSCO Film 02, utlizing the Fujifilm Custom Camera Profiles.

Sometimes I can't resist shiny things. I get fixated, like a dog with a stick. And dammit, the guys at VSCO just know how to present their wares and make everything they create simply drool worthy. Last night I heard about the new VSCO Film 03 release and headed to their website, with the firm intention of NOT purchasing anything. I was simply curious. Ten minutes into it I was hitting the buy button. To be honest, a lot of that had to do with the fact that they've now added Fuji profiles to this pack. Yup, along with Nikon and Canon specific presets we now get X-cameras support — complete with native film profiles when applied to raw files. I really wanted to test this. This new offering is all about instant: digital emulations of Polaroid, Fuji and Impossible Project instant films.  As always the visual material used to present the various possibilities of this new pack is, frankly, amazing. I dare you to check out Jeremy Cowart's page and not feel a sudden urge to fill your shopping cart.

The presets are divided into two main categories: Consumer and Professional. The Toolkit this time focuses on elements commonly associated with instant films such as grain, blur, tone and vignetting; these can be stacked on top of the emulations themselves. But while the promise of one click processing may be alluring, you'll need to put in the time to learn how to control and tone down the results. Otherwise it can easily become slightly "instagramish". But this, in my opinion, is true of all the VSCO Film packs. I still believe that if you're willing to analyze how these looks are achieved, by examining the tone curves, the colour mixes and calibrations, they become a fantastic learning tool. Plus, you'll gain the ability to wield your own looks based on the painstaking work these guys have put in. A final word on the Fuji profiles: man, this opens up some serious possibilities. When working with RAF files you now have the added option of switching film profiles in Lightroom's calibration pane. This is a very interesting tool to play with, as each film contains its own contrast and colour curve. Change the film, change the mood. My only hope is that they add this support to the previous film packs in an eventual update. I haven't had a lot of time to put in but I revisited some images to test things out. I'm including these below. VSCO Film 03 Instant is available for Lightroom and ACR 7. It's discounted 25% for the next two weeks and if you already own another VSCO Film pack you get the usual customer loyally discount as well — so 50% off in total. Damn those shiny things.....

I haven't gone out and photographed much personal work since returning from Europe a month ago with one less appendix. Couple the appendectomy recovery with a bit of "nesting syndrome" (my wife is about to give birth to our first child any day now), I've spent most of my time organizing my home and streamlining my Lightroom catalogue (guided by Gavin Gough via his great eBook w/video tutorials - A Photographers Workflow). The south end of Bogmalo Beach, Goa, India.  Fuji X-Pro 1, 18mm (wishing there was a wider lens available from Fuji). Whilst keywording my library, I came across some images I took last October in Goa.  To break the metadata monotony, I decided to run the images through some Lightroom presets I just acquired from Visual Supply Company called VSCO Film Emulation 01 & 02.  I've never been a big preset user, but have always liked the way these presets have worked with photos I've seen from other photographers. These images were photographed in RAW with the Fuji X-Pro1.  They were then imported into Lightroom to develop.   When I started applying some of the VSCO Film presets to these RAW files, I didn't like what I was seeing at all.  I didn't understand why the presets looked so terrible compared to when I used them on some of my Pushkar Camel Fair photos.  I realized a few minutes later that the only difference was that I was applying the presets to the JPEG files I photographed in Pushkar (I photographed RAW+Jpeg that week), not the RAW files. The rocks on the south end of Bogmalo Beach, Goa, India. 18mm lens

To see what would happen, I decided to put the 3 month old RAW images (whose names I've changed by now) back on my SD card in hopes to process them into JPEG images in camera.  Thankfully the images popped up on the back of the X-Pro 1 and I processed the RAW files into JPEGs with the Velvia film simulation applied in camera.  I then imported the JPEG files back into Lightroom and BOOM, it made a world of a difference.  I applied various VSCO Film presets and eventually settled on the look of the Kodak Protra 160 VC++.  Lightroom doesn't have camera profiles yet for the X-Pro 1 like it does for my Canon 5D Mark II.  Since buying the X-Pro 1, I've tried to tweak the Lightroom settings to try and create a profile to match the X-Pro 1 in camera Velvia film simulation, but haven't figured it out yet. So, long story short, these images were photographed with the X-Pro 1 in Raw and converted to Jpeg in camera with Velvia film simulation applied.  They were then imported to Lightroom where I applied the VSCO Film preset Kodak Protra 160 VC++.

Please share feedback or any of your own experiences....

All double exposures shot in-camera with the X-Pro1 and 35mm f/1.4. Processed in Lightroom using VSCO Film 03.

I recently made a few new acquisitions that I am very excited about. My wife will tell you that I don’t need any more cameras but I picked up the Fuji X-E1 last month and it’s just a fantastic little camera. I also got my hands on VSCO’s (Visual Supply Company) new set of film emulations. Here are a few frames from a recent engagement session shot with the Fuji and edited with VSCO FILM 03. More from this session later.