Autumn At Mill Creek – Bountiful, UT – FujiFilm X100F Astia @ DR200 – captured on a sunny afternoon with strong highlights and deep shadows.
Fujifilm X cameras, including the X100F that I own, have three Dynamic Range settings: DR100, DR200 and DR400. Let’s explore what these setting are and what it means for your pictures.
To begin with, it’s important to understand that the X-Trans sensors found inside Fujifilm cameras are actually made by Sony. Once upon a time digital camera sensors would increase the energy pumped into them to make the photosites more sensitive to light in order to increase ISO. At some point Sony figured out that doing so was unnecessary, that the camera, even in very dark areas, was recording a lot of information. Thus, the “ISO-less” sensor was born.
An ISO-less sensor, which modern Sony-made sensors are, increases ISO by simply increasing the luminosity levels with software. You can try this at home by capturing an exposure at ISO 6400 and a RAW exposure at ISO 200 underexposed by five stops, then brighten the underexposed file in software to the correct exposure. You’ll notice that the the two files now look the same.
In other words, the camera is actually capturing every shot at base ISO and increasing the brightness after the exposure for whatever ISO was selected. You are completely unaware, and it is automatically done, even to RAW files. That’s why they call it ISO-less.
What this means is that there are a lot of details that can be pulled out of the shadows of your RAW files. The highlights can clip rather sharply and there isn’t a lot of room for error, but you have tons of room in the shadows. It’s best to underexpose to protect the highlights and increase the luminosity in post.
Vibrant Forest – Bountiful, UT – Fujifilm X100F Velvia @ DR200 – contrast from back-lit trees are handled well, with shadows that are strong but not devoid of details.
That’s great for RAW shooters, but what about those who prefer JPEG? Fujifilm built into their cameras the Dynamic Range settings, which allows the benefits of the ISO-less sensor to be applied to JPEGs.
Have you ever wondered why base ISO on Fujifilm X cameras is ISO 200? It’s actually a software trick. The real base ISO on the sensor is ISO 100 (which is available as an “extended ISO”), but the camera applies a curve in software to pull more details out of the shadows, essentially underexposing the scene and then increasing the luminosity of everything (except the highlights) to maximize the dynamic range. This is also why some people claim that Fujifilm “cheats” with their ISOs.
The Dynamic Range settings don’t mean anything to RAW files, but they have a big effect on JPEGs. They allow you to retain shadow details and prevent clipped highlights.
The default setting is Dynamic Range 100 (DR100). This is the standard Dynamic Range option and it cannot be turned off (except by selected extended ISO 100). Dynamic Range 200 (DR200) is next, and if it is selected the minimum ISO is 400 (instead of ISO 200). The third option is Dynamic Range 400 (DR400), and if it is selected the minimum ISO is 800. There is also an option to let the camera auto-decide which Dynamic Range setting to use.
The reason that the minimum ISO increases is because the camera is increasing the luminosity in the files (except for the highlights) to an equivalent of that ISO. The good news is that there really isn’t an image quality difference between ISO 200 and ISO 800, so there should be no hesitation using ISO 800 if you want a larger dynamic range.
Autumn Forest Light – Bountiful, UT – Fujifilm X100F Astia @ DR200 – sunlight created deep shadows, but they are handled quite well by the camera.
A lot of people keep the Dynamic Range set at the default DR100, and that’s fine for them. I think it works well in low contrast situations. For normal everyday use I prefer DR200 because it does a great job of capturing the dynamic range of most scenes while not looking flat. DR400 is a good option for scenes with a large dynamic range (it seems nearly impossible to clip highlights), but if there isn’t enough contrast in the scene your images will look flat (but contrast could be added in post-processing).
Which Dynamic Range setting is best and which you should choose depends on the situation. I don’t think DR100 is strong enough, and you are more likely to experience clipped highlights and deep black shadows with it selected. DR400 seems too strong, but if you plan to post-process the JPEG this gives you the most latitude for editing (then again, if you are going to post-process, why not shoot RAW?). DR200 seems to be the “just right” option that delivers results similar to what I’d achieve if I had edited a RAW exposure.
That’s putting it simply because there’s a lot more to it than that. Each scene has to be judged individually. If the light is even and there’s little contrast in the scene perhaps DR100 gives you the best look. Each Film Simulation has different amounts of contrast, so maybe DR200 works good for one and DR100 or DR400 works best for another. And it also depends on what exactly you’ve got highlights and shadows set to within your Film Simulation.
There are a lot of moving parts and things to consider when determining which Dynamic Range setting to select. There are many variables that might make you adjust it. I find myself using DR200 most of the time, and occasionally adjusting it up or down if I need to.
In conclusion, the Fujifilm Dynamic Range settings are a great way for JPEG users to take advantage of the large dynamic range capabilities of the X-Trans sensor. It has no effect on RAW, you will have to apply your own curves to pull out the shadow details if you are a RAW shooter. It’s a neat trick that Fuji uses to elevate their out-of-camera JPEGs to a level beyond that of other camera brands. It’s just a matter of figuring out which settings are best for each situation.
Update:
A reader contacted me to explain how I got this wrong, that the Dynamic Range settings only protect highlights and don’t effect shadows. That’s true, but because highlights are protected, I’m exposing a little more than I would otherwise, making the image a little brighter, including shadows. My exposure compensation is typically dialed between +2/3 and +1-1/3, situation specific, which would give me blown highlights without DR. So while the Dynamic Range options don’t directly increase the dynamic range within the shadows, they indirectly do.
Thanks for this article. Good to know the DR settings are affecting my JPEGs only. I shoot JPEG + RAW. I’m one of those folks that can convince himself of anything thus when I tried to do my own tests was sure my raw files were being negatively affected. You’ve succeeded in removing one worry for a perennially paranoid armature photographer.
I’m glad to know that you found the article useful, Peter. Thanks for commenting!
Thank you for confirming my thoughts. 400% is very handy if like me you want flatter images and shoot in extremes of contrast.
Protecting HL is the wrong way of approach with modern iso less sensors and shooting Raw it is much more important to not underexpose the shadows because there is a lot of space on the HL side to recover also.
There is lots of detail you can still pull out of blown HL
Interesting, my experience is the exact opposite, but there are always different strategies for accomplishing things. It’s good to know that overexpose is recoverable on the X-Trans.
Thanks for sharing,
In this video, it is shown that the dynamic range setting actually affect the RAW file, believe it or not 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB5-3xC51l4
It’s an interesting video. I think what’s going on is that the software is automatically brightening the exposure because of the DR setting. In other words, the RAW file is actually underexposed at ISO 200, and automatically, because of the DR400 setting, the software is increasing the exposure to an equivalent ISO 800. I think if you underexposed an ISO 200 file by two stops and increased everything but highlights, you would get the same results as using DR400. However, it’s good to know that the software automatically recognizes this because of the DR setting selected and applies everything necessary to have a correctly exposed picture, and the highlights are saved. I’m sure this is a time-saver for many people. Thank you for sharing the video!
By ISO-less I presume you mean ISO invariant. But it’s certainly interesting how ISO invariance came about with certain Sony manufactured sensors, and doubly interesting for me as a new X100F user to learn that its sensor is in that category. I hadn’t thought about it, and it certainly wasn’t a reason for buying into the X100 series, but it makes sense of all the DR100-DR400 questions floating around on the internet, ie. that DR brings some of the benefits of an ISO invariant sensor to jpeg as well as RAW shooters.
As far as I recall, ISO invariance was originally never announced publicly by Sony or their customers, awareness of it growing out of user experience alone. This led some to speculate that it was an accident of design, perhaps the knock on effect from efforts to produce more heat-noise resistant sensors for mirrorless cameras.
I’ve been using an ISO invariant full frame Nikon for a few years and can generally brighten NEF files underexposed by 2-3 stops with little or no appreciable increase of noise in the shadows within an optimal incremental band of ISOs from 800-3200. However, I know that this range is different for other full frame Nikons using a different model sensor. I wonder if the X100F is similar in this respect, with an optimal band of ISOs(?).
Furthermore, with my Nikon at least, ISO invariance only really kicks in at incremental ISO stops: (400)/800/1600/3200/(6400). I don’t know if this is also true of the X100F and I can’t be bothered to shoot RAF to test it, as tasty jpegs are what I bought it for, not hours spent in Lightroom!
I’ve heard, and would agree based on experience, that ISO 800 is the most optimal ISO on the X100F. It’s the cleanest ISO with maximum dynamic range. I think you’ll find it to be similar to your Nikon. Thank you for the thorough and thoughtful comment!
Seems you’re being talked about. https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/64447898
The problem with message boards is that the “loudest” person is the one everyone listens to because they come off as authoritative, and kind of becomes the “king” of the board, whether that person should or shouldn’t be.
As far as ISO, if you shoot RAW, your best bet is to use base ISO (ISO 200 or 160 on Fujifilm, depending on the model), even if that means “underexposing” by several stops, and correct the brightness in software. Essentially, using a higher ISO, you’re telling the camera to do this for you. This is true on many camera brands (but not Canon, though), not just Fujifilm. For JPEG, it’s a whole different story, because you are relying on the camera’s built-in software to do it. Because of this, using the DR feature, the highest Dynamic Range is found at ISO 800 or 640 (depending on the model). Again, we’re speaking JPEGs, not RAW. The camera is doing the work of lowering highlights and raising shadows that you might do in Lightroom, except it’s being done in-camera.
Nothing that I said in this article is new (heck, I wrote it three years ago!). I didn’t say anything that hasn’t been said before many times by many people. I’m surprised that it’s “controversial” somehow. Maybe I just didn’t word it well.
Thanks for letting me know!
What do you think about this? https://youtu.be/RjjCa73XxsY
At 9:42 in the video, the dr100 image is greyed out but the dr400 image still maintains the details. Is that aslo a software interference?
pal2tech is specifically talking about RAW… It could be how the software he is using is trying to interpret and apply its version of DR100, DR200, and DR400, or it could be something that Fujifilm bakes into the RAW file. I’m not certain. If you are shooting RAW, simply underexpose to protect highlights, then pull up the shadows and mid-tones, where there is a ton of latitude. I shoot JPEGs personally, though, and don’t RAW edit anymore, so I’m not too concerned with what the RAW files are doing.
Thanks for the reply! I use in-camera raw conversion and I was wondering if dr settings would affect the raw file.
For in-camera RAW processing…Shooting in DR400, then reprocessing in DR100, will not get you any more dynamic range in the out-of-camera JPEG than shooting in DR100. I hope this makes sense.