Fujikina Copenhagen was incredible! It was such an honor to have been invited. I had many wonderful discussions, and learned a lot. I’m still in Denmark, and I wasn’t intending to write about any of it until after I returned. I’ve shared a little on Instagram, so be sure to follow me if you don’t already. I have a ton to talk about, so this is just the start. You can expect a lot more over the next couple of weeks, including the new Copenhagen Negative Recipe, which I unveiled at the event—those who attended Fujikina Copenhagen have already seen the new Recipe, and maybe have already used it. You can expect it on this website and in the Fuji X Weekly App next week.

One of the sponsors of Fujikina was Capture One, the photo editing software company. Probably many of you have Capture One on your computer right now. I do. I rarely use it personally, but Amanda uses it regularly. One cool thing they offered was negative film scanning using a GFX100 II tethered to their software. There were a lot of Capture One employees (and even former employees) and representatives of their brand at the event, and I got to talk with many of them. I learned things that surprised me, and something that some of you might appreciate, which we’ll get to in just a moment.

Whenever a new camera is released, Capture One has to extensively test it out. Any and every camera that is supported by the software has been put through the paces before they add it as compatible with the software. Even if it has the same sensor and processor as another model, it still has to be tested. The folks at Capture One have used a heck-of-a-lot of cameras! Whenever they’re not at work and are doing their own personal photography, the brand of choice for many of them is Fujifilm.

Not only do many use Fujifilm cameras, but also Fujifilm Recipes. I would have expected the folks behind Capture One to be strictly RAW-only photographers, but they’re not. Many of them have the Fuji X Weekly App on their phones. One told me, “I went out photographing, and the light wasn’t great. When I got back, I really didn’t want to edit them. I shot RAW+JPEG with one of your Recipes, and when I reviewed the pictures, the JPEGs were perfect just as they were.” Another told me that they also shoot RAW+JPEG, and sometimes they edit the RAW, sometimes they edit the JPEG, and sometimes they just use the JPEG unedited.

There’s no right or wrong way to do photography, and there’s no right or wrong way to use Recipes. For example, I know a couple photographers (not associated with Capture One) who are strict RAW-only types, but they found a Recipe that is similar to their style, so it helps them to better pre-visualize the finished photograph while in the field, and since the RAW software applies some of the JPEG settings, it speeds up their workflow. Some edit the RAWs for certain pictures and use the camera-made JPEGs for others. Amanda sometimes edits her JPEGs, while I’m more strictly unedited myself. It’s about finding what works best for you and your photography, whatever that is.

Over the years I’ve been asked many times to create LUTs or Lightroom presets out of my Film Simulation Recipes, and I even once collaborated with one of the foremost experts on RAW software in an effort to make that happen; however, for several reasons it did’t work out. One of the Capture One employees shared with me what he does, and I think some of you will find this fascinating. He shoots RAW+JPEG with Recipes, and if he wants to edit the RAW but keep the look of the JPEG, he simply uses the Match Look tool in Capture One. It isn’t 100% perfectly the same, but it gets you much closer to the JPEG aesthetic, yet with the flexibility of the RAW to adjust highlights and shadows and such. It is apparently more accurate when you Match Look the JPEG to the RAW of the same image, rather than some other exposure captured of a different scene with a different light, but even that works to a degree.

The people at Capture One are really great. It was wonderful to meet them and talk with them, and I hope it’s not the last time. If you edit RAW images, Capture One is probably the best software available for Fujifilm cameras. Whether you are RAW-only, JPEG-only, or anywhere in-between (or something else entirely), we’re all photographers just trying to express ourselves and create something meaningful through our images. The way we get there matters much less than the destination itself, which is our photographs.