App | FUJI X WEEKLY

Fuji X Weekly App featured on FujiRumors & PetaPixel!

Posted on December 28, 2020 by Ritchie Roesch

The Fuji X Weekly App for iOS has been making the rounds on the web! FujiRumors shared it on December 24th, a Christmas Eve surprise! Today, PetaPixel published an article about it! These were both completely unexpected! Being featured on these websites is a big deal, and this is a first appearance for me on Petapixel. I’m really honored.

Here’s a quick update:
The Android version of the app is being worked on and progress is so far going quite well. I’m hoping that it will be available before March, but there’s still a long ways to go before it’s done, so it’s hard to say for sure when it will be released. The Fuji X Weekly Patrons are the ones who are making this happen, and the Android app would be nowhere close to where it is now without the Patrons. Your support is going to produce some amazing things that would not be possible without you. Thank you, Patrons!

Once the Android version is out, the next big thing is an update that will bring new features and functionality to the app. Some things will be made available to everyone, and some things will be made available only to Patrons, and some current Patron-only features will be unlocked for everyone. I don’t know how long it will take to get the update up and running, but I’m really hoping it can be done before the summer.

The Fuji X Weekly app has been downloaded 20,000 times! That’s incredible! I’m happy to provide this free resource to you, and it will only get better and better! I’m extremely appreciative of all the Patrons, because without your support none of this would be possible. We all owe you a debt of gratitude! I want to give a big “thank you” to those who have downloaded the app, to those who have shared the app on their websites and social media, and especially to all the Patrons!

Thank You, Fuji X Weekly App Patrons!

Posted on December 8, 2020 by Ritchie Roesch

The Fuji X Weekly App for iOS has been out for one week! It really has been an amazing seven days.

I want to say Thank You to everyone who has downloaded the app! I hope that it’s a useful tool for your photography. I appreciate everyone who has shared it on their social media. I’m grateful for those who left such positive reviews in the app store! The feedback and suggestions that I’ve received are invaluable. You all are the best part of the Fujifilm community!

I want to give a very special Thank You to those who are Fuji X Weekly Patrons! There’s a little bit of an immediate reward you received because you unlocked some features that give you the best app experience. But, more importantly, is the reward that you don’t yet see! The Fuji X Weekly App, as it is now, is just the beginning. There’s so much more coming, and it’s only possible because of Patrons!

An Android version of the app is being worked on, and I’m concentrating my efforts on getting it out as quickly as possible. It’s coming! But the road is still long, and I can’t say when it will be ready. Because of Fuji X Weekly Patrons, this version of the app will be out more quickly than I originally anticipated. Yea!

Once that’s complete, we will begin working on some updates to the Fuji X Weekly App that will add new features, functionality and other improvements. There will be some really interesting changes, with additions to both the free and Patron sides. The app will become better, and more fun! I can’t give you the details yet, but I can say that you’ll love it and Patrons are the ones making it possible. Thank you!

If you have an iPhone or iPad and haven’t yet downloaded the Fuji X Weekly App, you should go to the app store now and do so! If you have the app and find it useful, let me know in the comments!

Survey: Which Android OS Do You Use?

Posted on December 2, 2020 by Ritchie Roesch

The Fuji X Weekly App is out for iOS! It’s coming to Android, too, but there’s still a lot of work to do. For those waiting for the Android version, I have a big favor: I need to know what Android OS is on your device! I’ve included a survey below. Your answers will help tremendously with the app development, and it’s much appreciated!

On a side note, there’s now an official Fuji X Weekly Facebook page! Please give it a “like” to follow. I’ve been incredibly busy lately (as you can imagine), and I’ve pretty much jumped off of Facebook because it can be such a time thief, but I don’t want to be completely off of it. Facebook is a great way to keep up to date on things and easily share stuff. The Fuji X Weekly Facebook page is my answer to this, and hopefully it can serve a good purpose while also not being too time consuming. I invite you to follow me on Facebook and Instagram!

Fuji X Weekly App: Filtering by Camera or Sensor?

Posted on December 1, 2020 by Ritchie Roesch

The Fuji X Weekly app has the ability, for Patrons, to filter by Camera or Sensor. It might seem most obvious to pick your camera, but that might not be the best choice. Why? Let me explain.

With each recipe, I only included the cameras that are 100% compatible with that recipe. There are many situations where a recipe is 99% compatible. For example, the Fujifilm X-T4, X100V, X-Pro3 and X-S10 aren’t 100% compatible with X-Trans IV recipes intended for the X-T3 and X-T30, despite having the same sensor. Why? Because the X-T3 and X-T30 models don’t have an option for Grain size, so you’ll have to decide for yourself if it should be Small or Large, and also B&W Toning is different. Because of this, recipes like Kodak Gold 200, Eterna, Kodacolor, and many, many, many more won’t show up if you filter by X-Pro3, for example. They will, however, show up if you filter by X-Trans IV sensor. If you have an X-Pro3, if you filter by Sensor instead of Camera, you’ll see a lot more recipes. In fact, you could filter by both X-Trans III and X-Trans IV!

It’s a similar story if you have, for example, a Fujifilm X-E2. X-Trans I and Bayer recipes will work on your camera, but they’ll look a little different. Those recipes won’t show up if you filter by Camera, but they will if you filter by X-Trans I, X-Trans II and Bayer.

If you have an X-Trans III camera, it makes more sense to filter by Camera because all of the recipes that are compatible will appear (including X-Trans IV recipes that are also compatible). If you have an X-Trans IV camera, it makes more sense to filter by Sensor; however, the X-T3 and X-T30 are an exception, and like X-Trans III, it makes more sense to filter by Camera if you have either of these models. X-Trans II is a mixed bag because not every camera has the same film simulations, so if your model doesn’t have Classic Chrome and the PRO Neg. options, it will be better to filter by Camera, but otherwise by Sensor so that you can also access the X-Trans I and Bayer sensors. X-Trans I and Bayer cameras have a similar limitation (not all models have all of the film simulations), so filtering by Camera will reveal what’s for certain compatible, and filtering by Sensor will reveal what may or might not be compatible.

I hope this isn’t too confusing. My recommendation is to try both filtering options, and decide what makes the most sense for you.

Fun With RNI Films App

Posted on June 9, 2018 by Ritchie Roesch

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A couple of weeks ago I downloaded a photo editing app called RNI Films. It’s got a ton of different film simulation presets, including Negative (color and black-and-white), Slide, Vintage and Instant. With one touch you can transform your digital image into something that resembles analog film. It sounded like an app that I would appreciate, so I gave it a shot.

The RNI Films app is free to download. It comes standard with quite a few different film presets, but you can add more for a price. I believe to unlock everything is around $20, which is cheap but kind of unnecessary as it comes with a lot in its basic package. I did purchase one film pack for $4 to get a certain film simulation that I thought I’d like.

The different film presets seem accurate. I have personally used some of the different films that they are attempting to simulate, but many of them I have not. I don’t think it holds up in comparison to Alien Skin Exposure, which, as far as accuracy is concerned, is tops. But for a free or cheap cellphone app, it’s quite good. You get a look that appears analog instead of digital and seems reasonably close to actual film stock. Using this app, I think that you could convince some people that you shot film when you didn’t.

One issue that I have with RNI Films is that there are too many choices. I wish that I could keep a dozen that I really like and get rid of the rest. It takes forever to flip through each preset one-by-one, so it’s important to remember which ones I want to use and where they are located. The process is very slow going if you are browsing.

I don’t see a good way to incorporate this app into a regular workflow. I shoot Fujifilm because their JPEGs are good, which allows me to achieve the look that I want with less time and effort. I have created a bunch of different film simulations that I can use in-camera, and most of the time I don’t have a need to post-process. I believe creating the look that I want in-camera is more authentic than using software to manipulate an image. Sometimes, though, it is not practical (or it might even be impossible) to achieve the desired results straight-out-of-camera, so an app like RNI Films could be a good option for quickly and easily getting the right look. I see this as being helpful occasionally, and remaining unused most of the time.

Where I have found this app to be the most fun is re-imagining photographs while waiting. If I’m at the post office standing in line I can open up the app and create a slightly different version of one of my pictures. If I’m at the auto shop waiting for the oil change to get done, I can re-imagine one of my pictures there. Wherever and whenever I find myself with time to kill, I can open up the RNI Films app on my phone, pick one of my pictures and run it through some film presets. Maybe I’ll create something that I like, maybe I’ll prefer the original version better. You don’t always get better results with this app. Most often you just get a different result, which may or may not be as good as the original. But it’s fun to see how different film presets change the look of an image.

The photographs below show the before-and-after from using this app. For a few of the images I prefer the RNI Films version, while the rest I think the original version is better. I didn’t document which presets I used because I was lazy. I just found the ones that I thought would work for the photograph at hand, and went from there. Obviously what I feel would work best for me and my pictures might not work best for you and vice versa.