Silkypix - A First Report

Some time ago I mentioned that I was going to try the Silkypix 6 Studio Developer program in connection with my Fujifilm camera collection. I duly studied the available internet information...thin but interesting...and sent off a credit card payment to the Ichikawa Soft Laboratory for the right to use it.

I can record with a glow of pride that I managed to download the thing, activate it, and start using it without having to call in the family computer experts. Now I am on my own trying to learn the new language.

It's not Japanese, but it's not English. It utilises English words but attaches them to things that you'd not expect. For instance there is a way to make a cache of uncompleted work for later additions called a "cloakroom". That at least makes some little sense and is funny enough to impress itself on the mind. But there are others that don't.

Note: people who are used to Photoshop programs that have tone curves will find the Silkypix curve diagram easy to use. I'm not and I don't but I shall persevere until I do.

It does do a subtle sort of a job with film simulation - I can get an approximate Velvia, Provia, and Astia and something that may be similar to some of the negative films. I can also get a tone rendition that is a "memory" colour. I think the Japanese developers are being as cynical as I am with this one - it is just a little brighter than you recall - maybe it is what you wished you remembered...

Nevertheless, there are some charms to this editing program - it does do chromatic aberration correction as well as a host of perspective controls very easily. The sharpening controls are particularly well-explained and subtle enough to be useful. It pumps out files in a multitude of types.

And it copes with everything I own or have owned; jpeg, tiff, or RAW. No more ponding back and forth between programs if I fancy a different body.

Pictures are from Melbourne this year - Fujifilm X100 RAF files.

Legless Lou And The Spyder Checkr

I have just added the Silkypix 6 program to my system and decided to take the opportunity to test out the correlation between the Elinchrom studio flash, Fujifilm speed light, and the Fujifilm cameras. It is not that I mistrust or misunderstand what they do - but I am aware that flash tubes and soft box diffusers change with time, and that sometimes the white balance results can be off enough to make later processing a nuisance.

Of course, like all RAW process programs, the Silkypix will allow a considerable degree of white balance change in the file - but the fewer changes needed, the faster the operation. Plus, if I wish to take advantage of the gorgeous jpeg images out of he Fujifilm X cameras, it is as well to be spot-on.

Okay, Legless Lou is there to ensure that I am looking a a standard two-light portrait setup: Elinchrom 500 EL on the right with a standard reflector and a similar head feeding a giant Redwing softbox on the left. ( Note: we have one of these giant softboxes left for sale but you need to be foolhardy and vicious to put it together. I put mine together...) The grey backdrop is there to remove weird reflections.

The Macbeth colour card is there to give accurate repeatable flat colours plus a grey scale. Mine is an old card, but we sell new ones made by Datacolor and X-rite here in the shop. Buy one, even if you don't take pictures - they look pretty and it's good for business.

Any rate, I carefully set it up, made exposure trials, and then lettered a series of paper slips to let me identify which white balance setting was used for each shot. I ranged it from 4200ºK to 6000ºK in the steps that the menu allows in the Fujifilm cameras. Then I shot a series of test exposures plus one at Auto WB.

Clever readers will realise that I was not thinking - the EXIF data tagged onto each exposure had all the detail I needed to differentiate the shots...the pink slips were just extra work.

Okay - shots from the X-E2 and X-100 were taken with the Elinchrom setup and the Fujifilm EF 42 speed light and loaded into the computer. I set up the Macbeth card next to the monitor with my standardised print assessment light on it so that I could see screen and card equally - and ran the series of shots through the Silkypix 6.

I was deliberately trying to find the most accurate of the settings to yield exactly the same balance all the way through. It turned out - for me on my system, mind - to be:

Silkypix 6 "Faithful", standard colour, a little strong contrast...

X-E2 and X-100 plus Elinchrom studio monoblocks...5600ºK

X-E2 and X-100 plus Fujifilm EF 42 speed light.........5900ºK

Note as well that this was done cold sober and before 10:00 at night. If I were to alter either or both of those two conditions, I should not warrant the accuracy of my judgement.

Now, I know the accurate colour base for my shots. Now I can do this: