Old Skin Tone Formula vs Today's Skin Tone Formula

Batdude wrote:

Raymond L wrote:

Personally I prefer the more modern CMOS “flat” look as a starting point, with high dynamic range i can lift shadows or recover highlights etc. Isn’t that where things are heading ? ….. more sticky AF, higher MP, more dynamic range, better noise performance…oh.. here are some presets/profiles/luts for LR/C1 (slap them on! 😅 + add some grain = magic🎩)

Hahaha! that "flat" look is the very first reason why I got rid of my Nikon D7000 I just couldn't stand it so I sold all my Nikon stuff from that time. Someone in the Nikon DX forum started posting some photo showing the differences in skin tones and boy oh boy did I fall in love with the Fuji S5 Pro.

Some say that the best skin tones lasted thru the XT2 and after that they are no longer the same. Is a real shame and till this day a major turn off because the skin tones don't make me feel the same anymore. That original "magic" is no longer there. When tweaked the skin tones do look indeed very nice, but they are not the same anymore.

Before that's all we would talk about, even in other forums, and everyone would admit that Fuji's skin tones were "superior", well, at least they were very "pleasant" as some would say. Was all that "subjective"? You tell me, but the difference was indeed there,

IMHO, I feel that Fuji has been experimenting with different things, and I hope the next generation cameras will have more of that previous "magic" added to the skin tones whether in jpeg or RAW.

I have the X-E1 and Leica M9 (CCD), the raw files (i.e Adobe interpretation) is not a true reflection of the scene, but rather a much more “vivid” and ”contrasty” starting point … great if I am lazy with editing... I think that’s what you are missing ?

I can't read you mind so I'm not sure what type of contrasty starting point you refer to. What I'm referring to is that the original skin tones (mainly the person's face) had different and beautiful color tones on the face, even if the person was not wearing make up. The colors were incredibly and beautifully well balanced and spread throughout the person's face, unlike Fuji's newer bodies that produce a much more flat look kind of like Thanos.

Today's Fuji's don't produce those skin tones with blushed cheeks and those nice colorful lips with other amazing smooth tones around people's face. To me that stuff was pure art and I have no idea how Fuji did it in the past but that stuff is no longer present and I really really miss that. So yes man it was indeed pure magic. No other brand had that in their cameras.

Yes the color output from Fuji cameras is indeed very nice but to be honest Is really hard to believe that other brands produce bad or worse skin tones than today's Fujis.

if yes, then I think you would appreciate this article / sample comparison (sample model pictures)

https://www.streetsilhouettes.com/home/2017/3/22/leica-m10-vs-leica-m9-vs-fujifilm-s5-pro

Pretty cool thanks!

I also did a comparison a while ago X-E1 vs X-E3 here -

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4633121

(liked the X-E1 raw files, didn’t really cared much about the SOOC.. there is a difference, but not major)

Personally my biggest struggle is … AWB, and colour cast due to the scene (e.g. reflections)+ so many other variables (e.g optics) that impacts WB.

As already highlighted colorchecker is the best in a professional setting… But i am just too lazy, and ruins the moments when I am taking my family pictures (candid family photos > getting WB right in camera)

Below is one of my favorite photos ever. Is my kid. She has zero makeup on her. Today's Fujis don't produce this. Not even close.

Thanks for sharing your favourite photo (very lovely).

Have you compared the following raw files from DPREVIEW ? maybe find an example where you "didn't" like how it looked ? I tried to find photos with portraits (obviously too many uncontrolled variables !)

X-T2 examples look great, but I think that's because of the scene has alot more "contrast", so I have tried to find "similar" or scenes that are familiar below.

X-T4 (DPreview)

Image #1 - https://www.dpreview.com/sample-galleries/1969063349/fujifilm-x-t4-sample-gallery/3238344790

Image #2 - https://www.dpreview.com/sample-galleries/1969063349/fujifilm-x-t4-sample-gallery/6428996491

Image #3 - https://www.dpreview.com/sample-galleries/1969063349/fujifilm-x-t4-sample-gallery/2752745709

X-T3 (DPreview)

Image #1 - https://www.dpreview.com/sample-galleries/5370103067/fujifilm-x-t3-sample-gallery/1072714737

Image #2 - https://www.dpreview.com/sample-galleries/5370103067/fujifilm-x-t3-sample-gallery/5145527830

X-T30 (DPreview)

Image #1 - https://www.dpreview.com/sample-galleries/9171169801/fujifilm-x-t30-pre-production-sample-gallery/5132379328

Image #2 - https://www.dpreview.com/sample-galleries/9171169801/fujifilm-x-t30-pre-production-sample-gallery/0978170878

Image #3 - https://www.dpreview.com/sample-galleries/9171169801/fujifilm-x-t30-pre-production-sample-gallery/9560493831

X-T2 (DPreview)

Image #1 - https://www.dpreview.com/sample-galleries/3430551079/fujifilm-x-t2-samples-gallery/0274088921

Image #2 - https://www.dpreview.com/sample-galleries/3430551079/fujifilm-x-t2-samples-gallery/5034027761

Image #3 - https://www.dpreview.com/sample-galleries/3430551079/fujifilm-x-t2-samples-gallery/8884447824