I was shooting flowers in my backyard today with the Fujifilm X-T2 using an TARION Zhongyi Speedmaster 35mm F0.95 lens. And yeah, that lens is AMAZING.

However, what blew me away was the difference I got when I used Iridient Transformer instead of Lightroom to process the Fujifilm RAF files.

Iridient Transformer is a program that basically converts your Fujifilm RAF file into a DNG file — and in doing so, processes the RAF file using its own specialized algorithm.

While Adobe Lightroom also does this, it always seems to render the RAF files with worm artifacts, especially in foliage and nature shots.

I’ve been trying to move away from Adobe products lately — for a lot of reasons, so I figured I’d give Iridient a try. Not that it will replace Lightroom, but at least for RAW processing.

Besides, I’ve heard about this issue before, but really never believed how much of a difference Iridient Transformer can make. It’s huge.

When I imported the RAF into Lightroom, it looked like this:

Now I took that RAF file and instead of directly importing into Lightroom, I processed it through Iridient Transformer. This is what I got:

DNG file from RAF file that was first processed by Iridient Transformer.

If you look at the flower detail, you’ll see what I mean. It looks a LOT better than the RAF file as processed by Lightroom.

Here’s both side by side:

So there you have it. By the way, the process takes about 20-60 seconds longer to my workflow. While I don’t generally use or like the DNG format, I’ll definitely be making an exception for most of my landscape shots. I don’t think this is as critical for portraits or street photography.

By the way, here’s the settings I used:

Iridient Transformer settings - screen 1

Iridient Transformer settings - screen 2

And, well, for good measure, here’s my final processed photo:

Late morning flower. ISO 200 | 50mm | f/1.0 | 1/1000sec

Be sure to check it out yourself and let me know what you think in the comments below!