Fuji - What Does The "Dynamic Range" Setting do??

The Dynamic Range setting on Fuji cameras is a bit of a mystery. How does it work? How does it affect your images and when should you use DR 100, DR 200 and DR 400?
In this video, I'll walk you through the settings and show you images that demonstrate the pros and cons of using the Dynamic Range settings on Fuji Cameras. It doesn't matter if you use an X100V, X100F, X-t3 or X-t4... these settings works the same on all Fuji cameras.
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[@discotechwreck]

This is actually the most helpful video I've seen explaining Fujifilm's DR settings I've been using an X100V for six months now, mainly shooting street photography, and I've always found what mode to use puzzling This has really cleared things up for me!

[@BoorayPerry]

Thanks!

[@bobfancy77]

Another really helpful video, thanks Booray cleared up a couple of questions I had.

[@davidcoulson5229]

Excellent presentation! Yes please a video about shooting for dark versus light would be very interesting 🙂

[@Firefromthenorth]

Thank you for the explanation. Never understood DR settings until now.

[@TheHerc1932]

Love this. Thanks for the education!

[@normalrachael]

simply the best fuji videos out there. thank you!

[@BoorayPerry]

Thanks! :)

[@enjoythelittlethings3359]

Good video. I got by Ken Wheeler's mantra - "Saturate the sensor and expose in the computer"- ETTR.

[@bryangideon5822]

Thanks Booray that’s sorted that one out, my setting has been auto DR but I didn’t understand why until now Great stuff.

[@BoorayPerry]

Yeah, it's kind of tricky but I feel like once you understand it you're more comfortable with it 📷😁

[@1962Jivatone]

Thank you Booray, I find a lot of these You Tube explanations to be a little biased toward the individual reviewer's preferences. Whereas yours always provide the pros and cons, along with excellent explanations and recommendations. All the best from the UK!

[@BoorayPerry]

Oh, don't worry. I'm plenty biased from time to time. :)

[@1962Jivatone]

@@BoorayPerry Yes, but you're biased towards my way of thinking 🤣

[@herwarthaug]

thank you for the point of view! 👍🏼

[@torinsall]

That was informative, thanks. As an aside, I'm really liking the HDR+ setting on my X100V for some situations, ie snow and bright partly cloudy sky with evergreens whose trunks are in shadow...HDR+ saved both extremes with a single shot.

[@BoorayPerry]

I haven't really played with it much but I will :)

[@williambarco7144]

Best explanation yet on Fuji Dynamic Range settings. The DR numbers are not a mystery anymore.

[@BoorayPerry]

:)

[@i.themonkey4786]

....but anyway: Great video, Booray!! Very well explained!:-)

[@DrOdysseus89]

Hmm DR auto. Im going to check this out! good explanation thank you

[@KGeorge-1]

Great explanation and easy choice for the setting! Auto...... IMO

[@heexxi]

Hello and thanks for the explanations Booray. The part i liked the most : "just leave it on auto" . Just playing around with a Fuji XE-3, i had recently, and i think that once you set all ( numerous ) options that suits your style, you can focus on what's a camera real purpose : taking pictures. When you shoot film as i still do you don't ask yourself such questions, now i really enjoy digital no matter what purists may say ;)

[@BoorayPerry]

Exactly 😊

[@mariodamato966]

I suggest a comparison of the DR settings in the camera and some easy editions on Lightroom Mobile (Android in my smartphone). I like to adjust the exposition, highlights, shadows and i think without the need of sitting in front a "computer" i can do much more with the Lightroom mobile to extract the maximum of the dynamic range of the camera.

[@reasons4171]

thanks man!

[@jimwlouavl]

Thanks for taking the time to compare these. Does the extra noise come from the DR400 setting or the 640 ISO?

[@BoorayPerry]

All noise comes from ISO. The higher the number the more the noise

[@GaryHughesOfficial]

Love your gift of explaining things. Can you explain to me where your bag of Werthers Originals went?

[@BoorayPerry]

Exactly where you think... :)

[@markcasebeer8273]

Thanks for explaining this. I used auto for a while but shooting outside in certain hi-contrast photos the camera sometimes chooses something like 6400 ISO. I struggled as to why the camera would choose such a high ISO in good light. I find that just leaving it at 100 and watching not to blow out the highlights work best for me.

[@shy-guy5544]

If you choose one of the 3 auto iso ranges you can control the upper limit that the camera will select. If the camera struggles to properly expose the image it will instead use a lower shutter speed than you selected.

[@poutineitup9510]

I don't even own a Fuji but enjoyed your video. Thanks!!!

[@BoorayPerry]

Thanks!

[@shy-guy5544]

Excellent explanation of the subject. I did not see your very nice woven camera strap listed in your professional gear. Would you please give details about it. Thanks

[@BoorayPerry]

It's there. Here you go: amzn.to/3GI28Ij :)

[@shy-guy5544]

@@BoorayPerry Thanks!

[@backwoodstrails]

Excellent explanation. "Expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights", from a time when most film photographers knew about the zone system. So, the question is, are the DR settings simply underexposing by one or two stops, to preserve the highlights, or is it only underexposing the highlight area leaving the mid tones and shadows alone?

[@BoorayPerry]

I believe it is underexposing everything.

[@swagonman]

Auto dynamic range doesn’t work as you described. It only uses 100 and 200, but not 400. It decides based upon highlight clipping, and then if you have ISO320 or higher. So low contrast scene, even at high ISO, will remain DR100. Also, in Auto, preview with zebra bars will only show preview as DR100, even if camera will actually use DR200. I use Auto as my default, but DR is mapped to my D-pad, and zebra bars are on. When I see clipping, I use D-pad and quickly adjust DR200 or DR400 to remove/reduce clipping. I use the lowest DR that preserves the highlights. BTW, I’m also using Auto ISO as a default, with my Auto ISO settings adjusted to my liking. BTW, I like a lot of your videos, especially on using leaf shutter and flash outdoors. That one was great. Makes me want an X100V. I have XT4, and would keep that camera because I love both ultra wide and telephoto. Even so, I think I would enjoy the 100V, and perhaps love the Leica Q3, but for the price.

[@stevesvids]

I'm not a fan of the look of dr400 images. I leave my camera in dr100 and shoot for the highlights if thats my concern, or I blow out my highlights if thats my desire. I think the only time I've not enjoyed blown out highlights is when it destroys detail on someone's face for example. A critical area. If you notice in your video here the window highlights are all blown out.... and it looks great. 👍👍

[@ElCid_86]

What about with different recipes? I use several and the “chef” recommended DR200 or 400. Maybe for a certain look? Or maybe it doesn’t matter and would be fine in Auto?

[@mikefoster6018]

Good video. Especially as the web is so full of .... 'varied' ... advice on how DR works! Although I'm not sure about your "use DR Auto" advice, given that DR Auto on cameras like my X-T5 only switches between 100 and 200, and won't give you 400. I just tested both DR100 and DR400 with manual aperture and shutter and a variety of ISOs (800, 1600, 6400) in a dark living room with a glaring light. With my Fuji X-T5. I'm looking at the RAW files and straining to see any difference in the shadows or midtones at all (either in terms or grain or detail). The only difference I'm really noticing is that that the highlights are *far* better controlled at DR400. Interestingly, the DR100 files are about 25% bigger than the DR400 ones, though, which might imply I'm losing detail somewhere with DR400 that I can't quite notice (even when looking closely at details). Of course, DR can increase your minimum ISO. But I can happily function on ISO500+ all the time anyway, for the kind of hobby street photography that I do, so I might just walk around with DR400 on all the time. Outdoors, it can really save the sky in a photo. I'll do some checks to see if I need to bear anything special in mind when 'exposing to the right' combined with DR400. As I'm a bit obsessed with getting as much light as possible without blowing the highlights :)

[@BoorayPerry]

This is a great comment. Thanks so much!

[@mikefoster6018]

@@BoorayPerry Cheers! Love your videos. Dynamic Range is such a strange topic. When I was trying to work out exactly what was going on, I was talking to people online about DR and it was a bit like talking to flat earthers. All kinds of explanations that didn't gel with my experiments. I too was someone who assumed that good clean settings (minimum DR, minimum ISO) and then 'exposing to the right' on my histogram would be the ultimate way to maximise my shots. After all, it should be the best way to maximise photos of light into my camera. But there's no denying that DR400 is doing some extra magic to control the ISO brightening when it converts the shots into digital RAWs, making the highlights behave. I THINK it's doing something better than what I can just achieve through editing of RAW highlights myself. I need to do even more checking/testing.

[@BoorayPerry]

Let me know what you find out. :)@@mikefoster6018

[@KGeorge-1]

Thanks!

[@KGeorge-1]

Glad you came over to Fuji!! Thanks BP!

[@RichardBO9]

Except that’s not really what DR400 is doing. Setting to ISO 640 kicks in the dual gain nature of the sensor so it can process the highlights separately at a lower ISO. Yes, in some situations you’ll see some grain. I think making decisions based on what you see zoomed in at 400% are rather non-sequitur. I’ve had the most success managing highlights and shadows bracket the composition and blending exposures. I understand this doesn’t work for action photos. Pal2tech and John Armstrong both have excellent detailed explanations of how the DR settings work.

[@i.themonkey4786]

Hi guys. I set my DR on Auto amongst other things and suddenly my P mode didn't work anymore. Took me some time to figure out that this was caused by the DR Auto Setting (... it's in the manual, actually ;-). Just thought you might know you can't use P-Mode in DR-Auto, that is, if you want to use P-Mode.

[@backwoodstrails]

Does "P" stand for "professional"? That was the standard joke among professional photographers when all this automation started coming out, even prior to digital.

[@SamChihabi]

Does the Dynamic Range affects the RAW files and if it does will this disable post processing of the shadows and highlights or limit how much can be recovered ?

[@BoorayPerry]

I've heard that it varies by what RAW processor you use. My Raw files are the same exposure as the JPG but the JPG file has better DR.

[@sebastienmoal9587]

Yes indeed please talk to us about analogue photography !!

[@BoorayPerry]

Glad you liked it!

[@rotorfpv4117]

is worth it use in video?

[@DUCzillaMonster]

What about the hdr function at the xt4, probably better, although hdr800+ gif best but little strange effect, lower i dont see any difference

[@BoorayPerry]

I've never been a fan of that function I don't think that the pictures look natural. I am more likely to raise the contrast in my images than to go the other way. 🙂

[@DUCzillaMonster]

@@BoorayPerry glad you buyed one!!

[@davidlewis1787]

I leave it off and always shoot -1 exp comp and then balance the exposure in post

[@BoorayPerry]

That's an interesting tactic.

[@matan7986]

How about DR-P?

[@dirkpehrke9909]

9:00 I have read that in DR Auto, the camera never chooses DR400, only 100 or 200, so Auto doesn’t work as you describe it?!

[@BoorayPerry]

I hadn't heard that but it's good to know. It makes sense because DR 400 is a high ISO.

[@andrejgrgic5978]

One question, if you don't mind... If I need to use ISO 640 and I keep my x-s10 DR setting on "AUTO" - will it apply the DR setting on 200% or will the AUTO mode choose the 400% setting (do I need to manually set the DR setting on 400% if I need the actual 400% or the AUTO mode will do it for me)?

[@BoorayPerry]

You need to manually set your DR mode. Then, the auto ISO mode will try to stay there or higher.

[@andrejgrgic5978]

@@BoorayPerry Thank you very much.

[@davidsmithson9236]

At @ 5:30 To paraphrase-……if you can’t see it, I can. Teacher my ass.

[@BoorayPerry]

You can't see it because of the limitations of my screen capture software and You Tube. LOL

[@AndyNormanPhotography]

Thanks for trying and I'm sure you're right but I still don't really understand this. The ISO change just seems back to front. If the camera wants to underexpose highlights relative to the rest of the scene so that it can then bring them back, I would expect it to reduce ISO (and hence exposure), not increase it. At least that's what I've always done manually to cope with high contrast scenes. Underexpose a bit to hold the highlights then boost shadow areas in post. And increasing ISO will increase noise in shadow areas, making detail recovery from them more problematic.

[@BoorayPerry]

It DOES reduce ISO. It raises the minimum ISO so that it can actually shoot lower than that ISO and underexpose. It forces you to shoot at 640 so that it can then under expose and bring it back up to save the highlights. There's no doubt it is confusing 😁. The camera forces you to expose for the scene as if your ISO is high so that it can actually shoot the scene with a lower ISO and then recover.

[@AndyNormanPhotography]

@@BoorayPerry hmmmmm....yes.....I think maybe I get it. Thanks for your reply!

[@AndyNormanPhotography]

@@BoorayPerry just read your reply again and, at the second attempt, I do actually get it. At last. Thanks again.

[@BoorayPerry]

Maybe this is a better way of explaining it: 1. The camera needs to underexpose the shot in order to recover the highlights. 2. The camera can't change your aperture or shutter speed without radically changing the depth of field or motion blur. ISO is the only thing it can change with minimal effect on how the image looks. 3. So, it forces you to set your shutter speed and aperture for an ISO that is 2 stops higher than the lowest possible, then actually shoots it 2 stops lower and recovers the highlights. Your image still has the same DOF and motion blur because those values don't get messed with by the camera behind the scenes.

[@AndyNormanPhotography]

@@BoorayPerry Ah, yes, got it now. The key thing I'd not understood is that the camera actually shoots at the lower ISO. I suspect that under many circumstances you're better off at 100% (i.e. no intervention by the automatic system) and adjusting exposure (at native ISO) via shutter speed, only involving the auto system when that becomes impractical. It may also explain why the camera seemed to be making crazy auto-ISO decisions on my new X-S10 - increasing ISO before the shutter speed - with IBIS - required it. Thanks for your help. Regards, Andy PS it won you a new subscriber!

[@philipzwick]

I wonder if this applies to raw files as well as JPEGs. More importantly, I believe Auto only goes between 100 and 200, not 400. 400 has to be set. Check it out.

[@BoorayPerry]

What I read said that it works to 400 so curious to know if I am wrong..

[@onyong123]

@@BoorayPerry just tried on my xt2 and wasn’t able to get it up to 400iso in auto. Wonder if there is a setting to change that...

[@BoorayPerry]

@@onyong123 How can you tell what DR mode you were in after the fact?

[@onyong123]

@@BoorayPerry when half pressing the shutter it will show the selected dr in the evf and on the screen. It will also show on the image after the fact on the screen when reviewing your images.

[@BoorayPerry]

@@onyong123 Damn! looks like you are right. Auto only goes to DR200!

[@Hobbyist.Photographer.]

Does this only really apply to jpegs?

[@BoorayPerry]

Using Bridge, my RAWS looks like the same exposure as the JPG BUT the dynamic range is not as good.

[@jan-martinulvag1953]

The x-t100 is very bad at blowing out highlights. In clouds. Bright light in clouds get totally blown out. In this camera I can change the DR to 400% but then I must go to iso 800. Problem is is hardly helps. The x-t1 is not like that. The x-t1 preserves highlights much better. The nikon D5000 is totally different. Nothing is blown out. I got the D5000 cheap, only 60 euro with lense. Its very different from the fujis. Very interesting. Only 12 mp. One other camera that is good and very cheap is the eosM100. One day I might stick to one camera, but right now I am learning. Weird thing is that when i shoot video with the x-t100 highlights are preserved. Maybe there is something wrong in my camera?

[@TpEric62]

You got a lot of the dr as “ds ”

[@BoorayPerry]

lol... yes... I trust people will know what I mean :)

[@Eyeofkamau]

@8:56 this actually isn’t true. Auto DR only switches from DR 100 & 200, this is clarified in the owner’s manual. In order to utilize DR 400 it must be set manually. Also, you spoke of not using DR 400 at the beach because you want to use lower iso to cut down the amount of light entering the sensor. The point of DR 400 in that case is to allow you to expose for shadows without blowing out your highlights. If you just shoot at a lower iso to expose for highlights and let less light in, your shadows are crushes-whereas dr 400 will let you expose +1 2/3 over to get both healthy shadows and highlights. It’s more useful for jpg shooters that won’t be lifting shadows in post.