Guide

Everything RAF Film Lab does, from the first import to a photo synced across your Mac, iPad and iPhone.

Importing photos

Click + in the toolbar and choose RAF files or a whole folder; folders are searched for RAFs in every subfolder.

• On the Mac, originals stay where they are. RAF Film Lab keeps a bookmark to each file and makes its own small previews, so your folders and cards are left as you organised them.
• On iPad and iPhone, each RAF is copied into the app, from Files, a connected card reader or anywhere Files can reach.
• Duplicates are skipped. A RAF that's already in the library, even one copied from another card or synced from another device, isn't imported twice.

The newest import has its own entry in the sidebar, Last Import, so you can start sorting straight away.

Film simulations

When you shoot, your camera records which film simulation was set. RAF Film Lab reads it from the file and opens each photo in that simulation, so a frame shot in Classic Chrome looks like Classic Chrome from the start.

To change it, open the photo and pick another film under Fujifilm Profiles in the Develop panel. All 20 are there:

• Colour: Provia, Velvia, Astia, Classic Chrome, Classic Neg, Nostalgic Neg, Reala Ace, Pro Neg. Hi, Pro Neg. Std, Eterna and Eterna Bleach Bypass.
• Acros, plain and with yellow, red and green filters: Fujifilm's grained black and white.
• Monochrome, plain and with the same three filters, without grain, and Sepia.

The camera's original choice is always shown as Shot as, and the library can be browsed by simulation from the sidebar.

Developing a photo

Double-click a photo in the grid, or switch the toolbar to the editor. The Develop panel works top to bottom:

• Light: exposure, contrast, highlights and shadows. Auto sets them for you as a starting point. Curves cover the master tone and each of red, green and blue.
• Colour: temperature and tint, vibrance and saturation, and a mixer with hue, saturation and luminance for eight colour bands.
• Colour grading: a hue and strength for shadows and for highlights, with a balance between them.
• Effects: clarity, dehaze, grain, bloom and fade.
• Crop: straighten and crop on the Crop tab.

Every slider resets to its default when you double-click its knob or its name. Use the eye button in the toolbar, or press and hold the photo, to compare with the original.

Masks

On the Masks tab, add a mask and give it its own exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, temperature, saturation and clarity.

• Automatic selections: the subject, the sky, people, individual faces or the background, found on the device.
• Shapes: linear and radial gradients, and a brush.

Press O to show the active mask as a red overlay.

Heal and clone

On the Retouch tab, add a heal spot to blend a blemish away, or a clone spot to copy one area over another, each with its own size, feather and opacity.

Ratings, flags and albums

• Rate from one to five stars and flag photos as picks or rejects, from the grid, a photo's context menu or the keyboard.
• Filter by minimum rating with the stars in the sidebar, and find picks and rejects in their own entries.
• Albums: click + next to Albums to make one. Drag photos onto an album from the grid or the filmstrip, or right-click a photo and choose Add to Album. Right-click an album to rename or delete it; deleting an album never deletes its photos.

Copying edits and exporting

Copy a photo's adjustments with ⌘C and paste them onto another with ⌘V, or from either photo's context menu. Every edit can be undone and redone.

Export from the editor's share button as HEIC or JPEG.

iCloud sync

Turn on Sync photos with iCloud in Settings (⌘, on the Mac, or the Settings button at the bottom of the sidebar). Turn it on on each device you want in sync.

• Each photo goes to your iCloud as the full RAF with its edits, film, rating and flag. Other devices download the whole file, so they edit the original, not a preview.
• Edits follow the photo. When two devices change the same photo, the most recent change wins.
• Deleting a photo deletes it on every device. Import the same RAF again later and it syncs again.
• The Mac keeps its originals where you imported them from and only uploads a copy.

While anything is uploading or downloading, a cloud icon appears in the toolbar; click it to see what's moving. Each thumbnail also shows its own iCloud status.

RAF files are 30–60 MB each, and synced photos count against your iCloud storage.

Keyboard shortcuts

How the films are measured

A film simulation is defined by what the camera does, so that's what we measure against. We shot 31 frames on an X100VI (ISO 64 to 5000, daylight and indoors, every setting at default) and had Fujifilm's X RAW STUDIO render each RAF in every simulation. Because both sides come from the same RAW file, every pair is pixel-aligned and only the rendering differs.

We then solved a base rendering that turns our RAW decode into the camera's Provia, and on top of it each film, and scored the app's actual rendering chain against the camera's files. Scores are CIEDE2000 colour differences over flat areas of each frame (lightness difference for black and white), as the median per frame:

A ΔE of about 2 is roughly the smallest colour difference most people notice with two images side by side. The films are tuned on the X100VI; RAFs from other X-Trans cameras open and develop the same way, and we'll publish their scores as we measure them.

Questions

Which cameras are supported?

Any Fujifilm RAF that Apple's RAW engine can read, which covers most X-Trans and GFX cameras. The films are measured on the X100VI.

Does it use the camera's grain, dynamic range or recipe settings?

The films are measured with every in-camera setting at its default. Grain is part of the Acros films, as it is in the camera; everything else you set yourself in the editor.

Can I edit JPEGs or HEIFs?

No. RAF Film Lab is built around the RAW file: a JPEG already has its film baked in.

Is it free?

The TestFlight beta is free. Pricing for the App Store release will be announced before launch. Join the beta →