The Colour Quest (VI) – FujiFilm FinePix S7000 + Snapseed

This is the newest post charting my ongoing quest for colour where, after happily shooting black and white for some time, I’m seeking similar satisfaction with colour images.

You can read all posts from my Colour Quest here.

I’ve been really impressed with the oldie but goody FujiFilm FinePix S7000, a 2004 bridge camera that set me back all of £12.

My previous Colour Quest post featured experiments with the S7000’s on board F-Chrome colour setting, which gives, to my eye, rather pleasing colours, if perhaps overly favouring green tones, much like their film emulsions are/were known for.

So in comparison, and reigning back in to something slightly more neutral, yet not bland or insipid, I decided to try the standard colour mode (er, called, F-Standard), then apply the “warm colour” preset I’ve defined in Snapseed and use for virtually all colour shots made with compact cameras.

My overall “workflow” here then involves just taking the pictures with the standard colour setting, then uploading to my MacBook, which syncs them to Google Photos.

Then I process on my phone with Snapseed, using the warm colour preset being previously saved.

The Snapseed processing takes about 15s and seven taps per photo.

Prior to this I will have edited the batch, so deleted any images that don’t make the cut. I don’t apply the Snapseed process to every image, as I know most of them will be deleted anyway.

Once finished in Snapseed, the resultant image is also saved in Google Photos, then I can upload the best to Flickr as usual from my MacBook.

Overall, I’m really happy with the colours. I can’t think of any obvious shortcoming or flaw I would like to change. 

The only downside is that I need to go through Snapseed. Which isn’t really a chore at all, and I love the app and what I can do, and how it can be customised. It’s as much “me” as LightRoom wasn’t me – lean, intuitive, simple, fast, fun.

I was just hoping to find a colour set up that’s as simple as the in-camera b/w settings I’ve found with cameras like my Pentax Q, Panasonic Lumix LX3, and the Lumix GF1, none of which need any further tweaking in Snapseed.

So what next in the colour quest? 

I predict most likely a return to black and white photography.

Even though I’m completely happy with the colour output from the FinePix S7000 with this approach, using the in-camera b/w mode then processing in Snapseed gives me images I like even better, like I recently shared in this post.

The S7000, like a handful of other cameras, makes b/w photographs I love.

Whereas none of my current cameras – with further processing or not – give me consistent colour images I really love.

This is no fault of the cameras, and I can’t think of any way the colour images could be different so I’d like them more.

The FinePix S7000 itself has performed way above my expectations and is burrowing a little corner for itself in my core camera arsenal, in readiness for long residence.

I think it’s more about my personal preferences having evolved over the last few years. 

This is, if not quite an earth shattering revelation, goes a long way to explaining why I started this colour quest a couple of months back, and why ultimately so far it hasn’t left me as ecstatic as I am about the b/w output of my favourites.

Perhaps similar to how some years ago I loved Dairy Milk, Snickers and Mars, these days anything less than 75% dark Green and Blacks or Lindt chocolate I’ll walk away from.

Over time, we change, our tastes change, and will change again.

For me now though, the next few photowalks I go on will almost certainly be back to b/w.

Have you had phases where you tried to shoot b/w and just found you prefer going back to colour, or vice versa? 

Please let us know in the comments below (and don’t forget to tick the “Notify me of new comments via email” box to follow the conversation).

Thanks for looking.

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