Medium-format post-production horizons expand with Phocus 3.4 update from Hasselblad

Hasselblad’s latest updates and improvements to its Phocus software deliver an even richer post-production experience, giving photographers enhanced creative possibilities. Phocus 3.4 brings additions to both tethered shooting and image adjustment workflows, ensuring users of Hasselblad H and X Camera Systems can achieve their full creative potential. The latest deployment of Phocus offers greater tonal adjustability with enhanced Shadow Fill and Highlight Recovery options, while the Detail slider allows users to fine-tune localized contrast alongside the Clarity tool. Localized editing is further improved with additional Adjustment Layer tools and an enhanced Noise Filter assists with areas of fine detail with wide-angle lenses. Furthermore, correction profiles for Hasselblad’s newest XCD Lenses round out the powerful editing capabilities of Phocus. An expanded Live View Aperture setting improves efficiency for users that take full advantage of Hasselblad’s high-quality live view video preview when photographing tethered to a host computer.

Enhanced Shadow Fill and Highlight Recovery

To ensure creatives have access to the greatest amount of image detail from their captures, Shadow Fill and Highlight Recovery have all been significantly enhanced. This enables photographers to fully utilize the dynamic range available in their images. The original algorithms are still available under a selectable version option for compatibility with previously corrected images.

Additional Adjustment Layer Tools

Expanding the number of adjustments available within the Adjustment Layers tool, Shadow Fill and Clarity corrections can now be applied as local adjustments using the brush tool or a linear and radial gradient, making this tool even more versatile.

Detail Slider

A new addition to the exposure toolset of Phocus 3.4 is a Detail slider, controlling the degree to which Clarity affects fine detail in the image. Used in conjunction with the Clarity tool, Detail allows for a more nuanced control of local contrast allowing for users to fine-tune their images.

Expanded Live View Aperture Option

For users working in a tethered capture environment, the new Live View Aperture option allows for the camera to automatically open to the widest aperture possible or to use the selected aperture instead when activating live view. This becomes especially useful when photographing with flash in-studio, where the strength of the modelling lamps is not suitable for viewability due to the exposure settings of the camera.

Enhanced Noise Filter

An additional option within the Noise Filter tool corrects images that may exhibit unwanted patterns when using third-party wide-angle lenses or extreme tilt and shift.

Lens Profiles for New XCD Lenses

Phocus 3.4 also adds lens correction profiles for the previously announced XCD 2,8/65, XCD 1,9/80, and XCD 2,8/135 with X Converter 1,7.

To download the latest version of Phocus, tutorials and more, please visit: https://www.hasselblad.com/phocus

ABOUT HASSELBLAD

Founded in 1941, Hasselblad is the leading manufacturer of medium format cameras and lenses. Made in Sweden, Hasselblad cameras are renowned for their iconic ergonomic design, uncompromising image quality and Swedish craftsmanship. For over half a century Hasselblad cameras have captured some of the world’s most iconic images – including the first landing on the moon – and helped shape the way we look at the world through genuine photographic artistry. Trusted by NASA and used by the greatest photographers in the world, Hasselblad continues to create products with uncompromising image quality that inspire.

The Hasselblad H Camera System with its professional lens family and unique advancements is widely acknowledged as the most comprehensive digital camera system of its kind available today. Hasselblad was the first to launch the fully integrated medium format camera system incorporating the latest in CMOS sensor technology. In 2016 Hasselblad launched the H6D, a technological feat with an all-new electronic platform, delivering superior craftsmanship and image quality.

Later the same year, Hasselblad introduced the world’s first compact mirrorless digital medium format camera – the X1D. Hasselblad’s X1D sensor benchmarked the highest score in the history of DxO Mark’s independent testing.

Headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, Hasselblad is a global brand with offices in New York, London, Tokyo, Paris, Copenhagen, Hamburg and Shenzhen with distributors throughout the world.