Fujifilm X-Trans images stand up to some pretty hard conditions. Low light, high ISO, Strange color balances.
Taken while on queue for Flight of Passage in Pandora Animal Kingdom Walt Disney World. Considering that this was taken thru a glass wall of a Pandorian avatar floating in a tank of liquid, it came out really well. Processed in Capture One Pro 21.
Here is a shout out to a really small lens that Fujifilm X camera users should really think about. It’s the XF 27mm F2.8 lens.
I don’t use it enough. At 2.75 oz it is the kind of lens you can carry with you anywhere as a spare. It is also a nice wide lens at F2.8. And the 27mm is a good lens for environmental stuff. Not wide angle but not in your face.
Nice sharp lens for not a lot of money.
At the beginning of August I was out shooting the almost full moon. It was a clear night and I did get good images using my standard exposure set up for moon shoots. If you want to get good images of the moon start with a medium aperture like F8 and shutter speed of 1/250. Try the lowest ISO you can get way with. You have to shoot in manual mode. A tripod will help but if you are using the Fujinon XF100-400mmF4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR you can probably get a good image like the one below handheld using the OIS. The photo was shot with the Fujinon XF1.4X TC WR tele-converter for a reach of 560mm.
As it happened Jupiter and Saturn were also visible that night. The moon would pass in front of the planets later in the evening. On a lark I pointed my camera in the direction of Saturn not expecting to get much as the viewfinder was not sensitive enough to pick up the small amount of light from that planet.
I brought the images into Capture One and did my normal processing on the moon image which came to my liking. For those of you wanting to take images of the moon try doing it just before the full moon as the shadows give definition. I then turned my attention to the frame with what I hoped contained Saturn. I did see something in the frame. I ended up opening up the exposure by over two stops but there, small but visible was Saturn and her rings.
You know that Saturn has rings and you can find it any night it’s in the sky but unless you look closer you just don’t see the rings. As I pulled up the exposure and saw the rings it was like I was discovering it for the first time. Made my day.
So I got yesterday wrong it was World Photography Day not International Photography Day. Please don’t bite my head off. Still there are times with a good long telephoto lens is not only desired it is required.
Taken with the Fujifilm XF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR and the Fujinon XF1.4X TC WR teleconverter. It’s best to give these ancient creatures a bit of space.
Someone has declared today as International Photography Day. I’d like to celebrate using a couple of my telephoto lenses. Sometimes when the stars align and the wildlife cooperates you have some really nice subjects to photograph.
This Snowy Egret was fishing in the pond behind my house the other day. He was being quite cooperative so I was able to get off a number of exposures with my Fujifilm XF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR which is a very nice lens. It has good color rendition and even extended to 400mm as in this shot is nice an sharp.
A few minutes later he/she fluffed up all her feathers for just a second and I was able to capture this on also at 400mm. The image stabilization help as it was a rather gray afternoon. This image ISO 500 1/124s f/10 400mm. This is really a nice lens and I’m glad I have it.
I also have the Fujinon XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR which is one of the first lenses I purchased and usually use when I’m heading for the golf course as it gives a nice range for a compact size. A little later on the same day I caught this Roseate Spoonbill in about the same location as the Snowy Egret. He/she was not too bothered by me. The sharpness and color rendition on this lens is also quite good.
Image shot at ISO 800 1/125s f/5.6 135mm.
So lets celebrate a couple of the wonderful Fujifilm telephoto lenses. They do good work.
You can usually spend a lot of money on more and more lenses as you progress as a photographer. But sometimes you forget the good things you have, like the kit lens you bought when you first bought into a camera brand. In my case it was the Fujifilm X series and the lens was their Fujinon XF18-55mmF2.8-4 R LM OIS. It is a really good lens and probably should not have had the “kit” nomenclature.
I purchased the lens along with the Fujifilm X-T1 in June of 2014. So I’ve had it 6 years. Lately it was mostly gathering dust on the shelf as I was using mostly Fujifilm’s profession lenses. I have the Fujinon XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR as my go to lens for everyday shooting. Nice and sharp, constant F2.8, basically the equivalent of the standard 24mm-70mm full frame lens.
Recently, I ended up getting a preview entry to Universal Studios just before they opened to the general public. A test run with annual pass holders. Didn’t have any real problems during the day.
Biggest question was which lens to bring as the whole trip was more about making pictures than riding rides. If I’m going to the parks and its going to get dark then I will probably take my 35mm F1.4 lens just for the extra stop of light. Since this was going to be all daylight, i would have normally taken the XF16-55mmF2.8. The drawback of that lens is by itself it weighs in at 1.4 pounds. The XF18-55mmF2.8-4 on the other hand is just 0.7 pounds. Since the trip would all be in daylight and wide open apertures were not going to be needed (even if the difference at full extension was F4 instead of F2.8). I was not planning on taking more than one lens so I put the XF18-55mmF2.8-4 on my X-T2 and ventured out in to the pandemic’ed world.
With the lighter lens it was a little easier to carry and I have to say produced some nice sharp images.
Above is a crop of the image and if you click and enlarge you will see that there is nothing wrong with the sharpness of that lens.
So maybe it’s time to revisit you “kit” lenses and see what they can still do.
The image was process in Capture One 20 Pro.
I decided to take Dave Black‘s Skateboarding preconference workshop at the recent Photoshopworld in Orlando. It was the kind of class I thought would be outside my comfort zone, and it was. The workshop was held at the Metro Skateboard Academy. Having the workshop indoors was pretty much a necessity as it is late spring here in Florida and it was quite hot. I wasn’t quite sure what the lighting would be like and Dave suggested bringing a flash along. I was envisioning some hard light flash images as I felt that skateboarding called for that kind of lighting.
I have several speedlights around but none compatible with the TTL1 and HSS2 in my Fujifilm X-T2 so I thought it was time to get something that would work for the workshop and for other opportunities that might come up. I do work with a few manual strobes for studio shots etc. so I’m not completely lacking in that area but I have nothing that is portable.
I’ve been seeing a lot of people talking about Godox flashes lately and thought I would see what I could find. I looked at a few reviews and checked the specs of several companies flashes along with the Godox brand. The pricing of the Godox were in my comfort zone. I settled on the Godox TT685F. Godox has a smaller flash, TT350F, but has only about half the power at GN363 than the TT685F which has a GN64 which is comparable to flash of other brands. The TT685F is about the same size as any other flash of the same power. It well built and comes with a pouch and a small stand. And the pricing is reasonable.
To trigger the flash using TTL you have several choices. You can mount the flash on the camera and let the camera talk directly to the flash. This works but is never recommended as it does give a deer in the headlights look to the image. You can purchase two flashes and put one on the camera and one off camera. The one on the camera talks to the camera and the other flash to pass along the TTL information needed by the flash doing the work. This works but you have to pay the same price for the flash on the camera and it doesn’t contribute to the actual lighting of the image just talks to the other flash. Or you can purchase a dedicated radio trigger that can talk to multiple flash and convey TTL information plus a lot more stuff to the flashes doing the work. The second advantage to a trigger is that you can change the output of the flash from the trigger on your camera rather than having to go to the flash itself every time you want to adjust it. Godox has two radio triggers that work with their flash units. There is a compact unit that has a small lcd screen that is inexpensive but I have found hard to use as the lcd is small and usually can only display partial information on the settings. I chose to go with the larger Godox XPROF trigger with a big screen. It’s a bit bulkier obviously but I think you get a lot more functionality for about $20 US more. The XPROF uses two AA batteries and is well built and can manage 5 or more groups of lights. I does have some features to adjust all the flash in all the groups at the same time.
The day of the workshop we all met at the conference and bussed off to the skatepark. It was quite interesting as they had built a swimming pool like bowl plus a lot of ramps and other things that would make for challenging skating. The lighting in the building was ok, the florescent bulb were probably daylight color balance but a bit dim for doing shots without a flash. I starting out without flash at ISO10,000 to get enough shutter speed to freeze the action. It didn’t take long before I brought out the Godox and tried some shots with the flash in one hand and the camera in the other. It worked out better that I expected.
Perfect! Well almost. The TTL worked well. I adjusted the power of the flash down 0.7th of a stop from the trigger and was soon getting the images I envisioned.
There is a school of thought that TTL flash should be avoided like the plague but I tend to disagree. I was in a situation where the conditions were constantly changing and setting the flash to manual and adjusting the power (the TT685F goes from 1/128th to full power in 1/3 step increments) would mean that I would miss more images adjusting to current conditions than taking images. So I stuck with TTL and was happy with the results. You need to have your camera set to TTL to get the HSS working. Once you attach the radio trigger and turn everything my X-T2 automatically goes to TTL mode once the trigger is detected. The camera will stay in TTL mode as long as the trigger is attached. You can not change the mode to manual on the camera at that point as I think it needs the TTL mode to work with HSS. You can switch to manual mode at the trigger so everything just works.
In TTL mode the XPROF trigger allows you do adjust the output up or down in 1/3 stop increments. One of the advanced things you can do with the XProF trigger is called TCM. This is a button that will change the trigger and the flash to manual mode with the power setting from the last TTL shot. You set the camera and the flash to TTL then take a shot. You then press the TCM button and it will change the flash to manual at the last triggered setting. This can be an advantage if you want to work in manual mode as it gets you to the setting you need instead of having to shoot, look at the image, adjust, then shoot again. The TTL image may not be perfect but it should be pretty close.
There were over twenty of us including instructors at the workshop and we gave the skateboards a pretty good workout so the last half hour we setup up some stations where we could shoot portraits of the athletes. I put the TT685F on a lightstand and shot thru a small shoot through umbrella still using TTL.
All in all, I enjoyed the workshop and gave my self a bit of confidence that I can get outside of my comfort zone and get the shot. The Godox equipment worked well. I probably could have used a little bit lower ISO (1600) and let the flash work a bit harder but noise was not an issue. I used Powerex rechargeable batteries and one set of 4 lasted thru the 2 hours that I used them (about 200 images) without too much drop off in recycle time. So I recommend doing any Dave Black workshop and I think the Godox equipment will serve you well.
I’m now using Capture One (version 12) almost exclusively. The control over noise and the Fujifilm Color Curves make for some stunning images. I’ve also found that the Fujinon XF80mmF2.8 R LM OIS WR Lens is really good for capturing the action in the theater in the round environment at The Festival of the Lion King at Disneys Animal Kingdom here in Florida. I can eliminate the noise that should be there when shooting at ISO 640 at F2.8. And the picture is so sharp.
I ended up with a white balance of 1260k after much experimentation. The lighting in the theater was quite blue and it made it interesting to say the least. I’m happy with the outcome. The image is so sharp and under control. That is what I’m finding I can do with Capture One.
There are functions of your camera that sometimes get forgotten in the push to get the perfect image in your camera. I was doing some hand held macro work outside in the back yard. There was a slight breeze so I switched the Fujifilm X-T2 to continuous low to spray a few images in the hopes of getting the one where the wind wasn’t shaking the leaves I was shooting.
I took a couple of shots then switched back to single shot, or so I thought. On the X-T2 the multi exposure function is right next to single shot and I accidentally moved the drive lever to multi-exposure. Not being a proponent of multiple exposures (i have enough trouble getting one image right) I switched back to single shot when I saw the prompts for next image.
Having never explored the in camera multiple exposure feature I thought I’d give it a try. I had nothing to lose as the Sun was a bit to high and harsh and was giving too much dynamic range. I shot of an image and used that image to align a second image just slightly off from the first. I really had no expectations but was pleasantly surprised by the result.
The two images together combined to keep the highlights and shadows within a range. The light of the two images together returned the perfectly lit image I was looking for but not finding in my single shot images. I really like the outcome.
Not that I will now go on a multi-exposure tangent but it is nice to remember there are other things to explore when you start working with your cameras features.
I must have been one of the first to pre-order the new Fujinon XF 80mm F2.8 R LM OIS WR Macro lens when it was first announced. I got mine today, a couple of days before the lens was to be released. I’m not sorry that I got it before most anyone else. From what I have read this macro is supposed to be special. First impression is that it is special.
I took some fading flowers out back to shoot in the late afternoon sun. I was shooting hand held at between F2,8 and F9 depending. The images I’m seeing are stunning. I was looking through the exposures I took this afternoon and this one stopped me in my tracks.
This image is pretty much straight out of the camera with the Fujifilm Provia/Standard film simulation applied and I opened the image up about 3/4 of a stop as I had the exposure compensation set to a -2/3 of a stop.
I’m seeing wonderful color, rich creamy backgrounds, and really sharp detail. I think I’m going to love this camera.
I’ve waited quite a while for this lens. Well waiting may not be the right word but drooling doesn’t sound as good, It was worth the wait.