Great American Fish – Morro Bay, CA – Fujifilm X-E4 – “Kodak Portra 400 v2”
I thought it would be interesting to compare Kodak-inspired Film Simulation Recipes on my Fujifilm X-E4. So I pulled out my phone, opened the Fuji X Weekly App, and selected Filter by Sensor (choosing both X-Trans III & X-Trans IV) and Filter by Color. Then I used the Search feature to find all of the recipes with “Koda” in the name—I didn’t search for “Kodak” because Kodachrome would have been excluded. The App displayed 36 recipes. Some recipes, like Reggie’s Portra, Old Ektachrome, and Elite Chrome 200, didn’t show up because “Koda” isn’t found anywhere in the recipe title, despite the Kodak-inspired aesthetic, so I had to search those out separately. Then I reprocessed an exposure (captured in Morro Bay, California) on my X-E4 with all of these recipes.
Let’s take a look at how these 41 Kodak-inspired Film Simulation Recipes compare to each other!
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What’s in the July issue? The cover story is A Whale of a Tale, which is a photoessay of a recent whale-watching boat excursion, as captured with a Fujifilm X100V using the Kodak Tri-X 400 Film Simulation Recipe. There are a total of 28 photographs this month, including the cover image (above). I hope that you find it enlightening, entertaining, and inspiring!
If you haven’t joined the Creative Collective, consider subscribing today to get access to bonus articles and the FXW Zine—not just this issue, but the first seven issues, too!
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Want the subject in your picture to stand out? There are a few tricks: leading lines, composition, contrast, and color theory (an underutilized tool that seems to be used more often by accident than on purpose). Of course, the problem with color theory is that it can get complex and there are varying schools of thought. There are entire classes in college dedicated to this subject. I prefer simplicity, so we’ll take the easy route as we dive into color theory for photography.
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Golden Palms – Goodyear, AZ – Fujifilm X-E4 – “High Key”
I pretty much know Fujifilm cameras backwards and forwards. I’ve got to admit, though, that there are a few features that I never—or almost never—use. I recently rediscovered two of these tools that I tried once, didn’t like the results, and so I never used them again… until now. I didn’t realize that I was actually missing out on something kind of cool! I’ve had a lot of fun with these over the last few days, and I bet some of you will, too—and I also bet that you don’t use these features, and perhaps have never even tried them.
What are they? High Key and Low Key.
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What’s in the June issue? The cover story is Culleoka Kodachrome, which is a photography project that I undertook last month while in rural Texas using the Kodachrome 64 Film Simulation Recipe. There are a total of 28 photographs this month, including the cover image (above). I hope that you find it enlightening, entertaining, and inspiring!
If you haven’t joined the Creative Collective, consider subscribing today to get access to bonus articles and the FXW Zine—not just this issue, but the first six issues, too!
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Sometimes I get into a double exposure mood. It might seem difficult to create good double exposure pictures—thankfully, Fujifilm cameras make double exposure photography easy! In this article I’ll explain just how simple it is to do it, and also explain why it’s difficult to do it well.
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What’s in the May issue? The cover story is Goodbye, Utah, which is an ode to Utah, since I am moving from that state. This issue concludes with an article about double-exposure scenes-in-jars photography. There are a total of 19 photographs this month, including the cover image (above). I hope that you find it enlightening, entertaining, and inspiring!
If you haven’t joined the Creative Collective, consider subscribing today to get access to bonus articles and the FXW Zine—not just this issue, but the first five issues, too!
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I’ve said for awhile now that Fujifilm should make a black-and-white only camera. There’s actually an advantage to a monochrome sensor. With a typical Bayer color array, only 50% of the light-sensitive sensor elements are recording luminosity information, while the other 50% are recording color information. With an X-Trans sensor, 55% of the light-sensitive sensor elements are recording luminosity information while 45% are recording color information. With a monochrome sensor, 100% of the light-sensitive sensor elements are recording luminosity information. Because of this, you get a higher perceived resolution, as pictures will appear more richly detailed, and there’s more shadow latitude, which also improves high-ISO capabilities. You can also use color filters like with black-and-white film.
Fujifilm has said that they have no plans currently to make a monochrome camera. You can actually convert any Fujifilm camera to be black-and-white only, but it is expensive and extreme. I’ve wanted a monochrome-only Fujifilm camera for awhile, but I’m not willing to convert one, and I’m impatient waiting for an official model to come out. So what did I do? I made my own.
Introducing the Fujifilm X100V Acros Edition!
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Vespa Mirror Reflection – Salt Lake City, UT – Fujifilm X-H1 – “Kodak Gold 200“
Reflections are everywhere, and sometimes we try to photographically avoid them. In fact, you might even use a polarizer filter to reduce reflections. But you can incorporate reflections into your photography and use them creatively, making them an element of your pictures. Let’s take a look!
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What’s in the March issue? The cover story is Serendipity In Photography, which demonstrates what happens when you take advantage of unexpected photographic opportunities. There are a total of 22 photographs this month, including the cover image (above). I hope that you find it enlightening, entertaining, and inspiring!
If you haven’t joined the Creative Collective, consider subscribing today to get access to bonus articles and the FXW Zine—not just this issue, but the first three issues, too!
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Nature in Motion – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
The rule-of-thumb that I was taught in photography school is that the minimum shutter speed should be the closest number to the focal-length of lens for sharp handheld photographs. This, of course, is assuming good techniques (such as how you stand, how you hold the camera, and how you breathe while capturing a picture). Fujifilm X cameras are crop sensor, so we have to take that into account. For example, the 23mm lens on my Fujifilm X100V is 34.5mm full-frame equivalent, so the minimum shutter speed for hand-held (not on tripod) pictures should be 1/40, perhaps 1/30 if you’re good. If you go less than that you are in real danger of “camera-shake” blur—fuzzy pictures from your movement. Even above that, if you aren’t careful, you could get it, so I personally try not to go slower than 1/60 handheld on my X100V if I can help it. If you aren’t using good techniques at all, you might even have to use 1/125 or faster to ensure sharp pictures.
But what happens when you purposefully go slower? What happens when you deliberately shake your camera during exposure for creative effect? Let’s find out!
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What’s in the February issue? The cover story is Flare For Photography, which takes a close look at lens flare. There are a total of 18 photographs this month, including the cover image (above). I hope that you find it enlightening, entertaining, and inspiring!
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It’s amazing to me how one setting adjustment can have a major effect on the look of a picture. I take advantage of this when making film simulation recipes, creating all sorts of different picture aesthetics through various setting changes. Sometimes, though, I find myself stuck in a rut, and I need to find some inspiration somewhere—occasionally I need to shift to find that inspiration.
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Well, this is going to sound crazy, but I turned my Fujifilm X100V into a disposable film camera. No, I didn’t disassemble my digital camera, rip out the sensor, and adapt a film spool. Instead, I configured my X100V to capture pictures that appear as though they were captured with a cheap throwaway film camera. Why? I’ve done crazier things before, including distressing a camera, so it shouldn’t be too shocking that I’d do this—perhaps it was just a matter of time.
The inspiration for this project has been building for awhile. I have a picture displayed on my dresser that’s over 20 years old—it’s my wife and I, captured sometime shortly after we got married. A friend took the picture with a disposable camera. I can tell that it was a Fujifilm QuickSnap camera by the color palette, which is clearly Fujicolor. The picture is special to me because it’s a very personal (and happy) moment that’s been frozen in time through photography. It’s nothing more than a snapshot captured on a cheap camera, and would be completely meaningless to almost anyone else. I have a box full of these type of pictures, mostly 4″ x 6″ prints. You might have a box like this, too—snapshots that are meaningful to you.
Bread Truck – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Fujifilm developed the QuickSnap camera, a “one-time-use” 35mm film camera, in the mid-1980’s (Kodak released its version, called FunSaver, a couple years later), and it was an instant hit. These “disposable” cameras were extremely popular in the 1990’s and 2000’s. They came preloaded with 27 frames (a 24-exposure roll of film, but you got three extra shots), and were point-and-shoot. You’d push the shutter-release and advance the film, but otherwise there typically weren’t any other controls, so anyone could use these cameras—no skill required. Once you exposed all of the frames, you’d take the camera to the 1-hour lab, where they removed the film for development and recycled the camera. 60 minutes later you’d have a packet of 4″ x 6″ prints.
Cheap digital point-and-shoots made a dent in disposable camera sales, but it was really the cellphone camera that rendered them obsolete; however, you might be surprised to learn that you can still buy disposable cameras today. Thanks to the Lomography movement and an increased interest in film photography, there’s enough of a market for these cameras to continue to exist in 2022. I briefly considered purchasing one, but instead of that, I decided to capture QuickSnap-like images on my Fujifilm X100V.
I figured out a simple technique for creating dreamy, surreal photographs using two cameras. It’s pretty simple, really, but it will require some specific tools. What you’ll achieve with this technique is something Lomo-looking—perhaps toy camera or even instant-film-like. If you are drawn to a soft, analog-esque aesthetic, this is something you’ll want to try!
What’s in the January issue? How big is it? There are four articles: Behind the Picture: The Story of Rock Balanced, Rising At Dawn, The Man Who Came Back, and Yosemite In Vintage Color. There are 29 photographs, including the cover image (above). This issue is 20 pages long cover-to-cover. I hope that you find it entertaining and inspiring!
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It’s nearly Christmas, and a lot of people have time off of work at this time of the year. While this is a wonderful season for many reasons, there’s a chance that at some point you might find yourself a little bored. If you do, this article could be just what you need, because we’re going to do something fun and crazy. We’re going to capture surreal images without a lens!
Below is a photograph that I captured using a homemade pinhole “lens” (pictured above) that takes peculiar pictures. In this article I’ll show you how you can do this yourself—no special tools or skills required. It’s cheap (probably free, in fact), easy, and fun. All you need is an interchangeable-lens camera and a body cap.
Two Cold Horses – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T1 – “Winter Slide”
I recently created an X-Trans II film simulation recipe specifically for wintry conditions called Winter Slide. While I have many recipes that will do well photographing snow, creating a recipe specifically for that particular condition is unusual. Since winter is here, I thought it would be a fun exercise to examine how several recipes do when photographing snow. By several, I mean 14 recipes!
So let’s take a look at how these 14 different film simulation recipes do photographing in wintry conditions!
Red Freightliner – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V – Kodachrome 64 – Frame 05
Back in the film days, most of the cameras I had were fully manual. No auto or semi-auto modes. No autofocus. Manual everything. In the digital age, modern cameras are pretty good at taking care of some tasks for you. You can afford to be a little lazy and still get the shot with ease. It’s a marvel of modern camera technology!
Nowadays I mostly shoot in Aperture-Priority (with Shutter and ISO set to A), or occasionally Shutter-Priority (with Aperture and ISO set to A). Only on rare occasions do I manually select shutter, aperture, and ISO. It’s not uncommon that I manually focus, especially if I’m using a vintage lens, but most of the time I’m allowing the camera to autofocus for me. It’s just easier. But sometimes easier isn’t better. It’s good to stay in photographic shape, and to challenge yourself from time-to-time.
I decided to challenge myself yesterday to this: shoot 36 frames (like a roll of film) with the same film simulation recipe, using manual everything. Manual aperture. Manual shutter. Manual ISO. Manual focus. The camera I chose was the Fujifilm X100V, and I loaded it with my Kodachrome 64 film simulation recipe. I headed out right at sunrise.
Dark Cloud Over The Dark Mountain – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 – “Ilford HP5 Plus Push Process” film simulation recipe — ISO 25600
When it comes to ISO, how high can you go? On your Fujifilm camera, how high is too high? 3200? 6400? 12800? 25600?
This article will explore the topic of high-ISO photography on Fujifilm X cameras. Can you bump it more than you think? Will it look good printed? How does it compare to film? Those are the questions that this post intends to answer.
FUJI X WEEKLY 