I like using vintage lenses because they often have character, and sometimes that character is pronounced in the lens flare. When light is scattered within the lens system, such as reflected between the elements, you get lens flare. Some people love it and some people don’t. Modern lenses are precision engineered and coated to avoid lens flare as much as possible. If you’re one of those who like it and try to incorporate it within your photography, you might be disappointed that newer glass just doesn’t produce very much lens flare; however, there’s a cheap and simple hack for increasing the flare in your photographs.
If you are using a lens that’s not especially prone to lens flare and you want a little more of it in your pictures, it’s very easy to do.
What’s in the August issue? The cover story is a visit to the Arizona State University Polytechnic Campus in Mesa, Arizona, captured with my Fujifilm X-E4. There are a total of 24 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 eight issues, too!
I recently visited a vista in Arizona that overlooks The Valley of the Sun, which is the nickname given to the Phoenix metropolitan area (beginning back in the 1930’s); the official name is The Salt River Valley. I brought along my Fujifilm X-H1, plus my Fujinon 90mm f/2, Vivitar 135mm f/2.8, and Fujinon 100-400mm lenses. Programmed into the X-H1 was my Acros Push Process Film Simulation Recipe. I thought it would be interesting to use these longer lenses to capture the views of the vast valley, plus the desert bluff behind me—never forget to check behind you when photographing, because it can be easy to miss something great when you’re not focused on it.
When I was a kid, my friends and I often played “catch” with a football. Sometimes whoever the quarterback was would shout, “Go long!” You’d run as fast as you could for a good distance, turn around to see the ball wizzing through the air—maybe you’d catch it and it would be amazing, maybe you ran too far or not far enough and the ball hit the ground.
Let’s see what happens when you “go long” with your lenses.
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!
Note: This article was a part of the Creative Collective, but now it’s available to everyone.
A little note about the methodology before we dive in. Not all of the recipes are 100% compatible with the X-E4. Those recipes intended for X-Trans III and the X-T3 & X-T30 cameras need some modifications in order to be used on newer X-Trans IV cameras. For those recipes that don’t call for Color Chrome Effect and/or Color Chrome FX Blue, I set those to Off. For those recipes that don’t call for Clarity, I set that to 0. For those recipes that don’t call for a certain Grain size (Small or Large), I did this: if the recipe required Weak Grain I set the size to Small, and if it required Strong, I set the size to Large—the only exception that I made was Stephen Shore Kodacolor because it’s supposed to be based on medium-format film, so I set Grain to Strong Small (and not Strong Large). This might not have been the best way to deal with Grain size, but it’s what I did. For those recipes that call for DR-Auto, I chose DR200 because I believe that’s what the camera would have chose in this instance.
There are two recipes that I didn’t use for this project. The original Kodak Portra 400 recipe requires a difficult Custom White Balance, which I don’t have set in my X-E4, so I didn’t use it. The Portra-Style recipe uses D-Range Priority, and I couldn’t reprocess the file to that recipe because I didn’t capture it using D-Range Priority—the option is greyed out. So those two recipes weren’t used in this article. Including the Bright Summer recipe was maybe a stretch, as it wasn’t based on a Kodak stock, but instead based off of a look that’s loosely based on a Kodak stock.
Because there are so many recipes to compare, I have divided them into different six groups. There’s Kodachrome, Portra, Kodacolor, Other Kodak Negative, Other Kodak Slide, and Other Kodak. Let’s dive in!
I hope that there are a few recipes in this article that jumped out at you as ones you want to try. Perhaps the way a certain recipe rendered this scene is particularly interesting to you. If so, let me know in the comments! It’s really fascinating that so many different looks—some only very subtly different and some quite drastically divergent—can be produced straight-out-of-camera, mostly using the Classic Chrome film simulation.
Which of these recipes is a current favorite of yours? Kodachrome 64? Kodak Portra 400? I’d love to know that, too!
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!
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.
Note: this was a Creative Collective article, but now it’s available to everyone.
Note how the red shirt stands out against the green foliage.
Two decades ago when I first began to learn color theory for photography, a photographer gave me this advice: look for contrasting colors. Red and green go together, blue and orange go together, and yellow and purple go together. A red rose against green leaves will stand out. A green umbrella against a red building will stand out. An orange rock formation against a blue sky will stand out. Blue furniture next to orange curtains will stand out. You get the idea. Blue/purple and yellow/orange are a bit interchangeable: yellow stands out against blue and orange stands out against purple.
I had a harder time finding purple+yellow examples.
If you want your subject to stand out, place it against an opposite color on the color wheel. It doesn’t have to be exactly opposite, but the closer the better. In the picture at the top of this article, the boy wearing orange stands out against the blue-reflected wet sand, and your eyes are immediately drawn to it. In the groups of examples above, you can get a good idea of how it works.
Of course, it can get a lot more complicated than that, because each color can have a different brightness and temperature. There’s bright yellow and dark yellow—something bright against something dark will stand out (and visa versa). There’s warmer green and cooler green—something warm will stand out against something cool (and visa versa).
You can ask yourself, “Is this color the opposite on the color wheel?” Or, even easier, “Do I have a warm and cool color?” It can be warm against cool or cool against warm. What are warm colors? Red, orange, and yellow. What are cool colors? Purple, blue, and green. But, yellow-green can be warm and reddish-purple can be cool—no surprise, there are grey areas. Without thinking too deeply about opposite colors on the color wheel, simply combine warm and cool colors to achieve dramatic results.
Let’s take a look!
Warm & Cool
The flower is warm and the leaves are cool. “Vibrant Velvia“
The sky is cool and the signs, truck, etc. are warm. “Kodachrome 64“
The flowers and even the leaves are warm while the sky is cool. “Bright Kodak“
Color theory isn’t the only way or even the “best” method to make your subject stand out in the frame—you can get dramatic results using a number of different methods, or even combine them; however, using color is an excellent way to have your subject stand out, and to draw the viewer right into the subject in a dramatic way. Color theory can get complex, but it doesn’t have to be—remember, opposite colors will stand out against each other. Even easier, warm colors and cool colors will stand out against each other, whether they’re opposites or not. If your subject is red, orange, or yellow (or a variant shade of these), place it against purple, blue, or green to draw the viewer in.
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.
Note: This was a Creative Collective article, but now it’s available to everyone.
What is high key and low key? The former is purposely overexposing a frame for a bright image, and the latter is purposefully underexposing a frame for a dark image. There’s actually a High Key and Low Key mode found on your Fujifilm camera in Advanced Filters (and I believe most Fujifilm cameras have this option). I can hear you say, “But aren’t the ‘Advanced Filters’ gimmicky and there’s nothing actually ‘advanced’ about them?” Yes. This is different, though, and I’ll explain why. It’s actually interesting what the camera is doing when you use these.
First, though, let’s talk about how to find Advanced Filters. For some cameras it is found on the Drive knob on the top plate, and for other cameras it is found via the Drive button on the back of the camera. If you’re not sure where it is on your model, look for it in the user manual. It’s pretty easy to get to once you know where to look. Once you locate Advanced Filters, you’ll want to select either High Key or Low Key.
Both High Key and Low Key are JPEG options that are based on the Provia film simulation. It uses DR100 (DR-Auto is available to choose, but I could not get the camera to use DR200 even when pointed directly at the sun). Color, Highlight, Shadow, Sharpness, Noise Reduction, Clarity, etc., are all set to 0, and cannot be adjusted. Color Chrome Effect, Grain, etc., are Off and cannot be used (for those cameras with those functions). White Balance is Auto 0R & 0B and cannot be changed. On newer cameras, if you shoot RAW+JPEG, you’ll also get a RAW file, which can be reprocessed in-camera (or with X RAW Studio) if you’d like. Even though Highlight & Shadow are set to 0, you do not get the same result as setting Highlight & Shadow to 0. There’s a curve applied, but more importantly, there’s an underexposure (for Low Key) or overexposure (for High Key) automatically being applied.
So what’s going on? For Low Key, the camera is underexposing by two stops and using Highlight 0 & Shadow +1. For High Key, the camera is overexposing by two and two-thirds stops and applying -2 Highlight & -2 Shadow. You can actually replicate both of these—it took me a little bit to figure that out, but I did!
If you use Low Key, I discovered that increasing the exposure by +2/3 to +1 1/3 produces good results (because the pictures are too dark with Exposure Compensation set to 0). Low Key works well when the subject is brightly lit, especially backlit. For High Key, decreasing the exposure by -1 to -2 produces good results (because the pictures are too bright with Exposure Compensation set to 0). High Key works well in warm “golden hour” light or contrasty midday light. Both of the Low Key and High Key options are good ways to easily achieve certain aesthetics without needing to program a new Film Simulation Recipe into the C1-C7 custom presets (which is precious real estate).
If you don’t want to use the High Key and Low Key options in Advanced Filters, but want to get identical results, try this:
Low Key Provia Dynamic Range: DR100 Highlight: 0 Shadow: +1 Color: 0 Noise Reduction: 0 Sharpness: 0 Clarity: 0 Grain Effect: Off Color Chrome Effect: Off Color Chrome Effect Blue: Off White Balance: Auto, 0 Red & 0 Blue ISO: Whatever you want, I did Auto up to ISO 6400 Exposure Compensation: -2/3 to -1 1/3 (typically)
High Key Provia Dynamic Range: DR100 Highlight: -2 Shadow: -2 Color: 0 Noise Reduction: 0 Sharpness: 0 Clarity: 0 Grain Effect: Off Color Chrome Effect: Off Color Chrome Effect Blue: Off White Balance: Auto, 0 Red & 0 Blue ISO: Whatever you want, I did Auto up to ISO 6400 Exposure Compensation: +2/3 to +1 2/3 (typically)
Of course, the great thing is that these can be customized (unlike High Key and Low Key in Advanced Filters, which cannot be customized). You can use DR200 or even DR400 if you want. You can select Grain or Clarity or Color Chrome Effect (for those cameras with those options). You can adjust Color, Sharpness, and Noise Reduction. You can adjust the White Balance and WB Shift. You can even change the Film Simulation if you want to. There’s a ton of potential!
Here are some sample pictures captured using High Key & Low Key on my Fujifilm X-E4:
Two Palms at Sunset – Goodyear, AZ – Fujifilm X-E4 – “High Key”
Ducks & Boat at Sunset – Goodyear, AZ – Fujifilm X-E4 – “High Key”
Reaching High Cacti – Goodyear, AZ – Fujifilm X-E4 – “High Key”
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!
Note: this was a Creative Collective article, but now it’s available to everyone.
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.
Note: this was a Creative Collective article, but now it’s available to everyone.
In Camera Double Exposure – Fujifilm X100V – “Kodak Tri-X 400”
Double exposure photographs are two exposures that are captured together on a single frame. You can combine the two pictures with software, but it’s much easier to do it in-camera. Most Fujifilm cameras are capable of capturing double exposures, and they all work pretty similarly, although not identically.
First, you have to know that the camera will create a low-contrast image, so Film Simulation Recipes with a lot of contrast work best for double exposures. Low or mid contrast recipes can work alright sometimes, but high contrast recipes are the ones that most often produce the best results. I used the Kodak TRi-X 400 recipe on my Fujifilm X100V Acros Edition for these pictures, which I captured earlier today while on a walk in a park in Irving, Texas.
Next, you have to set up the camera. Exactly how this is done depends on the model, but you’ll either find it on a knob on the top of the camera or through a button titled Drive. Definitely open up your camera’s user manual (click here) and look for “Multiple Exposures” if you are unsure what to do. For the X-Pro3 and newer models, you’ll additionally have to decide how the exposures are combined—go to the Shooting Menu, select Multiple Exposure Control, and choose Average.
At this point you are ready to create double exposure images; however, it’s important to know how double exposures will render. Light areas on light areas will be light, with the least amount of detail. Light areas on dark areas will be a muddy middle. Dark areas on dark areas will be dark, and will often show the most details. When you are capturing double exposure photographs, you have to think about how these things will work together, and how they’ll interact with each other. This, of course, comes with practice, but the good news is that the camera will show you exactly what you’re going to get, so you can know before you even capture the second exposure if it will work or not.
When you capture the first exposure, the camera will ask you if you are satisfied with it or if you want to redo it. If you are happy with it, it’s time to capture the second exposure. The camera will superimpose the first exposure over the second and you’ll see exactly what you’re going to get when you capture the second exposure. If you like what you see, capture the image. The camera will then give you another opportunity—are you satisfied with the second exposure? If not, you can redo it.
Once you get into the swing of it, you’ll find the creative juices flowing, and you’ll have more and more success with your double exposure pictures. It takes practice and a lot of trial-and-error. I find that about 50% of my attempts are at least acceptably good, and perhaps one-in-five are ones that I like. In other words, most of my attempts aren’t great, so you can expect to have a fair amount of duds.
The newer Fujifilm cameras will also keep a RAW file of each exposure (in addition to the double exposure JPEG). Below are a few examples of each exposure that makes up the double exposure image, plus the final double exposure photograph.
Frame 1
Frame 2
In-Camera Double Exposure
Exposure 1
Exposure 2
In-Camera Double Exposure
Exposure 1
Exposure 2
In-Camera Double Exposure
Exposure 1
Exposure 2
In-Camera Double Exposure
The tricky thing is creating a more compelling picture when the exposures are combined. If the frame is more compelling as single exposure, the double exposure wasn’t a success. A double exposure photograph is great when the two exposures are stronger together than as individual exposures. That is the challenge of this type of photography. It might take a lot of practice to figure out how to accomplish this, and I don’t think there is much of a substitution for practice. The best thing that you can do is get out with your camera and try. Try and try again.
Here are a few more double exposure photograph examples:
In Camera Double Exposure – Fujifilm X100V – “Kodak Tri-X 400”
In Camera Double Exposure – Fujifilm X100V – “Kodak Tri-X 400”
In Camera Double Exposure – Fujifilm X100V – “Kodak Tri-X 400”
Creating double exposure photographs on Fujifilm cameras is easy; however, creating compelling pictures takes practice. Most attempts are likely to be mediocre at best, if not downright failures, but don’t give up! Keep at it, and you’ll begin to create some creative pictures that you’re quite happy with.
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!
Note: this was a Creative Collective article, now it’s available to everyone.
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!
Note: this was a Creative Collective article, but now it’s available to everyone.
Of course I didn’t actually make a black-and-white only camera. My X100V-Acros is just an X100V, and is capable of capturing color images. There’s nothing unique about it, other than it now says “Acros” underneath Fujifilm X100V on the top. What makes this camera an “Acros Edition” (other than the additional word) is that the C1-C7 Custom Presets programmed into it are all black-and-white Film Simulation Recipes.
The idea for this wasn’t mine. A Fuji X Weekly reader actually used just one recipe—a black-and-white recipe—on his Fujifilm camera for a whole year. Another reader was seriously considering doing the monochrome conversion to his X-Trans II camera, but then he realized that the resolution increase was going to be similar to his X-Trans IV camera, so instead of going through with the conversion he decided to dedicate his X-Trans IV camera to black-and-white recipes. I simply copied his idea.
Let’s talk about that resolution bump of monochrome-only cameras. Because you’re able to tap into the full-resolution potential of the sensor, you get a more detail-rich image. A converted 16mp X-Trans I or II sensor would be equivalent to a 23mp Bayer camera, a 24mp X-Trans III sensor would be equivalent to 35mp, and a 26mp X-Trans IV sensor would be equivalent to 37.5mp, roughly speaking. But, of course, it would also require a lens capable of resolving that much resolution, which many (but not all) Fujinon lenses can. Also, as I pointed out in my Fujifilm X vs GFX article, such a resolution increase only really matters if you print large or crop deep, and otherwise isn’t a big deal at all. In other words, the 26mp sensor in the X100V is already a lot of resolution, so it doesn’t matter that the camera isn’t actually monochrome-only. I can simply pretend, and be happy with that.
Yesterday I took my Fujifilm X100V Acros Edition out for the first time. I went to Antelope Island State Park, and also stopped at a local park along the way. The purpose of this outing was to try out all seven of these recipes. Below are the pictures!
Blooms Among Pine – Syracuse, UT – Fujifilm X100V-Acros – “Kodak Tri-X 400”
Two Tree Trunks – Syracuse, UT – Fujifilm X100V-Acros – “B&W Infrared”
Unneeded Boat Cleat – Antelope Island SP, UT – Fujifilm X100V-Acros – “Moody Monochrome”
Please Stay Out – Antelope Island SP, UT – Fujifilm X100V-Acros – “Moody Monochrome”
Dry Dock – Antelope Island SP, UT – Fujifilm X100V-Acros – “Moody Monochrome”
Deserted Dock – Antelope Island SP, UT – Fujifilm X100V-Acros – “Ilford HP5 Plus 400”
Boaters Beware!! – Antelope Island SP, UT – Fujifilm X100V-Acros – “Ilford HP5 Plus 400”
Drought – Antelope Island SP, UT – Fujifilm X100V-Acros – “Ilford HP5 Plus 400”
Sage & Sand – Antelope Island SP, UT – Fujifilm X100V-Acros – “Ilford HP5 Plus 400”
Layers of Grey – Antelope Island SP, UT – Fujifilm X100V-Acros – “Moody Monochrome”
Rocks Reflected – Antelope Island SP, UT – Fujifilm X100V-Acros – “Monochrome Negative”
Bush in the Rocks – Antelope Island SP, UT – Fujifilm X100V-Acros – “Monochrome Negative”
Brush & Lakeshore – Antelope Island SP, UT – Fujifilm X100V-Acros – “Monochrome Negative”
Crushed Brush – Antelope Island SP, UT – Fujifilm X100V-Acros – “B&W Superia”
Francis Peak and Brush – Antelope Island SP, UT – Fujifilm X100V-Acros – “B&W Superia”
Buffalo Peek – Antelope Island SP, UT – Fujifilm X100V-Acros – “B&W Superia”
I love black-and-white photography, probably because I first learned photography on black-and-white film. If you love it, too, I invite you to try using only black-and-white recipes on your Fujifilm camera—make your own “Acros Edition” of whatever camera you have. I like the idea of a Fujifilm monochrome camera, so I think it was inevitable that I decided to do this—I now wonder why it took so long. Once I have my seven recipes nailed down, the next project will be to capture 24 or 36 exposures with each before changing recipes, kind of mimicking that limitation of film.
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!
Note: this was a Creative Collective article, but now it’s available to everyone.
There are two ways to incorporate reflections into your pictures. Either way will require a shiny surface—such as glass or water—in order to reflect what is around. After a rainy day you’ll find puddles. In a city are glass on buildings. Look around and you’re sure to find shiny surfaces. The first method to incorporate reflections is subtly and the second is prominently. Sometimes the line between these two categories is grey, and you could argue that an image could be in either, but for the most part a picture will fall into one or the other, and will be either subtle or prominent—not both—although there are always exceptions.
Subtly
For this, the reflection isn’t the main subject, but an added element in the picture. It’s just something that is there, yet it adds interest to the picture, and maybe even transforms what would otherwise be a boring image into something extraordinary. Subtle reflections might not be the first thing that you notice when you see a picture, but are a great surprise once spotted. This can be tricky to effectively create, but can be highly rewarding if you can subtly incorporate reflections into your pictures.
Highrise, Reflection & Lamp – Salt Lake City, UT – Fujifilm X-H1 – “Kodak Gold 200”
Crane Reflection – Farmington Bay, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 – “Dramatic Monochrome”
Prominently
When you make reflections a prominent part of a picture, it becomes the subject. The reflection is what the picture is about. It’s an obvious element that you notice right away (although you might not notice right away that it is a reflection you are viewing). This type of reflected picture is the easiest to capture (in my opinion), but can be difficult to make a strong image from. Basically, for prominent reflection pictures, you want to fill the frame with the reflection as much as practical. Instead of the reflection being just a small part, it is the largest part of the frame, or at least where your eyes gravitate towards first. The photograph at the top of this article, Vespa Mirror Reflection, is an example where the reflection doesn’t fill the frame but is a prominent element that immediately attracts your attention. More commonly, though, prominent reflections will cover at least half of a picture, if not all of it (such as Treeline Impressions below).
Hotel & Crane Reflected – Salt Lake City, UT – Fujifilm X-H1 – “Cross Process“
Treeline Impressions – Eagle Island SP, ID – Fujifilm X-T30 – “Velvia“
When capturing photographs, look for opportunities to incorporate reflections into them. Is the reflection the main subject? Fill the frame with it, or use some other technique to immediately draw the viewer to it. Is the reflection not the main subject? Find ways to subtly place it so that the viewer is pleasantly surprised when the discover it.
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!
Note: this was a Creative Collective article, but now it’s available to everyone.
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!
Note: this was a Creative Collective article, but now it’s available to everyone.
Path Insecure – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
So why did I do this? For fun. To spark creativity. Because I like doing unconventional things just to see what happens. Maybe this will help spark some creativity in you, too.
I set the shutter speed on my X100V to 1/8, which is much too slow for handheld photography. Typically, the camera would be on a tripod with such a slow shutter speed. The exact shutter speed you will need depends on the focal-length of the lens. I feel that 1/8 worked well for this camera, but if you were using a more wide-angle lens you might need to go even slower, and if you are using a more telephoto lens you might need to be a little faster.
I utilized the camera’s built-in Neutral Density filter because the shutter was going to let in a lot of light. If your camera doesn’t have a built-in ND filter, you could screw an ND filter onto the end of the lens. If that isn’t an option, simply try this technique indoors, or just before the sun rises or right after it sets, or on darker days.
I set the Flash to On. Why? My theory was that the flash would make whatever it bounced off of “sharp” for a moment, so that there would be a little sharpness in the otherwise blurry picture. I think if you are close enough to the subject this does work, and can create a ghostly effect, but was unnecessary for most of my images.
The other settings? Both Aperture and ISO were in Auto (basically, I was operating in Shutter Priority). I used the Negative Print film simulation recipe.
When I opened the shutter, I moved the camera around. Sometimes just a little. Sometimes a lot. I moved it up or down or left or right. I even tried a swirly motion a couple of times. I also tried pushing the camera forward and pulling it back. Whichever direction you move the camera and how much you move the camera during the 1/8 exposure will greatly affect the outcome, so try different ideas.
When you do this, there are a few various looks that you get. One is an abstract impressionist image, such as in Nature in Motion at the top and Three Trees at the bottom. Another is a ghostly almost-double-exposure-like picture, such as in Ghostly Chair below. A third is simply a soft dream-like fuzziness, like in Hidden Trash below. Path Insecure (above) and Fading Memories (below) are a little bit of impressionism and dream-like fuzziness mixed together.
Ghostly Chair – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Hidden Trash – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Fading Memories – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Three Trees – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
This isn’t a technique for everyone, and certainly not for every photo. I could see it being a project. Maybe use this technique for a specific topic. Perhaps you’ll find that you like it more than you thought you would. If you are looking for something different to try, this might be just what you need.
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!
Note: this was a Creative Collective article, but now it’s available for everyone.
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.
Now you know the why, so let’s get into the how.
Note: This was a Creative Collective article, but now it is available to everyone.
I started with research. I discovered that the Fujifilm QuickSnap cameras have a fixed 32mm f/10 lens with focus preset to somewhere near 6 feet. The shutter is permanently set to 1/140. Depending on the unit, the flash is either permanently on or can be powered on-and-off. The film… depends. Nowadays, Superia 400 is what you’ll find in QuickSnap cameras. Superia 800 was also commonly used in these for awhile, but it’s been discontinued for a number of years now. Superia 200 and Superia 1600 had very brief runs in disposable cameras, although they were “specialty” versions: Superia 200 for bright daylight, Superia 1600 for indoors/night. Before Superia, there was Super G Plus, Super HG, Super HR, and probably others. These cameras have no exposure control. Basically, the latitude of the film was the exposure control. Any overexposure and underexposure would be “fixed” when printing. You could overexpose Superia by three stops, arguably four, and still get a usable picture, and underexpose by a stop or maybe two.
The Fujifilm X100V has a full-frame-equivalent 34.5mm focal-length lens, which is slightly less wide-angle than QuickSnap cameras, but pretty close to the 32mm focal-length of the disposable. I figured it was close-enough for this project. I set the aperture to f/10 and the shutter to 1/160, as 1/140 wasn’t an option (I could have alternatively used 1/125). I set ISO to Auto, up to ISO 6400. The X100V doesn’t have the same exposure latitude of the film, so it was important to have some level of exposure control. In bright daylight conditions, I activated the ND filter to prevent overexposure (I programmed the ND filter to the Fn button on the top, as an On/Off switch). The Exposure Compensation Dial was set to +1/3. I manually focused to six-and-a-half feet and left it there. I set the flash to be be On (TTL +1/3), and let it fire on every exposure.
For the film simulation recipe, I went with Fujicolor Superia 800, except that I set Sharpness to -4, Grain to Strong Small, and the White Balance Shift to be -1 Red & -2 Blue. This seemed to be a pretty close match to the prints I was hoping to mimic the aesthetic of.
The X100V’s lens is too sharp and flawless to mimic a cheap one-time-use camera, so I needed some help. I used a 10% CineBloom filter to take the digital edge off of the pictures, and also a UV filter that just so happened to have a thin layer of dust on it (not sure if the dust made a difference or not, but I figured it was worth trying). I briefly considered very lightly sandpapering a UV lens, but decided against that, just because I didn’t want to ruin the filter without knowing whether it would work or not.
I wanted it to be a disposable camera experience, so, after I got the camera set, I disabled the rear screen and the electronic viewfinder, and used only the optical viewfinder. I turned off all of the display information (except for the ND filter, because I wanted to know if it was On or Off). With everything set, I went out and captured 27 exposures!
I didn’t review any of the pictures until after all 27 images were captured. I had no idea what the pictures would look like until the project was complete. The only controls I used were the shutter-release and the ND filter—it really was a point-and-shoot experience, with aperture, shutter, focus, and flash all preset.
Here are my 27 exposures captured using my X100V-as-a-disposable-camera:
Frame 01
Frame 02
Frame 03
Frame 04
Frame 05
Frame 06
Frame 07
Frame 08
Frame 09
Frame 10
Frame 11
Frame 12
Frame 13
Frame 14
Frame 15
Frame 16
Frame 17
Frame 18
Frame 19
Frame 20
Frame 21
Frame 22
Frame 23
Frame 24
Frame 25
Frame 26
Frame 27
I think some of these shots are very convincing as disposable camera images. If I had them made into 4″ x 6″ prints, I could probably trick some people into thinking I actually used a QuickSnap camera. To that end, I think this project was a success. More importantly, I had fun. I really appreciated not seeing the pictures until the end—I might use the optical viewfinder more often, and keep the rear screen off.
The biggest challenge was keeping track of the exposures. I used the notes section (under the recipe) in the Fuji X Weekly App to help remember, but that wasn’t ideal, and I ended up going over by one, thinking that it was the 27th frame when it was actually the 28th. If I do this again, I’ll have to figure out a better method.
I think you could do this technique with any camera, but the JPEG tools, built-in flash, ND filter, and optical viewfinder make the X100V particularly ideal for this. I tried a few shots on my X-T30 using a kit zoom and the Kodak Gold 200 recipe, and it seemed to do alright, but it wasn’t the same experience as the X100V. If you don’t own an X100V, I invite you to try this on whichever Fujifilm camera you do own. You might just discover something fun, and capture some meaningful moments in the process.
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!
Let’s dive in!
Note: This was originally a Creative Collective article, but now is available to everyone.
Fujifilm X-Pro1 Viewfinder
First, you’ll need two cameras, and one needs to have an optical viewfinder, because we’ll be shooting through the optical viewfinder. I chose an X-Pro1. More on this in a moment.
For the capturing camera, you can use any camera and any recipe. I chose a Fujifilm X-E4 loaded with the Fujicolor Superia 1600 film simulation recipe because I especially like the film-like-look of this recipe. I attached my Fujinon 90mm f/2 lens to the X-E4. You’ll need a telephoto lens. I found that 50mm is the minimum, and that only works marginally with a lot of vignetting—you’ll probably need to crop. The 90mm focal-length worked really well, and probably the longer the focal-length the better.
Instax pictures of me shooting with a Fujifilm X-E4 & X-Pro1.
I tried three different cameras with optical viewfinders to shoot through: Fujifilm X-Pro1, Fujifilm X100V, and Fed 5c (a vintage Russian rangefinder). The X-Pro1 and X100V worked similarly well, but I felt like the X100V produced slightly softer results (yet with less vignetting). The FED 5c was fine other than a bright spot that’s in the viewfinder. Below are examples captured through an X100V and a Fed 5c. I went with the X-Pro1 for most of my pictures, but I think almost any camera with an optical viewfinder will work. Also, just as a note, the optical viewfinder cameras were not powered on, as there’s no need for them to be operating, we’re simply using their glass (I assume it’s glass).
Shot using Fujifilm X-E4 through Fujifilm X100V viewfinder.
Shot using Fujifilm X-E4 through FED 5c viewfinder.
So we have our capturing camera, lens, film simulation recipe, and optical viewfinder camera picked out. Now What?
I found the hardest part of this was getting the lens to line up with the viewfinder. You could rig something to attach the lens to the viewfinder (maybe using electrical tape?), but I didn’t—I simply put the lens (or really, a UV filter attached to the lens) against the viewfinder, holding one camera in one hand, and the other camera in the other hand. If you’re off by just a little left, right, up, or down, it won’t work, so take care to make sure the lens is centered on the viewfinder. I think how centered and flush the lens is on the viewfinder will affect the vignetting and sharpness (or should I say softness?) of the picture. It will probably take some practice to get proficient at this.
Another note is that the lens will become less telephoto. I’m not certain what the 90mm focal-length became, but it was definitely not 90mm! Maybe closer to 50mm? It was noticeably less telephoto.
Also, there’s a lot less light that reaches the sensor. I calculated four-stops less! So you’ll need to take that into consideration, and make sure there’s plenty of light when you’re doing this technique.
Beyond that, my only suggestion is to give this two-camera technique a try and see what happens. Maybe you’ll like the results, maybe you won’t. But if you are looking for something different to try, this might be just the thing! I wouldn’t want to do this with every picture, but it might make for an interesting photo series.
Teasals & Frozen Lake – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-E4 + X-Pro1
Oquirrh Mountains Beyond The Pond – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-E4 + X-Pro1
Barn Across The Frozen Pond – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-E4 + X-Pro1
Arrow to Weather Radar – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-E4 + X-Pro1
Farm Equipment – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-E4 + X-Pro1
Pointing To Where We Should Go – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-E4 + X-Pro1
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!
Note: this was a Creative Collective article, but now it’s available to everyone.
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.
Let’s do some homemade pinhole macro photography!
Note: this was a Creative Collective article, but now it’s available to everyone.
The first step is to locate a camera body cap. You probably already have one lying around somewhere that you don’t use; however, you might not want to “destroy” it in case you later sell your camera. I happened to have an extra one somehow. You can buy an “official” Fujifilm body cap for $10 or a generic one for $4. If you don’t want make your own, you can buy a pinhole lens for $70, and it’s probably going to be better than a homemade one. For this project, I used an official Fujifilm body cap that I already owned.
Step two is to drill a tiny hole in the center of the body cap. I didn’t have any drill bits that were small enough, so I used a screw, and stopped turning just as soon as the tip poked through. Even though the hole was small (which you can see in the pictures below) it was actually much too big. I put a piece of black electrical tape (you could alternatively use duct tape) over the hole on the inside of the cap, and then poked a tiny hole using a small sewing needle, sending it through the hole made by the screw, but not poking it all the way through. The hole needs to be especially small—that’s why they call it pinhole photography.
Once you have your pinhole lens made, the next step is to attach it to your camera. Within the camera menu, enable “Shoot Without Lens” or else your camera won’t let you capture a picture. Also, set the camera to Manual Focus—there’s no ability to focus, manual or otherwise, and maybe this doesn’t matter, but to me it makes sense to set it to Manual. Now you’re ready to shoot!
I discovered several things when I started capturing pictures with the pinhole lens.
First, the aperture is roughly around f/256. That means you need a lot of light! I used my Ilford XP2 Super 400 film simulation recipe on a Fujifilm X-H1 with the ISO cranked all the way up to ISO 12800—this was outdoors on a bright and sunny day, and the shutter speed was usually less than 1/100, sometimes much less. The “lens” doesn’t have any glass to focus the light, so it’s going to be soft, but, because of the tiny aperture, you’ll also have a huge amount of diffraction, so you just have to know going into this that the pictures aren’t going to be sharp. The extreme softness is a big reason why the pictures seem so surreal, and is a part of the charm—use it creatively!
Next, the focal-length is somewhere right around 20mm (30mm full-frame-equivalent). Knowing roughly the aperture and the focal-length, it’s possible to more-or-less calculate the depth-of-field, if I could figure out where the lens was focusing at. After several experiments, I decided that the point-of-focus is somewhere around 2″ to 2 1/4″, which puts the depth-of-field roughly between 3/4″ and 5″ (the pictures seem to confirm this). Nothing within that range will be anywhere close to “tack sharp” but will be a little less blurry than elsewhere. It also means that this is a macro lens, and you need to get close to the subject (although, again, use the blur creatively). All of this is variable, depending on the size of the hole and such.
I had strong vignetting in the pictures, so I used the 1:1 aspect ratio to minimize it. Because the vignetting wasn’t even (it was strongest on the bottom-right corner, and least strong on the upper-right), I cropped the pictures a little in an effort to even it out some.
Also, because of the tiny aperture, any and all dust spots on the sensor will be easily visible, especially in the lighter and less busy parts of the frame. Even a sensor that seems to be clean will likely show some dust spots.
Below are some sample pictures captured using the homemade pinhole lens on a Fujifilm X-H1. My favorite photograph is the one towards the top of this article.
If you are bored one day (or stuck in some photographic rut), give this DIY pinhole trick a try. You might not capture any award-winning images (although you never know…), but you’ll certainly have fun, and, if nothing else, photography should be fun.
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!
Note: This was a Creative Collective article, but now it’s available to everyone.
Let’s start off by briefly explaining the process. I used two cameras: Fujifilm X100V and X-H1. I chose seven recipes for each camera, and the recipes were somewhat randomly selected. I chose ones that I thought could possibly do well or might otherwise be interesting in the snow. I captured two images for each recipe: one in sunlight and one in shade. I figured that some recipes would do well in the sun, some would do well in the shade, a few would do well in both, and maybe one or two wouldn’t do well in either, but I really wasn’t sure.
The recipes used on the X-H1 are all compatible with X-Trans III (plus the X-T3 and X-T30) cameras. The recipes used on the X100V are all compatible with the X-Pro3, X100V, X-T4, X-S10, X-E4, and X-T30 II cameras, except for Kodak Vision3 250D, which is intended for the X-T3 and X-T30—I modified it for the X100V by selecting Grain size Small, Color Chrome FX Blue Off, and Clarity 0.
You can look at the examples above, and decide for yourself which ones you like. If one stands out to you, I invite you to try it the next time you’re out photographing in wintry conditions. Of the seven recipes for X-Trans III, Fujichrome Sensia 200 is my favorite for sunlight and Kodak Portra 160 is my favorite for shade. Of the seven recipes for X-Trans IV, Kodachrome 1 is my favorite for sunlight and Fujicolor Superia 1600 is my favorite for shade. Which ones do you like best? Let me know in the comments!
I think the recipes that are cooler tend to be a bit too cold in the shade, although if you’re trying to communicate just how frigid it is outside, maybe that’s something you want. The recipes that are warm can sometimes be a tad too warm in the sunlight. Your recipe choice likely will be dictated by the light you think you’ll encounter. A lot also depends on the exact aesthetic you’re after and the mood you want to convey. I don’t believe any of these 14 recipes are bad choices. Some certainly seem better than others for the snow, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so one person might appreciate one more than the rest, and another might appreciate a different recipe.
If you’ve used a film simulation recipe in the snow and liked the outcome, please let me know in the comments which one it was.
