Survey

Recipes for Portraits?

Posted on by Ritchie Roesch

Fujifilm X-T50 + Fujinon 56mm f/1.2 + Superia Negative

I’m not a portrait photographer. I have dabbled in it a little over the years, but it is just not my thing. So when people ask me which Film Simulation Recipes I recommend for portraits, it’s hard for me to provide a good answer. Now, I do have some experience to fall back on, plus I’ve seen some of your great pictures on social media, so I’m not completely clueless. I can give some recommendations that I’m confident will do well. I just wish that I could provide a bit more expert advice whenever I’m asked.

In yesterday’s post I included a survey. A couple years back I conducted a poll on Fuji X Weekly, but I was quite dissatisfied with the poll itself (how it was integrated, how it had to be configured), so I never bothered to do another. Just this week I learned of a much better and easier way to go about it, and I’m really happy with how it came together and turned out. So… you can expect a lot more surveys in the near future! I’m excited about this feedback—your opinions are immensely important.

Fujifilm X-T50 + Fujinon 27mm f/2.8 + Nostalgic Americana

Below you will find a poll question: Which color Film Simulation Recipe(s) is/are your favorite(s) for portraits? I want to know which Recipe you like best when photographing people. I picked 25 Recipes for the poll that I know some of you currently use or have used in the past for portrait photography, plus a couple that I have personal experience with. Pick one, two, three, or more—if you’ve used a particular Recipe for portraits and had good results, go ahead and mark it.

There’s a second question: Name a Recipe not found above that you like for portraits? I’ve published nearly 400 Recipes, so 25 is barely scratching the surface. I’m sure that I left out many that are good for portraits, included the two Recipes used for the photos above. Even if you marked some in the first question, go ahead and fill-in-the-blank for the second question if a Recipe that you have experience with was left out (if you’d rather, you can leave it as a comment instead). I appreciate your help with this!

Poll Results: Which Cameras Do You Have?

Posted on by Ritchie Roesch

First, I want to give a big “Thank You” to everyone who participated in yesterday’s survey! To say that I’ve been overwhelmed (in a good way) with the response is an understatement. You all really came through in a big way, so thanks!

Which Fujifilm camera sensor generation do most of you have? I was really surprised by the results. Let’s dive in!

1. 51% of you own an X-Trans IV model
– 19% own either on X-T3 or X-T30
– 17% own an X-T4, X-S10, X-E4, or X-T30 II
– 15% own an X-Pro3 or X100V
2. 22% of you own an X-Trans III model
– The X-H1 represents 20% of all X-Trans III cameras (there were six models)
3. 13% of you own an X-Trans II model
– Nearly 1/4 of those are models without Classic Chrome
4. 7% of you own an X-Trans I model
5. 5% of you own a Bayer model
– About 2/3 have a 24 MP camera
6. 2% of you own a GFX model
– About 2/3 own a newer model

What can be learned from all this data? Well, it’s easy to draw conclusions, but not necessarily easy to draw the correct conclusions. I think it demonstrates that Fujifilm has been growing in popularity over the years. Also, those with “newer” models (say, X-Trans III and X-Trans IV) are more likely to use film simulation recipes than those with older models (or Bayer or GFX), possibly because there are more JPEG options; however, that’s kind of a tricky statement, because there are more recipes for X-Trans III and newer, and less for the other models. If there were more recipes, more people would likely use them. So there’s a bit of truth on both sides of that coin. I think the most surprising statistic is that nearly 1/5 of you own either an X-T3 or X-T30—Fujifilm sold those two models like hotcakes! I didn’t realize that so many of you had one of those two models.

If you are looking at this and thinking, I have a low-percentage model, so I guess there’s no hope for new recipes—don’t despair! I plan to make new recipes for as many camera models as I can. With that said, 41% of you own either an X-Trans III or X-T3 or X-T30 camera, and that large segment hasn’t received nearly enough new recipes over the last year. There have been just nine new recipes in the last 12 months for the X-T3 and X-T30, six of which are also compatible with X-Trans III. Of those, two are Patron early-access recipes on the Fuji X Weekly App. So I definitely need to do a better job in the coming year of creating new recipes for the X-T3, X-T30 and X-Trans III.

Whatever you Fujifilm camera is, I hope to publish more film simulation recipes for you, so be on the lookout for those in the coming days, weeks, and months.