The Fabulous X100s, Candids, and Lightroom 5

I've been trying to write this for a few days now, but just too busy with having to go back to work after holidays, uploading and sorting about 1200 pictures, while trying to learn Lightroom 5 that I'm trialing and already pretty sure I'm going to buy.

First, the Fuji X100s is nothing short of fabulous, almost perfect, with the only flaw being the person wielding the camera. Inside, outside, bright sunshine, low indoor light, nothing seemed to phase it. Oh, occasionally I would forget to look at the settings in the viewfinder and take a shot in bright sunlight with the aperture still at f2 and end up with a blown out picture, but, like I said, I'm pretty much the only flaw.

Of course, I took tons of pictures of grandkids and family, something I haven't done much of the last couple of years. But the handiness of the small, fixed lens camera was awesome. I grabbed it off the shelf all the time and got lots of memories from our visit.

I have an interest in candid photography (I don't think I can call it street photography yet) so I practiced "shooting from the hip" at a couple of malls and the Vernon Farm Market (BC interior). I manually focused the camera at about 10 feet and just shot with it located around chest level. Got a few good ones and a great story moment.

Here's a shot I took that is part of the story.

I had just taken this and was chimping (looking at the picture on the back of the camera) when the girl on the right said "Excuse me." I looked up thinking, uh oh, she saw me take her picture and didn't like it. (For those of you who think this is "sneaky" photography, maybe, but it is a long and legitimate form of photography, one that interests me very much and one that I'm trying to learn how to do with more skill and courage.) Anyway, I'm thinking this might be an issue when she asked, "Is that the Fuji X100s?" Or words to that effect, referring to the camera. She had seen it and recognized it because a friend of hers had been looking at one. So we chatted a bit, her name was Riley. I told her the camera was great, asked if I could take her picture and took a black and white and then a color one so she could see the quality. I should have talked to her longer but I did find out she loves her camera, an Olympus OM-D I think. It was a nice, although all too brief, encounter and I look forward to that kind of interaction in the future. What I read of some street photographers is that often the interaction after taking a picture is one of the great things about this type of photography.

And here's a picture that she "posed" for. This was actually taken in color (in camera jpeg conversion) but I converted it to black and white in Lightroom. I kind of like it, plus it's my first "street" portrait of a total stranger although she approached me as opposed to the other way around.

Oh, and just an interesting aside, the two women and baby in the background on the right of the picture happen to be my wife, Rena, daughter-in-law, Amanda and granddaughter, Eden. Don't think I realized they were there until I looked at the picture later.

Now, a bit about Lightroom 5. I have been shooting in RAW only on my Canon but I never moved into Lightroom, being comfortable with Photoshop, and it's Bridge program and Camera Raw program that is kind of integrated into Photoshop. I had trialed earlier versions of Lightroom but just never got the hang of it. The problem with a new camera is that the version of Adobe Camera Raw that came with CS5 doesn't and won't ever support the RAW files from the Fuji. So, I could upgrade to CS6 (although that's the final non-subscription version of Photoshop) or jump on the Lightroom bandwagon. Since the newest version of Lightroom just came out it's a bit of a no-brainer to go that route. So, I bought Scott Kelby's new book and have been learning the program the last few days. Even though I'm shooting in RAW plus jpeg on the Fuji and the jpegs are awesome and the in-camera conversion is great, I still need something that will allow me to work with the RAW files if I want. Plus, Lightroom is also a great photo sorting and management program designed for photographers so it's time (and a bit cheaper to buy than to upgrade Photoshop again.)

Long blog post that nobody is reading but it's good for me.

Mom and Child

On our way back home from the trailer the other day, my wife and I stopped to check out the sand sculpting exhibition at Parksville, B.C. beach. Of course, I took the X100s with me in the hopes of getting some people shots as well as some of the sandsculpting displays. I noticed a mother and her child walking, although the little girl liked to spend more time lying down it seems. Here are three pictures of the sequence I grabbed. I think it makes a nice, quick little story. In the second one, she had looked up and then said "sorry" because she thought she was in the way of the picture. I've been reading quite a bit about street photography techniques and one is this very thing, act like a tourist and make like you focusing on something further away.

Those of you who may think this is "creeping", be aware that there is a long history of this type of photography and I hope to do more of it as time goes by. Looking forward to walking around Victoria or Vernon or even my streets when I get the chance.

X100s RAW Converter

I have discovered something that I think I'm going to love with the Fuji X100s. I bought 32GB cards so that I could shoot in RAW + JPEG in order to have the best of both worlds. Most reviews of the camera have indicated a far above average in camera JPEG conversion and I have so far found this to be true. Almost enough to convince me to shoot in JPEG only. Especially since Camera Raw in my CS5 version of Photoshop doesn't read the RAF files from this camera. I have pretty much decided to finally make the jump to Lightroom and learn that program but haven't got there yet.

But, the other day, I grabbed this quick shot of my granddaughter Ryann while she was sitting on the couch in our trailer. 

 

The camera was in my C1 custom mode which is set for B&W with a yellow filter. It was an ok shot, but she a gorgeous little redhead and I thought the shot would have been better in color. I took a couple of other shots (in color) but none were as good as that first one. So, let's change it in the RAW converter. It's easy, while viewing the picture you hit the Q button and all the options come up. You can change exposure compensation, film mode, color saturation, highlight and shadow compensation, plus or minus. Basically, anything you can change your custom settings to. Now, the only real problem is the tiny picture doesn't really allow you to see what affect your changes are making, but here's the thing. When you hit okay, it takes you to the full size frame before you actually commit to saving the resulting JPEG conversion so if you don't like it you just go back and make the adjustments you want.  Then, when you are ready to save you hit okay and it saves the picture. Now I have the color picture that I wanted.
 

So, shooting in RAW + JPEG is the best of both worlds. Most of the time I hope to not make that mistake and shoot in the mode I want, but, if I make a mistake, or don't have time to change because the picture is there now, or decide that something would look better in a different film mode, then the option is there with the RAW capture. All without having to download to a computer first and then do everything you want. That's still an option if you want, but not necessary. Do I still need Lightroom? At this point I don't know, although the database side of it is the bigger part of Lightroom. But for RAW conversion. This little gem of a camera may just do a better job of it.

Having a Little Fun with Toy Camera Mode

I just wanted to take a couple of pictures tonight. Thought I would try the Toy Camera filter on the Fuji X100s. A shaft of sunlight, Batman and macro mode gave me this. Just for fun.

Replacement X100s

The replacement Fuji X100s showed up yesterday. Fantastic service from The Camera Store in Calgary. I've seldom had to return anything I've ordered online and they made the experience far more bearable than I expected. Nothing more disappointing than waiting for a product for almost and month and then have it fail after six day. Here's hoping the new one is problem free.

Had it out this morning with the two grandchildren who live in town and had some decent results with it. I had to tweak a couple in ACR because I'm still learning how the camera works with exposure compensation and underexposed a couple of shots by a bit. I also cropped them to 8x10 format. I love the Velvia mode for color shots. I like vivid, saturated colors and this does a nice job. Funny, I never used Fuji film much back in the film days and now I'm kind of wondering why not. I don't think I like the softer negative mode much and will probably make a change to that custom setting. But I love, love, love the black and white with yellow filter mode. Just very nice so far.

Still lots of experimenting to do. Looking forward to the camera lasting more than six days.

Here are a couple of black and whites I especially liked. And, in case you don't know the specs on this camera, it is a fixed 23mm lens which, with the crop factor, renders an equivalent field of view of 35mm.

Ryann: ISO 200, f 2.0, 1/1000 sec.

Seth: ISO 400, f 8. 1/420 sec.

X100s Pics

Here are a few pictures I took with the Fujifilm X100s before it broke.

X100s Woes and More Waiting

I was thrilled to get my Fuji X100s a couple of weeks ago. Charged the battery, formatted the SD cards and started learning how to use the camera. It's a fantastic camera and I played around with it for awhile. Took some pictures of the grandkids a few days after I got it and it did a couple of funny things just before I came home. Then it wouldn't turn on. Thought the battery was dead and put a different one into it. Eventually it started up again. The next day when I turned it on, it had reset. I had to enter the language, date, time, etc. although my custom settings were still there. Used it a couple of days later for awhile and then it shut down and that was it. So it has been returned and now I'm on the wait list for a replacement. I think I'm at the top of the list, but I'm back to patiently waiting for this gem. Hopefully, the next one will be completely problem free.