The Fuji X Files

Spring is in the air in New Zealand (as I write this), and the days are getting longer, brighter, and warmer. Sunday is our day of rest - not exactly a Sabbath day where nothing happens - but close enough. This Sunday we had invited some friends for lunch, but they had to cancel at the last minute. Since the day was beautiful and sunny, lunch was already prepared the day before, and we were now at a loss, my wife suggested we go somewhere and take a picnic lunch. Great idea, honey - and I know just the place. Waiuta. Boiler House, Waiuta. Fujifilm X-E2. f/8 @ 1/680th, ISO 400. Ektachrome E100SW recipe Waiuta is now a Ghost Town, but was once a thriving Gold Mining Town for 45 years (from 1906 to 1951). If you love to photograph derelict old houses (like I do) then it's a photographers dream. I've visited a couple of times, but the last time was about 12 years ago, so I was long overdue for a return visit. One of the main buildings that is still somewhat in-tact (due to some p...

Now that I have gone through my seven custom film simulation recipes on my Fujifilm X-E2 (see previous blog posts), the final stage of the process is to do a comparison. This will help me decide which custom recipe I want to use, depending on the subject and feeling I'm after in my photo.  I think I have a pretty good idea anyway, but seeing them all together will help me confirm my suspicions. The first time I did this, I discovered that all my recipes were far too similar, and I decided to start over again from scratch. Hopefully this time will be different? Black and White film simulation comparison for landscapes. Fuji Acros v Ilford HP5 Since I mostly shoot landscapes, I thought I'd start there with my comparisons. The image itself isn't anything spectacular, and it's taken at the wrong time of the day - noon on a bright day. But this is also a fairly good test since the dynamic range is at the extremes of what the sensor can handle. The compressed images for the w...

Last weekend (as I write this) I was in the neighboring town of Hokitika to try out my Ilford HP5 film simulation. I found myself wandering the back-streets on a drizzly afternoon - ideal conditions for black and white images, but not my normal subject matter. Although I wasn't really expecting much, I actually came away with a couple of images that I loved, and that really excited me (see the post here ). Urban exploration really isn't my thing - mostly because I live in a small town and don't really think of it as somewhere worth exploring (familiarity really does breed contempt)! But my brief afternoon spent exploring the streets of Hokitika made me re-evaluate that a little. I decided that if similar conditions (drizzly and cloudy) represented themselves here in Greymouth where I live, then I would take the opportunity to go out and explore my local town. All you need is Love. Fuji X-E2 with XC16-50mm. f/5.6 @ 1/280th, ISO 400. Ilford HP5 recipe This being Greymouth, I...

I've been shooting Jpeg-only with my X-E2 for about a month now, and have finally tested out all my film simulation recipes. The last one to test, as indicated in the heading for this post, was my Kodak Portra 400 film recipe - in the C4 slot on my X-E2. Motukiekie Moonscape. Fujfilm X-E2 with XC16-50mm. f/11 @ 1/3rd sec, ISO 100. Portra 400 recipe I've left testing the Portra 400 recipe until last because I think of it as fitting a fairly specific scenario. And I guess the clue is in the name - Portra. Do a quick Google search for Portra 400 on the interwebs and you will get hundreds of the kinds of images that this film was designed for.... Portraits. As you can tell from my blog, I don't do a lot of portraiture. Not now anyways. I used to spend most weekends shooting Weddings, and I guess the Portra film simulation would have come in very handy in those settings. But now I'm mainly a landscape photographer (if I'm choosing what to shoot), so a 'Portra' s...

I've probably mentioned before (a few times) that when I shoot 'real' film, I often choose black and white. Firstly for practical and budget reasons - it's cheaper and I can develop it myself. But second for aesthetic reasons - I love the look you get from true black and white film stocks. Black and white conversions from colour are not quite the same. And nor is shooting on the 'monochrome' setting on DSLRs. Lake Mahinapua Sludge. Fujifilm X-E2. f/8 @ 1/240th, ISO 400. 'C6' Ilford HP5 recipe Now having said that, I believe that the closest you can get to a 'true' black and white result shooting on digital is with the Fujifilm simulations (without selling your children and a kidney to buy the Leica Monochrom). For a start, the newer X-Trans III cameras have the Fuji Acros film look built right into the camera - how good is that! But even if, like me, you've got an older generation Fujifilm body, then the custom film simulations come to the ...