X100 at the Botanic Gardens and some Snapseed v's Lightroom Comparisons

I gotta say, I am having lots of fun this week with the X100. Its so versatile and easy to carry around and the results are just awesome, what a great piece of kit. I took it out and around on a photo shoot with some friends to the Botanic Gardens in Singapore and then on to Esplanade for sunset. I felt so unburdened at carrying this tiny pocket battleship while everyone else labored with bags and tripods :) Admittedly, the X100 is a bit limited in the macro front so its not ideal for true macro work however it does allow you to get in close and the focus is sharp if you are careful, as ever, the colors are delightful. 


I am not very big on macro close ups but I am a big fan of against the light shooting and trying to get a little flare into the corner of the shot. I have mentioned before how flare resistant the X100 Fujinon lens is but it can be done with careful positioning.

This shot just looks so bright and summery and the fresh droplets after the rain give it a nice dreamy look. The above shot was edited in Snapseed which followers of the blog will know I am using a lot just now. The files are not very hi res but this allows for easy uploading and they will stand up well to smallish sized prints. By way of comparison and just for fun, I also edited a similar shot in Lightroom which is my favorite, main management and editing tool. I simply hate processing and editing, I would so much rather be shooting !!! Anyway, I have a workflow that is very quick and allows for minimal time at the desk and the following photo got the basic treatment. It's richer and more detailed but to be honest I prefer the Snapseed version in this case.

Here is another comparison of one of the shooters Riyanti who took a few minutes out to pose these shots for me.

This is the Lightroom version with a little bit of tonal contrast adjustment in Nik Colorefexpro which is again, a very simple and fast tool that, like all Nik products, delivers fantastic results.


And now the Snapseed efforts which got the drama tone 1 effect which to my eyes gives a delightfully contrasty and somehow, modern feel and look to the images.

Same effect again, and I have commented before how well this effect works with Asian skin tones. These are all in natural light by the way but I would have liked to have had my trusty reflector (which I had stupidly left at home) handy to get a bit of catchlight into the eyes and brighten the face a little.

I wouldn't say that these are necessarily better than the Lightroom processed shot but they were a darn site simpler to produce and were done on the fly in Starbies !!! I am a sucker for the drama tone 1 & 2 effects, I simply delight in the way they deal with tonal contrast.


Let's get back to the flower shooting which to be honest doesn't do much for me but I did like messing around to see what the X100 could do.

One thing that more experienced flower shooters than me will I am sure advise, is to take a reflector or something to give you a plain white or black background depending on the flower color and contrast. I usually carry a smallish 5 in 1 reflector with me everywhere but as I was traveling so light I had left it behind :( I did manage to find a large cream cloth however and held it behind this gorgeous black orchid. This is a truly stunning flower and I am afraid that I have done it little justice with getting the DoF wrong but, as I said, flower shooting is not my game.

Here are the final two plant shots and as mentioned I was finding it a real challenge to find a suitably dark and clear background to frame the shots with in the absence of an artificial backdrop.

Going close in on some of the wonderful foliage on display took care of the background issue and the patterns and textures came out beautifully in the X100's rich files.

A nice simple B&W shot to close the Orchid garden section. This is one lovely place to visit and I am sure any dedicated macro photographer would be in seventh heaven here. For me, it was a fun place to visit and mess around with the X100, I always feel I learn something that benefits me in my more normal shooting when I try something new such as the flowers and close ups here.

A quick word on workflow with these images and some closing shots from my favorite haunt at Marina Bay. I bought a simple little SD card reader for the Ipad and can literally load and edit on the move with Snapseed and I can't wait to try it out on my upcoming photo trip to Chiang Mai with the cool guys at  Singapore Trekker . I am sure the iphone and techy guys on the trip will have a good laugh at how behind the times I am with editing on the go and will be showing off the latest apps. I am a bit of a traditionalist in some ways though and only adopt something once I am sure it has the benefits I need and I guess in some ways that's why I love the X100's quirky and unique blend of old and new.

Well, that;s it for this weekend and I am very interested in any views or experiences with regards to the snapseed v's Lightroom comparison, drop me a note or leave a comment. Here's a nice, if very cliched shot of the Fullarton Hotel as dusk falls, what a stunning setting Marina Bay and Esplanade is.


Hope all you X100 fans had as good a shooting weekend as I did,


Steel

X100 A Stroll Around Singapore

Hey fellow X100 shooters. 

I was strolling around the Esplanade area in Singapore the other day when it occurred to me to comment on an aspect of the X100 that disappoints me when using the camera. This is the optical viewfinder. When I bought the camera originally I was so excited about having the frame lines and being able to compose within them while still seeing the whole scene. This in mind would lead to lovely tight rangefinder style shots that locked the eye into the scene. Well I have to say it didn't work out that way and I have found it to be so unreliable that I have stopped using it completely in favor of the electronic finder that I simply find much more accurate.

Fortunately, I am a lover of wider angles and think nothing of shooting all day with a 24 mm lens on my Nikon D3. This is of course a fair bit wider than the X100's 35 mm equivalent so I find it easy to frame tightly and have no qualms about going close to subjects. I would strongly urge anyone who enjoys street-shooting with the X100 to try shooting wider angle for a few weeks and you will feel like the X100 is a telephoto !!!! 

I noticed that when I first started in photography I rarely had people in my shots and if I did it was taken from a distance or discreetly. It took a while but I managed to work my way out of this and I read a lovely quote in a book where a photographer stated that he took the point of view that everyone interesting that he came across deserved to be photographed by him. This somehow helped my state of mind when photographing people and I developed the mind set that I was somehow doing them a favor by capturing and sharing something about their life. I also read a piece by the wonderful Thorsten Overgaard where he said that he always strives to show something good about the people he photographs and never takes a shot that would ridicule or show them in a way that they would be unhappy with. Again, somehow that helped resolve something in my mind that gives me the courage now to get in close and get the shot. Incidentally, Although Thorsten is a huge Leica fan, his writings and essays will resonate completely with the X100 shooter and I would urge you to read his marvelous essays on the love of shooting.

Anyway, back to the theme of the article and the optical viewfinder. As I said, I have stopped using it because I found that when I get tight to people as per above, both the framing and focus was all over the place. I am very interested to hear from anyone who has found a way of mastering this but for me the electronic finder, once I got used to it, is fine and I can concentrate on the composition, get in tight at F2 or 2.8 and shoot. Although it can be laborious, I always try to manually shift the focus point to be where I think the focus will be required before I step in close to shoot. I do this as a bit of insurance because I tend to shoot at the widest apertures and its possible to loose focus when you are in close if you recompose all of the time.

By adhering to the principles of everyone deserving to be shot by me and trying to show them in a positive aspect, I managed to get in very close to these lovely old gentlemen who, although practicing Falun Gong were aware of my presence. I am no lover of politics and wish to play no part in it however, I couldn't help but be persuaded by the concepts that these people could change things trough positive and truthful thought. How nice that would be. I like to think that the above photo shows a little of the strength and completeness that this practice instills in them. This is very typical of the way I use the X100 and I don't think this shot would have worked so well with the optical finder as the framing and focus at f2 had to be spot on.


Here's a bit of a fun evening shot taken at the end of my stroll that didn't involve getting in close and was shot at either F8 or F11, its a shot of the lovely Singapore skyline for the Esplanade side and the light is very nice over there when there is some cloud in the sky and the lights are just coming on. 

As I said, interested to hear from anyone who can advise on better use of the optical viewfinder and enjoy your X100 this weekend.


Steel

X100 in Ubud Pt 2

 Hey fellow X100 lovers. Welcome to the second part of my recent trip with the X100 to Ubud on the lovely island of Bali.

In this section on the trip I decided to focus (excuse the pun) mainly on some close focus near - macro shots that I took and one or two photos from my walkabout around the town and surrounding area.

The above two Lotus shots were taken at the aptly named Lotus Pond restaurant on Ubud main street. The light here is lovely around mid morning and the lotus flowers deliciously colored. The Lotus Pond is a temple setting and in the evenings they have marvelous traditional Balinese dance and music shows, well worth a visit.

This one didn't quite come off unfortunately. I tried some fill flash from the tiny on camera unit in the X100 and set - 2 compensation to darken the sky a bit. The problem was that I nearly fell into the Lotus pond while trying to get a decent angle below the flower!!!! I gave up after this one effort :) The onboard flash on the X100 is extraordinarily good at close range for providing a little bit of fill or catch light. Use it sparingly on a low setting and the metering balances things out very nicely. See Ken Rockwell's  review for more detail on this. 

Here is my final shot from the Lotus Pond and its a shoot through of one of the colorful umbrellas that are on either side of the temple entrance. These umbrellas are everywhere in Bali and come in varieties of yellows, black & white and red. They make great subjects on their own or as a backdrop.

We also stopped and chatted to these very nice kids who were cleaning this theatre in preparation for there traditional Balinese dance lessons. I would like to have stuck around to shoot the lessons but didn't have the time to wait around. Maybe next time. It's possible to get very nice reflections on the tile floors of these temples and theaters, usually best in the earlier morning and with a bit of friendliness the kids or locals are usually happy to pose and see the photos in review.

The final few shots are of local people at work. The first above was preparing wood for a temple renovation project and he was nicely backlit with a little bit of flare. It's worth noting that this just needed a simple +1 compensation and its not so easy to get the flare effect with the Fujinon lens, especially with the hood on.

Finally, this very nice guy scurried up a coconut tree and chopped us down some fresh green coconuts so that we could drink the lovely, fresh, sweet milk. What nice people.

All of the images in this post were edited on the fly using the amazing Snapseed App. I am not usually that keen on these kind of things but this one is so simple and effective that I was able to quickly edit on the go without the hassle of a major selection and edit exercise in Lightroom when I got home. The final shot was a bit of fun with the 'vintage' filter and I felt it suited the subject quite nicely.


Hope this was at least a little entertaining and informative. Don't hesitate to drop me a note if you need any more info on the location or techniques used here.


Happy X100 shooting,


Steel

X100 Goes to Ubud Market

I had the chance last weekend of a quick trip to Bali with bargain flights on Qatar airlines and naturally jumped at the chance to take the X100 to this exotic setting. I have been to Bali many times but never flown with Qatar before, the main benefit of this airline for a weekend break is that its possible to get a Friday afternoon flight and return late on the Monday evening thereby giving a nice long weekend break by only using one days holiday - great stuff. I decided that for this trip, given how short it was, I would base myself in one location only and avoid traveling around the island as I would normally do. I settled on Ubud and I managed to get a good deal on Agoda for the very nice Puri Garden hotel which is at the bottom end of town on the road from the airport.

Ubud itself is a the cultural centre of Bali and, while reasonably modern, retains the basic Balinese cultural heritage and actually manages this blend pretty well. There are no shortage of interesting sites and subjects and the whole place lends itself beautifully to drifting around X100 at the ready. I wont patronize by reminding how good the X100 is for this kind of trip but I really did find it refreshing to sling it over my shoulder and head off early to get the best light. I found that Ubud market (the real local one, as opposed to the art market next door) was a great location for discrete street style shooting. The market opens at 4 a.m. and closes between 9 and 10. I would advise to get there between 6 and 7 to get the best light outside and the shafts of low light that begin to break through between the stalls.

Have a look at the above three shots which are my personal faves and you can see the possibilities that exist. I set the X100 on auto ISO with a shutter lower limit of 1/100 th as I new there would have been a lot of people and movement. It would be possible to go as low as 1/15 with the X100 and its delicious, soft and quiet, non-mirror slapping action but inevitably you will lose sharpness as people move around. I found the ISO 1600 ceiling and 1/100 combo ideal for the low, but contrasty light.

Despite the low light, with careful positioning the X100 performed great. Only occasionally did I run into any focusing issues and although you could never describe the X100 as a speed demon, it was fast enough for thoughtful use.

One good option in these generally cramped and crowded markets is to find a good location and wait for the right subject to come along. Having positioned myself at the top of this grungy staircase I simply had to wait for an interesting person to come into my pre-focused view. It does need a little patience but usually the right combination eventually shows up . 

I found that most of my best shots came in the darker corners of the market but its also well worth exploring outside and above for interesting subjects and the X100's 35mm field of view is spot on for these kind of contextual shots.


I do hope this gives a little flavor of a small corner of Balinese life and hopefully whets the X100 enthusiasts interest for Ubud itself. I will follow up this post with some other aspects of Ubud and the some of the other uses that I put the X100 to including some nice macro style flower shots.


Happy X100 shooting,


Steel

X100 ....... Red

I love Steve Huff's excellent website for his interesting reviews, comments and video clips which mostly happen to be on equipment that I like. The only niggle I have is that I am never that impressed with his test photos (or most of the others for that matter) although I have to say that his more serious work on the recent Seal tour was excellent. Having said that I really liked his recent  X100 Filmstrip post in which he pointed out how well the X100 handled color and in particular, red. This inspired me to have a go on this theme myself and I found some nice red themed subjects on a recent long weekend trip to Bali.

I find personally that strong red can be a dangerous color and is best used where it appears with more dominant monotones or alone as in the lead flower photo (incidentally, I was tempted to change the orientation of this shot but felt it looked like the flower was shedding a tear so left it alone) The above shot from a statue in Bali shows this to good effect. Like all of the shots in this short post I processed it in the lovely little Snapseed app on my Ipad. This is a simply marvelous app for use on the road and I will write a separate post on combining it with the X100, coming soon. Back to the statue shot, I processed this in the 'drama' tool in the app and selected 'dark 2' which exaggerated the contrast of the whites and blacks very nicely and the red flower just adds that extra touch of color interest to bring the shot alive. This for me is a nice discreet use of this powerful color.

Here is a slightly more conventional use of it, again on a contrasty monotone subject. I avoided the mega contrast effect of the last shot as there wasn't enough inherent black and white on the statue itself so I felt this more discreet handling worked better.

Finally, back to the 'drama tones' for the final shot and you can see how the app has changed the natural hue of the red flowers unlike the natural tone of the first image. The benefit here though is that the water droplets get exaggerated and I think the photo gains something from this albeit highly inaccurate rendition of the tones and colors. Again though, I find this works because the red is a block and not dominating or fighting with other colors.

Hope this was interesting and I think its worth using little projects like this to make you focus on a particular theme or subject. I know I had fun searching out nice reds on this trip.

For those that are interested, I found the red flowers in the wonderful butterfly garden in Singapore's Changi international airports Terminal 3. Make sure you have a look when you are there next, its a great location.

That's it for this post, back soon with some more on the interesting Snapseed app, in the meantime keep working the X100 and have a go at a project.

Steel

X100 Goes to the Studio

However, owner leaves brain behind !!!!

What a dummy, I booked Kenneth Choo's nice, well equipped studio so that I could put the X100 through its paces with Strobes. I couldn't believe it when my lightmeter readings were saying F8 at 1/125 and I couldn't get a decent exposure at F16 and 1/1000 !!!!! Instead of thinking it through I muddled around briefly trying to get my new 'Friends & Their Cameras' project off the ground and then gave up and switched to the D3.

If I had paid attention I would have quickly spotted that I was on Auto ISO and the camera was trying to expose for the non-flash studio - what a dork !!! Anyway, I need to revisit it again and bring my brain along. In the meantime here are a few of the savable shots.


There is a lesson in this (apart from the blatantly obvious one about setting your camera up properly) which is that its better in general to over-expose as opposed to under-expose. It's much easier to recover from the highlights as it brings in much less noise then trying to bring up a badly under-exposed image. It's a huge testimony to the X100's dynamic range that these badly overexposed shots were recoverable at all. When it does go wrong like this its also worth working with the error rather than against it. I quite like the hi-key look of the above shot in particular, it seems to work to leave it a little overexposed.

As I mentioned, part of my objective today was to kick off a new project which was going to be studio based and show my friends and their cameras. I did get a few shots that I was able to recover sufficiently and here are Sharon and her D300 and Riyanti and her magical little S90. Both are shot with 2 strobes behind on the wall and a large softbox above and slightly to the right. I will include better details on the strobe set ups on future shots when I get the exposures right and its worth looking into more closely.

I will go back and try again as I did want to see what was possible with a camera like the X100 with strobes. In the meantime I will be taking the X100 to the streets with my Nikon strobe and a Honl travel softbox and grid. Rest assured that I will not be making the same mistake about not trusting my lightmeter and the good thing is that I wont forget the 'check your settings' rule which is now embedded.


Weekend Assignment


I got things rolling last weekend with the t-shirt assignment and this week I decided to shoot 'walls' as a theme. Here are my efforts this weekend and if any of you have any please post in the Flickr Group.


Bird Cage Wall

Camera Wall

Restaurant Wall 

Just to close, I have been 'pimping up' my X100 and invested in a rather nice Gariz half case, Thumbs Up grip rest and a rather cute little Soft Release that I have now unfortunately lost :(


These accessories are really cool and not only compliment the camera but also greatly improve the functionality through improving the grip and allowing beautifully soft shutter movements.


Gariz Case

Thumbs Up 

Soft Release

And Finally, I thought I carried too much stuff. Have a look at Chase Jarvis kit for a recent project of his.


Have fun with your X100 and don't forget to send any comments or requests.


Steel

X100 Camera in Action - Let's Go

Hey Fellow Fuji shooters, this is a new blog that I wanted to put together that is dedicated solely to the Fuji X100 (in action). This is not a review site as there are loads of those around anyway, and for me they don't get at the heart and soul of the camera at all. This is because they look at the camera technically as opposed to artistically and therefore they judge on technical merits, menus, buttons, ISO comparisons and so on instead of the creative capability of the camera and the versatility of it or otherwise.


Not only is it a very handsome camera (especially when tarted up for me by the guys at Chiif Cameras) but it is a very capable one too, with exceptional IQ, soft & silent shutter and great high ISO results.

I recommend adding a soft release like this lovely red one. You wont believe the difference this makes to being able to squeeze a gentle shutter release. I don't know why the manufacturers can't design this in.

Anyway, what I wanted to explore with these posts is the ultimate versatility of the X100 camera and how it is possible, with some thought and practice, to produce startling results in almost any artistic situation. It is my intention to gather tips and information, share my experiences and push the boundaries of this wonderful little camera.


I want to show how it can be used for:


Travel

This is a bit of a no-brainer to be honest as this is where I think the X100 excels (for anyone interested see my phototravelasia blog for some articles on the X100 as a travel cam) The above sunrise shot was taken on Gili Meno near Lombok in Indonesia. The X100 was held at wave level and I used the back screen to compose and level (to avoid wastage in cropping) and exposed for the sky. It's wise to keep a lens cloth in you shirt pocket as inevitably there will be some splashes on the lens.


Style

Here is one from Raffles arcade in Singapore. I had to overexpose to accommodate all of the white light around. It's also shot at wide aperture to emphasize the model and make the background interesting. Many people would be reaching for a telephoto for this kind of shot but there is no question that you can get much more impact, context and intimacy in the image by using the 35mm focal length equivalent of the X100. I often put models in the corners of frames and this is not a problem with the X100's gorgeous lens.

Portrait

Again, I find the X100 35 mm lens to be great for this kind of work as it forces you to go close and in the process the subject has more impact and immediacy. Note that the flare was deliberate but extremely difficult to produce as the lens appears very flare resistant with the hood on. The hood has some little slots in the side and if you are careful about positioning you can get some nice little slivers of light.


Strobe & Lighting

This is a favorite shot of mine with the X100 and exemplifies two very favorable characteristics of the camera. Firstly, with the fast lens and lack of mirror to slap around, you can handhold and shoot at extremely low shutter speeds such as this one which I seem to recall was at around 1/15. Secondly, and relatedly, the ISO ability of the camera is a wonderful low light asset that combines with the fast lens and no mirror to create an amazing low light shooter.


Long Exposure

The X100 is an easy camera to make stable and it also has a nifty ND filter built in. So, all you have to do is get the camera stable, set the ND to on, enable the self-timer, shut the lens down to F16 and off you go.


I could go on with this but I think you get the point, this is one very versatile camera. Now that I have got things rolling with this, its important to me that you X100 loving folks out there feedback what you like, don't understand and want to see explored, so please leave comments or mail me.


Upcoming


Over the next few weeks I am going to try a few new things with the X100 and they will include taking it into a fully equipped studio, trying it out with some Lightroom presets that I downloaded, and a look at what accessories are available for the camera - stay tuned !!!


To close each week I also intend to have a bit of fun and will dish out an assignment for those interested and we will post to this flickr group


Here's my first effort. I often wake up on a Sunday morning with no idea about what to do for the day and for some strange reason I find that if I take some photos around the house I get some inspiration for the day and get motivated to shoot more. Assignment 1 is to take 3 shots of your fave T, have fun and post on Flickr asap.


My Sunday Morning 1 - Gap T-shirt


Incidentally guys, the first and third shots in this sequence were PP'd in Lightroom using some cool free presets I found. I will explore this fully in a future blog.

Hope you X100 lovers found this a little helpful and maybe even stimulating. Get out and shoot, I read a great saying by Bruce Lee that he had no fear of someone who had learned 10,000 kicks once but feared the man who had practiced one kick 10,000 times !!! Stick to the X100 and push it to the limits. Thanks to the great and very inspirational guys at Invisiblephotographer for this quote (here's the full article - read it now...Bruce Lee )


Until next time - keep the shutter clicking (silently on the x100 of course)




Steel