#on-the-go

The Waiting Place ... Use Your Fuji X100F!

For people just waiting: "Waiting for a train to go. Or a bus to come, or a plane to go. Or the mail to come, or the rain to go. Or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow. Or waiting around for a Yes or No. Or waiting for their hair to grow. Everyone is just waiting" - excerpt from the poem Oh, the Places You'll Go!, by Theodore Seuss Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss), featured in the fantastic movie Fracture, by Gregory Hoblit, starring Anthony Hopkins & Ryan Gosling). Yep. Mostly, waiting is delaying action in expectation of a time or event. If you wanna find out what this has to do with photography, please read on!

Waiting for the plane to go, Fuji X100F @ f/5.6, 1/20sec, ISO 1600, developed in LR CC mobile

When someone waits for something, they are so fulfilled by the expectation, looking forward to it so much that they hardly allow themselves to experience the wait. It is a state of lacking the event one is waiting for, not realizing that doing something productive while waiting will shorten the waiting time. That's why I always got my Fuji X100F with me. While waiting I love spending the time observing people around me, finding patterns, "connecting the dots", so to say. Like in the above shot, where the two women's postures and expressions were mirrored while waiting for departure of their flight

Waiting for the hair to grow, Fuji X100F @ f/5.6, 1/12sec, ISO 1600, developed in LR CC mobile

And in the above image I fancied how the signpost with 2 opposing arrows separates static waiting on the right from blurred motion of people trying to do a selfie on the left!

What I love about this camera is that nobody notices it. It allows me to capture life's moments in real time without people reacting to the camera. Ok, capturing that reaction can also be interesting, but then you're basically documenting peoples´ reaction to yourself and/or your camera rather than reporting the scene as you experienced it! 

Waiting for a Yes or No, Fuji X100F @ f/4, 1/55sec, ISO 1600, developed in LR CC mobile

Like this airline official's friendly answer to the travelers´questions. Capturing this kind of interactions are for me the essence of street photography. The X100F is ideal for this, with its 35mm FF equiv. field of view and quiet leaf shutter. The only thing I miss is weather resistance and a tilting screen (Hey Fuji, you readin' this?), which would allow me to be even more discrete (by enabling me to accurately frame subjects without needing to lift the camera to my eye)

Please let me know your comments or questions below (or leave me a note on my about page), I will be most happy to answer them as soon as possible. Many thanks for visiting & hope you enjoyed the read, best regards

Hendrik

I hope this post was helpful / interesting for you - If you like you can support me by sending me a small donation via PayPal.me/hendriximages ! Helps me run this site & keeps the information coming, many thanks in advance!

Fuji Lightroom Mobile Workflow Revisited

As promised in my previous post I´d like to share with y´all my mobile workflow, using Fuji cameras, an iPad and Lightroom Mobile! If you wanna get freed from your desktop, speed up your processing / image sharing on web and if you´re interested in becoming a more efficient photographer, please read on!

The Messenger, seen in Sicily with Fuji X100F, 23 mm / f2 @ f5.6, 1/320", ACROS-Y, 400 ISO

I mentioned in my previous blog post that Fuji´s ACROS film simulation with its tonality and ISO dependent grain effect delivers JPEG´s with a film-like look that can not be achieved via traditional RAW processing. These JPEG´s are so good that they liberates you forever from having to fuss around with RAW files & RAW converters (spending hours behind a computer, trying to get image quality comparable to Fuji´s amazing JPEG´s). This in turn enables a more mobile approach to photography, so get liberated & embrace a JPEG based mobile workflow!

Required equipment:

  • Camera with Wifi capability (check out Fuji´s website but it can be any brand ... ;-)
  • Mobile device with sufficient processing power & free space for saving images
  • WiFi connectivity App to transfer images from your camera to your mobile device
  • Lightroom Mobile (and Adobe Creative Cloud subscription if you want to sync to desktop) 

To get your images downloaded onto your mobile device of choice (in my case an iPad Pro 9.7"), there are 2 options (when using Fuji cameras, as I do ;-)

  1. Fujifilm´s "Camera Remote App" (download free from iTunes or Google Play)
  2. 2nd Nature´s "ShutterSnitch" Wireless Transfer App (download for US$ 18.99 from iTunes - no Android version yet). Expensive but IMO much better as it includes all kinds of goodies: image organisation in collections, image preview using zoom, saving to various media, metadata update (I don't use this as it re-saves my JPEG´s potentially reducing image quality slightly), etc.

While Fuji´s Camera Remote App downloads your images directly to the iPad´s camera roll, ShutterSnitch requires them to be exported (I prefer this coz it keeps my images organized outside Apple´s somewhat difficult to understand & confusing filing system). See below the procedure for ShutterSnitch, the end result in both cases is that the images you want to process end up on the iPad´s camera roll

How to get your images onto Camera Roll using ShutterSnitch ...

Next step is to import the images you´d like to process into Lightroom Mobile. You can stop here but if you also have Adobe´s Creative Cloud subscription (around 12-13 US$ per month) you get a seamless synchronisation between your mobile device and desktop (images processed on mobile device are updated on your desktop device when you connect to your home network & vice-versa). Cool!

Importing your images into Lightroom Mobile ...

Importing your images into Lightroom Mobile ...

In Lightroom Mobile you will find the familiar develop modules from the desktop version (Basic, Tone Curve, etc.) and you can adjust the settings as required:

Post Processing in Lightroom Mobile!

As mentioned before these adjustments are then synchronized with your Lightroom desktop version as soon as you connect to your home network (provided you have Adobe´s Creative Cloud installed)

Summing up. this mobile workflow allows you to already perform the main rough image post processing steps while on the move (mainly curves and some exposure / contrast improvement) In most cases the processing options offered by Lightroom Mobile are sufficient, so no further desktop processing is needed! :-)

I hope you enjoyed this post and you can use it to enhance your own photographic experience, please leave me a note in the comments section if anything´s unclear or if you have any further questions,

Many thanks & best regards, wish y´all a great start into the new week & lots of fun, best regards

Hendrik

I hope this post was helpful / interesting for you - If you like you can support me by sending me a small donation via PayPal.me/hendriximages ! Helps me run this site & keeps the information coming, many thanks in advance!

Going "light" - Mobile Post Processing without PC!

So, that's it. Finally I dunnit - switched my online workflow fully to mobile, meaning: Using Fuji JPEG's, RAW developed in camera & post processed only on my iPad before uploading to my blog / social media! No more PC? Well, not quite - for those of you interested, please read on ...

Rainin' up?

I always capture RAW+JPEG(F)'s. This way I have the best possible sensor output (14 bit RAW) of my Fuji X100T for later making large prints (normally up to A1), using PhotoNinja RAW conversion & Lightroom on my PC. But believe you me, the workflow for getting fine art quality prints of that size off an APS/C format sensor takes a LOT of effort, is very time consuming and very expensive to boot!

On the other hand sharing images on the web luckily don't require such stunts ... The "light", On-the-Go workflow shared here - based on using the amazing 8-bit Fuji JPEG's has proven to be more than enough for web use IMO - please take a look for yourselves:

No guests? Deserted bar in Sardegna

I already previously shared "prototypes" of this mobile workflow on my blog, but needed to further refine some steps / choice of tools to make it more fluid & efficient, here the final 6-step workflow:

  1. Capture - Fuji X100T set to RAW+JPEG(F); B(R) film sim; sharpening +1; hi-light & shadow +1; NR -1; DR, WB, ISO on auto (ISO base 200, max 1600, min SS 1/80). Configured like this the X100T acts like a "monochrome" camera with preview & review of images in contrasty B&W!
  2. After the shoot, I check the images in camera & delete those which are unsharp / poorly exposed (washed out hi-lights) and/or have unsatisfactory content (this helps reduce the amount of "waste" on storage media & in my archive)
  3. In camera RAW conversion of "keepers" to flat "digital color negatives", with following settings: CC film sim; color +1; hi-light & shadow -1
  4. Download these "color negatives" to my iPad via WiFi, using Shuttersnitch App (which automatically updates IPTC metadata with copyright & usage rights, etc.)
  5. Process on iPad into final B&W images using Photogene4 App. I did previously use Pixelmator but found the processing options in Photogene4 to be more useful (eg. hi-light & shadow recovery) and the its user interface more fluid. Only disadvantage of Photogene4 is that the healing tool can only do spot healing (instead of Pixelmator allowing me to paint over areas, but that I don't need so much anyway)
  6. Finally I add my copyright text to the image, resize to 1500 pix web dimension, save to output folder and upload to my blog / social media - DONE!

Here another example - even in 8-hit the dynamic range of Fuji's JPEG's is impressive:

Two chairs four two?

Well, I hope this was helpful for some of you? Doing PP on iPad during traveling has seriously reduced the amount of time I needed to spend staring into a PC screen at home - Now I got much more time for taking photos (or for relaxing with a glass of fine Italian prosecco ;-)

Thanks for reading, please let me know what you think (comment below or send me email)!

Best regards,

Hendrik

I hope you enjoyed reading this post - If you like you can support me by sending me a small donation via PayPal.me/hendriximages ! Helps me run this site & keeps the information coming, many thanks in advance !

Fuji X JPEG Only iPad Workflow - Refined !

After some research I've refined my Fuji X JPEG Only iPad Workflow for on-the-go image processing & uploading to blog, social media, etc. For all you impatient ;-) readers, here the final result after transfer to iPad & post processing with Pixelmator:

Nebula Man

I usually set-up my Fuji X100T to use the B-R film simulation, with shadows & hi-lights set to +1. Images are saved as large JPEG + RAW - This helps me to pre-visualize the image in black & white on the LCD screen and allows me to later develop a flat color "digital negative" JPEG from the saved RAW file using the in camera raw conversion. For this I use following settings: Classic Chrome film simulation, color +1, hi-lights and shadows -1, sharpness +1 and noise red. -1 (of course I always still have the RAW file as original back-up and for creating fine art prints on my PC in Lightroom, if needed !):

"Nebula man" converted in camera to flat color "digital negative" JPEG

I then import these color JPEG's onto my iPad using the Shuttersnitch App, which has an easy WiFi connection and IPTC (copyright, usage rights) updating feature. After saving the images to the iPad's camera roll I perform some basic post processing in Pixelmator for iPad, using the simple workflow explained in some screen grabs below:

"Nebula man" flat color JPEG in Pixelmator, after opening "adjust colors" menus

After opening the color JPEG in Pixelmator I go to the "adjust colors" menu & convert to black & white by selecting "B&W":

... Converted to Black & White

Then adjust the sliders for levels (black & white points), brightness, and contrast to your liking. The color sliders can be used to modify shades of grey depending on their original color (eg. darken blue sky, similar like you can do in Lightroom), but their effect in Pixelmator is limited (according the App developer this will be improved in a future App update):

Adjust sliders to your liking ...

You can adjust shadows & hi-lights by modifying curves:

Finally the adjustment of curves ...

For me very important to add a copyright to my image - Pixelmator is one of the few Apps which has an extensive texting option (with many fonts, styles and renderings to choose from). See the following images as example:

Add the "©" symbol,

Date & photographer's name,

... and move the text block to the desired position !

Finally resize the image for upload to blog or social media:

Resize for upload to blog or social media (1500 pixel long side):

... and save to camera roll (Save to Photos):

Finally save to camera roll !

That's it, I hope this was useful to y'all & that you enjoyed the post ! Many thanks for reading & let me know if you have any questions or comments, I'm interested to hear what approach you might have for working On-the-Go !

Have a great day & all the best wishes, best regards,

Hendrik

I hope you enjoyed reading this post - If you like you can support me by sending me a small donation via PayPal.me/hendriximages ! Helps me run this site & keeps the information coming, many thanks in advance !