This post is the first in a series of blog posts where I write about Designing Creative Images in Camera ready for tweaking in Lightroom using Cameracraft. For this entry I am walking with the Fuji X100v and experimenting with the ‘in-camera’ settings. I have started the series with the Fuji camera because of the variety of controls the camera offers that a creative photographer can use to design ‘Creative Images in Camera’ ready to be tweaked in post-production, for which I use Lightroom.
If you do similar with your cameras, please add to the conversation by commenting in the box at the end.
We visited our family in Ipswich between Christmas and New Year for a few days and on one morning, we used to live in the town, and it has changed greatly since we loved away 15 years ago. We stayed at the Travelodge and whilst the others went shopping I spent a couple of hours experimenting with the Fuji X100v around the Marina which was opposite the lodge. The area has changed greatly since we lived in Ipswich, for example if you walked towards the Travelodge from the car park in the photograph above, and stopped at the road and looked left, you would see the view the photograph below shows…
… the only building I can remember from 15 years ago is the lowest building on the right, that is just past the hotel windows. It is a ‘Premier’ convenience store, which I think it was back in my time, but all the other building are new, or renewed from the heritage buildings that go back to a very different age when the port was a place to trade.
Wikipedia has a page called Ipswich Waterfront, which starts with:
‘The Ipswich Waterfront is a cultural and historically significant area surrounding the marina in the town of Ipswich, Suffolk. The modern dock was constructed in 1842 and the area was a functioning dock up until the 1970s. At the time of completion, the dock was known as ‘the biggest and most important enclosed dock in the kingdom’.Although the dock as it stands was constructed in 1842, the area was used for trade as far back as the 7th century.The decline of industry in the town resulted in the area being transformed into a trendy area of Ipswich, the waterfront is now characterised by its marina, known as Neptune Marina, as well as its mix of classical and postmodern architecture which includes multiple high-rise apartment buildings, restaurants, bars and cafés. The waterfront is also home to the main campus of the region’s university, the University of Suffolk’ click here to go page
Designing creative images ‘in-camera’ with the Fuji X100v
I think the wiki page describes what I found accurately, and I would like to spend more time photographing it, but on this occassion I was limited to a couple of hours because we planned to go to our daughters at midday. My plan for those two hours was to experiment with the Fuji by shooting in jpg with Raws as backup, and changing the settings ‘in camera’ to change the ‘out of camera’ end result. To give you an idea of what I mean, the screengrab below shows avariety of different ‘out of camera’ creative designs of the same subject, where I used cameracraft to make those changes.
There has been no post production applied to these thumbnails on the computer, other than to the first one. I call this ‘designing creative images in camera’. The Fuji cameras are ideal for this because of the many cameracraft options they offer the creative photographer.
What you are looking at above is a screengrab of the RAW thumbnails in Lightroom showing how the end result (before lightroom) can be very different when using different ‘in-camera’ designing. The first image has had a lightroom tweak.
Because I have opened the top left image in lightrooms ‘Develop’ module and tweaked it slightly it shows what the RAW file looks actually looks like but when you first import Raw files into lightroom, when there has been in-camera changes made to the Jpg you see the changes on the Raw file until they are tweaked in some way.
With the other seven, you are seeing a ‘zoomed’ in image, because I used the digital zoom of the fuji, and different tonal ranges due to me making changes ‘in-camera’. The fuji camera allow the creative user to change the sensors response to hightlights and shadows.
I chose the above ‘straight out of camera’ creative Jpg and decided to do some slight tweaks in Lightroom. I call them ‘tweaks’ because I am not ‘editing’ an image to change it greatly, or correct it if poor cameracraft has created a file that needs recovering in post-production. My message to those who say they do not tweak in Lightroom (or other post-production software) but claim to get it ‘correct’ in camera I say you are missing out greatly (but hey, it is a free world though, so it is their choice to miss out if they wish). The way I choose to work, is to create a file that I can tweak in post production to get what I want. If you find you are spending ages in lightroom ‘editing’ images then you might want to think more about how you carryout your cameracraft at the time of making the photography.
Working with Tones: Retaining a Range of Contrast
I created all the images with the Fuji ACROS film simulation and the red filter selected. Then, as I created each image I altered with the Tone Curve by increasing/descreasing the highlights and shadows. When I am teaching students for the first time, or assessing work for the Royal Photographic Society Licentiate I come across those who have been advised to retain hightlight detail and details in the shadows, but whilst I agree that burnt out hightlights can be distracting, loss of detail in deep shadows are something to consider beneficial to adding to the appeal of an image. It is a true creative photographers decision when to lose detail. When I was a young student I spent a lot of time studying Ansel Adams ‘Zone System’ which was all about deciding what areas of tone and detail were inportant to retain and what could be lost. I teach these ideas to my students now.
I chose to edit the above image because it had deep blacks and detail in the hightlights. In future experiments I will right more detail about the actual settings I use settings, but in thi first post of the series my aim is to raise awareness and interest in ‘DESIGNING CREATIVE IMAGES IN CAMERA’ by thinking and using more cameracraft in the camera during taking and using the Jpgs from the camera. The life of a creative photographer should be spent taking photographs, rather than collecting RAW files to then spend hours at a computer creating images. I spent only two minutes in Lightroom tweaking the file by enhancing the design using the newish masking tools, which are superb tools. When I was printing in the film darkroom I would make changes to selected areas of the print and now with these new lighroom masking techniques I feel I am back in that mode of thinking and working.
I spent quite a while leaning against the concrete taking photographs, and at one point I heard a young child ask his mum what I was doing, and she answered that she had no idea. They did not stop to ask. In the next conversation I plan to write about some of the other images I took on this walk. I will be posting soon.
If you have anything to add to this conversation of any questions please use the comments box below.
Happy Creating
Stew