woodlander

When I Grow Up by David Wong, on Flickr
 
DIY by David Wong, on Flickr
 
We Are Young by David Wong, on Flickr
 
Vinyls by David Wong, on Flickr
 
Toronto Photobomb by David Wong, on Flickr

Of course we all know that specific cameras and lenses are far from the most important things in photography but I just got a new lens and here are some images I used it in creating. I expect it will replace my 55-200mm on my next trip.
 
Sharpness in this lens is adequate. In other words, it may well be the sharpest Fuji lens, as other reviews suggest and may make some other lenses seem inadequate in comparison. Mind you, if all you want to do is to post images online, it’s questionable whether you’ll see the benefits in your posted images because even a 4K monitor is only equivalent to the resolution of a 6MP sensor.
 
It’s a genuine 1:1 macro lens that also works well as a general lens. Autofocus works well from macro to infinity and not all macro lenses have good autofocus for macro. I had great difficulty getting focus on the petals of a white rose in low light but that’s more a product of Fuji’s contrast based autofocus than the lens.
 
Using it with the 1.4x teleconverter is excellent. Hardly any additional weight and quite viable wide open. No doubt better if you stop the lens down a stop or two but no need to avoid wide open.
 
Vignetting? Meh. Several reviews have suggested a problem with vignetting. I find it to be minimal and in any case easily correctible. (Out of focus image of clouds included).
 
Bokeh seems fine from my point of view.  I didn't do any artificial; testing, though.
 
Image stabilisation works very well. Fuji claim 5 stops and while I have not systematically tested this, the shot of Ashoka (the red Burmese cat) is at 1/15 sec.
 
No good for portraits because it’s too sharp? Several reviewers have suggested that but I don’t agree though I have little interest in portraits unless in the context of live music or street photography (ie unposed, not street portraits). The 90mm is no doubt more of a portrait lens but sharpness is not a problem. It is very easy in the current version of Lightroom to roughly paint the face with the Adjustment Brush, then select skin tones with the new colour range and blur accordingly.
 
I also have a Sigma 180mm f2.8 macro. On the Nikon D3s, that is twice the weight of the Fuji X-T2 + 80mm f2.8 macro + 1.4x TC. That is an advantage for travelling, but ironically because the Fuji is much lighter, it is much more difficult to hand hold steadily for macro focusing.
 
Focus stacking works well provided you use a tripod. There are three possible methods here. (1) You can use the autofocus to select different points of focus. (2) You can use the focus scale in manual focus to set different points of focus. (3) You can use focus peaking in manual to select different points of focus. I don’t recommend (1) because you are likely to miss a focus point but (2) and (3) work fine. I have included examples using both focus methods (2) and (3).
 
The main disadvantage for me is that hand-held focus bracketing is not possible. With the Nikon and the Sigma I could turn the focusing ring from out of focus at the back to out of focus at the front for quick focus bracketing on the fly. Usually I used a monopod but sometimes I actually hand-held. This is not possible with the Fuji alternative. This is a problem with the X-T2 rather than the lens, probably correctable in firmware.
 
Attached images:
 
(1)  Lichen on tree.  1/125 sec, f5.6, 200ISO, plus 1.4x TC.  Handheld.  Cropped in from the sides.
 
(2)  White rose. 1/160, f14, 250ISO, plus 1.4x TC.  Handheld.  Uncropped.  The spider in the corner is sharp.
 
(3)  Ashoka (red Burmese) at point blank range and 1/15 sec, f2.8, 800ISO.  Handheld.
 
(4)  Small cactus.  Focus stacked.

Here are some photo's from this year's Amsterdam Light Festival.
All with the X-T1 and XF 35/1.4



Amsterdam Light Festival 2017-2018 by Johan Thole, on Flickr


Amsterdam Light Festival 2017-2018 by Johan Thole, on Flickr


Amsterdam Light Festival 2017-2018 by Johan Thole, on Flickr

More photos here in my Flickr album: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmcNNMjg

Vis, Croatia
 

Petrol station near my house. One of my first shots with the X-T1. Almost SOOC, just a very small cropping.
 
 

Leiden castle - X100T (BW+R film simulation)

 



Leiden Castle by Johan Thole, on Flickr

 



Leiden Castle by Johan Thole, on Flickr

 



Hooglandse kerk Leiden by Johan Thole, on Flickr

XE2 & XF18-135
 

I’m interested in how people on the forum compose photos.
I have a multi-stage approach.
I have my camera set up with a rule-of-thirds grid in the viewfinder, with my focus point typically around the top left or top right intersection.
Then I take lots of photos to get one shot - sometimes 50 or 100.
I’ll go through them in Lightroom looking for the ones where my subjects are interacting with each other or the camera, where there’s a story and emotion to what they’re doing.
Then I’ll crop using one of the Lightroom composition overlays. I use the spiral a lot, and then diagonals or rule of thirds.
This picture was cropped using the spiral.

Here’s a slightly more detailed Golden Ratio spiral overlaid onto it:

Interestingly in this case the spiral also works in the other main orientations

 
 
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

XF80 on X-T2 (RAW), tripod, electronic shutter, self timer

Developing steps applied:
- sharpening in Adobe Camera Raw 10 (sharpening settings 40 / 1,0 / 100 / 40 in the ACR details tab)
- demosaicing with Iridient X-Transformer (RAW Process: „more detailed“; sharpening: "none")
- in ACR saturation +10-15
- any digital auto-correction has been unchecked/omitted in Iridient/ACR
- via Photoshop CC saved to TIF/JPG
- no further sharpening applied to the pics with original size (see links below)
- output sharpening in PS CC via unsharp mask applied to the smaller pics embedded here for direct view (Amount 50% / Radius 1 Pixel / Threshold 1 Level)
- slight cropping of the pics with the bismuth crystal and the bulbs


Original size, 5-9 MByte-JPGs (click):

Bismuth crystal, @ f5.6
Coffee beans, @ f8
Vintage bulbs (er, including dust...), @ f5.6


downsized:

Bismuth crystal, @ f5.6



Coffee beans, @ f8



Vintage bulbs (er, including dust...), @ f5.6



Veeery nice lens (...quite big though :eek:)

.

 
 

The Sunlight Stroll by Adam Bonn, on Flickr
 
X-Pro2 and XF35

Autumn Evening @Tallinn, Estonia by Hendrik Osula, on Flickr
 
X100F

Madrugada
 

 
X-E2 + 18-55

Hello,
 
We continue with another shot taken with the x-pro2.
 
I spend the night under tent near the Alpe di Siusi and decided to do something different as all the other photographers are doing (classical view with the Sassolungo at the end of the alpe in background).
lucky as I was, the first snow over Dolomites was falling.
It was quiet a cold and windy night and didn't sleep well ... but was happy enough that my composition found in a Heavy fog the day before (without seeing the mountains at all) was worth and working.
 
4) Sassolungo morning, looks a bit like british columbia, X-Pro2 -  10-24 f4

 
Have a nice day.

Scooter Guy by Adam Bonn, on Flickr
 
Scooter Guy
 
X-Pro1 and XF35

DSCF6310 by Filip Hermelin, on Flickr

Hello,
 
The next shot is a Sunrise on the Lago di Braies in the Dolomites, With the Tre Cime, It's certainly the most visited place in the Dolomites.
In autumn the place look so peaceful, it's complicated to achieve a perfect reflection as there is often wind on the surface of the lake.
I had a bit of luck as 10 minutes after the shot, the reflection completly disappeared.
 
5) Lago di Braies - X-Pro 2

 
Have a nice day !

XE2 /18-55 mm

EX2 / 18-55 mm

Hello everyone,
 
I had the opportunity to spend a week in the Dolomites area to catch the autumn colors ! my trusty x-pro2 and x-t2 were from the trip.
 
We start with a classic of the Dolomites, the church of San-Giovanni in Ranui near Santa Magdalena.
 
The sky mixed with some remainings of fog, made really the mountain glow and burn in a special way.
 
1) X-pro2 - 16-55 @ f10, some exposures mixed to achieve this image as the contrast between the different plans was enormous.

 
Have a nice day and see you soon for more.
 

Curiosity
 

 
X-T10 18-55

X-T2, 100-400mm
 

 

 

 

Hello everybody!
 
I would like to show you some of my first landscape photos with the X-T2 from my trip to Iceland some weeks ago.
Before I changed to a mirrorless system camera I had a Canon EOS 6D before. I have to say going back to APS-C was a hard decision for me, I've never had any problems with the image quality of the 6D even Canon build not the best sensors at the moment, but as a travel camera and in some other situations I wasn't that happy anymore with it. I used parallel to it an X100T which I loved, but I needed a system with interchangable lenses. I had so much fun with the little Fuji and read so many positive reviews about the newer X-Trans III sensor that I decided to sell the Canon and all my lenses to buy an X-T2.
With my, at the moment, four primes and the great body I had never so much fun before while photographing.
Iceland was a great test for the system and I'm looking forward to the next holidays with it.
 
But now enough words and time for some photos of the trip (most with my girlfriend on it) - hope you like it!
 

Skaftafellsjökull #1 / Iceland by Sebastian Warneke
 

Búðakirkja / Iceland by Sebastian Warneke
 

Diamond Beach / Iceland by Sebastian Warneke
 

Selfoss / Iceland by Sebastian Warneke
 

Thakgil / Iceland by Sebastian Warneke
 

Thakgil #2 / Iceland by Sebastian Warneke
 

Brunnhorn / Iceland by Sebastian Warneke
 

Stokksnes / Iceland by Sebastian Warneke