jerryy

Still in the Gemini constellation, but moving to Castor’s ankle (the star Propus region)... (Screen capture from Stellarium*, with the added Propus — Eta Gem annotation) This region has a lot to see, super nova remnants, star clusters and nebulas: This is the equivalent of a little under 91 minutes exposure. Messier Object M35: https://www.messier-objects.com/messier-35/ Super Nova Remnant IC 443 (Jellyfish Nebula): https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/what-spawned-jellyfish-nebula/ NGC 2175 (Monkey Head Nebula): https://skyandtelescope.org/online-gallery/ngc-2175-the-monkey-head-nebula/ Stellarium (free, open source, cross platform planetarium software): https://stellarium.org/

Bridges are tasty snacks for hungry fog. Yum.

Some of those things are in “stealth mode”. 😀

https://fujifilm-dsc.com/en-int/manual/x-h2/about_this_camera/parts/ Item 45 in the listing which is just above the memory card cover. You should be able to use Fujifilm’s RR-100 remote release or if you prefer, the basic Canon remote release. Open the cover, and the port to plug in the remote release is there.

Could you tell us where you are trying to take the shots, backyard tree, woody-tree region, deep forest, etc.? It sounds like you might need a tripod. Usually, a shutter speed of 1 / the lens’ focal length is fast enough for a shot. But for lens with focal lengths over 400mm, a tripod tends to work better than handholding. Obviously a tripod does not always fit into what you are doing, but ….

I do wish I had an easy answer for you. Based upon what you are describing, it does sound like Lightroom is using the operating system procedures to generate previews/views rather than doing it on its own. It gets worse because normally the operating system really only does that on a temporary basis so that its own database of thumbnails does not get too large — say you have a folder of several hundred images, every time you open it, the Finder regenerates new thumbnails for those images because it is easier and takes less space than storing the thumbnails for multiple folders each holding several hundred images; saving that many would really bog things down. Programs that rely on using the operating system to get the previews/views are supposed to store the results they get as needed. Try turning off everything else you can that is running in the background such as mail apps, messaging apps, etc., anything you can turn off, do so. This allows the operating system to devote its resources (speed and memory) to your previews/views. It does sound like your data is safe, which is great news. Writing a letter or two to Adobe may get you a better response, but it could also end up with someone telling you to get a newer machine with more memory and drive space. Edit: You may have some better results from putting only a few images in a folder — split the group into several / many folders and open them that way. It will take longer to go through the entire group but smaller sets puts less strain on the operating system.

There is nothing special or beyond ordinary about that setting. This is a static scene — the same as a still art setup, so pretty much any settings for the lighting that pleases you can work for the scene, keeping in mind the birds sitting on branches usually turn into birds in flight very quickly. You can try f11, ss 1/250, and ISO as appropriate for the lighting. That should give you enough depth of field for most small to medium sized birds with any motion stopped enough to avoid blurring. These settings should work for larger birds as well if your focus point is on their eyes/head. Using single shot mode or continuous mode is up to you. If you want really shallow DOF — for good background blurring, adjust the f-stop down to f4.5 or lower and drop the ISO a bit to compensate.

You mentioned being a bit technophobic, but if you are wanting new lenses, and you want to stick with using auto focus, look for lenses that use linear motors, these help auto focus faster than other lens motor types, the drawback is that they cost more money.

You are using the XC 15 - 45mm f3.5-5.6 lens? In spite of how frenetic stage shows get, they mostly are confined to one area in darker venues, (stadium shows excluded) pretty much the same as weddings. Likewise, lenses that are good for weddings in confined spaces work well for these events. While nowadays it might seem like one has to use f0.001 or brighter lenses, a lot of great concert images were shot using f2.4 or f1.8 lenses, many with even darker lenses. Just as in great wedding photos. Ehh, enough history. Do you know from the previous shots you have, what focal length works best for most of your shots? Over on the X-T5 sub-forum, the Xf50mm f2 is getting some good recommendations for using in weddings. A new one is going for around US-$450, used ones are easy to find, but if that focal length is too tight, then back to brighter zoom lenses. Do you like manual focus lenses? Those are usually less expensive than the auto focus ones. [This seems odd to be mentioning since you obviously have been shooting for some time.] As far as settings goes, with your current lens or your “new” one, just keep the three main ideas in mind; shutter speed, iso and f-stop. Try getting someone to stand and move for you in a darkened room and practice a little. Start with an ISO of 3200 going up to ISO 6400, f-stop wide open and various shutter speeds until you get the look you are wanting. Then do the same with the aperture. Maybe have another person standing by turning a flashlight on and off at intervals. While that may sound like just goofing off and messing around, it is similar to what you get in the venues. Trying to juggle f-stops and shutter speeds and ISO settings while the performers are bouncing around is tricky, so your camera has some settings that can help. Set your ISO to Auto with a minimum and maximum setting — you can easily get clean files up to ISO 6400 and often higher. Try to leave the f-stop for your lens open, but keep in mind if you are close to the performer, the DOF will go back to being shallow. Set shutter speeds to the minimum to freeze the scene’s motion enough to suit you — this is where the playing practice comes in handy. Then after that, it is back to the regular stuff for getting special effects and trick shots. https://fujifilm-dsc.com/en/manual/x-t100/menu_shooting/shooting_memu1/index.html#iso

GIMP is somewhat similar to Adobe’s PhotoShop, in that it works best if you import the image a raw converter creates (PS uses Lightroom). This may help: https://expertphotography.com/open-raw-images-gimp-ufraw/ Affinity Photo and the PixelMator/PhotoMator programs are low cost, but do have built in raw converters.

Welcome to the forum. I cannot tell you about the focus peaking history on the XE series, but from my experience with other bodies, it gets better with each newer body. As far as lenses go, keeping in mind your thoughts regarding your budget: Used Fujifilm lenses are usually really good, they can be operated in manual mode as well as in auto focus mode. Your local camera store may have some you can try, if not, there are plenty of online stores that sell them. Some stores sell them with a xx-day warranty so that you do not get a bad copy. Rokinon (Samyang) and Viltrox make some great mf lenses for x-mount cameras, you can get these directly from them or from resellers. https://rokinon.com/collections/fuji-x https://viltroxstore.com/collections/x-mount Editing software will depend on which computer platform you have, Linux, Mac, Windows or “other”. Free or low cost editors include programs such as GIMP, Affinity Photo, Pixelmator, etc. You may want dedicated raw converters such as RawTherapee or DarkTable or Fujifilm’s Raw Converter (Silky Pix). Adobe has a line of subscription based editors that you may like.

It is thought about that way, I mentioned that in the first rambling paragraph. JPG still has the ability to use more color spaces, while heif does not, so the only value in heif is smaller files being sent over cell networks to older phones. It (heif) unfortunately is not a good replacement for storing and using versus full jpg files in place of raw files as some do. For storing, either raw or tiff or full jpg is much better. edit: DNG should be in there for the Adobe fans. edit 2: Hopefully to make that more clear, if you set your camera to use AdobeRGB or ProPhotoRGB (for those cameras that support things like that) but save the file as something other than raw, be careful about using HEIF, if you do use it thinking you will save space, the colorspace in the saved file will be sRGB, because that is how the format is engineered. If you want to use that file for printing or for video work, weeellll, best wishes.

HEIF was introduced a while back as a new format, some folks thought it would be a good replacement for JPEG for images on the internet and whatnot. It does indeed take up less space. So far, so good. Initially, there was not much support from hardware makers, but nowadays, it is gaining in popularity, more and more hardware makers are including it as an export option along with raw, tiff, jpg, etc. Be very careful about using HEIF as an export option for storage, it has a problem, it is engineered so that the only color space “you” can use is sRGB. “You” cannot override this and use AdobeRGB or DCI-P3, or any other color-space. So, what is the problem? Most of the web-sites and email and all of that internet stuff uses sRGB, right? Not really, there are a lot of places that use other color spaces. Printing and video for example. Without getting into a massively distracting sidetrack on color spaces and how to deal with differences, some things that can happen if you try to move between them is color saturation is destroyed or banding happens. Color space issues make for long hours at work and sometimes cannot be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. It is looking like HEIF is a short term solution for sending images over the internet to older cell phones. Older phones have screens set up in the sRGB space, newer ones are using the DCI-P3 space, a wider space similar to AdobeRGB. So be cautious about using HEIF as a storage format, you may want to keep the raw image around as well.

What happens if you use the Finder or Image Capture to move the images from the card over to the drive? Both of these should show you image previews for files on the card, the finder should show you file previews for images on the drive as well. The thumbnails can take a minute or five to generate depending on how many files are on the card. It could be that there are so many large files that LR is having a hard time generating previews as you are scrolling around that it cannot keep up and you see the black background instead of the image thumbnail. The next time it happens, use the Finder to go into the library where the files are stored and see if the Finder will let you take a look at the image. If the image is complete, then your image is safe, but may require fiddling with LR to get it displayed. A lot of apps use Apple’s built-in operating system procedure to generate their thumbnail previews, rather than make them theirselves. If the os gets bogged down trying to generate a lot of thumbnails for large files, the app bogs down in displaying them. And GFX files are large. p.s. Welcome to the forum.

I think the first one is a different approach (of course) than the next two. The background city is much more actively participating. The next two show the effort you put into them rather nicely, picking between them comes down to taste preferences. It would be easy to choose one over the other from elements in each one appealing to those preferences. All three shots are 🤙.

You seemed to veer towards not wanting to do any kind of raw conversion work in your original posting, so I did not mention this then, but since @Ektachrome has given you some tips to consider, it might be worth your time to consider a powerful tool built in to your camera’s playback menu, the ability to turn any raw shot into a jpeg — in camera, no external processing needed with a simple button push. I have tried it for various settings and went deep into pixel peeping the result and found no differences between the result and the same image shot as jpeg (the one from raw + jpeg). You could save space on your card by just shooting raw and only converting the “good” shots, all done in camera no fuss, no muss. Of course you can explore more options if you want: https://jmpeltier.com/fujifilm-in-camera-raw-converter/

Two heads are better than one, or so says the saying. The Twins ... Castor and Pollux, the heads of the Gemini Constellation. These two are really active in mythologies, I guess being so easy to see in the night sky gave story tellers easily findable point-to visuals for their wild tales. Some tales have the two being called Hercules and Apollo, other tales have them helping Hercules. Some tales claim these two are Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome, while yet others claim these two are associated with the Chinese ideas of yin and yang. Some claim these two are responsible for a phenomenon called St. Elmos Fire, sailors tend to like it appearing during storms. Busy days indeed for a pair of pretty lights in the night sky. These are the equivalent of 37.3 minutes of exposure. https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/meet-castor-six-stars-in-one/ https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/meet-pollux-red-giant-exoplanet/ http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/gemini.html https://www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-list/gemini-constellation/

You could continue to use Photos to take care of your file management and use something such as Pixelmator or Photomator (both programs are from the same company) to make the edits. https://www.pixelmator.com/support/guide/pixelmator-pro/634 https://www.pixelmator.com/photomator/ Essentially any image editor will let you edit jpegs as well as supported raw files. These two may give you a step up from what you are doing now.