You mention that you worry you'll be criticized for not knowing basics. I won't; I'd suggest that you might simplify your approach. If you want crisp waves in low light conditions then you'll need a higher "speed" than 400 ISO. I shoot higher than that on an X-H1 and the images are noiseless for my purposes. I'd give up ND filters and high apertures and instead go with higher speed and lower apertures. I don't just use exposure compensation - I depend on it. But then again, I usually shoot off the hip. If I was shooting off a tripod I would take an ambient light reading with a meter, subtract 1⅓ or 1½ and go from there. I also don't know if this is a scene you can return to regularly or if it's a travel treat. Happy shooting.

When the scene is atypical, "larger areas of light gray/white, like cloudy sky" you need to use your exposure compensation dial to correct the camera's metering choices. Even if you are shooting raw, you need to help the camera in situations where the calculated exposure isn't what you intend, and isn't correct (quite subjective) for the scene in front of you. Large areas of dark tones will make the camera overexpose as it tries to get the overall scene to a mid grey. Large areas of light tones will make the camera underexpose as tries to get the overall scene to a mid grey. I turn on "exposure preview" or "picture effect" or whatever the camera model calls it so I can see in the EVF what is happening with exposure, and I also turn on highlight clipping indicators (blinkies/zebras) so that I can see if the highlights are blown out. Using these tools it fairly easy to judge exposure and adjust compensation appropriately.

Hi! Perhaps I need to follow your advice. The problem can be that JPGs containing a mixture of shades and colors are exposed to my liking. The problem arises when there are larger areas of light gray/white, like cloudy sky. I'm a bit surprised that X-T50 cannot expose those more difficult scenes correctly, as I've understood that modern cameras can analyse scenes and expose accordingly. In the past, when I used cameras with simple exposure methods or hand-held exposure meters the situation was different. The meter reading was just a starting point to adjust camera's settings manually. Moreover, cellular phones do not suffer this problem (although the result on the whole is of course inferior). Regards, Tuomas

Before I get hazed for not knowing basic photography, I want everyone to know I am sincerely asking because I want to dial in a good formula in camera. I don't particularly like using ND filters for sunsets of the ocean because it usually causes me to dial in a slower shutter, blurring the waves. I want crisp, almost stopped motion if possible. In this past I have used ND on other camera systems with varied success. 2-4 stop is usually good. If there are no rocks in the image, graduated ND works great. Recently, I have been thinking about discarding the ND and going with an in-camera solution in my X-H2 or working with a 2 stop ND and doing the rest in camera.  I used 200 dynamic range, ISO 400, +0.6 EC 1/210s with the Fujinon XF16mmF1.4 R WR at f/16.0 to achieve the attached photo. I've been shooting street at golden hour with 200 dynamic range with a lot of success, so I tried it on a sunset photograph and it worked out well. I think I could have gone +1 exposure compensation or greater and still rescued the highlights. I want to be able to lift the shadows a bit more, but not to the extent of if I had bracketed three images to be post processed for HDR, so I'm going to try 300 dynamic range and see what happens. Has anyone adjusted the tone curve in camera or anything else to achieve a well balanced photograph? Please share.   

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Yesterday I updated my X-H2S to firmware version 7.20 through the Fujifilm app, and immediately after, the camera stopped working. It powers on but is completely unresponsive. I tried every possible fix: With and without lenses Different lenses Removing battery and cards Force firmware recovery Nothing worked — the camera remains bricked. This body has been carefully handled with very limited use, and it’s just over 2 years old (so out of warranty). Tomorrow I’ll be contacting Fuji support and sending it to the Mississauga, ON service centre. This problem looks very similar to the app-based firmware update issue that Fujifilm publicly acknowledged in January 2023 for other X-series models, where cameras froze after updating via the app. In those cases, Fujifilm accepted responsibility and repaired them at no cost. I’m sure they’re going to charge me a lot of money for this. Do any of you have similar experiences?

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!