x100s does Vivid Sydney 2013

Took the x100s out for a very quick look at the Sydney Vivid Light Festival last night. Usually you will get better pictures lugging around your DSLR, however with the family the x100s was far easier and more enjoyable - after all I'm not trying to win a photo contest with these pictures. Some were tripod mounted, most we handheld at ISO's between 3200 and 6400 at f2. Enjoy.

tripod mounted picture on a 2-3 second exposure

walk by snap to try and go unnoticed!! i like the angle

handheld at iso 6400 f2

tripod mounted 2 sec at iso 100 at f2

tripod mounted 2 sec at iso 100 at f2

tripod mounted 2 sec at iso 100 at f2

Sometime the picture of the projector itself can be art

handheld everything auto

handheld everything auto, converted to b&w in Nik Silverefex 

same as above

light tunnel - funny how captivating something simple is

handheld everything auto

X100s drive home in rain

Who says every photo needs to be sharp? For this shoot I shot the whole series whilst stuck in a traffic jam (not driving!!!), set the camera to program mode, with the occasional manual focus for low light issues, and just thought about capturing some great light. Yes even a boring car trip home can be made into an interesting shoot. All shot in jpegs, post processing in Nik Software with Perfectly Clear, most shot in f2, ISO 800 and above. Enjoy. More at dwwphotography.blogspot.com.au 

X100s captures Sydney morning

Grabbed the x100s this morning with gorilla pod and headed down to High Street wharf North Sydney to capture some sunrise over the water. A little late to get the really early light, but tried some ND filter useage and ISO 100 settings on f8 to see what it would look like. all processed in PSE 10 with Nik Software and Perfectly Clear. Easy and not time consuming. All jpeg files.  Now you know why so many people from the cold northern hemisphere love settling in Australia. Enjoy.

X100s captures a ghost game of football

Mothers day also had us travelling to 2 AFL (Australian Football League) games on Sunday morning, still early enough to clearly see the fog. Now I realise the X100s is no sports shooter, but I bought it anyway knowing that the fog may create a unique and slightly surreal feeling not often seen on a sports field. I think everything was set to A which is effectively AUTO in these cameras. I almost looks like a battle scene from a WW1 movie set. Processed in Nik Silver Efex in 2 minutes. Enjoy.

x100s portrait of Mum

Mothers day comes around fast, as does life, so its important to capture these special moments. Now my family believes that I've gone photo mad, so I grabbed a quick snap that was processed in Nik Color Efex - tonal contast + Perfectly Clear in PSE - 2 minutes, and presto - a great memory mainly thanks to the X100s and the right light. Enjoy.

Fujifilm X100s light trails of traffic

I had about 10 minutes waiting time so I decided to try the x100s for light trails of traffic. Taken using a gorilla pod tripod. These were processed in PSE with Nik ColorEfex and Perfectly Clear - a quick 2 minute process. I used the 'T' mode on the shutter speed dial and mainly used f8 for aperture  I ended up using the ND filter to try and darken the highlights and allow more processing time, therefore more traffic. Also pictured is a quick iPhone video of the setup on the back panel. Enjoy.

no nd filter, f8, 20 sec exposure

nd filter, f8, 20 sec exposure

nd filter, f8, 20 sec exposure

Shadows, shapes & light around the house

Trying to capture some unique B&W (+1 in colour) shadow, shapes and light using the x100s around the house. Trying to make the everyday interesting. Enjoy.

Doorway

Front door tiles look like bricks

Shadowlands

Self portrait

Grain

x100s turning day into night with flash

Yes the x100s syncs to 1/4000th of a second. Why? Well unless you are shooting extremely fast kids on a regular basis with a flash gun, you can use this feature to turn day into night to get some very interesting affects. This is a simple demonstration using a small child's bike, but the shots you can get from portraits is stunning. Maybe I'll do a post on this soon. So what gear am I using beside the x100s? to trigger the flash I'm using a Wein Sync-Link Flash Trigger that is easily mountable on the hot shoe  and takes 2 AA batteries with a simple on/off switch. This sends a IR pulse to the slave flash of your choice - not sure if its TTL. The flash I chose is the Yongnuo YN 460-II as its acts as a slave and its very inexpensive. I'm very happy with this flash and actually find it better than my Canon equivalent because its easily switched in slave mode - I use S1 mode. Switch the x100s flash into C mode and the Wein will fire the flash - and sync up to 1/4000th of a second. Importantly turn on your ND filter - it acts to darken the scene and trick the camera to get the night affect. Yeah! Enjoy.

x100s with Wein Sync Link and Yongnuo flash

Wein Sync Link - uses IR pulse to fire external flash in salve mode

Yongnuo YN 460-II flash in S1 slave mode

Reference shot in full sun Program mode

Shutter priority f2 iso 320 nd filter 1/4000th

Manual f2 iso 500 nd filter 1/4000th

manual f2 iso 800 nd filter 1/4000th

Manual f4 iso 800 nd filter 1/4000th

Manual f4 iso 1000 nd filter 1/4000th

x100s with Nik software - OMG!

Well I thought I'd try the x100s with Nik Software, so I downloaded their free trial, went and found some architectural subject matter. See for yourself what happened. Yes that's right, amazingly sharp and high definition pictures. Nik Software and the x100s seem to be made for each other. I especially love Silver Efex Pro 2 and its B&W rendering. Enjoy.

St Marys Catherdral Sydney - x100s f8 1/800 iso 200, Nik software tonal contrast

Crooped from above shot

St Marys Catherdral Sydney - x100s f8 1/800 iso 200, Nik software tonal contrast - sharpened

Cropped from above

X100 Rocks for Portraits

I dug out these few shot taken with the x100 and processes using Nik Silver Efex. This camera stills rocks, and is a great portrait camera despite its 23mm lens (effective 35mm). Enjoy

Bob

Bob again

Carmello