Fuji General X-Chat

flysurfer

flysurfer

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Just wanna "talk"?
Have no big issue that merits its own thread?
This is the thread where we can simply chat about what's on your mind.
 
I shot some photos on Saturday with my X E1 and newly acquired 35mm lens.
I took 2 photos of some horses fairly close at F2.8 using aperture priority.
The camera chose a shutter speed of 1/2200 and it was pretty well exposed.
For the second photo, the camera chose a shutter speed of 1/1000 and the highlights in the sky were blown out and overexposed.
Why does the camera do this?
I love your articles and have learned a lot, but I seem to have issues getting consistent photos with the X E1.

View attachment 11287
DSCF0171 by CapoDave, on Flickr



View attachment 11288
DSCF0172 by CapoDave, on Flickr

Thanks
Dave

I may have posted this in the wrong place.
Next time I will do it as a new thread.
 
Amin Sabet said:
How did you become involved with Fuji X, Rico?
Click to expand...

I was an avid buyer and user of the always latest Panasonic/Lumix bridge cameras until a friend who happened to work at Fuji convinced me to try the S100fs. As it happened, Panasonic stopped making large bridge cameras, and the S100fs was quite impressive. That's how I became a Fuji user. My second Fuji was the famous F200EXR, first EXR camera ever built. So I'm also an EXR user from day one.
 
capodave said:
I shot some photos on Saturday with my X E1 and newly acquired 35mm lens.
I took 2 photos of some horses fairly close at F2.8 using aperture priority.
The camera chose a shutter speed of 1/2200 and it was pretty well exposed.
For the second photo, the camera chose a shutter speed of 1/1000 and the highlights in the sky were blown out and overexposed.
Why does the camera do this?
I love your articles and have learned a lot, but I seem to have issues getting consistent photos with the X E1.

View attachment 11289
DSCF0171 by CapoDave, on Flickr



View attachment 11290
DSCF0172 by CapoDave, on Flickr

Thanks
Dave
Click to expand...

Here, the second picture is actually the better exposed one, as the main subject (the horses) is well-exposed. As for the sky, you could have used DR-Auto or DR400% to not blow it out.

In multi-metering, tiny changes in the subject and framing will lead to different AE weightings. The camera tries to be intelligent. Use average metering for a more conventional metering approach. And by all means, look at the live histogram to find out if important parts of your shot are to be blown and correct your exposure as needed with the compensation dial.

There's a quite extensive chapter on camera metering in my book, with plenty of examples. There's also a big chapter on how to extend dynamic range, AND also a free article I wrote about this very topic over at X-Pert Corner. You should take a look if you haven't already.

If the DR of a scene is very large, you have find a way to compress it. You can either do it by exposing to the right, not blowing the highlights. That means that you'll have to recover the dark shadows later in post processing. Alternatively, you use the DR function and let the camera take care of it. In any case, when the DR of a scene is larger than the sensor's DR, something's gotta give: the highlights or the shadows. While completely blown highlights can't be rescued, shadows can always be recovered, but at the price of more noise and artifacts.
 
Thanks for that Rico. The metering differences have been the biggest challenge in using the X100. I lean toward average, but have been using all three. I still use the old maxim of "exposing for the highlights and let the shadows fall where they may." There never is just one way or one way all the time.

Joe
 
Indeed. It also depends on the RAW processor you intend to use. The internal processor doesn't have the means to recover highlights (you can pull the image, though). Silkypix 5 can recover some highlights from a RAW that are missing in the JPEG, but within limits. Lightroom/ACR (and also Capture One) are very advanced and will recover more highlight detail. So believe it or not, I expose and shoot differently knowing I will process the shot in Lightroom.
 
August, I guess, for the English version. I'm not entirely sure, as the X-Pro1 book is currently almost as useful for X-E1 users (and even X100S and X20 users), given the similarity of the concepts and functions. Fuji did a pretty job bringing different X-Trans bodies up to speed.
 
If you already have the camera and want to use it NOW, just get the X-Pro1 book or eBook. The cameras are 85%-90% the same, even dpreview copy & pasted most of their XP1 review into their X-E1 review. There's little the X-E1 offers that the X-Pro1 doesn't, and these differences are usually not very important when it comes to shooting images.
 
Hi Rico, when do you think you'll publish an X20 book or edition to an existing book?

I don't want to take your time with something you've already covered, so point me in the right direction if you have already covered the following ...

Based upon some of your writing for the X-Pro1 sensor, in combination with what I see for resolution versus ISO in the X20, for the X20 I'm using:

- EXR200 (edit - strike that for "DR200!"),
- Auto ISO with limit at 400,
- Minimum shutter speed for 1/60th
- mostly "Program" mode (unless I want a given aperture or shutter speed)

When set for the above, the X20 jpegs appear consistently underexposed to me. (I'm using jpeg as I don't have a x-trans raw converting facility yet). When I take the jpeg to post, there's quite a bit of headroom before any color clips, which surprises me a bit.

It doesn't bother me much as I "push" the X20 jpegs n post-processing (with masking), and have yet to see bothersome noise or loss of detail in the pushed areas.

Is this behavior that I should expect?

Thanks!
 
The X20 doesn't have EXR, so you can't possibly be using EXR with this camera. Please check again!

If your shots are underexposed, simply expose them higher. Use the live histogram to see if there's room between the right end of the "mountain" and the right edge. You can use the exposure compensation dial to adapt exposure to your needs.

Also make sure to use multi metering or average metering. Spot metering is very specific. This part is also covered in my book and it applies to all X cameras.
 
Sorry, don't mean EXR. I tend to have terminological dyslexia, especially when reading on something interesting like EXR. :)

I do mean DR200, thanks.

And that's one thing I haven't checked "default" for on the X20 (average or multi metering vs. spot metering). I've seen the big difference it makes on the X-E1, and haven't seen exposure "all over the place" on my shots, so I didn't even think of that.

If it is in average or multi metering mode already, I can push the exposure compensation since usually I use "Program" mode.

No problems, just trying to sus what is expected camera behavior and what is an "early adopter's bug encounter."
 
DR200% means underexposure of the RAW by 1 EV. Obviously, this needs to be compensated at the RAW development stage. Most converters do that automatically, but with varying results. In C1, for example, you'll have to bring back the highlights with the respective slider. If you shoot RAW for external processing, I recommend DR100% and careful ETTR shooting with the histogram. This will always lead to optimal results (if you do it right), because you stay in full control (not the camera), so you can fine-tune exposure to your needs.

As a JPEG shooter, only use the camera's DR expansion when it's really needed, this is no EXR camera. Using traditional DR expansion (as explained in my DR column over at X-Pert Corner) will always result in noisier shadows.
 
what's your view on the following custom settings. Do they make sense or do you see something weird?

C1: auto ISO 800 - DR100 - WB auto - NR-2 - H-2 - S+1 - Color+2 - Sharpness +2 - Film Simulation mode Astia - WB auto (and RAW)

C2: auto ISO 800 - DR100 - NR-2 - H-2 - S+1 - Sharpness+2 - Film simulation mode B and again auto WB and RAW.

This photo is the result of the C2 setting (just a quick test):
View attachment 11328
DSCF0152.jpg by Peter Nievaart, on Flickr

BTW: One thing that struck me after checking the settings of the photo in my camera: when you're in playback mode and push the Q button, the RAW conversion menu pops up. Neat!

Thanks for your advice!
 
pniev said:
what's your view on the following custom settings.
Click to expand...

Are you talking about the X20? If yes, sure, why not! If you like these settings, go for them.

Personally, I don't care much about JPEG settings, I mostly apply them in-camera after I took the shot. See my column "RAW for JPEG shooters" over at X-Pert Corner for more details about this.

So my settings for C1 and C2 would only be related to parameters that can't be changed after the fact.
 

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