Fuji Portrait samples for X100S and XPRO1?

Crashwins

Regular
Having trouble finding these. I see Zack Arias is a big Fuji fan and he has some nice examples, but I'm unsure of what camera he's using.

I'm trying to get into some basic fashion and portrait (headshot) photography and wondering if the XP1 will do the trick (I'm talking lighting, strobes..). Anyone have any links for some good sample images? Basically, I'm trying to avoid Canon lust again :)

The X100s is a phenomenal camera, but I understand this could do decent full-body portraits at best. That leaf shutter and ND filter rip. Thanks!
 
Check out the X100/X100S Fashion Portraiture thread here on the forum for a start, sardonic iconic has posted a lot in there along with some of our other members. For the X-Pro1 I've seen some very nice work on 500px with it also, though I don't recall any specific threads or links offhand.

Some things to keep in mind with the X-Pro1/X-E1 etc. in the studio portrait environment, in no particular order:

* Slowish x-sync (prob not a huge deal, the 1/180 x-sync seems able to be fudged by most users to 1/200 and above which is in Canon territory anyway)
* Limited flash functionality and selections. There's only a couple Fuji TTL enabled flashes, if you use any TTL flash. With manual flash this won't be a huge deal, but you're going to be using optical slaves and/or simple manual radio triggers.
* The 'standard' portrait lens (56mm f/1.2) isn't coming until Jan next year at the earliest - not sure what focal lengths you want to work with for headshots, but that may be a factor for you to consider.
 
Zack Arias started with the X-100 but now carries these click to see his other system is a PhaseOne.

With what you want to do you could most likely just do it with an X100(s), it's just a matter of space, there are quite a versatile amount of combinations found right here in the forums if you have time to thumb thru them all. Hoey "The Strobist" dude also has a lot of examples with just the X 100s.
 
Wow, thanks! I'm getting a funky display looking these up via iphone so I'll wait till I'm home later. I'd seem Sardonic's stuff before - really awesome - but I guess I was unsure of anyone else using these setups for portraiture.

Jay, you mention the 56 coming out. I have a 50 f1.3 Nikkor that I thought would do the trick if adapted to the XP1. I've heard pretty good things about Nikkor AIS lenses on Fuji.

I've read Zack's blog and I can - I hope! - tell a Phase shot from a Fuji, but some I'm not sure of. That said, I get the sense he only uses the Fujis for street stuff and the Phase for portraits.
 
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I've read Zack's blog and I can - I hope! - tell a Phase shot from a Fuji, but some I'm not sure of. That said, I get the sense he only uses the Fujis for street stuff and the Phase for portraits.

He has some portraits with the X-Pro1 also - there's even a couple of his in that 500px search list I linked :)
 
As you guys can probably tell, I'm a HUGE fan of the X100S for portraiture. Having it for a few months now (since the week it hit stores, actually) I've really settled into a groove in terms of what I can reasonably expect from it at a shoot. Sure the 35mm (equiv) fov can be limiting in a sense (you don't have to look at my images very long to see when I'm "phoning it in" compositionally)... but I get such a creative high from finding new compositional options within that perspective. It really forces you to dig deep, which I love and is probably a small part of why I only shoot primes in general.

I wouldn't recommend the X100S as your ONLY camera... but if I was in the market for a 35mm lens, I'd consider this as a third party alternative with a camera body super-glued to it ;). Though I'll occasionally still shoot with a 35mm on my D800... I just miss that full-frame DOF too much sometimes.

Also, I just updated my X100/X100S Fashion Portraiture thread after a bit of a hiatus, as well as my flickr (for the rest of the images, some NSFW).
 
I'm floored by some of the examples I'm seeing from Sardonic's stuff and the rest. Really great! It's really exciting to see such great photos generated from such a little marvel of a camera.

Could anyone comment on the kind of lighting rigs used with Sardonic's stuff with his Fuji?

My stuff has historically always been street and landscape photography, but now -- in an effort to maybe turn a dollar -- I'm considering trying out some basic portrait work. It seemed like going this route with the X100s would be a good move since it's a fabulous learning camera. I really know my way around it for street work, but was skeptical of jumping to a 5D2 or something to try portrait work if the X100S would do the trick for starters; I've always been a believer in incrementally learning, not buying beyond your skill/intentions. Thanks!!
 
Could anyone comment on the kind of lighting rigs used with Sardonic's stuff with his Fuji?

My stuff has historically always been street and landscape photography, but now -- in an effort to maybe turn a dollar -- I'm considering trying out some basic portrait work. It seemed like going this route with the X100s would be a good move since it's a fabulous learning camera. I really know my way around it for street work, but was skeptical of jumping to a 5D2 or something to try portrait work if the X100S would do the trick for starters; I've always been a believer in incrementally learning, not buying beyond your skill/intentions. Thanks!!

For the stuff I'm posting here, it's almost all natural light. This is for three reasons:

1. It's what I'm hired for... that raw, minimalist, evocative aesthetic that's best served by the light available within the environment.
2. I enjoy it more. I used to approach portraiture with the "let me throw as MUCH stuff into the frame as possible" mindset in terms of lighting equipment and diagrams... for what I do, mood, expression, and evocative light/shadow play is far more important. It enables me to be much more free to connect, engage, and direct my subject... something that's important when really NONE of what I shoot comes naturally to any human being, haha!
3. I'm in New York City. The more time I spend setting up lighting, packing/unpacking equipment is more money I have to spend on studio/space rental and less money that goes to me from the budget. As it is, if I know the creative goals of a shoot don't need tightly cropped headshots, I have zero problem taking the subway and walking to a shoot with nothing but a X100S (and maybe the EF-X20 and my "light leak" little crystal if I've got pockets), getting right into art direction and look planning as soon as I arrive, and be shooting with my girl within three minutes.
 
Awesome. Really appreciate the time you took to respond here. I can definitely see natural lighting in many of these, but it never occurred to me you did it that much. Very inspiring!

I'm very motivated by the minimalist approach in most aspects of my life so you've inspired me to do so with my shooting when I can. It's so easy to be drawn by gear craziness and forget about the bare bones of it all. Anyway, thanks again and keep up the amazing work!
 
I just watched Zack Arias' One Light workshop. For anyone who is definitely a novice with lighting - like myself - I definitely recommend it. He does a great job of explaining basics in the lay and recommending gear that won't cost a billion duckets.

That said, I can see how the X100s would excel for this, but be constrained with its FOV and softboxes, etc. I'd think the XE1 or XP1 would be great, though - even adapted lenses on the body for manual focussing. Not to say the X100 would be bad, but you're not stepping back 15-ft for a head/shoulders shot, obviously. Anyone use the XP1 for this kind of work on the forums? I saw the link earlier, but I have no idea what kind of rigging he's using. Thanks!
 
I just watched Zack Arias' One Light workshop. For anyone who is definitely a novice with lighting - like myself - I definitely recommend it. He does a great job of explaining basics in the lay and recommending gear that won't cost a billion duckets.

That said, I can see how the X100s would excel for this, but be constrained with its FOV and softboxes, etc. I'd think the XE1 or XP1 would be great, though - even adapted lenses on the body for manual focussing. Not to say the X100 would be bad, but you're not stepping back 15-ft for a head/shoulders shot, obviously. Anyone use the XP1 for this kind of work on the forums? I saw the link earlier, but I have no idea what kind of rigging he's using. Thanks!

Where'd you find the video for the Arias workshop, is it posted online somewhere or available for purchase? I was looking for it but it looks like the DVD is discontinued.

You can do studio/manipulated light photography with just about anything if you understand lighting and are willing to work within the equipment limitations. As I noted earlier the X-Pro1 has a relatively slower sync speed, slower focusing, no fast mid-tele portrait lens currently, and you'd have very limited TTL capability. But for manually controlled lighting especially in a controlled space you can work around all of the above. Heck, I've seen fantastic quality work with an iPhone when working with good quality and quantity of controlled light.

Damien Lovegrove is another pro that uses the X100 (and X-Pro1 I believe) as well:

Lovegrove Fujifilm X-100 Photography Gallery (NSFW) - Lovegrove Photography (Note: some NSFW images in the gallery)
http://www.lovegroveconsulting.com/fuji_x100_creative_shoot.aspx

This may be helpful, Rico (flysurfer) has posted some details of his workshop with Damien here (think this may also be posted on the forum somewhere IIRC):

Studio X - Fuji Rumors
 
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