Dave - David Young Photography

Favourite Fuji X-Pro2 Settings

March 20, 2017 by Dave Leave a Comment

Quite some time ago I wrote a blog post about my favourite settings for my old Fuji X-Pro1 and since the arrival of my X-Pro2 a few months ago, I thought it would be interesting to note down what I consider to be my favoured settings for the X-Pro2.

Settings are quite personal and as such I’m always interested to read and hear other photographers favoured settings. Invariably there’s always something to take from others experiences and there’s really no right or wrong way with a lot of the camera settings, just preferences.

Having used Fujifilm cameras since 2012, I’ve found that contrary to some opinion, I prefer to use the RAW file and process to my own recipe. Whilst I like the JPG conversion, I’m not over keen on the colours of the film simulations. I’ve tried extensively to like them but invariably come back to the RAW file to use. I’m no pixel peeper, so if the RAW file isn’t quite as sharp as the JPG, I don’t beat my self up too much about it now.

Below are my favourite settings:

IMAGE QUALITY: FINE+RAW – Even though I prefer the look and working process with RAW I still shoot both JPG & RAW, I think it’s more habit than anything else, but with the advantage of two SD card slots, I can do this easily and without hassle. If I get everything I want from the RAW file, I simply delete the JPG images, or if I’m struggling with the RAW file I will take a look at the JPG to see if I prefer the look of this.

RAW RECORDING: COMPRESSED – Compressed is fine for file size and works perfectly well with the current version of Lightroom CC I run.

FILM SIMULATION: Provia Std – I prefer to shoot as flat a JPG as possible, simply so I can see what’s happening when I’m reviewing the image in camera. To this end I’ve found I really like the look of Provia Std. The alternate film simulation I will use is Acros +G. I like the tones I get from the green filter and if I want to use the JPG I simply bump the contrast and clarity in Lightroom. My Provia settings are as follows –

Highlights -1
Shadows 0
Sharpness 0
Noise Reduction -4

EXPOSURE COMPENSATION: I set my exposure compensation button to C and adjust my exposure compensation off the front dial. This offers +/- 5 stops rather than 3 as standard, but the big advantage is the speed at which I can adjust the required compensation and see it in the viewfinder.

DYNAMIC RANGE: I leave at 100

WHITE BALANCE: Auto (most of the time)

LONG EXPOSURE NR: OFF

AF ILLUMINATOR : OFF

AF+MF: ON – This setting allows focus adjustment while the shutter button is half pressed. The camera must be in focus mode S for this work.

AF MODE SETTING: AF-S – For 99% of the photographs I take, AF-S (single point) works perfectly well for my needs.

MF ASSIST: PEAK – I use peak assist with either red of blue highlights for manual focussing.

INSTANT AS SETTING: AF-C – This tells the camera what autofocus setting I want to use when I press the AF-L button while the camera is in manual focus mode.

CORRECTED AF FRAME: ON – This adds a second focus box in the OVF (optical viewfinder) and helps to correct for parallax errors.

PHOTOMETRY: – By default I leave this on multi metering, but when needed will swap to Sport Metering where required. Occasionally I will move to average as this helps to even out shadows and highlights.

SHUTTER TYPE: MS & ES ELECTRONIC SHUTTER – With the option to shoot at 1/8000 in mechanical shutter, I prefer to use the mechanical shutter wherever possible. If the need to eliminate any shutter noise is needed, I can flip to ES, but the X-Pro2 shutter sounds so good, so why not use it?!

ISO AUTO SETTING: MIN 200 to MAX 6400, MIN. SHUTTER SPEED 1/125 – I shoot more in auto ISO than anything else, and try to use as higher shutter speed as possible even if it means foregoing a little ISO noise. ISO noise can easily be controlled with the X-Pro2.

SOUND SETTING: OFF – I prefer the silence

IMAGE DISPLAY: OFF – I don’t need a preview of the photo to pop up when the image has been taken, I chimp where required. This also helps to preserve battery life.

FOCUS SCALE UNITS: FEET – I’m old school, so feet is more simple to relate to for me.

FOCUS LEVER SETTING: ON – This setting makes the joystick active and is a great feature on the X-Pro2 allowing you to move focus points around easily.

CARD SLOT SETTING: RAW/JPG – It’s great having two card slots in this camera. I write RAW to card one and the second card slot is used for jpegs. this setting allows me to separate them on two different SD cards.

I’m confident everyone has different settings that they are comfortable with, I’d be interested to hear what settings you have your X-Pro2 set up with and how you find them.

The Milliner

March 10, 2017 by Dave Leave a Comment

Louise Pocock is a bespoke Milliner based in Chipping Camden in the heart of the Cotswolds, here in the UK. She makes custom, bespoke hats for both commission and general sale from her shop on the High Street.

Stepping in to Louise’s shop is like stepping in to a fine hat emporium. Along with hats she has on sale, she sits behind her desk making her wonderful creations for clients in search of something perfect for them, custom made to fit as a hat should.

Each step of the making process is done by hand, from the cutting through to the final stitch, creating wonderful masterpieces ideally suited to any head.

I was fortunate to spend a short time photographing Louise in her shop, with some members of a Photography group I belong to and whilst 5 of us were busy pointing our cameras at Louise and her wonderful work, she happily continued creating.

You can find out more about Louise’s hats and services here.

10 Tips for the Fuji X-Pro2

February 24, 2017 by Dave 5 Comments

Having had my Fuji X-Pro2 for a couple of months or so now I’m very impressed with its capabilities and glad I made the investment. As a replacement to the original X-Pro1 it certainly builds on the X-Pro legacy, but as with all new cameras and hardware it still takes some getting used to and understanding some of the controls available.

I’m no technical guru or expert in the realms of photography but I’ve found a few things about the X-Pro2 which I’ve thought oh yeah, this is cool or shortcuts that are useful for me when I’m out and about with the camera. So here’s 10 tips for the Fuji X-Pro2 I’ve picked up over my albeit short time using it.

1. Quick format of SD cards

If you’re wanting to format your SD cards quickly the most simple option appear to be to hold the bin button for 3 seconds and then press the centre of the rear command dial whilst still holding the bin button. This offers you the choice of which card slot you want to format. To reformat both, simply repeat the process once you’ve formatted one.

2. Returning your focus point to dead centre

If like me you use the joystick to move your focus point around a quick way of getting it back to the central position is to push the joystick in which returns the focus point to its centre point.

3. Changing magnification in optical viewfinder

If you like using the small Electronic Range Finder (ERF) box whilst in optical viewfinder mode you can change the magnification of the electronic image by repeatedly pushing the rear control wheel. There’s a choice of 3 different magnification enlargements, a great aid for fine tuning your focus.

4. Reset your auto focus box

If the size of your AF frame box is changed and you want to reset it quickly, push the joystick which take you to AF frame positioning mode and then push the rear command wheel – this will reset the size of your AF frame to its default value of 2 up from minimum.

5. Fast Wi-Fi access

In play back mode when reviewing an image – pressing the top plate function button next to the shutter button will automatically bring up the wi-fi function regardless of what you have programmed the function button for in shooting mode..

6. Manual exposure compensation (+/-5 stops)

Set the exposure compensation dial to C, and then adjust compensation using the front wheel by pushing in and rotate to change. This also gives 5 stops of control where the top dial only gives 3.

7. Remaining battery power as a percentage

Interested to know just how much battery juice you have left? Go to picture preview mode and press drive button or joystick lever up. At the right upper corner you will see the percentage left in the battery.

8. Switching SD cards quickly

Want to quickly to switch to another SD card slot? Simply press Playback button and hold for a few seconds while you are in a Playback mode.

9. Setting ISO via a function button

The ISO dial isn’t to everyone’s liking and until such time as Fuji consider a firmware update to replicate the upcoming X100F’s option to assign ISO function to the front dial, here’s how I get round it when I need to.

Set the iso dial to ‘A’ setting for auto iso. Set your desired function button as the auto iso setting. Set the default iso value to the highest allowable value, for instance iso6400. Each time you want to change iso, simply press the assigned function button and change the max iso value to your desired value.

10. AF-L/AE-L not working?

I’ve ran into this issue a few times which has had me scrabbling for the manual! Check you haven’t got face detection mode on as if you have you may find your AF-L/AE-L modes do not function. This also affects photometry as well, disabling you from selecting spot, average or centre weighted metering.

I hope you find these tips useful and of course, if you have any of your own tips to make the X-Pro2 work better I’d love to hear them.