Ian,
I am new to Fuji. Just picked up a x100s. Can you explain how you create these fantastic portraits? It almost seems like your using a medium format setup. The lighting is spot on. Focus is dead on perfect. I'm envious. My first attempts with this camera yielded about 60% of the frames in focus. What do you use for normal post processing? You b&w portraits are incredible?
BigMike631 wrote:
Ian,
I am new to Fuji. Just picked up a x100s. Can you explain how you create these fantastic portraits? It almost seems like your using a medium format setup. The lighting is spot on. Focus is dead on perfect. I'm envious. My first attempts with this camera yielded about 60% of the frames in focus. What do you use for normal post processing? You b&w portraits are incredible?
Maybe someday with lots of practice...
Have you tried out the manual focusing yet? Once you get the hang of it, it's great. This will typically increase your yield in terms of in focus shots.
It is shot at iso 1600 using the in camera b/w JPG setting with no JPG filters. None of them do better for skin than the standard b/w, whatever they say. I set the camera to 1:1 for composition and don't go too close. I am using a large video light (about 2 foot across) and a lot of the look comes from the fact that it isn't a point light source.
Re focus - I wouldn't bother manual focusing a shot like this. Move the AF point around and put it on her eye. Easy and very accurate.
Lastly - don't use f2. Take a photo of some newsprint at f2 and f2.8 and f4 and see the massive difference!
For post processing I use Silver Efex 2. Sometimes nothing, if the original file is very good and often it is.
Looking forward to seeing more.
