A weekend with the Fujifilm GFX100S and the GF80

Just before its launch, my fellow Fujfilm Belgium ambassadors Tom Museeuw and Pieter D’Hoop and myself, got our hands on the GFX100S and the GF80 f/1.7 lens. We were followed by a camera crew who documented our endeavours and turned them into three five-minute video impressions. For English subtitles, click on the CC icon in the video player.

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4 hours with the Fujifilm GFX100S

Last weekend, Fujifilm Belgium organised a live stream about the newly released GFX100S. Prior to the stream, two of my fellow ambassadors, Pieter D'Hoop and Tom Museeuw, and me were given a GFX100S to play around with for a weekend. While one of us was shooting, the other two acted as assistants, voice activated light stands or sometimes simply as idiots ;-)

Below is a behind the scenes video of my four hours of fame with the GFX100S. It's a hell of a camera and had someone told me less than 5 years ago, when I first laid my hands on a GFX50S, that we'd now have twice the resolution, fast autofocus and IBIS for less than the price of the 50S, I'd declared them nuts. I hope you like the video and if you have any questions about the camera, don't hesitate to comments. I'll try to answer them if I can.

Thanks to Brecht Vercauteren from Becubed for translating our erratic behavious into video so beautifully! And of course also thanks to Riana and Zoë, the two dancers who gave their best, as dancers always do.

This is the gear that I’m using in the video:

• Fujifilm GFX100S

• Fujinon GF32-64 F/4

• Fujinon GF80 F/1.7

• Fujinon GF250 F/4

• Lovegrove Scatterflash

• Godox V1 Fujifilm Speedlight

• Godox AD200 Pro

• Godox AD600

• Godox AK-R1 Accessory set

• SMDV Alpha 110 Softbox

• SMDV Speedbox 70

• SMDV 518 Strip Light

• Scotty II portable smoke machine by Smoke Factory

Do you also want to learn to work with flash?
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If you prefer to learn through video, then my latest ‘Location Lighting Masterclass’ tutorial video is just what you need. Available here and also currently 50% off! Below you can watch a free chapter!

From light setup to end result in this 3+ hour tutorial filled with lighting, Lightroom and Photoshop tips and techniques. This downloadable course (purchase once, watch as long as you want, where you want, as many times as you want) takes you through a number of different light setups. Watch how I build up a scene one light at a time and and how I finalise the result in Lightroom and Photoshop.

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110 x 110

Deze pagina in het Nederlands?

Now that the Fujifilm GFX 100S is quickly popularizing ‘small medium format’ cameras, thanks to its incredible value proposition (USD/€ 6.000 for a 100 megapixel beast) and also its much lighter and more compact form factor compared to the original GFX 100, there seem to be a lot of people entering this camera segment. At least, if I am to believe my inbox! A lot of my blog readers apparently have already ordered or even picked up their GFX 100S, according to the emails I'm receiving. Some of these photographers also ask me which lenses I would recommend for the GFX 100S, or any GFX for that matter.

I personally shoot about 80 to 90 percent of my images with just two lenses. I already did a blog post (link here) a while back on one of those two favorites, which is the GF 32-64 f/4, and in my opinion, this is definitely a must have lens. The other lens that I think a new GFX user should get, especially if they're into portraits, is the GF 110 f/2. It’s sharp as a tack, fast and produces beautiful bokeh. For that reason, I decided to create a little slideshow containing 110 of my favorite images that were shot with the GF 110. I hope you'll enjoy it. Thanks for watching. If you already have these two and you’ve got more money to burn, check back later when I’ll post my review of the Irix 45 mm f/1.4 for the GFX (unboxing video here).

• Interested in taking a travel photo workshop with me? Sign up for my free newsletter and I’ll keep you posted when our trips to Ethiopia and India will resume. You’ll receive 10 free Lightroom presets to boot!

• Most of the images you saw in the video were lit with flash. If you want to know more about using flash on location, check out my Light It Up! ebook or my Location Lighting Masterclass. I work with Godox flashes and SMDV softboxes and highly recommend them for GFX users.

• I edit my images in Lightroom using preset and Creative Profiles that I’ve created myself. If you like the look of these images, check out my presets and Creative Profiles below.

Irix 45 mm 1.4 for the Fujifilm GFX Unboxing

This is one of my first ‘unboxing’ videos and it shows! After two minutes I cut my own fingers, after six minutes I got a reprimande – live on Facebook – by Mrs. MoreThanWords that I stole her cutter knife (the very one I cut my fingers with, so from now on I believe in karma), and after seven minutes one of my cameras gave up. But I soldiered on! Anyway, if you are interested in the Fujifilm GFX system, you should definitely not miss this video, because I introduce you to what’s currently the cheapest and fastest lens for the GFX system.

A Lovegrove portrait deconstructed - part 3

This is the third and last part in a series of guest posts by my good friend and lighting wizard Damien Lovegrove, in which he deconstructs a couple of his favourite images. If you find these posts inspiring, then make sure to register for next week’s two-part live online lecture, ‘Lovegrove Portraits Deconstructed, part III & IV’. Until January 21, there’s a 40% early bird discount and you also receive a downloadable recording of both sessions to rewatch at any time you want. So even if the date does not suit you to watch the event live, you’ll still have the recording. Below is what you can expect:

Damien goes Wild (West)

I took this shot using a 250mm telephoto lens at f/4 in the baking hot desert wilderness near Paige in the USA. I lit Yesenia from the right with a Godox AD600 fitted with a 18cm reflector and was happy to find the flash trigger worked at the 100m range. I placed a walkie talkie on the ground behind the rock where Yesenia is standing so I could give direction from the camera position.

I also used a Godox AD600 with a 18cm reflector for this shot of Claire in Monument Valley. In both of these shots I rigged the flash directly opposite the sun and used it on full power. I love how f/4 renders the background beautifully out of focus yet supporting the narrative of this ‘follow me’ shot.

Damien has been using the Fujifilm GFX system for almost all his images from the past years, so if you’re interested in investing in one of the GFX camera’s, you’ll get a great idea of what they’re capable of.

A Lovegrove portrait deconstructed - part 2

This is the second part in a series of three guest posts in which my good friend and lighting wizard Damien Lovegrove deconstructs a number of his favourite images. If you find these blog posts inspiring, then make sure to sign up for next week’s two-part live online lecture, ‘Lovegrove Portraits Deconstructed, part III & IV’ that takes place on January 26 and 28, from 7 to 9 PM GMT. During those sessions, you’ll see and hear a lot more inspiring images and tips like these. Until January 21, you save 40 percent on the joint ticket price and pay only €30 for both sessions. Furthermore, every participant will receive a downloadable recording, so you can watch the sessions again as many times as you like, where you like and when you like! So even if you can’t make it to the live show, it’s still a good idea to book a spot!

The double exposure technique for when you can’t hide your light stand

Martina in an interesting location about an hour from Rome. Damien shot this on his 2020 road trip between the lockdowns.

Sometimes I struggle to get the flash where I need it in the shot without it being in the frame, so I use a double exposure technique. I always use a tripod for my camera so this technique is a piece of cake for me. I place the light where it needs to be and capture my moment. Once I have the energy and pose that I need I shoot my master frame. Then without moving the camera, I derive the light and shoot a frame without the flash using the same exposure settings. I then join the two shots in post production. The modifier you see in the shot is the Scatterflash which I also mentioned in the previous blog post.

Urbex with Martina

For this shot of Martina taken at an abandoned sugar factory in Italy also used a double exposure technique. This time though I used the more powerful Godox AD1200 Pro (editor’s note: here you can see Piet using the AD1200 Pro in Brussels) and a 70cm soft box and grid. Once I had the principal shot I took another without the flash and combined them.

You will notice that the sun is coming from a different direction to my flash light and this is quite deliberate. I had no intention of trying to make this shot look realistic. It is a stylised fashionable shot inspired by music album covers of the 1970s.

All these images were shot with a Fujifilm GFX 50S.

A Lovegrove Portrait Deconstructed

This is the first in a series of three guest posts by my good friend and lighting wizard Damien Lovegrove, in which he ‘deconstructs’ a series of his favourite shots. If you’d like to see and hear almost four hours’ worth of composition, posing and lighting tips and techniques like these, then sign up for the two-part inspirational live online lecture ‘Lovegrove Portraits Deconstructed, part III & IV’. Save 40% on your ticket until January 21st.

Working with a central composition

I took this simple shot of Amelia in Switzerland between lockdowns last year. I chose a very central composition when I rigged my tripod. I was unsure about the patch of sunlight on the floor but I really wanted the boarded up window and sloping cobblestones to feature prominently.

I then placed a Godox AD200 high on a stand just out of shot on the right. It was rigged almost touching the wall and was fitted with a Scatterflash attachment. This gave the dappled look that I love so much.

I did a test exposure and settled on ¼ power for the flash and then I invited Amelia to come into the shot. I like to get all the faffing done before I introduce my subject otherwise they get bored.

Shooting 90 degrees to the light

I used the same set up here for this shot of Kate taken in Poland in May 2020. I rigged my Godox AD200 high on a stand at 90° to the camera and scooted the light down the wall. A Scatterflash attachment completed the look.

When I asked Kate to take up her place on the steps I was keen to ensure that I have the ‘Hollywood triangle’ of light on her left cheek. 

I gave the finished image a bit of a ‘look’ in Lightroom using a LUT.

In this Set.A.Light 3D setup I simulated the lighting from above. The Scatterflash is not in the tools in Set.A.Light, but I simulated the effect by using a gobo. You can see that the camera and the light are at an angle of ninety degrees to each other and that the model looks about halfway between the two, so that you get the beautiful Rembrandt triangle.

All images shot with a Fujifilm GFX 50S.

Godox AD1200 Pro and AD300 Pro Location Shoot

A few weeks ago, I had my first post-Corona shoot. With how things are looking Corona-wise, it may very well have been my last shoot for a while, too. The aim was to test the new Godox AD300 Pro and AD1200 Pro and make a video about it for Disnet, the Benelux importer of Godox and other cool lighting gear such as SMDV. After months of inactivity, I was quite nervous. I had arranged – thanks Bruno! – to meet up near the Brussels Congress Column with Nabil and Shana, two dancers from Brussels. Below you can see the flashes - and the dancers - in action in the behind-the-scenes video that photographer and filmmaker Bruno Maes made. The camera I used was my trusted GFX 100.

AD1200 Pro

What can I say? This thing is a monster! Even after four hours of shooting, the battery was still at two thirds! The fact that you have 1200 Ws at your fingertips gives you an incredible amount of creative freedom. Below you will find the main specifications of this powerhouse.

• 5 groups & 32 channels

• High Speed Sync support up to 1 / 8000th of a second

• Optical slave modes

• Normal color temperature mode: 5600 K ± 200 K

• Stable color temperature mode: 5600 K ± 75 ° K

• Powerful 40W LED pilot light

• Bowens mount

• 3,5 meter power cable

• Weight: 8.25 kg including flash head, battery and cable

• 1200 Ws

• fan-cooled head

• 0,01 - 1,9 seconden recycle time

• interchangeable 5200 mAh lithium-ion battery. An optional 2600 mAh battery is available if you want to bring the AD1200 Pro along on a plane (the standard battery is too powerful to bring on a plane)

• Power manually adjustable from 1:1 to 1:256

• TTL / M / Multi

• Second curtain sync, front curtain sync

By the way, AD1200 Pro is not the only Godox solution to use 1200 Ws of power on location. Until now, I used two AD600 flashes with the optional H1200B head. In terms of price, you are close to the AD1200 Pro with this combination. The solution with the H1200B head offers the advantage that you are more flexible because you can also use the two flashes separately in a setup with a main light and a kicker light. However, if you often want to shoot at full power, the AD1200 Pro is more convenient to use and moreover it’s a full second faster in terms of recycling time. It’s also more practical to work with one battery pack than with two AD600 flashes that you stuff in a camera bag: with the H1200B and double AD600 combo, it occasionally happened that one of the units in my bag accidentally got into sleep mode (or ran out of power) and that I was actually only working at half power without realizing it.

The AD1200 Pro has a RRP of € 1,699 including VAT. The only alternative known to me is the Elinchrom ELB 1200, but it costs about double that including flash head.
But you shouldn't buy the AD1200 Pro just for its maximum power. Recycle time and battery life can also be an important factor. The full power recycle time is just under two seconds, but that obviously decreases the less power you need, while the battery lasts longer. The AD1200 Pro comes with a roller case that is very similar in concept to the ThinkTank Airport TakeOff: it can be converted into a backpack if necessary via the two carrying straps hidden in the back panel. With some rearranging, there is even room in the trolley for an AD300 Pro, which immediately brings me to the next flash I used on this shoot.

AD300 Pro

As the new top-of-the-bill in the Godox range, the AD1200 Pro is of course somewhat more of a niche product. Although… It apparently sells so well that it is sold out at most Belgian and Dutch retailers. The AD300 Pro on the other hand has everything to become a real best-seller. It is very compact because it comes standard with Godox's own mount and not with the more popular but larger Bowens mount. However, with the new S2 adapter you can easily make it Bowens-compatible. If you’re looking for a more permanent solution, then there is also an adapter that you screw onto the AD300 Pro. This adapter exists in a Bowens, Profoto, Elinchrom and Broncolor version. Handy if you already have numerous light modifiers for one of those brands.

Because of its compact shape, the AD300 Pro is easy to stow away in a camera bag. The battery allows for more than 300 full power flashes and you can even use AD200 & AD200 Pro batteries in it. The AD300 Pro is not only suitable for portrait photography, I recently used it to take real estate photos. I used to use hotshoe flashes like the V860 II for that, but at almost four times the power, the AD300 Pro lets me work faster, and also makes it easier to use bounce and indirect flash to evenly illuminate a large space. Also handy is the LED pilot light whose color temperature is adjustable between 3000 and 6000 Kelvin.

The ideal travel flash?

Thanks to its compact shape, the AD300 Pro seems to be the ideal travel flash when you want a bit more power than a standard hotshoe flash. In combination with an S65 or S85 Godox Softbox that use the compact Godox Mount, you have a compact mini-studio for a total weight of about two kilos. Personally, I still prefer the twice as powerful, but also much larger and heavier AD600 when traveling. That's partly because I like using even bigger softboxes - and the larger the softbox, the more powerful your light needs to be. However, it is mainly because I teach at travel workshops and I need the extra battery capacity of the AD600 for my students. Also, I normally work with Fujifilm's GFX camera line. These have a sync speed of only 1/125th compared to the 1/250th of most other cameras (for example, the X-T4).

The sync speed has an impact on how powerful your flash must be to make a certain photo. For example, with my X-T4, I can work at 1/250th, ISO 100, f/8. To get the same background exposure, I have to work with my GFX on 1/125th and use f/11. However, that aperture only lets in half the amount of flash light compared to f/8. So I have to use a twice as powerful flash to take the same picture with the GFX as with the X-T4. The slower sync speed is basically costing me a stop of flash power that I need to compensate for by using a more powerful flash. Using HSS is possible, but involves a loss of efficiency, so it is not a solution from an efficiency standpoint.

The 'sync speed problem' arises especially when photographing with flash during the day, in full sun, but that's exactly the time of day I want to use flash, to balance the sun. Moral of the story: with an AD300 Pro and a camera with a 'normal' synchro speed of 1/250th second, you can do quite a lot.

I think Godox have a real winner on their hands with the AD300 Pro.

• Normal color temperature range: 5600 K ± 200 K

• Stable color temperature mode: 5600 K ± 100 ° K

• Bi-color LED pilot light (3000 K - 6000 K)

• Godox mount. Optional Bowens, Profoto, Elinchrom & Broncolor adapters available

• USB Type C port for firmware upgrades

• 3,5 mm sync port for manual sync

• Dimensions: 19 x 9,8 x 8,7cm

• Weight: 1,4 kg including battery

• 300 Ws

• 0,01 - 1,5 second recycle time

• interchangeable 14,4 V / 2600 mAh lithium-ion battery. The AD300 Pro also can use AD200 and AD200 Pro batteries.

• Manual power range from full power to 1:256

• TTL / M / Multi

• Rear curtain sync & front curtain sync

• 5 groups & 32 channels

• High Speed Sync support up to 1 / 8000th of a second

• Optical slave mode

Compatibility

As I have been saying for a few years now, the reason why I use Godox is not only their good value for money but especially because Godox offers a complete eco-system where all flashes, from the tiny TT350 to the 30 times heavier (literally and figuratively) ) AD1200 Pro are mutually compatible and work seamlessly and wirelessly. Moreover, Godox has the widest camera compatibility in the market: there are transmitters for Nikon, Canon, Fujifilm, Olympus / Panasonic, Sony and even Pentax! Only Leica users don’t have a dedicated trigger but if they swear by the available light anyway :-)

Resources:

If you want to get better at off-camera flash, have a look at my PDF ebook Pushing Light: at 200 pages, it teaches you all you need to know to work with flash on location. The deluxe edition comes with three bonus videos and 5 bonus Lightroom presets and is available here for only USD 34.95

The color grading of the images in the video was done with my latest Creative Profiles pack for Lightroom Classic, ACR & Photoshop. It’s available here.

Compagnon Explorer+ Photo Backpack Review

Compagnon Bags are what you could call a ‘boutique bag’ maker. I came across them a couple of years ago at Photokina. I was looking for a bag that I could put my Fujifilm GFX, lenses and accessories in. Compagnon’s then-released Weekender Bag looked like the perfect deal. Normally, Compagnon bags use lots of natural materials like waxed canvas and leather. It makes their bags look more like regular bags instead of photo bags.

Compagnon’s Weekender Bag is the perfect home-away-from-home for my GFX kit.

Now, as lovely as these natural materials are, they are also a bit heavier and sometimes, you just want to keep the weight down. Especially in backpacks. A while ago, Compagnon launched a Kickstarter project in collaboration with Deuter, a big name in the backpacking world. I have been using regular Deuter travel backpacks for years. The result of that project was the Explorer and the Explorer+. Deuter brought their knowhow about carrying comfort to the table and Compagnon added their knowledge about what photographers need in a bag.

Compagnon Explorer+

Curious to see what that love-child would look like, I contacted Compagnon if I could put their bag to the test and they kindly send me a unit. Up until recently, I have been using an F-Stop Loka UL. That is still a backpack I highly recommend if you want a really lightweight backpack, but since I’ve been using the Fujifilm GFX system, the Loka UL is a bit too small – it especially lacks depth – and the padding of the straps is not soft enough to carry a heavy load for any prolonged period of time.

The Explorer+ somewhat disrespectfully used as a sandbag to weigh down my light stand…

… and the resulting portrait :-)

I’ve been using the Explorer+ on my last two trips to Ethopia and Kolkata and I really love the bag! At 2.2 kilograms, it’s still relatively light, especially given its volume of approximately 25 liters (+ 12 liters in the rolltop) and its carrying comfort. And what I like best is that it’s fairly deep, so it has no problem with big camera bodies like the GFX 100. It can even hold a Godox AD600 Pro flash! With airlines checking your carry-on weight more and more, the actual weight of the bag is becoming increasingly important. It’s the reason I stopped using roller bags when flying because those bags will often weigh five kilograms… empty. Put in a camera and a lens and you’re technically already overweight :-) A backpack also has the advantage that, once arrived at your travel destination, you can continue to use it on the streets.

Ethiopia, Omo Valley. Portrait of a young Hamar girl carrying water. Fujifilm GFX 100, Godox AD600, SMDV Alpha 110 Softbox, Godox AD400 Pro, SMDV Speedbox 70.

Have a look inside my portable flash photography studio!

In the video below, I show you how I set up the Explorer+ backpack as a portable flash photography studio and I walk you through why I like it and I also show you how a small modification can make it even better!

The full specs of the bag can be found on Compagnon’s website, so I won’t be repeating them here. I’m looking forward to exploring other parts of the world with the Explorer+ and I’m also going back to Ethiopia with it later this year. If you feel like joining me, check out this page!

Ethiopia, Mursi girl. Fujifilm GFX 100, Godox AD600, SMDV Alpha 110 Softbox.

Kolkata. Rickshaw wallah on a chai break. Fujifilm GFX 50S, Godox AD600, SMDV Alpha 70 Speedbox.

Kolkata: A sadhu photographed with the iconic Howrah bridge as a backdrop. Fujifilm GFX 100, Godox AD200 Pro, SMDV Alpha 110 Softbox.

i always like it when a company listens to their users. It’s one of the reasons why I like working with Fujifilm so much, and also with Compagnon. Along with a couple of other users, I had told them that I thought the roll-top compartment needed an extra way of securing it in addition to only the buckle and low and behold: their next backpack, the Element, which is currently on Kickstarter.com, along with two sling bags, will have a velcro strip to seal off the roll-top compartment.

I’m looking forward to putting the Element through its paces as well and comparing it to the Explorer+.

Disclaimer: I’m a brand ambassador for Compagnon Bags. As such, Compagnon will occasionally send me a bag to review. Given the fact that I have a zillion other bags in my closet, the real test for me is: ‘Do I keep using the bag after I’ve reviewed it or do I send it back?’ In this case, it looks like I’ll be using the Compagnon Explorer+ for quite a few trips to come, as I really like it, especially with the small modification that I talk about in the video.

33 reasons why the Fujifilm GF 32-64 should be in every travel photographer's gear bag...

Recently, my friend Damien Lovegrove published a gallery with work he’d made with the GF 32-64. Just as is the case with Damien, the 32-64 is also one of my favourite GFX lenses. Yet, quite a number of GFX owners tend to dismiss this versatile zoom lens because of its volume and weight (875 grams). They prefer prime lenses like the 45 (490 grams) or the 63 (405 grams). But when you think of the 32-64 as 33 prime lenses in one, all of a sudden it’s not that big or bulky anymore :-) I love having that flexibility from wide angle (32 is about 25 mm in full-frame terms) to standard lens (63 corresponds to about 50 mm). The first is great for environmental portraiture - for which I find the 45 mm prime often not wide enough - and the latter corresponds more to a regular field of view. In fact, 90 percent of my images are shot with either this lens or the 110 and this combo is one I’d recommend to any travel photographer using the GFX and wanting to combine flexibility with portability.

At its wide extreme, the GF 32-64 is great for environmental portraits…

… al while giving you the flexibility to zoom in to 64 mm.

So, I decided to follow Damien’s example but with a twist: here’s a gallery for you with 33 travel images taken with the 32-64 at each of its individual focal length settings. In full disclosure, I allowed myself to round up or down to the nearest integer :-) Obviously, there’s not a noticeable difference between a shot made at 44 or 46 mm, but the difference between 32 and 64 clearly shows in terms of compression, perspective and so on. And sometimes, being able to go as wide as 32 mm was crucial, because I could not back up any further to get everything in the shot that I wanted to. So, another way of looking at the 32-64 is having two primes and 31 options in between, all in one lens :-)

32 mm

Sadhu on the Ganges, Varanasi

33 mm

Sadhu, Varanasi

34 mm

Girl carrying grass, Ethiopia

35 mm

Early morning in Varanasi

36 mm

At the vegetable market in Varanasi

37 mm

Girl at temple, Varanasi

38 mm

Rickshaw puller on a chai break, Kolkata

39 mm

Wrestling school, Varanasi

40 mm

Farmer overlooking his herd, Mongolia

41 mm

Dhobi wallahs, Varanasi

42 mm

Eagle hunters, Mongolia

43 mm

Children playing a local game, Konso, Ethiopia

44 mm

Taxi driver, Kolkata

45 mm

Near the flower market. Kolkata

46 mm

Warming body and spirit, Mongolia

47 mm

Flower market, Varanasi

48 mm

Rickshaw wallahs, Kolkata

49 mm

Eagle hunters, Mongolia

50 mm

Dancing in Delhi

51 mm

Sadhu, Varanasi

52 mm

Medicine men, Ethiopia

53 mm

Monks, Mongolia

54 mm

Eagle hunter, Mongolia

55 mm

Sadhu and taxi driver, Kolkata

56 mm

Eagle hunters, Mongolia

57 mm

Hamar village, Ethiopia

58 mm

Wrestling school, Varanasi

59 mm

Market life, Ethiopia

60 mm

Screentime, Old Delhi

61 mm

Sadhu, Varanasi

62 mm

Ganges life, Varanasi

63 mm

Boy near Nizamuddin, Old Delhi

64 mm

Men washing clothes in the Ganges, Varanasi

Of course, some will point out, you also lose a stop of light. That’s indeed a factor to consider. As I’m shooting primarily in rather sunny conditions, I tend not to worry too much about this. A stop less of light also means a little less possibility to blur the background in your images, but honestly, at these focal lengths, the difference isn’t that noticeable, I think, and for me doesn’t outweigh the flexibility advantage. And if I want super shallow depth of field, I just use the 110 mm, aka the bokeh monster and stitch a panorama with it to get a wider field of view.

Also, I love the fact that I only have to switch lenses between this zoom and the 110. Changing lenses on a GFX in the field is more difficult because of the size of the lenses: it’s hard to do single-handedly.

Now, having said all of the above… If Fujifilm ever produces a 30 mm f/2 prime, I’d probably walk to Japan to pick up a copy :-)

Panorama shot with the 110 mm f/2 and stitched in Lightroom to give a broad field of view and a shallow depth of field.

All of these images were edited in Lightroom and/or Photoshop, often with my Creative Profiles Starter Pack or my Power Presets Pack. So they’re not straight-out-of-camera files. In fact, the gigantic dynamic range (and therefore tremendous postprocessing options) of the GFX is one of the main reasons I love working with that camera. You can do just about anything with these files! In a lot of images, flash was used. In fact, I prefer taking only two lenses and a flash than more lenses at the expense of having to leave my flash gear at home. In my ebook ‘Light It Up!’, I explain all you need to know to produce these kinds of images yourself.

Learn to make travel portraits like these using flash with this 200 page ebook. The Deluxe version comes with three bonus videos!

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The Steampunk Sessions, part 1

I’m connected to a lot of photographers on Facebook from all over the world. And as much as I like these virtual interactions, I like it even more when I get the chance to meet one of these Facebook friends in real life. This happened last week with David. David’s a Belgian photographer who lives in Thailand most of the year. He’s an amazing travel photographer and he popped over to Belgium for a couple of weeks. So we decided to go on a shoot together. I like doing these kinds of spontaneous, last-minute freestyle shoots with other photographers because I think we can all learn from each other.

Steampunk @ the factory

I love shooting in abandoned factories and lately, I’ve been into photographing steampunkers, too. These two subjects are a match made in heaven. So I called up Major TC Theodoricus, one of Belgium’s most passionate steampunkers and we all met up in an old paper factory about an hour’s drive from where I live. Another friend, Frank, came along to make some BTS shots.

Gear-wise, I brought the Fujifilm GFX 50S, the GF 110 mm, GF 32-64 mm and the GF 23 mm. As for lights, I packed my three trusted Godox AD600B flashes, my SMDV Alpha 110 gridded softbox and my two Nicefoto strip lights, which have become an essential part of my lighting kit. Last noteworthy item was my Scotty II portable smoke machine. No steampunk shoot should happen without a smoke machine :-)

I was immediately struck by the vast hall with the cast iron pillars and thought they’d make great compositional elements in the frame. Now I’m a slow shooter and I prefer to get a couple of images that I’m really happy with.

In total, I got seven images I like in about five hours of shooting.

That’s actually a nice harvest for me. Here’s the first two in this blog post. With a dramatic subject and a dramatic backdrop like this, I think the lighting and the postprocessing needs to be dramatic, too. So I used a cross lighting setup and I positioned my main light in a way that The Major would be short-lit. I also wanted a moody, atmosphere so although I could have made the entire scene a lot brighter (I was only at 1/32nd power on the flashes), I went for a low-key look.

As you can see from this setup shot, there are two more lights in this shot: one strip light to the left of The Major, just out of frame and a second one behind him, pointed at the steel pillar. I did that to make the lighting more coherent. Apart from editing out the softbox on the right and adding the flame coming out of the gun in Photoshop, the complete styling and color-grading was done in Lightroom, using the profiles in my Creative Profiles Starter Pack.

This ebook teaches you all you need to know to make dramatically lit images like the ones in this blog post.

The Fujifilm GFX, the ideal camera for this sort of work

Two things I love most about the GFX are the incredible dynamic range, which lets me do quite nice things in postproduction as you can see from the before & after above, and the resolution. In fact, this is a 16:9 crop from the 4:3 original and it is still over 36 megapixel! Having more flexibility in choosing your aspect after the fact is also one of the reasons I’m secretly already lusting for the GFX 100S…

Here’s a 1:1 crop in Lightroom. The detail of the GFX is simply amazing. I just love that camera.

Smoking gun

I personally like the version with the understated gunfire best, but I also played around with a more extreme version, as you can see below. Adding fire like that is simpler than you might think. I used an image from Adobe Stock. If the fire’s been photographed on a black background, in Photoshop, just change the blending mode of the layer to Screen, and you’re good. If you still see some artefacts around the fire, that’s a telltale sign that the background isn’t pure black. Just add a Levels adjustment and click with the black eyedropper on the black of the flame’s background to turn it completely black and in the Screen blending mode, the black will magically vanish!

The image above was shot with the 23 mm, which corresponds to an 18 mm on a fullframe camera. That’s a super wide lens so it takes in a lot of the environment. However, because of it being so wide, and having a relatively slow maximum aperture of f/4, it’s difficult to use shallow depth of field to separate your subject from the background. That’s why I also brought the 110, the bokeh monster of the GF lens lineup.

In the image below, I stitched a couple of vertical shots I took with the GF 110 wide open at f/2 into a panorama using Photoshop. I then colorgraded the image in Lightroom. If you’re on a fullframe camera system, try using an 85 mm 1.4 or 1.8. If you’re on a crop camera, try something like a 50 mm 1.4 or, in the case of Fujifilm, the 56 1.2.

With the GFX, I tend to underexpose more than I used to because there’s so much leeway in bringing up shadow detail.

The result is an image with a wide angle of view but at the same time the super shallow depth of field of a portrait lens. And as a bonus, you get an even crazier resolution. The image below is a whopping 10.860 x 8.145 pixels! That’s almost the resolution of the upcoming GFX 100S!

Fujifilm GFX 50S | GF110mmF2 R LM WR @ 110 mm | 1/125 sec. @ f/2 | ISO 250

Again, other than the merging of the panorama which I had to do in Photoshop because it offers more control, the entire look of the image was created in Lightroom. Below is a 1:1 screenshot.

The controlled lighting and the super shallow depth of field really make the subject stand out from the background.

That’s it for this blog post. If you live in or near Belgium, speak Dutch and you’d like to photograph The Major yourself, you might be interested in the next edition of the Epic Steampunk Workshop, which is held on March 8, 2019. More information here (in Dutch). Ticket sales start January 31, 8 PM Brussels time. Below’s a 90 second impression of that workshop.

Also, don’t forget that until the end of January, you can save 25% on my brand new ‘Learn Lightroom Classic in 2.5 hours’ video course. Check it out here.

Save 25% on my new Lightroom Classic Tutorial:

left to save 25% on my new ‘Learn Lightroom Classic in 2.5 hours’ course AND score a bonus set of 10 Creative Profiles

My GFX 50R Review

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to test drive a preproduction model of the GFX 50R in Ethiopia. My buddy and fellow X-Photographer Matt Brandon came with me and documented our trip for a short video that will be released later. But because the shipping date of the GFX 50R is getting nearer, and because I get a lot of questions from people what it was like shooting the camera and if they should get it or rather the GFX 50S, I decided to make this video review.

3 disclaimers:

1. I’m a Fujifilm X Photographer and a Fujifilm ambassador so I’m probably not the most neutral judge. But on the other hand, I became an ambassador because I love the quality of the Fujifilm cameras. I have been shooting with them for almost seven years now, starting with the X-Pro 1. After trying out the GFX 50S in India, I bought one myself and I would not have done that if I did not love the system and believe in its potential.

2. All the images you’ll see in the video have been processed (many of them with my Lightroom Creative Profiles Starter Pack). They are not straight out of camera images. As much as I love the Fujifilm film simulations, for me they’re just a starting point. I love processing images, in fact I probably love it even more than actually making them. Through my processing, I try to convey the way the scene felt to me when I was there. In fact, one of the reasons I love the GFX system so much, is because these files can take a beating in postproduction. The dynamic range is stellar and the sharpness of the lenses incredible. I can do just about anything with a GFX50 raw file. In Lightroom! I love having that amount of flexibility.

3. Other than the fact that the GFX 50R has a 50 megapixel, 33 x 44 mm sensor inside, I won’t bother you with other technical specs. You can find those on the Fujifilm website.

So, with that in mind, here’s my review. I suggest you only watch it if you have some money to spend, because chances are you’ll either want a 50R or a 50S by the end of the video… Don’t say I did not warn you :-) I have included some sample images but the poor compression really does not do them much justice. If you have any questions or remarks, hit me in the comments.

By the way, this was also a scouting trip for a new photo workshop on location lighting and portraiture in Ethiopia. We’re currently working out the details for a 2019 trip. If you want to know more about that, sign up for the newsletter and you’ll be the first to hear. As a thank you for signing up, you’ll also get a set of 10 free Lightroom presets.

As you may have noticed in the video, I use a lot of flash in my travel images. I like the way how flash can amplify, modify or sometimes even downright overpower the available light and let me create my own lighting rather than having to deal with what the climate gods decide to throw at me on any given day - which in Ethiopia is a glaring, way too contrasty sun from early morning until late in the evening. If you want to learn more about using flash on location, have a look at my Light It Up! ebook: it’s loaded with advice on how to use flash for travel and location portraiture.

Fujifilm GFX 50R | GF32-64mmF4 R LM WR @ 64 mm | 1/125 sec @ f/8 | ISO 100

Fujifilm GFX 50R | GF32-64mmF4 R LM WR @ 32 mm | 1/500 sec @ f/8 | ISO 200

And here is a 1:1 crop of that image:

Special thanks to…

Special thanks to Fujifilm Belgium and Fujifilm Japan, Matt Brandon, Billy, Jan and the entire team at Starling travel and their Ethiopian counterpart for organising this trip. Also thanks to Lacie, Compagnon and Godox importer Disnet for providing us with some of the essential other tools we needed to make this trip happen. Could not have done it without all of you!

Location portraiture with the SMDV Mega 180 Speedbox and the Fujifilm GFX - part 2

In the previous blog post, I introduced you to the SMDV Speedbox Mega 180. I took it for a spin - and if it had been any windier, it would have taken me for a spin - in the city of Ghent, Belgium, where I live. We made about 5 different set-ups in a little over two hours time because our talented dancer Lana had to be back home in time for rehearsals! When you’re a bit in a rush, you don’t want to spend half of whatever time you have setting up your lights. In part 1, I showed you that I managed to set up the Mega 180 in under a minute - quite a feat for a softbox this size and that has everything to do with its design and not with my two left hands :-) In the video below, you see us creating the first shot. I call this my ‘warming up shots’. It’s a safe shot that technically isn’t too challenging and we made it in a quiet area. This allows for the model, the team and myself to get to know each other and get in the flow of things, without too many tourists looking along. It’s also reassuring to have at least one useable shot right from the get-go.

The essential guide to working with small and big flashes on location. This ebook will show you all you need to know to create killer flash images.

One of the things I love about this SMDV Mega 180 is that it creates super soft light, even for full-length portraits. I even helped it a bit, by putting it in the frame and then masking it out afterwards, a technique I’m using more and more.

Below, you can see a high-speed behind-the-scenes video of the actual shoot and the retouching. I was shooting on the GF23 on my trusted Fujifilm GFX 50S because I wanted to take in the entire castle. But working with such a wide angle caused a bit of distortion on her left arm and hand, which is why you’ll see me use the Liquify tool in Photoshop. The colour grading is done through one of my Creative Profiles for Lightroom Classic CC, Photoshop CC 2018 and Camera Raw.

The Fujifilm GFX 50S is my favourite camera ever. You can do just about anything with the files that come out of it. The potential for shadow recovery without noise is amazing. If you don’t believe me, check out this blog post, where I recuperate a four-stop underexposed image… But be warned. I’ve know at least one photographer personally who bought a GFX after reading that blog post :-)

The GFX has made me slow down and work on a tripod more. This is my Sirui Traveller T2204-XL. You can also see me use the right-angle finder on my camera. I love that accessory. I’m wearing a Spider Holster and the GFX has a Spider plate with an Arca Swiss compatible base plate. It makes me look like a bit like Robocop but I’m past the desire of looking fashionable when I’m shooting. I’ll leave that to my models :-) Image © Frank Verheye.

A Postcard from Mongolia, Part 2

Previously on the blog: in April this year, travel photographer Matt Brandon, yours truly and a select group of adventurous photographers, accompanied by an expert team of guides and photographic fixers, embarked on a photographic journey to Mongolia. Our aim was to do people and location scouting and set an itinerary for a new Mongolia photo workshop that will take place in the first half of 2019. In the first postcard in this series, you could already get a glimpse of one of the highlights of this and next year's trip: an extensive visit to the world famous Eagle Hunters. In this second postcard, I've got some more Eagle Hunter shots for you, including some behind-the-scenes pictures and explanations on how some of these images were made.

The Bayan-Öglii Airport. It had been a while since I had flown in a propeller plane. Fujifilm X-H1 | XF16mmF1.4 R WR | 1/220 @ f/11 | ISO 200

Quite cosy, those orange curtains in our Russian 4 x 4 Forgon minivans! I wouldn't mind having a mobile office like this - bar maybe the fuel consumption!

The Eagle Hunters live in a hard to reach region in Western Mongolia. The choice between a three and a half hour flight or two and a half days of being tossed around in a car was quickly made. Not that we entirely escaped being the tossing part: from the airport to our final destination - a custom built gher (tent) camp - it was another three hours in those photogenic (and frankly more comfortable than expected) Russian 4 x 4 Forgon vehicles. We had access to a family of Eagle Hunters for four full days. This gave us ample time not only to get to know them, but also to photograph them both indoors and outdoors, at various times of the day and in various locations, as you'll see below. We've already told them we'll be back next year! 

Eagle Hunter Silou and his four year old eagle Tirnek. As long as the eagle has his protective leather cap on, which is beautifully adorned, by the way, he is generally quiet... 

Fujifilm GFX 50S | GF32-64mmF4 R LM WR @ 54.6 mm | 1/30 @ f/5.6 | ISO 200

... but when the cap is taken off, he wants to spread his wings from time to time. Luckily, Silou doesn't budge. He's used to more than that...

Fujifilm GFX 50S | GF32-64mmF4 R LM WR @ 47.3 mm | 1/60 @ f/5 | ISO 400

Below is a close up of one of the family's eagles. Here you can see how exquisitely decorated the caps are. I used the 110 mm f/2.0 GF lens for the GFX, which I had purchased specifically for this trip. I know, excuses, excuses :-) At f/2, the depth of field is razor-thin, comparable to f/1.4 on an 85 mm fullframe lens. That's why on this shot, I opted to work at f/4, to buy me some margin.

Fujifilm GFX 50S | GF110mmF2 R LM WR | 1/1000 @ f/4 | ISO 100

The camera gear used on this trip: a Fujifilm GFX with three lenses (not to scale): the GF23mmF4 R LM WR, GF110mmF2 R LM WR and GF32-64mmF4 R LM WR.

I consider myself a wide-angle shooter and up to now, the 32-64 was by far my most used lens on the GFX. Yet, the 110 mm lens definitely changed the statistics on this trip, much to my own surprise...

Fujifilm GFX 50S | GF110mmF2 R LM WR @ 110 mm | 1/4000 @ f/2 | ISO 100

The first day, we photographed Silou and his son Ayu in the neighbourhood of our camp site. When you've got an important subject to photograph, you don't want to waste time prepping everything when they're already on set. That's why we often use a stand-in to try out poses and lighting. In the image below, you see Matt taking on this role. And no, he doesn't have a broken arm... he's just pretending he's carrying an eagle!

Although it was only spring, there was an enormous amount of light - almost more than in India, it felt. Because of that, our trusted Godox AD600 pretty much had to work on full power all of the time. Although it held up well, next year we're probably going to bring the AD600 Pro because of its much faster recycle time at full power: 1 second versus almost three! The image of Matt also shows you another trick I often use when I need to squeeze more light out of my flash, and that I also cover in my Light It Up! ebook on off-camera location flash. I just let the flash enter the frame. As long as it doesn't cover anything important or anything that has much fine detail, the softbox can generally easily be removed with Photoshop's Content-Aware Fill. Especially when you're working in High-Speed Sync (this particular image was made at 1/4000 of a second) and therefore you're losing a lot of flash power, this technique can make the difference between a well-exposed and an underexposed image.

Matt as a stand-in for the real talent: the Eagle Hunter!

Fujifilm GFX 50S | GF32-64mmF4 R LM WR @ 36.2 mm | 1/4000 @ f/4,0 | ISO 400

As there was also considerable wind, our drivers came up with the brilliant idea to park two of the Forgons in a V-shape, creating a windbreaker. This made it easier to aim the SMDV Alpha 110 softbox at our model and get consistent light on them.

I already introduced you to Silou's son Ayu and his eagle Ana in the first part of this series. Below you see some more images of them. In order to waste less flash power, I worked at the sync speed of the GFX (1/125th of a second) and I used a six stop ND filter by Formatt-Hitech to keep my aperture wide open. The result is that at 1/125th, the action isn't completely frozen but in this case I don't mind. On the contrary, I think it actually shows the interaction between the Eagle and the Hunter better and I like the contrast between the sharp beak and the motion-blurred wings.

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Normally, I'm a wide-angle fan, but the 110 mm is such a fantastic lens that I used it a lot more than I expected to. Above are two more 110 mm shots. Below is a comparable image, shot with the 32-64 (comparable to a 25-50 zoom lens on a fullframe camera). The feeling is different. Not better or worse, I think, just different.

After this introductory shoot, the next days we wanted to include the ruggedly beautiful Mongolian landscape in our shots as well. For someone like me who lives in one of the most densely populated countries in the world, the vastness of Mongolia is simply impressive. For the image below, we climbed up a rocky hill about half an hour's drive from the camp. This website and the compressed JPG images don't do the GFX's fine detail justice, but on my monitor, they're so sharp I could shave myself!

Below you see a couple of full-size 1:1 crops at 2,500 x 2,500 pixels. Click on a miniature to see the crop at full-size. The eagle looks slightly unsharp, but that's because of the motion blur caused by the 1/125th shutter speed.

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One of the unique aspects of this workshop, compared to others, is that we use a lot of flash (and we obviously share not only our expertise but also our gear with our workshop attendees). Especially with high-texture subjects like Eagle Hunters with fur coats sitting on rocks, the flash light, when used from the right angle, helps to bring out so much more detail and punch, regardless of the camera brand and type you're using.  

The Sirui XL Traveler extends all the way up to 160 cm if necessary.

In this image, I deliberately let the softbox enter the frame to get more light and to also make my light as soft as possible. I had put my camera on my trusted Sirui Traveller tripod and made a second image without the softbox in the frame, so that I could combine both in Photoshop into the final image you see above. In order to get a similar image in-camera, I would have had to put my light twice as far, which would have required four times the power (that's the Inverse Square Law working against you). On top of that, putting the light further away would have caused it to be relatively smaller and therefore would have created harder shadows. Getting similarly soft shadows would have required an even bigger softbox, which in turn would demand a more powerful flash. Since the wind was blowing so vehemently at the top of this ridge, it was already quite an achievement that we managed to keep the 110 cm SMDV Alpha in place without going kite-surfing!

The SMDV Alpha 110 softbox and the Godox AD600 portable battery-powered studio flash are my favourite heavy-duty lighting items when traveling.

On shoots like these, I also try to photograph people when they're less camera-aware. The pictures below have the otherwise strong looking Silou actually smiling! These images were also made with the 110 mm.

Fujifilm GFX 50S | GF110mmF2 R LM WR | 1/250 @ f/9 | ISO 100

Fujifilm GFX 50S | GF110mmF2 R LM WR | 1/250 @ f/9 | ISO 100

From one extreme to the other: for the photo below, I used the 23 mm GF lens (comparable to an 18 mm fullframe) and I went flat on my belly to make the eagle look even more impressive than he already is. The downside is that the mountains look less impressive this way, too.

Fujifilm GFX 50S | GF23mmF4 R LM WR | 1/125 @ f/13 | ISO 100

Normally, Eagle Hunters travel by horse, which is how we photographed them the next day. Below is one of my favourite images from the trip: Silou and his son on their horses, dominating the impressive landscape behind them. This location will also be on next year's agenda, unless... our fixers come up with something even more spectacular!

Fujifilm GFX 50S | GF32-64mmF4 R LM WR @ 56.5 mm | 1/125 @ f/ 13 | ISO 100

One of the default crop options you find in the GFX, is 65 x 24. This is a tribute to the X-Pan aspect ratio. Obviously, you could crop any image from any camera to this aspect ratio in Lightroom or Photoshop, but the nice thing about the in-camera-crop of the GFX is that you can actually see it in the viewfinder and... you still retain approximately 24 megapixel images. Furthermore, if you shoot RAW, you can always change your mind (and your crop) later on.

Fujifilm GFX 50S | GF110mmF2 R LM WR | 1/4000 @ f/4 | ISO 200

This may sound strange, coming from someone who's a true flash-aficionado, but one of the more important lessons of working with flash is probably knowing... when not to use it. Originally, I had the plan of photographing this sunset shoot with flash, but it looked really artificial. So I decided to let the ambient light do its magic and shoot into the available light.

Fujifilm GFX 50S | GF32-64mmF4 R LM WR @ 42.5 mm | 1/125 @ f/22 | ISO 400

On our last day, we were invited to have dinner at Silou's place, together with his family. This experience also involved quite a number of vodka shots that kind of got in the way of shooting...  Luckily, just moments before, we had the occasion to photograph what might possibly become the next generation of Eagle Hunters...

Fujifilm GFX 50S | GF32-64mmF4 R LM WR @ 44.9 mm | 1/500 @ f/8 | ISO 200

This picture also officially wraps up these two blog posts dedicated to the Eagle Hunters. However, we also photographed our fair share of monks, herders, nomads and other photogenic people on the second part of the trip and I tried a couple of Brenizer panorama's with the GFX. More about that in the soon to be published part three of this series. 

Want to join us next year in Mongolia? Subscribe to the newsletter via this link (or update your preferences) to be amongst the first to hear when we've finalised the details.

All images on this website © Piet Van den Eynde, unless otherwise noted.

A Postcard from Mongolia, Part 1

Matt Brandon and I have just returned home from teaching our first ever photo workshop in Mongolia and boy what an unforgettable experience it has been! We're already scheming a second edition in the first half of 2019 (sign up for my newsletter if you want to be notified) but while we're finalising those details, here's a couple of my favourites from this first edition.

Fujifilm GFX 50S | GF23mmF4 R LM WR | 1/125 @ f/11 | ISO 100

Our tour kicked off in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia's capital, and home to half of the country's population of 3 million. One of the must-sees is the Soviet Zaisan monument, situated on top of a hill overlooking the city. As luck (or rather our highly talented team of fixers) would have it, a couple of retired army colonels happened to drop by.

Fujifilm GFX 50S | GF23mmF4 R LM WR | 1/500 @ f/8 | ISO 100

From the capital of Ulaanbaatar (UB for friends), we took an early morning flight to the town of Ölgii, near the border with China and Russia. From there, it was another 3 hours in those highly photogenic ex-Russian military 4x4 Forgon minivans to our gher (tent) camp. We were now in the region of the impressive Altai mountains, home to one of the tour's highlights: the famous eagle hunters.

Fujifilm GFX 50S | GF32-64mmF4 R LM WR @ 54.6 mm | 1/30 sec @ f/5.6 | ISO 200

The image above portrays eagle hunter Silou and his four year old eagle Tirnek, photographed inside a gher. 

Fujifilm GFX 50S | GF110mmF2 R LM WR @ 110 mm | 1-125 at f/4 | ISO 400

To give our workshop participants as much shooting time and variation as possible, we will often try to arrange two subjects. Luckily for us, eagle hunting is a tradition that is passed on from father to son. In the image above, you can see Silou's son Ayu holding up his two year old eagle Ana. These birds can easily weigh up to 8 kilograms, something he only told us after patiently holding his arm up for minutes! I used my Fujifilm 110 mm GF f/2 portrait lens for this image. This lens roughly corresponds to an 85 mm f/1.4 on a full-frame camera system. By choosing a low shooting position, I made the eagle hunter and his eagle look even more impressive than they already are. Including some out-of-focus foreground helped to add extra depth to the photo. A Godox AD600 with an SMDV 110 softbox was used to reign in the harsh Mongolian midday sun. Postprocessing was done with one of the presets from my free Lightroom Freesets package (sign up for the newsletter to claim your copy).

In the image below, you see Silou's other son Berikjan with his eagle Tastulek putting up quite a show for us!

Eagle hunting may be a beautiful and photogenic tradition, it does not feed a large family. In his everyday life, Silou and his family are farmers. Below you see the same Berikjan with one of the family's camels. In the background, the other camels are taking advantage of the situation to quietly wander off. Luckily, our herder has a motorcycle to quickly bring order into chaos. Watching Mongolian herders herding their cattle while navigating their motorcycles through the rough terrain is an impressive sight!

Fujifilm GFX 50S | GF23mmF4 R LM WR @ 23 mm | 1/125 @ f /18 | ISO 100

Photographically speaking, this image was lit with my 'two lights for the price of one' technique. This consists of using the strong sunlight as a rim light and filling in the shadows with flash. This gives a dramatic, 3D feel to the image which can further be enhanced by putting the flash slightly behind the subject, pointing back at him or her. Combined with the right position of the subject's face, this lighting scheme will predominantly light the far away side of the face, leaving the larger part that is closest to camera in the shade, except for a small triangle under the closest eye. This lighting style is called short lighting and its one of my preferred lighting styles. If you want to learn all about off-camera flash, check out the just released second edition of my ebook Light It Up. You can save 10% with code light10.

That's it for now. I'm still working through dozens of more Mongolia images in Lightroom and I'll be back when I have some more to show you. Talk soon!

Rock the Cashback: great deals on the Fujifilm GFX and GF lenses

I've been shooting for almost one year with the Fujifilm GFX now and it has become my favourite camera of all times. Especially now that more and more lighting manufacturers are already offering full High-Speed Sync flash support (e.g. Godox) or have announced that they will (e.g. Profoto). If you've been on the fence about buying one, now might very well be the time because Fujifilm Europe has launched what is probably the best cashback deal on the GFX and the GF lens lineup so far. Even the just-released GF45 and the also fairly recent GF23 are included. The cashback started yesterday and lasts until January 15th, 2018. It's a direct cashback at the store, so no need to fill out any annoying online forms and wait for your money back. It's deducted right at the counter. The cashback varies from 300 € to 1300 €. Hey, that money buys you some nice lights to go with your GFX :-)

Here are the numbers (all including 21 % Belgian VAT, Recommended Retail Prices)

• GFX + 63 mm: 1300 € cashback. Price after cashback: 7298 €
• GFX + 32-64 mm: 1300 € cashback. Price after cashback: 8198 €
• GFX + 120 mm: 1300 € cashback. Price after cashback: 8598 €
• GFX + 110 mm: 1300 € cashback. Price after cashback: 8698 €
• GFX + 23 mm: 1300 € cashback. Price after cashback: 8498 €
• GFX + 45 mm: 1300 € cashback. Price after cashback: 7498 €
• 63 mm lens only: 350 € cashback. Price after cashback: 1249 €
• 32-64 mm lens only: 550 € cashback. Price after cashback: 1949 €
• 120 mm lens only: 640 € cashback. Price after cashback: 2259 €
• 110 mm lens only: 660 € cashback. Price after cashback: 2339 €
• 23 mm lens only: 620 € cashback. Price after cashback: 2179 €
• 45 mm only: 300 € cashback. Price after cashback: 1499 €

Still in doubt? Here's two videos of the GFX in action. One by me, using a prototype back in November 2016 in Varanasi and one by Tom Museeuw, in which he uses a confetti blaster to cover his model with cocoa powder. I've chosen these two because they show just what a versatile camera the GFX is: from the alleyways of Varanasi to a studio environment: it captures life in all it's fine colours and details. You might also want to check out my Fujifilm GFX review and the blog post called 'No Flash? No Problem' in which I show you what you can do with a 5 stop underexposed image.

Finally, Fujifilm have also announced a 24 month lease plan for the GFX camera at 0% interest. Check with your Fujifilm GFX dealer for more info.

No flash? No problem! Lightroom and the Fujifilm GFX.

At the Photo Days photographic trade show in Brussels this weekend, I had the honour of doing some GFX studio demos with two lovely and very talented models: Rosalinde Kikstra and Sooraj Subramaniam. I had a number of Godox flashes and modifiers set up and I'll post some images later of those results but the image that probably underlines the GFX's fantastic capabilities the most was one I made by accident: on one of the shots in a Black and White portrait series, I had misaligned the trigger so the flashes did not fire. All I got was a heavily underexposed ambient exposure shot.

FUJIFILM GFX 50S | GF120mmF4 R LM OIS WR Macro @ 120 mm | 1/125 sec @ f/5.6 | ISO 400

So, in front of a live audience, I said, jokingly... let's try and see what we can make out of this... I increased the Exposure slider by almost 5 stops (the maximum in Lightroom), dragged a couple of other sliders around and half a minute later got this result... 

FUJIFILM GFX 50S | GF120mmF4 R LM OIS WR Macro @ 120 mm | 1/125 sec @ f/5.6 | ISO 400

Here's the two of them side by side in the Lightroom interface.

And below is a 1:1 crop. I added 25 Luminance Noise Reduction in Lightroom and of course there is still some noise but considering the fact that my ISO wasn't even at the base of 100 but at 400, I think the result is nothing short of fantastic...

For me, the takeaway from this accidental experiment is that if Lightroom and the GFX can do this on a completely underexposed file, imagine what you can do with a halfway decent exposure. Just about anything, I guess...

Oh... and just for the sake of being complete... here's the actual image with the flashes firing :-)

FUJIFILM GFX 50S | GF120mmF4 R LM OIS WR Macro @ 120 mm | 1/125 sec @ f/5.6 | ISO 400

The Fujfilm GFX Files, Part 2 - More videos

A video interview with about the GFX and the accessories I used in India

As you could read in part 1, I have been using the brand new Fujifilm GFX in India and Belgium for a couple of weeks. I also made a 3 minute video about it for Fujifilm. Well actually, I did not make that video: fellow X-Photographers Matt Brandon (www.thedigitaltrekker.com) and Serge Van Cauwenbergh (www.fotografieblog.be) filmed it - entirely with X-T2 cameras by the way - and Matt also edited it. In case you haven't seen it yet, here's that video:

On the way back from Varanasi to Delhi, Matt interviewed me about the GFX, but also about some of the other accessories we have been using, like the SMDV BRiHT 360 and the SMDV Speedbox 85 that you can see me use extensively in the video. We also talk about using monopods and tripods and how to back up images like this while traveling. You can check out the video interview on Matt's site. There's some cool 100 percent close-ups of shots!

Check out my video interview here.

More GFX Challenge videos

If you haven't overdosed on GFX news by now, here are the latest GFX Challenge videos that Fujifilm have released:

Ollvier Wehrli - Switzerland

Watching Oliver's beautifully filmed video gave me vertigo. I guess I'm not cut out to be a landscape photographer!

Joshua Loh - Singapore

Joshua Loh appreciates the small form factor and fast focusing capabilities of the GFX. I also take away from the video that I really need a Mercedes SLS to complement the GFX... That car features in no less than three GFX Challenge videos :-)

Supalerk Narubetkraisee (Thailand)

Supalerk also lauds the universal nature of the GFX and has a couple of really nice star trail photos in his video.

Shiro Hagihara (Japan)

Shiro - like me - appreciates the EVF which lets him decide on exposure and color without having to take his eye off the viewfinder. He loves the Velvia simulation for his landscape work. He says the GFX lets him capture details that even his eyes could not see.

Saiichi Nakmura

Saiichi's work involves still life photography with water. The video offers an interesting view into his studio set-up. He praises the quality of the CMOS sensor and the standard 4:3 aspect ratio which he finds better suited for commercial use.

Jonas Rask and Palle Schultz (Denmark)

The detail and sharpness of Jonas' lifestyle shoot images with a biker almost bite you from across the screen. A must-see if you're into motorcycles or good-looking guys :-)

Sangsun Ogh (Korea)

Sangsun takes us to a shoot of a model wearing traditional Korean attire. Needless to say, the resolution of the GFX helps to bring out every little bit of texture.

Knut Koivisto (Sweden)

Knut appreciates the fact that the camera works as well in the studio as it does outside of it, in the streets. He uses the X-T2 and the GFX intermittently. For him, DSLRs have been sidestepped now.

The Fujifilm GFX Files, Part 1 - Review

Today Fujfilm have officially announced their Medium Format Mirrorless camera, the GFX 50S. The camera had already been pre-announced at Photokina, but now we have the full specs and, not unimportant for a camera of this calibre, the price!

Specs

I won't bore you to death with all the tech specs (they can be found on Fujifilm's own website) but here's the most important ones:

• All new G Mount with 12 pins to ensure a maximum of information can be exchanged between camera and lenses. Diameter of 65 mm and a flange back of 26.7 mm.
• 43.8 x 32.9mm CMOS sensor, rumoured to be the same as in the Pentax 645Z but with Fujifilm tweaks added to it (and of course Fujifilm's own processing which is done by the X-Processor Pro). This means the sensor is 1.7 times as big as a fullframe sensor and almost 4 times the size of a regular X system sensor.
• The crop factor is 0.79. To know what a G-mount lens is like in fullframe terms, multiply the focal length by 0.79.
• The sensor array is Bayer, not X-Trans. Personally, I think that's a good fact. As it's still unclear as to whether Capture One will support the GFX, Lightroom currently seems to be the only mature raw converter that will support it and it does a great job with Bayer sensor patterns.
• 51.4 megapixel sensor with 8256 x 6192 files (4:3 native aspect ratio). Other aspect ratios can be set in the camera and, contrary to medium format cameras with an optical viewfinder, the GFX can show you an exact preview of what your crop is going to look like in its EVF.
• Base ISO of 100. ISO up to 12.800 and extended ISO modes up to 102.400.
• Mirrorless design
• Focal plane shutter to 1/4.000th of a second, electronic shutter up to 1/16.000 of a second
• Weather sealed
• Dual SD Card slots
• WI-FI
• Contrast-detection AF with joystick for quick focus selection (just like X-T2 and X-Pro 2)
• 117 focus points all around the frame, pretty unique in the medium format world!
• Tethered shooting support (Lightroom)
• HDMI, PC Sync Port, USB3 and Remote Control connectors
• Flash Sync Speed of 1/125th - HSS should be available through Fujifilm's own EF-X500
• Detachable viewfinder with a 3.69 M-dot viewfinder
• Two-way 2.36 M-dot tiltable screen (like the X-T2) with touch capability
• New, more powerful battery
• E-ink display that shows essential shooting data even when the camera is turned off
• Full HD Video @ 30 FPS. Although, if you want a video camera, get the X-T2: it's four times cheaper :-) Matt Brandon from www.thedigitaltrekker.com and Serge Van Cauwenbergh from www.fotografieblog.be used the X-T2 to film my GFX challenges video and we were all amazed by its video capabilities!
• Weight: 825 grams including battery and card for the body-only. That's less than typical pro-level DSLRs. 1230 grams with the 63 mm attached. Or in other words: medium format quality for fullframe weight!

 

G-Lenses

Of course, no system is complete without lenses. Just like the X-Pro 1 some five years ago, the GFX is available with a choice of three lenses, and a promise of more to come. Of the three lenses that are currently available, the 32-64 is the one I used the most. In fact, Lightroom tells me I shot 87% of my images with this very versatile lens. In order to know what these lenses are like in fullframe terms, you have to multiply their focal length by 0.79. This means this lens translates into about 25 to 50 mm. My second-most used lens (ten percent of all shots I made) was the 120 mm f/4.

The Filter Bar in Lightroom: a great source for information. It's no surprise that I used the 32-64 the most. I cannot wait for the 23 mm that is announced for later this year!

I really appreciate the fact that it's stabilised and while waiting for the announced 110 mm f/2, it makes for a nice portrait lens which has the advantage of having macro capability and being stabilised. Finally, the lens I used the least (only 3 percent) was the 63 mm f/2.8. Not that it's not a nice lens, in fact, with it's relatively light weight and relatively fast aperture (in medium format terms), it's got a lot going for it. It's just that 50 mm fullframe equivalent is not my favourite focal length to shoot at.

The 120 mm is a crazy sharp portrait lens. This downsampled, compressed JPEG does not really do the lens much justice, unfortunately. Its OIS came in really handy for making this hand-held available light portrait. All images in this blog post were processed in Adobe Lightroom using my Lightroom preset packs | www.lightroompresets.be

FUJIFILM GFX 50S | GX120mmF4 R WR @ 120 mm | 1/125 sec. f @ 4 | ISO 500

Price

At Photokina, Fujifilm had already hinted at a price 'Well below $10,000' and it looks like they have kept their word. Body-only price in the US is $6.499. In Europe, it's $6.999, including VAT. So, for you professionals out there who can reclaim VAT, that's under €6.000! This makes the camera not only a serious contender for other suppliers of digital medium format cameras like Pentax, Hasselblad or Phase One, but this aggressive pricing strategy is clearly also aimed at winning over people who now shoot high-end fullframe DSLR cameras.

So what about the lenses? In Europe (Belgium) the price is as follows:

• Camera: 6.999 € including VAT
• 63 mm: 1.599 € including VAT
• 32-64 mm: 2.499 € including VAT
• 120 mm: 2.899 € including VAT

In the US, the prices are (excluding sales tax):

• Camera: $6.499
• 63 mm: $1.499
• 32-64 mm: $2.299
• 120 mm: $2.699

So, the camera is indeed 'well under $10.000', even including the standard lens. Although still a considerable investment, as far as I know, this is not only the latest, but also the most affordable medium format camera you can buy new, today.

Using the GFX in the field

The internet will probably explode with opinions about this camera, lots of which will be based only on the spec sheet. After all, few people have had a chance to really use the camera for a prolonged period of time. As you probably know by now (see this blog post), I was one of those lucky guys who had the opportunity to test a prototype for a couple of weeks, back in November. Below is the video I made for Fujifilm about it. Special thanks to Serge, Matt, Matt's wife Alou and fixer Manoj for their help!

The actual camera felt very finished, but the firmware was still very beta and buggy. However, this still gave me a very good idea of what it should be like to use the finished product. In summary, the GFX gives you the quality of medium format while combining the best in handling from the mirrorless and the DSLR world. If you're used to a traditional DSLR or - even better - any Fujifilm camera and especially the X-T2, you'll feel right at home. If you're used to using other medium format cameras, you'll probably appreciate the ergonomics and all the little extras that aren't necessarily present on the camera you're currently working with.

My Top-10 features

This brings us to my favourite features of the camera. 

1. Image Quality

When I saw the first shots in the viewfinder and later on my monitor, I was simply stunned, and I still am. And mind you, this is even without having worked with the RAW files as there currently isn't any support for them, yet. I did capture uncompressed RAF files along with Super Fine JPEGs (a new setting, delivering JPEGs of up to 20 Megabyte in size). 

What you might think is natural light, is actually a flash firing through a window. Just don't tell the available light purists. They're everywhere :-)

FUJIFILM GFX 50S | GX32-64mmF4 R LM WR @ 36.2 mm | 1/60 sec. @ f/4 | ISO 1000

2. 24 megapixels is plenty, 51.4 is plenty more! 

I was (and still am) happy with the 24 megapixels of my X-Pro2 and X-T2 bodies and especially for the APS-C sensor size, I think that is a nice sweetspot. However, with the GFX's sensor being almost four times as big, there was obviously room for more megapixels. The GFX 50S should actually be called the GFX 51.4S, as this is the actual pixel count. It's funny, really, that the number just gets rounded off. 15 years ago, the first affordable digital cameras were about 1.4 megapixel. Now, that is considered pocket change! The GFX has a 4:3 aspect ratio, which takes some getting used to. However, I have started to appreciate this aspect ratio, especially with regards to printing. The images are 8256 by 6192 pixels tall.

This Lightroom screenshot might be the best way to give you an idea about the size and the detail in the files. This is a screenshot of my 2560 x 1440 iMac monitor. The image in the middle is zoomed to 1:1. In the Navigator to the left, the rectangle shows you how tight I'm zoomed in.

The first advantage of having this many megapixels is obviously the resolution if you want to print really big. At 300 dpi, without any upsampling in Photoshop, you can print images that are 28 inches or 70 cm on the long side. Now, if you're printing on inkjet printers, 200 to 150 dpi is actually a much more common resolution. This means that you can print up to almost 60 inches on the long side, without needing to upsample in Photoshop. With some upsampling, even larger, sharp prints are absolutely possible. Simply amazing.

The second advantage is cropping. Although I try to get my crops right in camera, there will always be situations where you could not get the crop you wanted, or a layouter wants to use a crop from a shot because it better matches the layout. In the example below, I was actually shooting vertically. It was a staged, lit shot which I wanted to be quite dramatic. However, suddenly, the dogs - a quintessential part of Indian daily life - came walking through the frame and I wanted to capture that, too. I had no time to change the camera's orientation. The horizontal crop puts the focus more on the street scene. And it's still some 25 megapixels, so even more than an uncropped shot of my X-T2.

I was actually setting up for this type of more posed shot... when some dogs walked by. 

FUJIFILM GFX 50S | GX32-64mmF4 R LM WR @ 35 mm | 1/125 @ f/4 | ISO 200

I had no time to turn the camera, but made a vertical photo and then cropped it into this 4:3 landscape shot. The resulting image still measures 5701 x 4276 pixels! The blue light in the background is a Cactus RF60 flash with a blue gel on it. I chose the colour because of the contrast with the warm, orange clothing.

FUJIFILM GFX 50S | GX32-64mmF4 R LM WR @ 44.9 mm | 1/125 @ f/7.1 | ISO 320

3. Dynamic Range

Another reason many photographers invest in Medium Format, is to have more dynamic range and much more postprocessing leeway with the raw files. As I mentioned, there still is no raw support so it's hard to fully appreciate this already. I will report back on this as soon as I can but from tests I did with the camera's built-in converter, I'm very optimistic!

The best angle for this shot was when the diver was back-lit. Not a problem for the GFX. And... this is based on a JPEG. Can't wait to see what Lightroom can pull out of the GFX raw files.

4. Autofocus system

Traditionally, with medium format cameras, autofocus is the achilles heel of the system, requiring you to either use the LCD in Live View mode or the central AF point and then focus and recompose. This makes these cameras rather slow to use. The GFX is different. Although not as fast as its smaller, recent X-siblings (because it's contrast-detection only) it was surprisingly fast to focus (in medium format terms) and, more importantly, the 117 focus points cover the entire frame, so no need to focus and recompose. The latter technique could really cause you to lose your critical focus if you're working with shallow depth of field (like the upcoming 100 mm f/2 lens offers). To change your focus point, you can use the 'joystick' which most of us know (and love) from the X-Pro 2 and the X-T2. And of course, in those cases where the autofocus does not work, it's an easy switch to manual mode, where the manual focus aids (like 3 or 10 times magnification in the EVF) can help you focus manually. Try that with an OVF!

I rarely put my subjects in the centre. Which is why I really appreciate the fact that the GFX has autofocus points everywhere across its viewfinder. 

FUJIFILM GFX 50S | GX32-64mmF4 R LM WR @ 36.2 mm | 1/100 @ f/4 | ISO 800

The optional grip turns the GFX into a squarish block. This improves the ergonomics when holding the camera vertically.

5. It's mirrorless!

Analog viewfinders are so 20th century... I really like the EVF on my other Fujifilm cameras and it's no different on the GFX. I like that I can see what I'm going to get even before taking the shot, the live histogram and the fact that I can set the camera up to show me a preview of my ambient exposure in manual mode. This is super handy when working with flash. Set the ambient, dial in the flash and review the picture immediately in the EVF. No need for chimping! I have done a full blog post covering the advantages of an Electronic Viewfinder in more detail. Check it out here.

6. Dual SD card slots

I love the fact that Fujifilm sticks to SD cards. They're readily available and so are card readers for them, unless you happen to own the new MacBook Pro, of course. 

7. A lens roadmap

Remember when Fujifilm only had three lenses available at the launch of the X-Pro 1? Some people were hesitant to buy into the system but Fujifilm was smart: they released a lens roadmap that shared all the lenses they were considering making for the X-system. That not only showed that they were committed to the system, but it also made it easier for people buying into the system. If your favourite lens wasn't among the three initially available, you at least had an idea if it was coming. Fujifilm are repeating this launch strategy with the GFX. Already we know that 3 more lenses are scheduled for this year: a 23 mm f/4 super wide, a 45 mm f/2.8 and a 110 mm f/2. I love super wide angle shots. So, the fact that I know that the 23 mm wide angle is under development is important to me. The same goes for the 110 mm f/2.

These 3 extra lenses have been announced for 2017. As mentioned, I am really looking forward to the 110 mm f/2 and the 23 mm f/4. Together with the 32-64, they would be my personal 'holy trinity' of GFX lenses.

8. Size and weight of the system

Although the lenses are what you'd expect from medium format lenses that have to cover a sensor this large, the actual body is surprisingly small and lightweight. It's about 1.2 kg with the 63 mm lens. Size-wise it's more compact than most other digital medium format cameras, except maybe for the Hasselblad X1D. However, with that camera, goodlooking as it is, I cannot help but feel that the design process has emphasized form over function. And although the GFX (or the X-T2, for that matter) don't look as retro-sexy-good as the X-Pro 2 and definitely not as the X100 series in my opinion, in the end, it's the handling that matters most. 

With the 63 mm 'standard' lens, you could almost consider the GFX as a 'walkaround' camera. Only one that delivers 51.4 megapixel files. It certainly isn't much bigger or heavier than typical pro-DSLRs.

FUJIFILM GFX 50S | GX63mmF2.8 R WR @ 63 mm | 1/125 @ f/2.8 | ISO 400

How would you like your GFX today? From full-blown battle dress with the EVF and the grip to minimalist and as lightweight and small as possible, with the EVF detached. The modular design lets you adapt the camera to the needs of your shoot.

9. Love those old view cameras?

The GFX has got you covered! One of the things I love about the old view cameras is that you can hold them at waist level and then look down in the viewfinder. The GFX lets you simulate that with the two way tilt screen. You can tilt it both horizontally and vertically. If you're more into EVFs, then you will be able to purchase an accessory for the EVF that lets you rotate and tilt it. But back to the LCD: it also features a touch screen, which wasn't working yet on my prototype. So I can say nothing about it but from what I saw it will definitely be useful, if only when reviewing images.

10. Other odds and ends

There's really so much more to like about the camera: the fact that it will have tethering support (for Lightroom; apparently Phase One are still on the fence if they will open up their Capture One for the GFX) or the fact that it has built-in WIFI and that you can print to an Instax printer. That might seem like a gimmick, but I can assure you that for travel photography, the Instax really is a door-opener. Or how 'bout the C-position on the lenses. They have aperture rings (like in the good old days) but for those of you who have forgotten how these work, Fujifilm have added a C-position on each lens. Put your lens on the C-position and you can control the aperture with the command dial, pretty much like you can with a DSLR. Finally, another nice feature are the crops you can set in the camera. If you shoot RAW, you still record all the image data, but seeing only the crop in the EVF or the LCD really helps you with composition, especially with the new panoramic 65:24 format, which I really like and which I plan to do more with. It's just another one of those EVF advantages, I guess.

The new panoramic 65 x 24 Aspect Ratio is almost 3:1. The preview in the EVF is a big help in composing these shots. The resulting images are still 8256 x 3048 pixels, or more than 24 megapixel. If you change your mind afterwards and want a different crop, the full 51.4 megapixels are still available in the raw file.

FUJIFILM GFX 50S | GX32-64mmF4 R LM WR @ 32 mm | 1/60 @ f/5.6 | ISO 200

Just another one of those cool features. The small LCD on the top left of the camera shows you the shooting essentials. It stays on, even when the camera is turned off.

What could be improved?

Well, nothing is perfect. Not even the GFX :-) For example, the position of the Play button takes some getting used to. The eye cup is a little too easy to lose (at least it was on my unit), but those are all minor things. Probably the biggest drawback is the 1/125th sync speed. I use a lot of flash outdoors, and the faster your sync speed, the more you can overpower the sun with a flash of a given power. I was a bit worried that this would prove to be a problem in India but it actually wasn't. I used a lightweight yet powerful 360 Ws portable battery-powered flash (the SMDV BRiHT 360) and most of the time, that was powerful enough, even when used with a softbox. I'm also happy to hear that HSS support is available with the EF-X500 flashes and the next time I have a GFX at hand, I will try if the Cactus V6 Mark II, which offers HSS with other brands' speedlights and even studio flashes on the other X-series cameras (see this blog post), will also perform that same magic with the GFX.

In conclusion

The GFX is a mighty fine camera. Or, as Jonas Rask calls it in his review, a 'portable beast'. All 825 grams and 51.4 megapixels of it. I am not a pixel peeper by nature but it's kind of addictive to scroll through those files in 1:1 view in Lightroom or Photoshop, hitting Page Down and being amazed by the level of detail that unfolds in front of your eyes. As is also indicated by the videos of the other photographers who used the GFX, this is a camera that can please a very diverse audience, Except maybe for sports shooters, everyone from the studio photographer over the landscape photographer all the way to the portrait and travel guys like myself should all seriously consider this camera. And you know, although I wouldn't take it to the Olympics, in a pinch, thanks to its 4 frames per second, it can even shoot sports, too :-) As I did in this wrestling school in Varanasi.

I had loads of misses, but I also had a couple of tack sharp shots. Not bad for a medium format camera! In situations like this, or with the boys diving into the water, the four frames per second (which is like Formula 1 in the mirrorless world) really help.

That's it for now. If you want to hear more about the GFX and the other gear I used on this trip in conjunction with it, check out the video-interview that fellow X-shooter Matt Brandon, who also edited and partly filmed my GFX Challenges video, did with me while we were waiting for our plane from Varanasi back to Delhi. There's some great gear tips in there!

Join Matt Brandon and me in Varanasi in 2018

Each year, Matt Brandon and yours truly do a photo workshop in Varanasi, India and we also have a workshop in Ladakh in the works. If you are interested in these, fill out the form below and you'll be the first to hear. We love our newsletter subscribers so they always get the scoop. The 2017 edition sold out in one hour after sending out our newsletter. Although we are both Fujifilm shooters, this workshop is open to all camera beliefs. But you might go home converted :-)

In an upcoming blog post, I will show you some still unreleased images of that I shot back home, during a couple of urban exploring photo sessions I did with dancers in order to get to know the camera a little better, before embarking on a plane to India with it.

Looking to add that extra 'oomph' to your images?

All images in this post have been processed in Lightroom with my Black & White or Colorific Color Grading Lightroom preset packs. Buy them all and save 25 percent | www.lightroompresets.be

Fujifilm releases new GFX Challenge videos

Fujifilm today have released no less than 7 new GFX Challenge videos. For the GFX Challenge, some 20 photographers worldwide got to work with a prototype of the upcoming GFX medium format camera and the three lenses that are going to ship with it when the camera is released: the 63 mm f/2.8, the 32-64 f/4 zoom and the 120 f/4 stabilised macro. 

The photographers were free to do what they wanted. The only thing is they had to make a three minute video of using the camera. It's really refreshing to see what people do with the camera. Not only the photography is truly breathtaking, but some of the videos are also beautifully made and most of them were filmed in 4K with Fujifilm X-T2 cameras.

Gary Heery (Australia)

Australian photographer Gary Heery uses the GFX and the macro lens to create some really beautiful still lifes (litterally) of objects frozen in time. I cannot wait to see these printed large. And neither can he, apparently!

Roméo Balancourt (France)

French portrait, architecture and food photographer Roméo Balancourt uses the GFX on location to shoot upscale restaurants and their crew. It's interesting to see him set up an entire lighting studio on location. He mixes available (tungsten) lights with flash and fresnel spots. He appreciates the Q menu and the Electronic Viewfinder that shows him exactly what he's going to get. I blogged about the advantages of an EVF a while back in this post. Roméo admits that before using the GFX, he always had to add extra sharpening to his images before delivering them to his clients. With the GFX, he no longer has to, he says. I also loved how the images he made during the video come together in a final composite, at around the 4 minute 5 seconds mark.

Luciano Romano (Italy)

For his GFX Challenge, Italian photographer Luciano Romano wanted to combine his three favorite elements of photography: art, architecture, and theater. He loves the excellent ergonomics of the camera (something I can confirm: if you're used to working with a DSLR or Fujifilm's X-T2, you'll feel right at home).

Victor Liu (Canada)

Perhaps it's slightly over-the-top, but I just love this Canadian landscape's photographer's video. I love the low angles, the fades from the video to shots of the GFX and back. It's like a trailer for a blockbuster movie. Or should I say, a blockbuster camera? Victor shows that the GFX absolutely feels at home in very rugged conditions. Now I want to go to the Rocky Mountains, too...

Ivan Joshua Loh (Singapore)

Medium format and cars. It's a marriage made in heaven. As such, the Mercedes SLS appears to be a hot ticket amongst car photographers: Ivan Joshua Loh from Singapore is the second GFX Challenger to photograph this gull-winged beauty of a car, yet he does so in a completely different way than Satoshi Minakawa.

Per-Anders Jörgensen (Sweden)

Swedish photographer Per-Anders Jörgensen describes his own work as "faked documentary" (a term I have to remember as it kind of reflects some of the stuff I do). Just like Roméo Balancourt, he takes the GFX to a restaurant but he uses it to photograph the preparation of food. It's interesting to see hem use a curtain as a diffuser tent and get under it to get the softest light possible. That's the nice thing about these GFX videos: you always pick up a thing or two that you can insert in your own workflow...

Minoru Kobayashi (Japan)

Japanese Minoru Kobayashi takes the GFX outside to photograph a sports car. I'm no petrolhead, but I think its a Honda NSX. Its 573 bhp sure goes well with the GFX's 51+ megapixel. He loves what he calls the "resolution with density" that only medium format can provide. His favourite film simulation is Velvia back from in the days where he shot Velvia on film, at ASA 50 or 100. He really loves the fact that he can now shoot Velvia digitally, with a previously unthought of ISO of 1600 and above!

With a price point of "well under $10,000" including the standard 63 mm lens, the GFX might very well wind up to be not only a "medium-format-killer" but also a "high-end-dslr-killer". And we've still got a couple of more GFX Challenge videos to come! In the mean time, if you want to see how the GFX behaves on the busy streets of India, have a look at (shameless plug, I I know), my own GFX video:

And in case you still need some more convincing, here's the other GFX videos that have been released thus far:

Testing the GFX was a lot of fun. Actually, it only had one drawback. I want one, now...