Hi everyone. Welcome back to the Fuji Guys Channel.
My name is Gord. I'm here at Thetis Lake Park, just outside Victoria, British Columbia.
With the introduction of the new XF8-16F2.8 lens for the X-Mount,
Fujifilm now have four lenses in the line-up that are considered very wide angle
Two of the are zooms, and two of them are prime.
In this video I'm going to take a walk around the park, take some scenery shots
and share ideas as far as how I like to set my camera up when I'm taking scenery shots.
So, if you want to find out more about taking scenery shots with FUJIFILM wide-angle lenses, keep on watching.
One of the first things I like to do is use a tripod. If nothing else it actually
helps to slow me down and make sure that I'm taking exactly the pictures that I
want to. If you are going to be shooting landscapes and scenery shots you
probably do want to pickup a tripod. On this particular camera I've
actually got the metal hand grip attached, which makes it for a very quick
release when I'm not working with the tripod. There are also quick-release
available where you can screw half the tripod into your camera and the other
half goes stays up the top here but this makes it very easy to be able to slide
the camera in and line up for my shot really quickly. One of the things that I
like to work with when I'm taking my shots is with subjects that are really
close when I'm taking wide-angle shots. This really adds a dramatic effect to my
images. What I like about the 16mmF1.4 lens is it actually offers a
lot closer focus than many of the other lenses in the FUJINON lineup. So at that
point I can have my subject, my main point of focus, sharp and in focus
and the background blurring off to a very nice background to be able to have
that very dramatic effect. One of the nice things about the Fujifilm X-series
cameras is you have film simulations. Back in the day Fujichrome Velvia was a
very popular film when shooting landscapes and outdoor shots. I'm
actually going to use that same simulation inside the camera and unlike
my colleague Francis he likes to tone down the tones a little bit I actually
like to pump up the tones, so I'm gonna shoot with this shot with a little bit,
in the Velvia film simulation and increasing the shadows by one and
increasing the highlights by one.
I've got a really really nice shot lined up here with my XF10-24mm lens. The problem
being I've got some really bright skies and fairly dark shadows down below. How
do I get around that? I can actually use the in-camera HDR capabilities. Depending
on the camera that you're working with it will vary slightly, but with the X-T3
I'm actually going to take five shots and they're about 2/3 of a stop in
between each of the shots. When you're doing shots like this you also want to
make sure that there's no camera movement including potentially your
finger pushing a trigger button, so a couple of ways you can get around that
is to use an optional cable release to remotely trigger the camera. You can also
then, if you want to you can just use your phone to remotely trigger the
camera. Or, what I like to do is actually use a two-second self timer and to do
that you go into the "Q" button and you change your self timer up to two seconds
and at that point as soon as you take the shot the camera will wait for a
couple seconds. You're not touching it, before it starts taking the pictures.
I've got a nice shot lined up here. One of the challenges when you're shooting
images that have lakeshores, you want to make sure that the horizon is nice and level.
To do that it's very easy to do because it's a matter of turning something on
within your camera. If you go into the menu setting, look for screen setup and
then to "Display Custom Settings". From there you can turn the level on or off.
Cameras like the X-T3 have a third way level where you actually if you
scroll down on the screen you can actually bring up a level that in
addition to having the the horizons level it also works on your pitch.
With the 14mm lens, because it has such a wide depth of field, I'm actually
going to use manual focus for this. To do that I pull back on the clutch of the
focus lever I can then move my focus point to wherever I want to and if I
wanting to, shoot at f-16, for example. I can put my Infinity mark at f-16 on the
left hand side and everything from on the right hand side through to that
infinity mark is going to be in proper focus. Another way to do that in the
custom settings of your screen you actually have to turn the manual focus
indicators on on your screen and then when you have that you can actually look
through the viewfinder and you can see in the viewfinder as soon as you you
have your focus point is if you look for the below that with the blue area
everything in the blue area is gonna be in proper focus. So, I can tell
everything in my shot here is going to be in nice, proper focus and let me take that shot.
Nice.
Well there you have it some of the tips and tricks that I like to use
what I'm taking nature and outdoor shots with my Fujifilm X-series cameras.
Hope you enjoyed it and found out a few things about your camera. If you should
have any questions or comments about this video feel free to leave them in
the comment section down below. You can always subscribe to our YouTube
channel. Look for us on twitter @fujiguys , follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Until next time I'm Gord of the Fuji Guys. Thanks for watching