How many times have you woken up on what seemed to be a gorgeously sunny day, picked up your camera, chosen a destination and gone out hoping to take the most splendid pictures of your photography career, only to discover as you approach your destination that the weather wasn’t as you’d hoped?
Well, yesterday was one of those days for us. We had decided to go to the famous tulip exhibition at Pralormo Castle near our city, and instead of a cloud free sky, we encountered that sort of “giant natural softbox” that draped the landscape in a hazy light, making us drowsy.
However, being the intrepid and stubborn photographers we are, we did our best to make the most out of the day, counting on the wonderful colour reproduction of our two Fujifilm cameras, the Fuji X20 and the X100s. I set the two cameras to the Velvia Film Simulation and increased the shadow and highlight tones to have a better contrast. Light is almost, if not always, everything when you photograph, but when the ideal lighting conditions aren’t present, it is a good opportunity to see what a sensor can do anyway.
We concentrated on details and macro shots mostly. The X20 and X100s aren’t designed for marco photography primarily, but they can give you more than decent results, especially the X20, as it lets you focus as close as 1 cm at its shortest focal length.
I think that the results confirm that the trip to Pralormo wasn’t a waste of time, despite the light! What do you think?
N.B.: All pictures have been optimized for the web from the original JPGs on camera, if not otherwise stated.
Mathieu says
Hi Khairul, I don’t have the X20 anymore but if I remember correctly, my settings were: RAW+JPG Fine, NR=0, Astia or Vivid film simulation mode, Saturation +1, DR Auto. Also ISO are usable up to 1600 in my opinion.
khairul says
hi mathieu,
i’ve already bought the x20 for about a month and still experimenting the best setting, mind to share what’s your x20 setting?by the way glad to come across your page..very informative:)
Mathieu says
This is the just the kind of compliment we love to receive. It makes all our effort worth the while. Thanks for commenting!
Aristotle says
Wow! Awesome photographs. You really inspire me with your work and your site has quickly become my new favourite photography site on the web. Thanks.