How a ND filter and CPL Polarizer can Help on Bright Days.

 

Today I spent a couple hours in the afternoon at McKinney Falls State Park.  It's only a 15-minute drive from my house and a $6 day pass for one person. It was mid-December, the sky was clear, and the temperatures were in the mid 60's.  

I took my Fujifilm X-T5 and used the following lens with a K&F 72mm Variable fader ND2-ND32 filter and CPL circular polarizing filter:  

-Viltrox 50mm 1.4f

-Fujifilm 70-300 4-5.6f

-Fujifilm 10-24 F4

For bright days a ND filter is great for keeping the shutter open longer, which enhances detail, and the polarizer makes the sky blue, takes the shine or glare off the water and just generally makes colors pop.  

I also used the Fujifilm bracketing option and for every picture it captured it the following three film simulations:  Velvia, Classic Chrome, and Acros +G which is a Black and white sim.  I LOVE that I can take one picture and the camera processes the photo three times so you have three pictures.  My favorite sim is becoming Classic Chrome.  It's not as punchy as Velvia (brighter colors and contrast) and just has a great "soft" look that works great in both indoor and outdoor settings.  

(To set your bracketing, in the menu go Shooting Settings-Drive Setting-BKT Setting-BKT- Film Simulation BKT)

Here are some pics with the Viltrox 50mm:

 

Velvia Sim

Classic Chrome Sim

Acros +G Sim

Here is a pic with the Fujifilm 70-300.  I didn't have a lot of situations to use it:

Here is a pic with the Fujifilm 10-24:

For this outing the Viltrox 50mm was my favorite lens to use.  It's ironic that I went to take landscape pictures but one of my favorite pics was pointing the camera straight down at the low water creek I was standing beside.  The polarizing filter made this pic POP with the 50 mm lens.

Christmas is Better with Grandbabies.

 

It's official, I am entering my first Christmas season as an amateur photographer and a first-time grandfather.  So far I've done two family-requested photo shoots and a third is coming.   My youngest daughter, Makenzie, gave birth in October to a healthy baby boy, Rowan.  We picked an evening about an hour before sunset to walk the square of their little hometown of Smithville, Texas and look for interesting backdrops for family pictures.  I used my Fujifilm X-T5 with a Viltrox 27mm lens.  I stayed in auto-mode--I'm still nervous to go fully manual, but I can tell I'm getting more confident, that will come in time.  

Here's a selection of photos:

NEO Preset filter

NEO Preset filter

NEO Preset

Mercury Sighted

 

Snapped this vintage Mercury sitting in my neighborhood while taking Abigail for a walk.  Finally I had my Fuji XT-5 and not just my camera phone.  I'm getting better at taking the extra effort to carry it, and it pays off.

I had my 16-80 mm lens, wide tracking AF mode, PROVIA/STANDARD film simulation. Did some very light removal of a couple paint chips on the hood.  I threw it in Luminar NEO and cut out the background and threw a solar/lens flare layer behind it. Also did a Neon Skyline preset.  

If you look close you can see my reflection in the front bumper!

Rattlesnake!

Camera: XT5 Fujifilm with 16-80mm lens.  

Picture details:  Automode, f/5.6, 1/140 sec, ISO 160, focal length 34 mm.  

Edit:  Cropped and added Savannah Silverback Preset with Luminar Neo.

I killed this baby 10" Rattlesnake unknowingly while I was weed trimming some tall grass near a sidewalk.  I turned around and laid out on the sidewalk was the snake with part of its guts hanging out about halfway down its body.  I used a stick to pick it up and coiled it up on a rock for pictures.  Fortunately, I had my camera in my pickup truck.  I zoomed in for a close up and when I edited the picture I noticed that part of my body was reflected in his eye!  

Full Moon with Fuji Xt5

 It was hot and humid, but it was a full moon and a clear night.  I used manual mode, f8, 1/60 and ISO 200 with my 16-80mm lens at 80 mm and the camera on a tripod.  I took 12 pics and photo stacked it in Luminar Neo.  I did adjust the hue a little.  I sure wish I had a telephoto lens.  

Focus Merge on a Matchbox CJ-7 Jeep with the Fujifilm X-T5 Camera

This was a focus merge in Affinity Photo. I used a Fujifilm X-T5 with a 16-80mm lens zoomed in at around 50 mm (I was about 12" away)and took 12 pics focusing on different parts of the Matchbox Jeep. Focus merge combines the pics into one file and then the work begins. You have to select the sharpest pic of the area you're working on and then clone it to the master file. This process allows you to get sharp focus at various focal lengths. I found it to be very time-intensive but very rewarding. The detail is amazing. Just look at the lent(?) on top of the front tire under the wheel well. Even in the shadow the camera picked it up in fine detail. The detail also exposed the sloppy paint job! What can you expect from a $1.50 toy?

Volkswagon Picture Stacking

 

Finished Merge

This was my first attempt at picture stacking.  Picture stacking is where you merge multiple images of a stationary object or landscape at different focal lengths and then in an editing program (Affinity Photo) focus merge them together to produce an extra-sharp final picture. Hold on, not entirely, there's post-merging, fine-detail, editing work to be done.  

Equipment: Fujifilm X-T5 Camera. Fujinon Super EBC XF 16-80mm 1:4 

Software:  Affinity Photo

Help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvMCUaGYNf8  

Process:  

In Affinity Photo (AF) you select FILE- NEW FOCUS MERGE and then add the pictures.  AF analyzes the pictures and combines them into one picture file.  It does a good job but there is still haze and artifacts from each picture that show up that need removed.  After AF merged the three pictures there were now four pictures in the Source Panel (the three original and the merged picture).  

The following three pictures are my original pictures.  I took three pictures (see below).

Front of car focus

Middle of car focus

Back of car focus

The next step is to remove the out of focus areas in each picture.  For example, when merged the front of car focus picture is sharp, but the back of car focus picture is overlayed, so the out of focus areas from the back of car picture show up on the front of car focus picture and vice-versa.  To fix this,  you use the clone tool to manually clone areas from specific source images.

Here's the process:  In the Source Panel where your pictures are located, there is an eye-icon at the bottom.  To clean up the front of car focus, I selected that picture and then selected the eye-icon.  The eye-icon makes that picture the source for the clone tool.  Next, I selected the back of car focus picture. I did not select the eye-icon because I need to keep the front of car focus picture as the source.  Once I selected the back of car focus, I began to drag the clone tool around areas that were blurry.  The clone tool was using the front of car focus picture as the clone and as a result, was removing the blurry areas. There was a bit of trial and error and EDIT-UNDUE, but I was learning and figuring it out. 

Final Thoughts: 

I was pleased with the final result but if I was to do it againg I would take more pictures than just the three I did take.  I would focus on more specific areas than just the fore-mid-background.  I believe that would have allowed me to get an even more pin-sharp final image.  

For this process to work, you have to use a tripod and the object must me stationary. For this project, I laid my camera on the desk and was very careful to not move it.  I also put the camera on a two second delay so there was no movement of the camera from me pushing the picture button.