image courtesy: Rinzi Ruiz (via erickimphotography)
Zen
These are some original tips to become a better street photographer, ispired by the book of Herrigel [shoplink 13217]”Zen in the Art of Archery“[/shoplink] (it’s well worth a read!). Eric adapted it to the photography, and wrote: “zen in the art of street photography“. Enjoy reading it at erickimphotography:
1. Lose yourself in the moment:” One of the philosophies of Zen is that you should lose self-consciousness of yourself, and especially of your own ego. You don’t think of yourself as being great and the center of the world. Rather, you see yourself as something quite insignificant and just like a grain of sand in a desert. When I am out shooting on the streets, the feeling of getting lost in the “flow” makes me feel much more comfortable shooting in the streets (and is often when I take my best photos). The second I become self-conscious, I find myself drawing too much attention to myself and my subjects can sense my hesitation and feel less comfortable.” 2. Ignore recognition/fame / 3. Don’t photograph others, photograph yourself “Embrace your subjectivity in photography, and try to shoot faithfully. Don’t photograph in a way which you feel doesn’t sit your personality. If you find yourself a shy and introspective person, you don’t need to shoot a stranger super-close with a flash. You might want to take a more detached approach, and not intrude on somebody”./ 4. Relax / 5. Focus on the journey, not the destination
Yin and Yang
the good and the bad, or the Yin and Yang, of the X-E1 according to soundimageplus (click here). Definitly a great camera, but battery life is “terrible“…. and what about the X-Trans sensor?
“I’m still not entirely convinved that the ‘foliage smearing‘ effect is entirely cured, even using Aperture. Sure, its a lot better than it was, but there are still problems. […] the sensor seems to have real problems with greens and yellows and doesn’t seem to be able to ‘sort them out’ properly. […]
So Yin and Yang. The technology that gives us spectacular ISO performance creates a somewhat ‘confused’ rendition of certain kinds of detail in the natural world.
image courtesy: soundimageplus
15 Responses
The green/yellow thing is something I experienced in Capture One & with certain in camera film simulations. LR5 doesn’t produce this issue at all & C1 had it with my Nikon camera too..
Don’t misunderstand me the foliage smearing is a real problem, but green / yellow separation is not that much.
Hmm I would also say that it’s not the camera. RAW processor is still not at where it needs to utilize it. Iridient recently got it closer to what the “camera” is capable. I think it will only get better.
I totally agree. The X Trans sensor just looks terrible compared to Bayer in many situations. Fujifilm needs to dump this dead end path and move onto something that is truly innovative and not straight out of the marketing department like X Trans.
I wouldn’t say terrible. I’d even say that pros and cons considered, it’s not much worse than bayer sensors. But when you already had the best option (Bayer), why invent a new, slightly worse one? Ok, it was a nice try, an interesting experiment, but it’s time to accept that Bayer is the best solution until they don’t invent a Foveon like sensor that captures all colors in each pixel.
Really, the X-Trans sensor is terrible? I have been using an X-Pro 1 for about a month and a half now, and I have been very satisfied with the image quality. That said, I don’t zoom in 500% in search of some dog-shit pixels.
I have provided links to some of the photos that I have taken over the past month and a half. Perhaps I am blind and they are terrible, but I am happy with them:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55594432@N03/8848294841/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55594432@N03/8774170928/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55594432@N03/8761055598/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55594432@N03/8806264910/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55594432@N03/8882128399/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55594432@N03/9124024208/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55594432@N03/8939848023/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55594432@N03/8984040954/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55594432@N03/9127423821/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55594432@N03/9133834003/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55594432@N03/9028891429/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55594432@N03/9062202839/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55594432@N03/9072949570/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55594432@N03/9186981179/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55594432@N03/9186981179/
http://photographicfragmentsofmylife.blogspot.ca/2013/07/a-long-weekend-on-hornby-island-day-one.html
While the photos above may be terrible in one way or another, I find the image quality superior to that of my Canon DSLR images, which are not full frame either (APS-C sized sensor). Can and should the raw processing software improve? Definitely. Does the X-Trans sensor have flaws? Possible, but so do all other types of sensors.
In my opinion, most of the flaws in the images above are do to the weaknesses in my photography or processing abilities.
One thing is for sure: there are a lot of people spending far too much time inspecting the X-Trans files, similar to when they saw a naked women for the first time online or in some magazine. Perhaps they should spend more time taking photos, so they can improve upon their own weakness in photography.
The X-Series cameras out today, irrespective of whether they have some flaws, are fantastic cameras and they definitely exceed most people’s photographic abilities – just as most cameras do. I am just going to have fun shooting; and, when Fuji introduces its recently announced “Organic Sensor” in a future X-Series camera, I will definitely check it out. For now, the X-Pro 1 is a fantastic camera, in my opinion. Irrespective of some people’s complaints, I have had no problems with it, including the AF.
Have a great day and weekend ahead, everyone! Hopefully you can get out and take some photos, wherever you are…
Well said. And some nice examples of what is achievable with such a terrible camera 😉
@ dtb : Great shots. Thanks to share. X-cameras are really great.
I don’t know if I get it. But I sometimes have the same problem on the grass color. However, I think it’s mainly a white balance problem (I use JPEG only). The reason is simple. Sometimes I just don’t get this problem for the same grass.
Try using a UV or skylight filter. I can’t prove it yet, but it seems that the X-Trans is sensitive to UV, which might cause some weird color casts in broad daylight. For example, a yellow foliage means that it reflects a lot of UV, and the camera’s WB is compensating for it by giving an entire scene quite unnatural yellowish “look”.
If your sensor is UV sensitive, and there’s a lot of UV in the scene reflected by various surfaces – you cannot fix that in Photoshop.
The latter point is useless without the photograph of the same grass taken with a “good” sensor. I don’t see anything wrong with that image.
just a shout out to the author he yin/yang article: the second to last image in the first set is BEAUTIFUL
I don’t have any green smearing problem using capture one. I honestly can’t understand what he is talking about on that end with Capture One.
I like how people make stupid unfounded comments like the sensor is terrible. Then why the hell are you on this site? More DSLR trolls. I’m still trying to figure out the terrible battery life. My last outing I took 600 shots and it’s still fine. Sure my D300 would get 1,000 but I’m not expecting that.
Agreed! At this point it is beyond annoying. After using the X-Pro 1 for just under two months now, I must say it is a fantastic camera, and I have no complaints. And, I am convinced that most people complaining about the performance of the camera should look no further than themselves, because more than likely the problem lies with them.
I have read so much about how terrible the AF is, and I have had no problem with it. My wife is using the X-E1, and she tried panning shots for the first time (cyclists in a bike race), and she was nailing the shots with no problem. I have used the camera in all sorts of lighting conditions, and it has performed well for me in all those situations.
Most of the complainers out there are really just excuse makers, just like I have seen in golf and skateboarding: the type that blame their golf equipment for their poor golf game, and their shoes and skateboards for their inability to land tricks consistently or at all.