robvisual - photography

Just the latest stuff dumped from the memory card ;-)

Sure, there are even cats and dogs to be photographed (just kidding). But think a bit out of the box. Sometimes things can be seen in a different way. You don't need to take shots of people walking on the street make to call it a "street shot". In the shot above I just photographed the shadow of a man walking down the steps. So there is no real person in the shot, but the shadow tells a story that looks even more interesting. This is just one example of how you can play with your with a scene. The same thing here. Lines, strong contrast and a cyclist riding upwards. The real scene was not that dramatic. And sometime a backyard can help us seeing mankind from a philosophical standpoint ;-) Try to think a bit out of the box...or just forget what your have learned! It is hard to unlearn things but after a while your photographic style (composition, exposure, lens etc.) will become daily routine. And then you might eventually miss a great shot ...

A good question that can't be answered in one sentence. Is this your first Fuji camera? Then buy it if you have the money. If you don't need the updated auto-focus system and the extra pixels your can also go with the XT-1 or XT-10. You are coming from the XT-1 There is only the auto-focus and the extra pixels. The higher frame rate and better video can be a game-changer for some people. But the display of the older models is good enough, trust me! You are looking for a mirror-less for shooting moving subjects (sports etc.) The new XT-2 is great for you. With the optional battery grip it has more juice for higher frame rates. If you can trust the most reviews out there the performance is good enough for most occasions. If you're a professional sports photographer you still should go with a DSLR. No mirror-less camera can beat this system today. Do I need the latest camera body from Fuji? Not really. But this is not the strategy....

Lightroom can do a lot for you and it is a professional tool to develop and manage images. Today's cameras have the ability to transfer photos wireless to your smartphone via an app. With my Fuji cameras I use this feature a lot when I am on the go. After the download I use apps like snapseed (you can do a lot of things with this free tool) to tweak the contrast and some other aspects of the image. The colors come from the color profile I attached as I developed the raw file in-camera. The results are outstanding when it comes to sharpness and color. Most of the time I only had to tweak the contrast or add some warmth to the image. I know that you have more precise options at your calibrated workplace at home...but man, the results are so good, I often prefer to upload them to instagram than the versions from lightroom. This is not a rule of thumbs for all photos. When I do landscape, stills, architecture or portrait photography I prefer to have more possibilities with pr...

I always have a camera with me (at least my smartphone) and I took my X100s to a "the rifles" concert yesterday in Hamburg. The light was very dim and the room was small and packed with people from door to stage. The X100s has only a 23mm lens and I was standing in the sixth row. The challenge in this situation is to capture not only the artists on stage. In such a narrow space you can also create very close images to capture the magic of the moment. I set my cam to an ISO value of 6400 and a shutter speed of 125 of a second. And then I just fired away. I did not care about the results. When you shot low light and very high ISO the images become a bit blurry and grainy, but bear in mind that no one looks at photos in a hundred percent view. The contents of the photo are important, not the quality. This is not fine art photography! The photo above was shot with wide open eyes at f 2.0 to add some depth from the crowd to the stage. The light from the right creates a great ...

Why are you doing it and what are the feelings behind the thing you do? There are a thousand questions on my mind when I look at my photos and try to reflect on the whole thing. Many people see photography as a technical things where you need skills and knowledge about gear to take a photo. Sure you need that skills to have your settings etc. right, but the questions above are still unanswered. The missing link is the philosophy behind the things we do. It helps us look at the whole thing and helps us finding out why are we doing certain things (or not). Street photography is a very philosophical style of photography for me. It is about taking a different position as a viewer or director and there is no second chance to take the same photo again like in a studio setting. For me it is a combination of wanderlust, curiosity and meditation at the same time: Wanderlust Walking around and let things happen around you. Exploring new streets and places without any urgency or being in...

A lot of people on the web are writing about the new AF performance of the new X-T2 and how good this camera will perform when it comes to fast moving subjects. Yesterday I had my old trusty Fuji X-T1 hanging around my neck with the Fujinon 55-200 mm attached to it. I love to use this combination when I am out in the wild or - like I did yesterday - at the beach. It gives you a good range from normal to telephoto and helps you to compose your shots under changing conditions when you are for a walk like my wife and I did. After composing some dense shots like the one above I spotted some kites in the sky and by following the ropes down to the ground I saw some guys with surfboards. Usually I don't do much sport photography, but the setting and the light was perfect. I dialed in a fast shutter speed and a wide open aperture going into the maximal focal length of 200 mm. I also activated the continuous AF and drive mode to get some material to choose from. I took plenty of...