4 hours with the Fujifilm GFX100S

Last weekend, Fujifilm Belgium organised a live stream about the newly released GFX100S. Prior to the stream, two of my fellow ambassadors, Pieter D'Hoop and Tom Museeuw, and me were given a GFX100S to play around with for a weekend. While one of us was shooting, the other two acted as assistants, voice activated light stands or sometimes simply as idiots ;-)

Below is a behind the scenes video of my four hours of fame with the GFX100S. It's a hell of a camera and had someone told me less than 5 years ago, when I first laid my hands on a GFX50S, that we'd now have twice the resolution, fast autofocus and IBIS for less than the price of the 50S, I'd declared them nuts. I hope you like the video and if you have any questions about the camera, don't hesitate to comments. I'll try to answer them if I can.

Thanks to Brecht Vercauteren from Becubed for translating our erratic behavious into video so beautifully! And of course also thanks to Riana and Zoë, the two dancers who gave their best, as dancers always do.

This is the gear that I’m using in the video:

• Fujifilm GFX100S

• Fujinon GF32-64 F/4

• Fujinon GF80 F/1.7

• Fujinon GF250 F/4

• Lovegrove Scatterflash

• Godox V1 Fujifilm Speedlight

• Godox AD200 Pro

• Godox AD600

• Godox AK-R1 Accessory set

• SMDV Alpha 110 Softbox

• SMDV Speedbox 70

• SMDV 518 Strip Light

• Scotty II portable smoke machine by Smoke Factory

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Godox AD1200 Pro and AD300 Pro Location Shoot

A few weeks ago, I had my first post-Corona shoot. With how things are looking Corona-wise, it may very well have been my last shoot for a while, too. The aim was to test the new Godox AD300 Pro and AD1200 Pro and make a video about it for Disnet, the Benelux importer of Godox and other cool lighting gear such as SMDV. After months of inactivity, I was quite nervous. I had arranged – thanks Bruno! – to meet up near the Brussels Congress Column with Nabil and Shana, two dancers from Brussels. Below you can see the flashes - and the dancers - in action in the behind-the-scenes video that photographer and filmmaker Bruno Maes made. The camera I used was my trusted GFX 100.

AD1200 Pro

What can I say? This thing is a monster! Even after four hours of shooting, the battery was still at two thirds! The fact that you have 1200 Ws at your fingertips gives you an incredible amount of creative freedom. Below you will find the main specifications of this powerhouse.

• 5 groups & 32 channels

• High Speed Sync support up to 1 / 8000th of a second

• Optical slave modes

• Normal color temperature mode: 5600 K ± 200 K

• Stable color temperature mode: 5600 K ± 75 ° K

• Powerful 40W LED pilot light

• Bowens mount

• 3,5 meter power cable

• Weight: 8.25 kg including flash head, battery and cable

• 1200 Ws

• fan-cooled head

• 0,01 - 1,9 seconden recycle time

• interchangeable 5200 mAh lithium-ion battery. An optional 2600 mAh battery is available if you want to bring the AD1200 Pro along on a plane (the standard battery is too powerful to bring on a plane)

• Power manually adjustable from 1:1 to 1:256

• TTL / M / Multi

• Second curtain sync, front curtain sync

By the way, AD1200 Pro is not the only Godox solution to use 1200 Ws of power on location. Until now, I used two AD600 flashes with the optional H1200B head. In terms of price, you are close to the AD1200 Pro with this combination. The solution with the H1200B head offers the advantage that you are more flexible because you can also use the two flashes separately in a setup with a main light and a kicker light. However, if you often want to shoot at full power, the AD1200 Pro is more convenient to use and moreover it’s a full second faster in terms of recycling time. It’s also more practical to work with one battery pack than with two AD600 flashes that you stuff in a camera bag: with the H1200B and double AD600 combo, it occasionally happened that one of the units in my bag accidentally got into sleep mode (or ran out of power) and that I was actually only working at half power without realizing it.

The AD1200 Pro has a RRP of € 1,699 including VAT. The only alternative known to me is the Elinchrom ELB 1200, but it costs about double that including flash head.
But you shouldn't buy the AD1200 Pro just for its maximum power. Recycle time and battery life can also be an important factor. The full power recycle time is just under two seconds, but that obviously decreases the less power you need, while the battery lasts longer. The AD1200 Pro comes with a roller case that is very similar in concept to the ThinkTank Airport TakeOff: it can be converted into a backpack if necessary via the two carrying straps hidden in the back panel. With some rearranging, there is even room in the trolley for an AD300 Pro, which immediately brings me to the next flash I used on this shoot.

AD300 Pro

As the new top-of-the-bill in the Godox range, the AD1200 Pro is of course somewhat more of a niche product. Although… It apparently sells so well that it is sold out at most Belgian and Dutch retailers. The AD300 Pro on the other hand has everything to become a real best-seller. It is very compact because it comes standard with Godox's own mount and not with the more popular but larger Bowens mount. However, with the new S2 adapter you can easily make it Bowens-compatible. If you’re looking for a more permanent solution, then there is also an adapter that you screw onto the AD300 Pro. This adapter exists in a Bowens, Profoto, Elinchrom and Broncolor version. Handy if you already have numerous light modifiers for one of those brands.

Because of its compact shape, the AD300 Pro is easy to stow away in a camera bag. The battery allows for more than 300 full power flashes and you can even use AD200 & AD200 Pro batteries in it. The AD300 Pro is not only suitable for portrait photography, I recently used it to take real estate photos. I used to use hotshoe flashes like the V860 II for that, but at almost four times the power, the AD300 Pro lets me work faster, and also makes it easier to use bounce and indirect flash to evenly illuminate a large space. Also handy is the LED pilot light whose color temperature is adjustable between 3000 and 6000 Kelvin.

The ideal travel flash?

Thanks to its compact shape, the AD300 Pro seems to be the ideal travel flash when you want a bit more power than a standard hotshoe flash. In combination with an S65 or S85 Godox Softbox that use the compact Godox Mount, you have a compact mini-studio for a total weight of about two kilos. Personally, I still prefer the twice as powerful, but also much larger and heavier AD600 when traveling. That's partly because I like using even bigger softboxes - and the larger the softbox, the more powerful your light needs to be. However, it is mainly because I teach at travel workshops and I need the extra battery capacity of the AD600 for my students. Also, I normally work with Fujifilm's GFX camera line. These have a sync speed of only 1/125th compared to the 1/250th of most other cameras (for example, the X-T4).

The sync speed has an impact on how powerful your flash must be to make a certain photo. For example, with my X-T4, I can work at 1/250th, ISO 100, f/8. To get the same background exposure, I have to work with my GFX on 1/125th and use f/11. However, that aperture only lets in half the amount of flash light compared to f/8. So I have to use a twice as powerful flash to take the same picture with the GFX as with the X-T4. The slower sync speed is basically costing me a stop of flash power that I need to compensate for by using a more powerful flash. Using HSS is possible, but involves a loss of efficiency, so it is not a solution from an efficiency standpoint.

The 'sync speed problem' arises especially when photographing with flash during the day, in full sun, but that's exactly the time of day I want to use flash, to balance the sun. Moral of the story: with an AD300 Pro and a camera with a 'normal' synchro speed of 1/250th second, you can do quite a lot.

I think Godox have a real winner on their hands with the AD300 Pro.

• Normal color temperature range: 5600 K ± 200 K

• Stable color temperature mode: 5600 K ± 100 ° K

• Bi-color LED pilot light (3000 K - 6000 K)

• Godox mount. Optional Bowens, Profoto, Elinchrom & Broncolor adapters available

• USB Type C port for firmware upgrades

• 3,5 mm sync port for manual sync

• Dimensions: 19 x 9,8 x 8,7cm

• Weight: 1,4 kg including battery

• 300 Ws

• 0,01 - 1,5 second recycle time

• interchangeable 14,4 V / 2600 mAh lithium-ion battery. The AD300 Pro also can use AD200 and AD200 Pro batteries.

• Manual power range from full power to 1:256

• TTL / M / Multi

• Rear curtain sync & front curtain sync

• 5 groups & 32 channels

• High Speed Sync support up to 1 / 8000th of a second

• Optical slave mode

Compatibility

As I have been saying for a few years now, the reason why I use Godox is not only their good value for money but especially because Godox offers a complete eco-system where all flashes, from the tiny TT350 to the 30 times heavier (literally and figuratively) ) AD1200 Pro are mutually compatible and work seamlessly and wirelessly. Moreover, Godox has the widest camera compatibility in the market: there are transmitters for Nikon, Canon, Fujifilm, Olympus / Panasonic, Sony and even Pentax! Only Leica users don’t have a dedicated trigger but if they swear by the available light anyway :-)

Resources:

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The color grading of the images in the video was done with my latest Creative Profiles pack for Lightroom Classic, ACR & Photoshop. It’s available here.

The Steampunk Sessions, part 1

I’m connected to a lot of photographers on Facebook from all over the world. And as much as I like these virtual interactions, I like it even more when I get the chance to meet one of these Facebook friends in real life. This happened last week with David. David’s a Belgian photographer who lives in Thailand most of the year. He’s an amazing travel photographer and he popped over to Belgium for a couple of weeks. So we decided to go on a shoot together. I like doing these kinds of spontaneous, last-minute freestyle shoots with other photographers because I think we can all learn from each other.

Steampunk @ the factory

I love shooting in abandoned factories and lately, I’ve been into photographing steampunkers, too. These two subjects are a match made in heaven. So I called up Major TC Theodoricus, one of Belgium’s most passionate steampunkers and we all met up in an old paper factory about an hour’s drive from where I live. Another friend, Frank, came along to make some BTS shots.

Gear-wise, I brought the Fujifilm GFX 50S, the GF 110 mm, GF 32-64 mm and the GF 23 mm. As for lights, I packed my three trusted Godox AD600B flashes, my SMDV Alpha 110 gridded softbox and my two Nicefoto strip lights, which have become an essential part of my lighting kit. Last noteworthy item was my Scotty II portable smoke machine. No steampunk shoot should happen without a smoke machine :-)

I was immediately struck by the vast hall with the cast iron pillars and thought they’d make great compositional elements in the frame. Now I’m a slow shooter and I prefer to get a couple of images that I’m really happy with.

In total, I got seven images I like in about five hours of shooting.

That’s actually a nice harvest for me. Here’s the first two in this blog post. With a dramatic subject and a dramatic backdrop like this, I think the lighting and the postprocessing needs to be dramatic, too. So I used a cross lighting setup and I positioned my main light in a way that The Major would be short-lit. I also wanted a moody, atmosphere so although I could have made the entire scene a lot brighter (I was only at 1/32nd power on the flashes), I went for a low-key look.

As you can see from this setup shot, there are two more lights in this shot: one strip light to the left of The Major, just out of frame and a second one behind him, pointed at the steel pillar. I did that to make the lighting more coherent. Apart from editing out the softbox on the right and adding the flame coming out of the gun in Photoshop, the complete styling and color-grading was done in Lightroom, using the profiles in my Creative Profiles Starter Pack.

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The Fujifilm GFX, the ideal camera for this sort of work

Two things I love most about the GFX are the incredible dynamic range, which lets me do quite nice things in postproduction as you can see from the before & after above, and the resolution. In fact, this is a 16:9 crop from the 4:3 original and it is still over 36 megapixel! Having more flexibility in choosing your aspect after the fact is also one of the reasons I’m secretly already lusting for the GFX 100S…

Here’s a 1:1 crop in Lightroom. The detail of the GFX is simply amazing. I just love that camera.

Smoking gun

I personally like the version with the understated gunfire best, but I also played around with a more extreme version, as you can see below. Adding fire like that is simpler than you might think. I used an image from Adobe Stock. If the fire’s been photographed on a black background, in Photoshop, just change the blending mode of the layer to Screen, and you’re good. If you still see some artefacts around the fire, that’s a telltale sign that the background isn’t pure black. Just add a Levels adjustment and click with the black eyedropper on the black of the flame’s background to turn it completely black and in the Screen blending mode, the black will magically vanish!

The image above was shot with the 23 mm, which corresponds to an 18 mm on a fullframe camera. That’s a super wide lens so it takes in a lot of the environment. However, because of it being so wide, and having a relatively slow maximum aperture of f/4, it’s difficult to use shallow depth of field to separate your subject from the background. That’s why I also brought the 110, the bokeh monster of the GF lens lineup.

In the image below, I stitched a couple of vertical shots I took with the GF 110 wide open at f/2 into a panorama using Photoshop. I then colorgraded the image in Lightroom. If you’re on a fullframe camera system, try using an 85 mm 1.4 or 1.8. If you’re on a crop camera, try something like a 50 mm 1.4 or, in the case of Fujifilm, the 56 1.2.

With the GFX, I tend to underexpose more than I used to because there’s so much leeway in bringing up shadow detail.

The result is an image with a wide angle of view but at the same time the super shallow depth of field of a portrait lens. And as a bonus, you get an even crazier resolution. The image below is a whopping 10.860 x 8.145 pixels! That’s almost the resolution of the upcoming GFX 100S!

Fujifilm GFX 50S | GF110mmF2 R LM WR @ 110 mm | 1/125 sec. @ f/2 | ISO 250

Again, other than the merging of the panorama which I had to do in Photoshop because it offers more control, the entire look of the image was created in Lightroom. Below is a 1:1 screenshot.

The controlled lighting and the super shallow depth of field really make the subject stand out from the background.

That’s it for this blog post. If you live in or near Belgium, speak Dutch and you’d like to photograph The Major yourself, you might be interested in the next edition of the Epic Steampunk Workshop, which is held on March 8, 2019. More information here (in Dutch). Ticket sales start January 31, 8 PM Brussels time. Below’s a 90 second impression of that workshop.

Also, don’t forget that until the end of January, you can save 25% on my brand new ‘Learn Lightroom Classic in 2.5 hours’ video course. Check it out here.

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Location portraiture with the SMDV Mega 180 Speedbox and the Fujifilm GFX - part 2

In the previous blog post, I introduced you to the SMDV Speedbox Mega 180. I took it for a spin - and if it had been any windier, it would have taken me for a spin - in the city of Ghent, Belgium, where I live. We made about 5 different set-ups in a little over two hours time because our talented dancer Lana had to be back home in time for rehearsals! When you’re a bit in a rush, you don’t want to spend half of whatever time you have setting up your lights. In part 1, I showed you that I managed to set up the Mega 180 in under a minute - quite a feat for a softbox this size and that has everything to do with its design and not with my two left hands :-) In the video below, you see us creating the first shot. I call this my ‘warming up shots’. It’s a safe shot that technically isn’t too challenging and we made it in a quiet area. This allows for the model, the team and myself to get to know each other and get in the flow of things, without too many tourists looking along. It’s also reassuring to have at least one useable shot right from the get-go.

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One of the things I love about this SMDV Mega 180 is that it creates super soft light, even for full-length portraits. I even helped it a bit, by putting it in the frame and then masking it out afterwards, a technique I’m using more and more.

Below, you can see a high-speed behind-the-scenes video of the actual shoot and the retouching. I was shooting on the GF23 on my trusted Fujifilm GFX 50S because I wanted to take in the entire castle. But working with such a wide angle caused a bit of distortion on her left arm and hand, which is why you’ll see me use the Liquify tool in Photoshop. The colour grading is done through one of my Creative Profiles for Lightroom Classic CC, Photoshop CC 2018 and Camera Raw.

The Fujifilm GFX 50S is my favourite camera ever. You can do just about anything with the files that come out of it. The potential for shadow recovery without noise is amazing. If you don’t believe me, check out this blog post, where I recuperate a four-stop underexposed image… But be warned. I’ve know at least one photographer personally who bought a GFX after reading that blog post :-)

The GFX has made me slow down and work on a tripod more. This is my Sirui Traveller T2204-XL. You can also see me use the right-angle finder on my camera. I love that accessory. I’m wearing a Spider Holster and the GFX has a Spider plate with an Arca Swiss compatible base plate. It makes me look like a bit like Robocop but I’m past the desire of looking fashionable when I’m shooting. I’ll leave that to my models :-) Image © Frank Verheye.

Location portraiture with the SMDV Mega 180 Speedbox - part 1

Introduction

If you're a regular reader of this blog or you've read my Light It Up ebook (available in Dutch as Flash!), you know I'm an avid user of the softboxes of the South-Korean brand SMDV. One of the main reasons I like them so much is because they are super fast to set up and even faster to break down. As most of the stuff I do is location portraiture, often with non-professional models who have better things to do than sit around and wait while I set up a softbox, this is an important advantage.

My favorite softboxes so far in the SMDV range have been the Speedbox 70 and Speedbox Alpha 110. I manage to set up the Alpha 110 in less than 15 seconds. Breaking it down is even faster: 2 seconds. These softboxes are dodecagonal, which is a fancy word for being 12-sided. As such, they create an even more circular catchlight than regular octas.

The 110 is probably my absolute favorite: it's still light enough to carry around and I've used it everywhere from India to Mongolia. It just fits in my North Face Rolling Thunder 36 bag, without having to disassemble it. With smaller speedlights, I sometimes use the 70 as well. Apart from the quick setup and breakdown, what I also love is the build quality and the fact that I can add grids to the softboxes. As my style of portraiture is pretty dark and moody, I like the extra control that a grid can bring. Below you can see a setup shot where I use the 110 and the 70 together in this impromptu street portrait of a lawyer-turned-sadhu in India. This portrait was made during the first Location Portraiture and Lighting Masterclass. Details of the 2019 edition can be found here.

The grid helps to control the rim light and to avoid flare in my lens.

Fujifilm X-Pro2 | XF50-140mmF2.8 R LM OIS WR @ 129.2 mm | 1-250 sec. @ f/8 | ISO 400 | This one was done with my Jinbei HD600 flash - I'm using Godox AD600 and 200 flashes now. | Camera left: SMDV Alpha 110 - Camera right: Gridded SMDV 70.

This is Matt Brandon's SMDV Alpha 90 being used to make a portrait of these Mongolian Eagle Hunters... It took two people just to hold the 90 so the 180 would not have been an option here...

Fujifilm GFX 50S | GF32-64mmF4 R LM WR @ 56.5 mm | 1-125 sec. @ f/13 | ISO 100 | SMDV Alpha 90 with Godox AD600B

The SMDV Mega Speedbox series

However, sometimes, I want an even bigger light source, so when SMDV announced the Mega Series of softboxes and more specifically the Mega 180, I was all ears and eyes. They were kind enough to send me a review copy and so I took it out for a spin in the city of Ghent, Belgium where I live.

The Mega series consists of five softboxes, ranging in size from 90 cm to 180 cm. The three smallest (90, 110 and 130 are deep octa style softboxes, except for the fact that they're not eight-sided but 24-sided! The two biggest ones, the 160 and the 180 have a more regular width-to-depth ratio. Weights range from 2.1 to 3.24 kg.

Now mind you, this is one big softbox. In fact, it's taller than most of the people I shoot. So, although it's probably a softbox that most photographers would use indoors, I wanted to see how I fared with it outdoors, as this is my natural habitat.

Construction and setup

It's actually 181 cm, but who's counting :-) Image © Frank Verheyen.

When you take it out of its bag, this softbox just oozes quality and sturdiness. SMDV managed to maintain a quick setup system but they improved and reinforced it, which was necessary because of the additional strain a softbox this size puts on the entire folding mechanism. Furthermore, as this softbox has no less than 24 sides, setup takes a little longer than the SMDV Alpha 110 but it's still doable in less than a minute, as you can see from the video. The first couple of times you set it up, it can feel a bit tight but that improves a lot: after the tenth time I set it up, I could do it in under a minute. One thing that helps is to not secure every rod in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction, but to secure every other one and then give it a second pass with the ones you left out on the first go. That same trick also works on the Alpha 110, by the way.

24 sides means there's also 24 rods to click into place. Still, after some practice, I manage to do it in under a minute! Breaking down is even faster. Image © Frank Verheyen.

In one way, I like the new setup even system better than the old one on the small and Alpha SMDV speedboxes. On those units, one thing you have to watch out for is dust or sand getting inside the speedring. The new setup system of the Mega series is all external, so there's no risk of sand or other dirt getting inside and blocking the setup system. I've once had to open the speedring of my Speedbox 70 and the inside is almost as complex as a Swiss watch :-). It's a great system - I just wouldn't do any beach shots with it...

Another difference between the Mega series and the regular SMDV softboxes lies in how you break them down. The latter are broken down by depressing a couple of switch-like buttons, which is as fast as it gets. With the Mega series, however, you have to flip each of the 24 switches individually. Again, it's something that can be done in 30 seconds or so. So it's still very fast for a softbox this size (and with this many sides), just not as fast as its smaller siblings.

On my regular SMDV softboxes, I generally leave the middle diffuser and the front diffuser (and sometimes even the grid) attached when I break them up. While you could do so on the Mega series, especially on the 180 I think it's probably just as fast to take at least the front diffuser off when taking it down because leaving it on adds some extra tension when you tighten the rods to put it back together. This is one huge softbox, after all! 

In the video below, I show you how easy it is to set up the softbox. In fact, putting on the front diffuser takes longer than setting up the actual softbox.

That's it for the first part of blog post. In the next part, we'll actually put the SMDV, our model and our assistants to work and make some images!

Fujifilm GFX 50S | GF32-64mmF4 R LM WR @ 33.8 mm | 1-125 sec at f - 8,0 | ISO 100 | 2 x Godox AD600B with H1200B head in SMDV Mega 180 Speedbox.

Stepping out of your comfort zone

From short lighting with a big softbox...

[Recommended soundtrack while reading this blog post: Stepping Out by Joe Jackson :-) ]

People are creatures of habit. So are photographers, at least this photographer is. There are areas where we feel more comfortable than others. For me, lighting wise, my comfort zone is flash. I love using flash. I know a lot of you find it complicated but I don't - at least not anymore. [Shameless plug: if you find flash intimidating, I've written a book that will help you overcome your fears. It's available here in English and here in Dutch - end of shameless plug].

The fact that I can reach into my gear bag and whip out my own portable sun is very reassuring to me. Comforting. Within that broad comfort zone of using flash, I have one technique I am more comfortable with than others. If flash is my house, then this technique is my sofa, so to speak... I could perform it on my slippers. In fact, I already have :-)

That go-to technique is the one you see in the image below: it's short-lighting with a relatively big softbox, combined with natural rim-light from the sun. My preferred softboxes are the SMDV Alpha 110 (this thing sets up in less than 15 seconds and breaks down in less than 2) and the Elinchrom Rotalux 175 cm. Generally, I'll be working with a standard to wide angle lens fairly wide open. In this image, the softbox was camera left, almost at a 90 degree angle to the camera. Because the subject has his face slightly turned to his right, the softbox predominantly lights the side of the face that's turned away from the camera, leaving a - in my opinion at least - beautiful Rembrandt triangle on the side of the face that's closest to the camera.

By putting my subject with the back to the sun, I kill two birds with one stone. First of all, I avoid squinting in the eyes and second, the sun gives me a free rim light, which helps to separate him from the background: do you see the narrow white line around the turban (camera right) and his shirt? That's the sun. I'll slightly underexpose the background and then I'll bring my subject back to the desired light level with the flash... I've done a zillion of these photographs and I'll probably do a zillion more, because I just like the look...

FUJIFILM GFX 50S | GX63mmF2.8 R WR @ 63 mm | 1-125 sec. @ f - 2,8 | ISO 500 - Flash was an SMDV BRiHT 360 in an SMDV 85 cm Speedbox

... Over short-lighting with a harsh light source...

The danger of having a preferred style like this, is that you'll use it always and everywhere and that you no longer even consider alternatives that might be better. You might get a nice, safe shot, but not necessarily the one that fits the subject or the situation best. For the shot below, for example, I decided to break my usual routine. The big softbox I normally use, creates soft shadows, but here I wanted the shadow to be a part of the image, probably even the most important part. So I switched out the softbox for a standard reflector in this portrait of dancer Bradley. That's one step away from my comfort zone... But I did keep the short lighting look... We're going to get rid of that, too, in the next image...

FUJIFILM X-T2 | XF18-55mmF2.8-4 R LM OIS @ 31.5 mm | 1-160 sec. @ f - 7,1 | ISO 200 - Flash was a Godox AD200

... Over rim-lighting with a flash...

In this shoot of Barre, a BMX Flatland Rider (www.barrebmx.com) in an abandoned cooling tower, I started out in my comfort zone: two lights. For lack of sun, I used a second flash as a rim light. Both were Godox AD600 flashes. In this blog post, I explain why I am so fond of the Godox eco-system. This setup gave me a decent enough image. With that in my pocket, it was time to step out of the comfort zone.

FUJIFILM GFX 50S | GF32-64mmF4 R LM WR @ 32 mm | 1-60 sec. @ f - 8,0 | ISO 800 - Flashes used: 2 x Godox AD600

I love backlight, I love smoke and I looooove backlit smoke! To that effect, I'll often lug around my Scotty II,  a portable, battery powered smoke machine. It's a totally different shot. Not better or worse, just different. But what matters is that it's a shot that I wouldn't have had if I had stayed in my comfort zone.

FUJIFILM X-T2 | XF18-55mmF2.8-4 R LM OIS @ 31.5 mm | 1-160 sec. bij f - 7,1 | ISO 200

To using natural light only...

One way to get out of your comfort zone in a ... comfortable way, is to team up with a model and another photographer for a TFCD shoot. There's no stress to deliver, so you're free to do what you want and you can learn from the other photographer's handling of light. For this shoot, my buddy and fellow Fujifilm Ambassador Ioannis Tsouloulis (as far as names go, that's not a comfort zone!) and I got to work with Mila, a very talented young model who also happens to be a keen ballet danser. I did my usual wide-angle-big-softbox shot that you can see below.

FUJIFILM GFX 50S | GF23mmF4 R LM WR @ 23 mm | 1-500 sec. bij f - 8,0 | ISO 100-2

And then Ioannis challenged me to work with natural light only, and a reflector. I hate using reflectors (that would be another blog post entirely) and I'm not a big fan of using typical portrait lenses either, but I got one of the best shots from the day by stepping out of my comfort zone.

It also helps to have a stunning model, obviously. Mila probably would still look great with an on-camera flash and a toy camera, I think...

Postprocessing

In case you're wondering, the images above don't come rolling out of the camera like this. At least not out of my camera. There's always some degree of styling and retouching going on. That's not a shame or a bad thing, on the contrary, it can be an equally important part of your style as the actual photography. I do try to get my images more or less right in terms of overall exposure and composition, but then comes the fun part: the postproduction. Unlike many photographers I know, I really love this phase. Especially since I've started shooting with the Fujifilm GFX. Man, those pixels can take a digital beating! Below are some before and after comparisons. My edits are mainly done in Lightroom, using one of my Lightroom preset packs.

I just warmed up this image slightly and gave it a slightly more crispy look with a preset from 'Piet's Power Preset Pack, Vol. I'

I thought the dramatic light would go well with a more dramatic postprocessing that gave a gritty, urban feel to the image. This look was achieved by using one of my favorite presets (I've named it after my son, go figure!) Noah, which you can find in my Colorific Colour Grading bundle.

As Barre was already wearing black and there wasn't much colour in the background either, black and white was a logical choice to process this image. All it took was one click on one of my 'Piet Van den Eynde's Black and White Develop Presets for Lightroom'

I wanted the image to radiate with warmth, so I chose a warming preset from my Power Preset Pack and increased the Exposure some more.

Flash and the Fujifilm X-system: dramatic lighting in India

After my blog post about my first six months with the X-Pro 2 went online, a number of people asked me how I lit my Varanasi portraits. So I thought this would make an excellent subject for a blog post.

One flash, big or small

In 90 percent of my shots, I use only one artificial light. Depending on how much power I need, this can be a powerful portable, battery powered studio strobe like the Jinbei HD600 (reviewed here) or a simple speedlight. With my X-Pro 2, the latter will generally be a Godox Ving V850 (reviewed here) or a Cactus RF60, triggered by a Cactus V6 transmitter (reviewed here). 

However, as the opening image shows, this does not mean I only have one light source in my shot. On sunny days, I'll generally pose my subject with his back towards the sun. Then, I'll underexpose the ambient. This kills two birds in one stone. First of all, the sun makes for a nice rim light, separating my subject from the background.

Obviously, if you'd do this without flash light, your subject would be in the shade. But that's where the flash comes in! I generally work in manual mode, both on my ambient exposure as on my flash exposure. After having set the background exposure the way I like it, I'll start adjusting the flash power until it looks right to me.

That's one of the reasons why I love Electronic Viewfinders so much: they can give me a preview of the ambient exposure and they also give me a glare-free, reflection-free review of the image in the viewfinder, immediately after I've taken the shot. Ever tried reviewing the image you just made on a DSLR screen in the blazing sun? I rest my case.

Positioning the flash

I love me some drama in my shots. So I'll rarely put the flash behind me. Most of the time, my flash will come from a 45 degree angle or even more, because that lets me create some drama in the face of my subject and it gives a nice triangle of light under the eye on the shadow-side of the face, the famous 'Rembrandt-look'.

Sometimes, I'll have my subjects look straight into the camera, but whenever possible, I prefer to have them look slightly off-camera. When you position your subject that way, you have two ways of lighting them: you can either light the side of the face that's directed towards the camera, or you can light the side of the face that's turned away from the camera. The first is called broad lighting and the second is called short lighting. 

FUJIFILMX-Pro2 | XF16mmF1.4 R WR | 1/250 sec. @ f/1.8 | ISO 200
In the opening image, the flash and softbox were just outside of the frame, to the left. In this image, the flash is to my right, lighting the side of the face that's turned towards the camera. The result is a much flatter looking image.

The latter makes for a much more dramatic look. Compare the opening image of the rickshaw driver (which used the short lighting technique) to this one here, which was lit with broad lighting.

When I shoot against the sun, I'll also try to put my flash diagonally opposite to the sun, and have my subject stand in between them. This diagonal lighting technique is called cross lighting. If this means I have to move my subject, so be it. Of course, in the mean time, I take the background into consideration, too. This makes that sometimes, I'll revisit a certain scene later that day or earlier the following day to assure the best possible combination of sun and background. If there's no sun, I'll recreate the cross-lighting scheme using two flashes 

The 'short'-cross-lighting technique in action. The light falling on this sadhu's shoulder is the sun.

Modifiers

My two SMDV speedboxes in action. The small one on the right is the SMDV Speedbox 70, equipped with a grid. The big one on the left is the SMDV Alpha 110.

Recently, I have discovered the fantastic line-up of modifiers by a company called SMDV. In Varanasi, I used both their SMDV Speedbox 70 and their SMDV Alpha Speedbox 110. The first is aimed at speedlight, the second has a Bowens mount and is aimed at bigger studio lights. They are strong, reliable and can be set-up in under 30 seconds. This means a lot if you're constantly moving around. And, better still, breaking them up is done in literally two seconds. You just press a couple of buttons and off you go.

FUJIFILMX-Pro2 | XF50-140mmF2.8 R LM OIS WR | 1/250 sec. @ f/5.0 | ISO 400
This image only has one light in it: the Jinbei HD 600 fired through the SMDV Alpha 110 softbox.
Postprocessing was done with one of my Colorific Color Grading Presets for Lightroom.

But maybe the best thing about the SMDV Speedboxes is that both of them can be gridded. Especially in the narrow Varanasi alleyways, this can make for a huge difference and lets you control your light much more. In fact, they only have one disadvantage: they're not cheap but you really get what you pay for in this case. In Europe, they can be bought through the fine folks of Foto Morgen. Outside of Europe, I'd recommend the equally helpful staff of 1212world.com. If you want to know more about the SMDV 70, check out fellow X-photographer Matt Brandon's blog post about it.

Another image in which I used short lighting. The softbox is just outisde of the frame. This results in a soft yet contrasty light with a dramatic light falloff (because of the inverse square law). By the time the light that correctly lights his forehead, has reached his ears, it has already lost a lot of power.
Image processed with my new Lightroom preset pack: Piet's Power Preset Pack, Vol 01.

I'll generally put the softboxes as close to my subject as possible, generally just outside of the frame,  for three reasons. First of all, the closer they are, the softer the light will be. Yet, the light falloff will be more dramatic which is what I'm after in the first place, remember? Finally, by putting them close to my subject, I make it easier on my flash because it has to work less hard. If you're familiar with the infamous inverse square law, this says that if you double the distance between your flash and your subject, you'll need four times the light output.

This inverse square law can also work in your favour: if you halve the distance between your light and your subject, you need four times less light!  

ND filters

Finally, there's one other piece of kit in my camera bag that comes in really handy when using flash with the Fujifilm X-system. Unlike most other brands, Fujifilm cameras still aren't capable of performing High Speed Sync. Unless you're shooting the fantastic X100 series cameras, you're limited to a sync speed of 1/250th on the X-Pro 2 and 1/180th on all the other X-series cameras. If there's a lot of sun (and I can assure you that in Varanasi, there is!) this means that you'll have to resort to apertures of f/16 or smaller. In other words, no way of using shallow depth of field to isolate your subject from the background. Unless... you use an ND filter. I generally use a combination of a fixed (by Formatt-Hitech) and a variable one (by B+W) and I'll explain the reason for that in an upcoming blog post.

If you want to know more about working with flash in general and off-camera flash in particular, you might want to check out my Making Light and Making Light II ebooks, available over at Craft & Vision. If you already know your way around the technical sides of off-camera flash and if you're looking for a more inspirational book, make sure to check out the slightly fantastic Joey L's Photographing Shadow and Light.