“Happy New Year” to you!
Thank you for being here, for returning or for stopping by for the first time. It’s fabulous to have you and I highly appreciate your support. For the newbies, it may interest you to know that all the images in this article are straight out of camera – no editing, nix, nada, nothing.
It’s no secret that I shoot a lot with the XF23mmF2. I also speak and write about it often. It’s a camera-lens-combo that works for me and at least 75% of my everyday photography is shot with this lens.
To kickstart the New Year and set the right tone, I shot on my X-T5 with the XF23mmF2 as my power-combo, for positive vibes and a sign of awesome team work during my first walk of 2024.
Solid cloud cover made for 100% diffused light – fabulous for, let’s say an outdoor portrait shoot, … maybe…, but much more challenging for other genres of photography. Luckily, I was armed with film simulation recipes that added just the right amount of spice to my photographs to make them look good straight out of camera.
4 Recipes to kick off 2024
1) Reala Ace is always a good choice when shooting on the X-T5. The images are desaturated with just the right amount of grain, and all-in-all, film-like, even in super-flat light outdoors AND indoors!
2) I also shot a few jpegs with Kodachrome 64 – a recipe that I trust for its great performance in bright sunlight and blue skies. However, I had an opportunity to use it in vastly different conditions. Grey, flat light proved to be a good time to test its capabilities and usablility as an all-rounder.
It is not an obvious choice for these conditions and it’s challenging to achieve great results without the necessary warm light in which it thrives, but I do like these results too.
3) Fujicolor Gold 100 has been on my list of “recipes to test” for a while, but I haven’t had an opportunity to try it, until now. I like its warm and somewhat vibrant quality, based on the classic negative film simulation, that delivers analog-looking jpegs. Despite the lack of interesting light and colours, it does a pretty good job at making interesting shades of green and if you’re lucky enough to find some yellow, you can enjoy the addition of a nice golden touch.
4) Walking through the forest, surrounded by tall trees that often blocked what little light there was, a black and white recipe also seemed to be a reasonable choice. Dramatic Monochrome was great fun to shoot with and added good oomph and contrast to my images.
Having to think out of the box to create something interesting, I also managed to bag a double exposure with this recipe (read more about this technique in this article):
At the end of the day
Comparing my colour images at the end of the day, the ones I like the most, by far, are the ones taken with Reala Ace. This, together with the fact that I can shoot with this recipe outdoors and indoors makes it a solid all-time favourite.
Also proving right for this outing, was my lens choice. XF23mmF2 for the win. There’s more to it then “just” great glass. Short story: it’s ideal for a single lens setup and offers versatility across a wide range of subjects.
Last year, I released a video about the XF23mmF2 in which I explained why it is my everyday lens of choice. It is a really good setup if you are looking for a compact, economical all-rounder. Check out the video if you haven’t seen it yet, and maybe, just maybe, it will convince you to take on a new photo challenge this year.
If you want to find out even more about the XF23mmF2, check out my interview with Fujifilm South Africa in which I highlight some of my favourite qualities of this lens.
My first challenge for 2024 is already cut out for me! Over the next two weeks I will be testing a variety of film simulation recipes suitable for drab, grey and wet wintery conditions. Wish me luck and follow me to stay up-to-date on my progress!
I’d love to know if you have shot with any of these recipes and would love to hear your experiences! Please share them with me in the comments.
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Reala Ace for my X-T5 - Me and My Stories -
June 27, 2024 at 5:48 pm[…] for the X-T5 which brings the long-awaited Reala Ace film simulation to this camera. As you know, I love film simulations and recipes for shooting beautiful looking jpegs straight out of camera. So getting the use of a new film […]