Risking it
So the last couple of days have left me kicking my heals at home due to bad weather, everytime I wanted to get out it rained. I had a plan sorted for my next shoot, I aimed to get back up to Curber edge, as my earlier foray onto the edge was cut short due to a rather hefty thunder storm. So I knew where I wanted to be, knew what time I needed to be there by, but would the weather lift?.
It rained on and off during the drive, even sat in the car in the car park waiting until it stopped, I was still in two minds about spending the evening out on the tops if the weather wasn't going to change. So I set off goretext to the max. After 20 minutes or so the rain stopped and to the west the cloud started to break up, and I was left with the most beautiful light I could ever wish for.
All came good, I was bang on perfect for the right light to be hitting the edge, was fortunate the weather broke when it did. The reward for a 50 mile round trip was to be in some of the best light I have shot in. If I had not bothered and been at home when the weather cleared I would have been going nuts, and possible swore at the cat.
Some of the evenings images, all shot with the Fuji Xt1 and 14mm, I only used the 55-200mm for a few shots.
Thunderstorm over Curber Edge
Had an opportunity to get out midweek for a planned trip to Curber Edge, which is a gritstone edge in the Peak District national park. Great views to be had. The weather was very balmy and thought we may get a nice sunset. However within an hour of my arrival the sky turned black and really angry, as a thunderstorm rolled in. Thought I was going to be in for a pounding, but it just skirted by. The images of the sky against the gritstone and moorland worked really well for me. I love the drama of the dark peak, totally unforgiving when the weathger is bad.
The flatlands Lincolnshire
The Fens of Lincolnshire, Is a place I've wanted to shoot landscapes but never got round to visiting. So the grand plan was made to visit over the Easter weekend, with a busy gallery on saturday I was looking forward to going to shoot something different. Being based in the Peak with access to the most fantastic landscape as my back garden, I was interested in shooting some super wide open space.
The weather was basically pretty rubbish forecasting low cloud and rain, but hey ho onward and upward as they say. In some ways the weather really helped, the flat landscape intersected by straight drains that are arrow straight for miles was really meloncholy. Spending a few hours there on a grey day really made me appreciate the emptiness. Finished off the day at Hunstanton beach for a latte and ice cream. Brave souls wandered along the shore, as it was bloody baltic. We are a hardy lot. Anyway some images form the day. Fuji Xt1 14mm and 55-200 lenses.
Fuji Raw -V- Fuji Jpeg
I confess that I have always been a jpeg shooter, trying to get the images right in camera, rather than post processing. I always concurred that a well exposed raw file would be better than a well exposed jpeg. However the advances made with in camera processing of jpegs, has made the raw-jpeg debate even harder to compare. With my switch to Fuji cameras over 18months ago, I was always amazed and blown away by the incredible jpegs that the X series delivers.
One of the other problems associated with the Xtrans is the problem with processing the raws. Given that I have been a Lightroom user since day 1, I find my workflow easier by sticking to one system. Given the issues Lightroom and Adobe had in getting decent results from a raw file, to me this just complicated things even more.
So when the new Lightroom update added raw support for the Xt1, I thought i would give raw a try. I have done a simple test compare a raw file processed in Lightroom, with the same profile attached as the jpeg file save with the raw. So my preferred camera profile for Jpeg is Provia, I chose that as my profile for the raw (changed withing Lightroom). I usually shoot slightly under the indicated meter reading as it protects any highlights from blowing.
The settings I used were applied to the Raw and kept the same for the Jpeg.
camera settings were auto ISO and auto WB
No exposure or contrast adjustment in Lightroom, just the following adjustments to the images in the develop panel
Shadows +75 Whites +57 Clarity +34
Sharpening 56 with a radius of 1 detail set at 25.
Here is the first raw file
The next file is the processed Raw
This next is the orginal Jpeg attached to the raw processed in camera using provia film profile
This image is the Jpeg file processed in lightroom
Fuji raw are now well handled when processed within Lightroom each file type printed well, if I were to be really nitpicky, the raw file looks a little smoother, the camera jpeg is sharper, even with in camera sharpen settings at 0 its still pretty sharp straight out the can.
Fuji raws take up more space, and consequently take longer to process and load. Bear that in mind if you've just shot 500 images.
The film profiles are easy to apply in lightroom, i found the monochrome profiles to be very nice, my preferred chocie for creating mono files is using the Silver fx conversion software, but I like the smoother tonal gradients in the raws, sometimes in Silver fx you can get some banding issues.
My point about raw-v- jpeg debate is that photographers should concentrate on taking a correctly exposed picture first and foremost, and should not rely on raw to save your bacon. Now that I have looked at the raw processing using Lightroom, I am now confident to shoot in either. I have not compared raw processing using capture one, or photo ninja as tbh I like my workflow being simplified within one programme, not several.
I am happy to continue using jpeg, from a quality point of view I feel its now simply too close a call to say one is more superior than another. However if you are in a difficult lighting situation I would change to raw, with the confidence that using the latest Lightroom update, it handles raw conversions very well.
Please bear in mind this is just my opinion using Lightroom to process a raw file, it was not shot as a definitive test, really just did it for me to form my own opinion. I have not used either Capture One or any other software so cannot comment on how it handles.
Lambing time Derbyshire dales
During a landscape tuition day, had the good fortune to be able to shoot some pictures of the Lambing thats currently in progress throughout the Derbyshire dales. Quite a hectic time for these Hill farmers, with over 500 Ewes to manage each one has 2 lambs, so birthing is just full on frenetic hard work for a good few weeks. Some images captured on the Fuji Xt1 with the 18-55 zoom. Available light it was actually quite dark inside the barn.
