Sunset To Night Street Photography
Fujifilm X-Series Workshop
I conducted a 4 hours workshop for a group of aspiring photographers who have just switched to the Fujifilm X-Series cameras. We settled on this genre of street photography because it is a good training ground for all types of photography.
Fujifilm cameras are considered one of the best mirrorless cameras for low-light photography.
So, I took the group to the street of Singapore, from sunset to night, to exploit the Fujifilm camera’s ability to shoot in low light and coached techniques and essentials of low-light and street photography. Shooting hands-free in low-light conditions was an interesting learning experience for the group.
We were shooting with aperture priority mode to have more control over the depth of field. The aperture setting is equally important to compensate for light entering the lens so there won’t be a camera shake, resulting in blurry images. Participants also learned to use additional light sources available in the environment.
When photographing in low light without a tripod and no flashlight, you rely a lot on the ISO to get enough light sensitivity into your camera. Be cautious though. High ISO equals more noise. As you scroll down this blog for more photos, you will notice that I photograph at a maximum of ISO6400. I noticed that photos become pixelated with any ISO above that. I was using a Fujifilm XT3 and Fujinon XF16-55mm f/2.8 weather resistance lens.
Therefore, it is advisable that after every shoot, go through your photos on the computer to look out for noise. That will help you to determine what is the maximum ISO that you can apply to your camera to avoid too many pixelated images.
To demonstrate Fujifilm's film simulation which replicates closed-to-film colours, I shot the following photos in JPEG format using the Standard and Classic Chrome film simulation. Most of these images are straight out from the camera. Some were adjusted in Lightroom for highlight, shadow, noise reduction and contrast. That's about what it can be done for a JPEG photo.
The first two photos (above and below) were shot at sunset. I intended to create a silhouette of the man and the boy but not to darken the two subjects. Therefore, I used ISO200 to achieve this effect. The shallow depth of field blurs out the background and made the respective subjects stand out more.
