All of the images were created in Fujifilm X Raw Studio and my Fujifilm X-T2 using film simulation recipes.
One photograph, five monochrome interpretations in Fujifilm X Raw Studio
Category: Photography
Out of focus
I keep repeating, but I had orbital decompression surgery on Monday. My face, especially around my eyes, looked like I had a rough night at fight club. After a week of alternating use of an ice pack for twenty minutes on, and twenty minutes off, and lots of bed rest, and being mentally unfocused due to strong pain medications, I can finally see out of both eyes. I am still on several medications, including whole-body anti-biotics and in-eye anti-biotics which I apply three times a day to both eyes. I have a double vision which the doctors expect will go away on its own or I will require additional surgery. I’ll know more at my post-surgery appointment on Monday.
This week, I had not expected to submit a post for Frank’s Photo Challenge. Until today, I had not even thought about the weekly challenge. I was focused on recovering from surgery. But I was skipping through the WordPress Reader and saw a response to the photo challenge and out of curiosity, I looked for this week’s keyword and started laughing. Focus!!
Due to cataract surgery on my left several years ago, I had to choose the type of lens I wanted. I opted for distance vision. With the left eye, I can focus on objects that are further than two meters or more from my sight. Soon after that, I had laser surgery, phase reactive keratotomy, in my right eye, which allows me to focus on the nearby objects that are two-metres or less from my right eye. My brain combines both images to enable stereoscopic vision so that I can drive safely, read a screen, a book, and watch a movie.
Of course, seeing two of every car as I drive isn’t ideal. With my post-surgery diplopia, I can’t focus on anything in front of me unless I close one of my eyes. My wife gave me an eye-patch to alternately cover each eye. But when you can see out of one eye only, you lose stereoscopic vision and the ability to determine depth.
So what to do? I wanted to submit an entry.
I decided to save up my energy; it takes a lot out of me to cover one eye long enough to type these words so that I could submit two images. I captured both pictures on my Fuji X-T2 with a manual focus 35mm film lens, my Asahi SMC Takumar 55mm f/2. For the first image, I used the focus-peaking feature of the Fujifilm X-T2 to help me find the proper focus for the image. For the other, I focus on using just my eyes. I expect one image is sharper than the other.
The out-o-focus image is a decent depiction of what my vision was like a day after surgery.
I used Luis Costa’s monochrome film simulation recipe, which I found via Ritchie Roesch’s [Not] My Fujifilm X-Pro2 Tri-X Push-Process Film Simulation Recipe
post. The last time I shot a monochrome film was in college in the mid-’80s. I don’t remember explicitly shooting Tri-X, but I do remember capturing a lot of monochrome images. I don’t know if this Tri-X recipe is close to Tri-X or not, but I like the way it looks.
Why iPhone 11 Pro?
I pre-ordered an iPhone 11 Pro this morning in green and immediately felt buyers remorse. The purchase feels extravagant. Surely I could have gotten by a little longer with my iPhone 7, and it’s cracked screen. The screen protector I bought the last time I repaired the phone after a drop onto the parking lot floor is keeping the glass from shredding my fingers and keeps the phone usable. But Phil Schiller is a masterful weaver of the Apple Reality Distortion Field (ARDF). I wanted the iPhone 11 Pro. I haven’t felt this kind of lust for an iPhone since the metal and glass iPhone 4. I still have mine in a box somewhere.
Part of that feeling that I “spent too much money” is probably because I purchased more iPhone Pro that I can use. My iPhone 7 has 128GB of storage, of which 63GB is free. I’ve had the iPhone 7 for over two years which I think is enough time to fill the storage with apps, music, and photos. 128GB of storage was too much, but 64GB of storage was not enough. Unfortunately the iPhone 11 Pro comes in storage sizes that created the same dilemma. The 64GB version may not be enough, but the 256GB version is undoubtedly too much. Does Apple do this on purpose?
My wife and I talked about it, and she will inherit our eldest child’s iPhone 6S, which is an upgrade from her now end-of-life iPhone 5 SE. She’s not happy about the larger sized iPhones. The eldest child will take my iPhone 7 after we get the screen repaired. It’s not much of an upgrade from an iPhone 6S. Our youngest already has a newer iPhone 8 we bought this spring, a college graduation gift. We don’t expect to be making any more large Apple purchases for the next few years. I thought that would help me reduce that sting of my purchase but it was only by a little.
Most people use the word professional to mean something different than the dictionary definition. The phrase professional refers to someone whose primary source of income is derived from a specific activity. A professional carpenter makes money doing carpentry. A professional photographer makes money selling their photography services. Nowhere in the definition is the skill of the person pertinent. There are skilled professionals, and as anyone who has hired a lousy plumber knows, there are shitty professionals.
For some people, when they use the word professional, it is meant as a compliment. They see your art – your photography or painting or bookshelf you made – and they something ridiculous like “this is professional work”. What I think they want to say is “your craft is excellent”. I wish they would say that so that I don’t have to say, “No. I don’t do this for a living. This is a hobby”.
Of course, others think that since professionals use specific tools, that if you use that tool, you must be a professional. Often people will see my Fuji X-T2 and comment, “I like your camera. I shoot a lot on my iPhone, but I want to get a professional camera like yours”. There is no such thing as a professional camera, just like there is no such thing as a professional basketball shoe or professional saw or hammer. But many companies make millions of dollars selling people on that notion.
I am sure that there are people who make money using their iPhones. Some probably make money selling iPhone photos. But I think the Pro designation on this camera is just marketing signalling for “This is the best iPhone we make”. It has nothing to do with professionalism.
The iPhone 11 is the capable, all-around iPhone. Apple started from there and is suggesting that if you want to go super deluxe
, you can choose the more expensive and feature-packed iPhone 11 Pro. It’s smart marketing.
So why did I decide I wanted an iPhone 11 Pro? Why not just upgrade to an iPhone XR or XS which are both available at reduced prices? The ARDF has convinced me that the cameras and computational photography features of the iPhone 11 Pro have value and are worth the expense. I certainly hope so, and I hope I can extract all of that value.
On many occasions, I have taken my Fujifilm X-T2 on a family outing for dinner or field trip in Philadelphia or New York City and regretted it. The Fujifilm camera is excellent for a dedicated photography field trip but gets in the way, especially on a dining table, when out on personal trips, trips where a capable point-n-shoot camera, something small enough to get out of the way when not in use, would be a better fit.
The new wide-angle lenses have a field of view (FOV) of 120º, which in 35mm full-frame terms is about 13mm. That’s wider than the wide end of my Fujinon 16-55mm F2.8 R LM WR which at 16mm has a FOV of about 74º. The 120º FOV is excellent for capturing expansive city views of parks, pavilions, bridges, etc. I can imagine the cityscape and the bridges at DUMBO around golden hour, sunset, and blue hour. A pocket Manfrotto tripod, and my iPhone 11 Pro would be the smallest kit I would need. If the Night Mode feature and battery life are as good as Apple claims, the iPhone 11 Pro would be a great day-trip walk-about camera kit for me.
The standard camera on the iPhone 11 Pro has a FOV of about 65º, which provide a 26mm full-frame equivalent FOV. That FOV is excellent for street photography and small group portraits, the kind you take when you are out with another couple at dinner or with your adult kids when you visit them on campus.
I take few self-portraits or portraits in general, but the 52mm full-frame FOV equivalent lens would be useful for photos of my beer glass when I visit craft ale breweries. It almost nearly matches the FOV of the traditional 35mm format nifty-fifty 50mm lens.
Yeah, I know, that sounds frivolous to me too. But what I do now is weird. I bring my Fujifilm X-T2 and Fujinon XF16-55mm F2.8 R LM WR lens with me to bars and craft ale taprooms so that I can get shots for my Untappd check-ins. I am a regular at a few local places, and the breweries and several patrons know me as the guy with the “serious” camera. They only see me taking photos of beer glasses. I sometimes get weird looks from patrons who don’t understand.
I have some ideas for how I might use the “slow fire” – I hate the word already – feature. At the end of a recent movie, some of the actors were filmed in slow motion with water balloons bursting against their faces. I think that would be a cool thing to capture with the slow fire feature. Also, little slow fires of my young nephews doing goofy things.
When my kids were younger, we would spend a day at Great Adventure. I recorded a lot of photos and video on my iPhone from those and other trips. Then I stopped. Perhaps because editing anything longer than just a few seconds on iMovie on the iPhone was challenging and would drain the battery. Maybe I’ll start doing more video again. Maybe. I don’t know.
Before the iPhone 11 Pro announcement, I had considered purchasing a second camera, a Fuji X100F, as a second camera. It would be for those personal trips into Philly or “The City” where the Fuji X-T2 would be too cumbersome. But the X100F is expensive, and I debated with myself whether the purchase was prudent. The iPhone 11 Pro is costly also. But if it fits the “want” for a capable walk-about camera, perhaps in time I’ll feel better about the purchase. I’ll know in October when my phone is delivered.
