My Camera Gear for Landscape Photography in 2024

Does camera gear really matter when taking landscape photos? Well, this may seem somewhat controversial to some, but yeah, I actually think it does. Sure, it’s not the be-all and end-all when it comes to taking photos, as most modern cameras are pretty decent at that, but I believe a camera and lens system is a subjective choice based on the photographer’s specific needs and priorities. Being happy with the size, weight, ergonomics, functionality, menu system, lens choices and features is, in my opinion, very important as it can remove much of the friction from the picture-taking process, leaving the photographer to focus on the creative side of photography.

I’ve been using Fujifilm’s X series for around 8 years now and am still very happy with the choice I made way back in 2016. Having used the system for so long, I know the camera inside out and love the fact that while out in the field, I can manage all my settings without going near a menu. That and the balance between size, weight and features means that this system still works best for me.

Here’s a rundown of the photography gear I use when out taking landscape photos in 2024.

My landscape photography gear

Fujifilm Camera and Lenses

• XT5 camera: With a weather-resistant shell, dual card slots, 40 megapixels and tons of other useful features, this is a great camera for landscape photography. If you want to read more about how well the camera performs from a landscape photographer’s perspective, you can read my review of it here.

• XF16-55 F2.8 standard zoom lens: Although I still have the very capable XF18-55mm, in 2022, I decided to upgrade to the XF16-55 F2.8 as I wanted all my main landscape gear to be weather sealed. The improved optics is a nice bonus, but the extra weight most certainly isn’t.

• XF50-140mm F2.8 telephoto lens: For the same reasons I upgraded my standard zoom, I also traded in my XF55-200mm lens for the even heavier but weather-sealed XF50-140 F2.8.

• XF10-24mm IOS WR wide-angle lens: New to 2024 is this wide-angle lens. I used to own the original non-weather-sealed version but decided to sell it as I wasn’t using it often enough, but in 2023, I felt not having the ability to go as wide as 10mm limiting in certain situations and with the release of the newer, weather-sealed version of the 10-24mm lens, I decided to buy it once again.

• XF70-300mm IOS WR telephoto lens: Like with the wide-angle lens, I felt at times when out in the landscape, the 50-140mm lens lacked the extra reach I needed. So, instead of buying a teleconverter as I had originally planned, I opted for the 70-300mm instead. I’ve not had this lens too long, so the jury is still out but after using it just a few times, so far so good.

DJI Mini 3 Pro drone

In 2022, after what seemed like an eternity of indecision, I finally took the plunge and purchased my first drone. For a few reasons, I opted for the DJI Mini 3 Pro. Having owned it for a while now, and given most of the blogs and YouTube videos out there talk about the video side of things, I wrote a few blog posts about using the DJI Mini 3 Pro specifically for landscape photography.

DJI Mini 3 Pro | A Landscape Photographer’s Review

DJI Mini 3 Pro Camera Settings for Landscape Photography

How I Process My Landscape Photos Taken with the DJI Mini 3 Pro

Filters and accessories

• Kase Wolverine magnetic filters: I used to carry larger, square slide-in filters and would spend time fiddling with step-up rings for the different lenses and the holder before being able to slide in the filter I intended to use. That all changed when I got the Kase Wolverine filters. No more fuss! Snap the filter onto the lens and get shooting. In the pouch, I have a CPL, a 3-stop, 6-stop and 10-stop filter. I wrote more about my experiences with these filters in a previous blog post here: Kase Magnetic Filters | A Landscape Photographers Review.

• Benro Mach3 TMA37AL tripod: After using my previous tripod for several years, I was after something a little sturdier and a little taller without relying on a less stable centre column. After much research and getting a few recommendations, I eventually opted for the Benro Mach3TMA37AL.

• Benro Gd3Wh geared tripod head: For years I’d been happy to use a ball head on my tripod but when I started taking woodland photos, the lack of precision and having to compensate for further movement while making small adjustments with the tripod head began to frustrate me a lot. I invested in this Benro geared head and although it has a bit more bulk, it has solved this problem for me completely.

• Spare batteries: The Fujifilm NP-W235 used in the XT4 and XT5 is so much better than the last generation of batteries and I can shoot for much longer on a single charge.

• Memory cards: You can’t have too many memory cards. I still prefer to use Sandisk as they have been bulletproof for me so far, but I know there are other brands, just as capable out there.

• 3 Legged Thing L-bracket: Used to quickly switch from landscape to portrait orientation when using my tripod.

• 3 Legged Thing Toolz: A handy tool to tighten tripod legs, remove L-brackets, etc.

• Headtorch: Not much to say about this one, other than it is bright, light, waterproof and rechargeable. It cost about £15 and lights my path on those dark treks before or after a shoot.

Camera Bag

If you don’t own a load of camera bags, can you even call yourself a landscape photographer? Jokes aside, I’m still using the Vanguard VEO Active 46 as my primary means to carry my landscape photography gear around. For the features I wanted, the size, weight and price, it ticks all the boxes for me.

Going forward, I have half an eye on what Fujifilm plan for the X-T30 II replacement in 2024 as I may decide to buy a backup camera. I’m also contemplating the XF16-80mm F4 lens to complement the XF70-300mm and use them both for trips where I need to keep my camera bag weight down.

As with all my blog posts, if you have any comments or questions, feel free to drop a comment below.

Until next time.

Trevor

Walking a Winter Woods

What a wet and windy winter it’s been for us here in the southeast of England. Minimal frost, no snow at all and what seemed to be day after day of high winds and rain. Another example of global warming or just a milder winter? Probably both, but for someone who enjoys mild, uneventful conditions to photograph woodland, it means I’ve spent very little time photographing my local forest recently. Sure, I miss it, but on the bright side, it means I have spent a bit more time in London, photographing the cityscape and working on my Timeless City project. So, not too bad really. That’s the good thing about having more than one photographic interest; when conditions aren’t ideal for one subject, I can still find something to photograph that interests me. I may not like photographing the woodland in high winds and rain, but I’m happy to put a raincoat on and take some moody urban cityscapes in London.

Between the long periods of inclement weather, there has (thankfully) been one or two brief interludes where the weather has been calm with conditions more to my liking, and just one or two coincided with my availability to head out into the forest with my camera. So, in the spirit of publishing more pictures from my adventures and avoiding those pesky social media algorithms, here’s a new bite-sized, on-location blog post featuring some of the photos I took on one of those rare winter woodland walks.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 44mm | 4 Seconds | f/7.1 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 41mm | 3 Seconds | f/7.1 | ISO125

This trip to the forest took place in December last year, a time when the last of the autumn leaves were just about clinging on. It was cold, misty and frost was underfoot outside the woodland on the open heath. The first two compositions above were quite new to me, only spotted in the weeks leading up to this morning and with the arrangement, the soft defused light and uncluttered background, I think they work well in these conditions.

No trip to this part of the forest would be complete without a visit to an old friend or two. So, while exploring the forest, I wandered over to this woodland character I first met in the spring. I love the way the tree seems to be posing for the photo, anthropomorphically spreading its arms wide towards the camera in readiness to have its picture taken.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 26mm | 1/2 Second | f/7.1 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 49mm | 0.8 Seconds | f/7.1 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 55mm | 0.8 Seconds | f/7.1 | ISO125

You may have noticed most of the photos in this article are square and that’s because, over the last 12-18 months, I’ve become a little obsessed with using this aspect ratio. Truth be told, I’m still working out the finer details as to why this is as it has been more of an instinctive change in my compositional approach to my landscape, woodland and cityscape photography. I touch on this a little in my recent Timeless City introductory post, but when I’ve given it a bit more thought, I plan to write about it in a future article, so if that’s of any interest to you, do keep an eye out for it.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 55mm | 0.6 Seconds | f/7.1 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 21mm | 1.2 Second | f/9 | ISO125

Finishing off my woodland walk, I started to walk back to the car park, stopping off briefly to take this photo below of a young, frosty birch sapling. Ordinarily, it’s a bit of a messy composition, but the subdued tones and misty background help keep the focus on the tree. Along with the subject, I like the colour pallet in the scene, particularly the frosty orange leaves and ferns set against the cooler ice and mist. A pleasant photo in my opinion.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 28mm | 1/10th Second | f/9 | ISO125

At the time of writing, spring is fast approaching, so unless we get a late flurry of frosty weather here in the south of England, the next on-location woodland blog post will be jam-packed with lush spring greens, flowery meadows, surrounded by mist and basking in soft, defused light.

Well, we must remain optimistic, right?

Until next time.
Trevor

A Year Amongst Trees by Brad Carr | My Photo Bookshelf

Towards the back end of 2022, I was listening to a Biblioscapes episode featuring Brad Carr as he talked about his photobook featuring woodland photos he took over the course of a year back in 2021. He spoke about the project and his love for the woodland with so much genuine enthusiasm, I immediately went online and added his book to my collection.

Author’s Synopsis

This zine contains a collection of photographs from my 2021 portfolio and tells the story of a year which changed me as a photographer and human. Featuring a series of short stories, a poem that I felt inspired to write whilst out in nature, a little insight into why I create and where my love of the woodland was born.

There are stories to be told everywhere out there in nature. I hope that this zine inspires you to get out there and tell your own.

My thoughts about the book

When I picked this zine up for the first time, my initial impression was how good the soft touch cover felt in the hand. It has a luxurious feel to it, which adds so much to the overall reading experience. The book has a nicely written introduction, with childhood memories and a touching encounter Brad had with his Nan, which inspired much of his photography in 2021.

The book is jam-packed with beautiful woodland photography, and if you’ve followed me for any length of time, you will know that woodland photography is a subject I also have a strong connection with, making the overall reading experience even more special. The photos are overflowing with atmosphere and whether taken in warm, late summer light or on a cold, misty morning, Brad was able to capture that mood in his photos and unleash it via this book for us all to experience.

Alongside some of the photos, Brad included some stories which feature his thoughts about a particular photo or encounters he had while out in the field. There is a raw honesty and vulnerability in these stories and when I finished reading a page, I would find myself pausing, just to let the words sink in before moving on to the next page. This is a testament to how strong of a writer Brad is.

Overall, the book’s layout works well. The images were well-sequenced and flowed nicely with a good text-to-picture ratio. My only (very small and subjective) niggles were twofold. The first, and one I’ve mentioned before is when a picture spans more than one page. I can understand why it’s done, but for photography books, where the image is the main visual element, I find it very distracting. I also found having the paragraphs of text centre justified a little distracting. It may just be me, but it is harder to read, and I feel paragraphs of text should be left-justified. As I said, these are tiny issues.

Photography zines are typically less expensive and with it, carry lower expectations than a larger, more expensive coffee table book, but I think for projects like this and other smaller bodies of work, they are a fantastic way to get your work in the hands of others and should never be considered inferior. In a world where self-publishing has never been so accessible, I would love to see more landscape photographers use the zine format to help get their work printed and out in the world. Maybe I need to start taking my own advice.

Brad has a blog article to accompany his book here. He also has a YouTube channel centred around creativity, photography and nature.

This little book packs a big punch, oozing creativity from both the photos and the written word. If you can, do buy this gem of a woodland photography book.

Book Details

• Softcover

• Size: 210mm x 148mm

• Pages: 52

• Availability at the time of writing: In stock and available from Brad Carr’s website https://www.bradcarrphotography.co.uk/books-zines/a-year-amongst-trees-2021-zine.

Sunrise in the City

Continuing my mission to upload more of the photos I take to this website without feeling pressure to write long-form, location-based stories or update my portfolio after every trip, here is another on-location jaunt where I took a stroll with my camera along the Thames at sunrise.

Arriving in the nick of time off the train, I started off just a little west of Tower Bridge on the south side of the river. A composition I’d not yet photographed at this time of day and with the blue hour making way for the pre-sunrise glow, I wasted no time getting the camera out to take the photo. It took a minute or two to fine-tune the composition, making sure Tower Bridge was nicely centred between the lights above and the wall below. With the composition looking as balanced as it could be, I took the photo.

With the help of my ND filter (I forget which one), I opted for a 15-second exposure. This was because there were one or two early morning runners on the walkway and by opening the shutter for 15 seconds, it rendered them invisible in the frame. This is a great tip for when photographing places with people and you want them to magically disappear from the photo.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 16mm | 15 Seconds | f/9 | ISO125

Talking of quick tips, here’s another for anyone looking to photograph the city with a tripod, particularly in this area between London Bridge and Tower Bridge. Get it done fast! It doesn’t matter if you are the only one out there, the tripod police are always on the hunt, ready to pounce the minute they hear the telltale sound of a tripod leg being extended. That’s exactly what happened as I was taking the photo above. Luckily for me, I know it to be a hot spot for being told off for using a tripod, so I composed the photos, locked in a few settings and only then did I extend the tripod, mount the camera and click the shutter. I had around 3 or 4 minutes of photo-taking joy before the inevitable chap in a reflective jacket headed my way.

To be fair, whether you agree or not (obviously I do not), it’s private property and those are the rules. If the security guards come and ask me to put the tripod away, I know they are just doing their job and are usually polite enough. Deep down, they probably don’t see what the big deal is either, but I don’t cause a fuss and just pack up and move on. I can always return another time.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 16mm | 2.5 Seconds | f/13 | ISO125

Moving on and with a little pre-sunrise magenta still lingering in the sky, I stopped by a spot I’ve photographed many times featuring this view of HMS Belfast with Tower Bridge and the Tower of London visible in the background.

The photo above is probably my favourite I’ve taken at this location. I love a blue-hour cityscape, but the pink light hitting the clouds and reflecting on the water added something extra to this image.

After taking in the last of that pre-sunrise colour, some thicker cloud passed through taking all the nice light and colour with it. I decided to hang around for a while and wait for the cloud to move, with the hope that some golden morning light might still make it through. As you can see by the photos below, that’s exactly what happened.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 14mm | 1/80th Second | f/10 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 10mm | 1.3 Seconds | f/10 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 16mm | 1/1000th Second | f/6.4 | ISO125

The photo above of HMS Belfast using the railings and roof to create a framed composition is one I haven’t personally seen before and although it’s probably been taken a thousand times before, it was new to me. Finding previously unseen compositions of London’s cityscape is always difficult and on the rare occasions it does happen, it always gives me a buzz.

With the light getting increasingly stronger and more contrast appearing in the scene, I started to take photos to process them for my Timeless City project. While editing these as black-and-white photos back in post-production, I couldn’t ignore how good they looked in all that glorious golden light, so I also decided to process them in colour.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 16mm | 1/1000th Second | f/6.4 | ISO125

Walking across London Bridge, I took a few photos looking east along the Thames, directly towards Tower Bridge and the rising sun. The dynamic range in the scene was through the roof, and I had to let go of some of the cloud details in the brightest areas around the sun to preserve some of the shadow details in the scene.

Even though this is a well-photographed view, taking the photos in these conditions, in this light and processing them my way makes them unique to me.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 10mm | 1/40th Second | f/11 | ISO125

While the sun rose higher into the sky, I made my way to the opposite side of the river to get a view of The Shard across the water and take my final photo of the morning.

Back of the camera shot with an iPhone

This composition from between two buildings and The Shard in the centre has captured my attention lately and I have visited it a few times to photograph it in different conditions. I have, in my mind’s eye two particular images which I know are possible in the right conditions, so being the person I am, I have returned time and again to take them before I feel I can move on with my life. It’s becoming an obsession!

It may well be the increased use of the square format, but I’ve fallen for the central composition recently, and with lines around the edge of this frame, leading into the centre, towards The Shard, this composition works for me. In this picture, I like the soft light illuminating the city across the river and the natural vignette created by the shadows in the alley.

That’s it for this on-location post. What do you think of these bite-sized blogs? Do you like them and want to see more?

As I mentioned, I like to write them as they enable me to share a few more of my photos without depending on the social media algorithm, and I can display and talk about them in a way that suits me.

If you have any feedback, please do leave a comment or get in touch here.

Until next time.
Trevor

Timeless City | An Introduction

London is my local city. It’s the closest city to where I grew up, a place I’ve worked for quite a few years and ever since I first picked up a camera and started taking photography more seriously, it’s a city I have spent countless hours photographing.

Why London?

Growing up in the suburbs, I didn’t visit London often as a child, when I did, it was usually a family day out or a school trip to some of the tourist hotspots such as the Tower of London or Trafalgar Square. I remember walking around the city, dwarfed by the buildings around me, in awe of the many different styles of architecture I saw. The hustle and bustle, the noise, and so many people; it was a different world to the one I was used to. This was all decades ago, when there were just a handful of buildings taller than St Paul’s Cathedral and over on the Isle of Dogs stood a solitary One Canada Square. How times have changed.

Fast forward a few years and long before I’d taken up photography, I took a job which involved travelling to London almost every day and getting to know the city much better. My work took me all over London and this is when I first started to build my own, personal connection with the city.

In 2016, photography started to evolve from an occasional hobby, photographing a bit of everything, to the passion it is for me today. After a few years of working closer to home, I was back in London most days and naturally drawn to landscape photography and given the connection I’d already built with the city, it made sense that I would feel more compelled to point my lens at London’s incredible cityscape.

Since then, I’ve spent an untold number of hours across countless visits to the city walking the streets, seeking out new compositions and like all landscape photographers, hoping for perfect conditions in a bid to take that perfect image, knowing full well that such a thing doesn’t exist.

I chose to use “Timeless” in the title because from the subject to processing style, I felt it represented a few of the important ingredients that make up this project.

London as we know it has existed for around 2000 years, from a time when Londinium was the size of Hyde Park to the megacity it is today. Throughout all that time, architectural styles have inevitably evolved, from the medieval Tower of London, English Baroque such as St Paul’s Cathedral through to post-war brutalist and the contemporary 21st-century style with plenty of glass being used today.

London’s iconic cityscape is still represented by all of these architectural styles, and this is why timeless doesn’t mean a city that never changes, embodying just a single point in history. To me, it means a city that represents all times, a place consistently evolving over hundreds of years to a point where all of the significant architectural ages London existed through are represented across its skyline. With both old and new coexisting side by side, I wanted to capture a sense of that in my work.

Although the need to develop and evolve with the times has contributed to London’s ever-changing cityscape, this somewhat mishmash of styles has by no means been solely by design. Through the many turmoils the city has faced, such as the great fire or the blitz, London has been forced to rebuild significant parts of the city over the centuries, and one of the challenges I relish is to seek out ways to represent London in my photography and how it’s many structures stand together side by side in what I can only describe as a chaotic harmony.

The goal here isn’t to produce an “old and new” series of photos and even though most of the photos I take will include more than one architectural style in the frame. The goal is to document London’s cityscape across the entire body of work from high up in the rooftops with views stretching for miles, to closer, more intimate photos where scale can be represented better by including a subject in the composition.

At the time of writing this post, the earliest photo I have included in this project was taken in 2018, which, in the grand scheme of time, isn’t very long at all, but still long enough for many changes to take shape across London’s cityscape between then and now. The rate at which new buildings are being erected, particularly in the financial districts is accelerating and as I continue to take new photos, I will be inadvertently documenting these changes as they happen. If this ends up being a very long-term project, I think it will be good to look back at how the cityscape used to look years before.

Why this aesthetic?

Something important to mention about this work is that it is intended to be more of an artistic project than a documentary one, and every photo is taken with the full intention of being edited in post-production. This will include converting the raw files to black and white (more on that later) and alongside some usual tonal and contrast adjustments, I use plenty of selective dodging and burning to achieve the final look.

I still, however, have my own views about authenticity and how I edit my images. I never swap out the sky and never add something that wasn’t in the scene at the time the picture was taken. I might clone out the odd distraction if I feel it is taking away from the aesthetic, but these are typically transient elements such as rubbish in the foreground, old chewing gum on the pavement or the odd crane in the background. I want the viewer to be confident that if they were standing next to me as the shot was taken, they would have observed the same scene I show in my final image.

Alongside those adjustments, if the dynamic range is too much or I want to illuminate certain moving elements in the scene, I will blend images. I will only do this if there is just a very short time between frames and the camera has not been moved.

Sometimes reality doesn’t quite behave as we want, and we need to find our own limit as to what we are willing to do to get the final image. There is no right or wrong answer here, but I do believe in being upfront and honest about how the photo was created. You should stand by your work and not purposely mislead the viewer.

Getting back to the point about this being more of an artistic project than a “straight out of the camera” documentary, I wanted to give the finished photos a timeless look and feel.

I felt to represent the work as a single body, I had to ensure the final look was as consistent as it could be and given the ever-changing conditions, the many different styles of architecture and the multitude of colour in the scenes I photograph, removing colour and producing only black and white work seemed the right choice.

Of course, I still love colour photography and still produce most of my landscape work this way. So, once the project was starting to take shape and I ventured out into London to deliberately take photos for this black and white project, I learned very quickly that I would have to think and see differently. I had to remove colour from being a compositional element and focus only on shape, form and light. I feel, however, that it was a necessary step to make, as in addition to a more consistent look, black and white photography has a timeless feel about it, as the process does not age the photos and although I have no intention of doing so, they are free from a style that represents any contemporary trend in my work.

Another creative decision I made for this project was to use the square format for all finished photos, and like my decision to only process the images in black and white, there are several reasons for this. The first and most obvious reason for the square is that by having a single aspect ratio for all photos, it helps when trying to obtain a consistent look across the entire body of work.

Additionally, using a square crop has other compositional advantages. For instance, it can help when placing the subject in the centre of the image. I tend to do this quite often and the square crop, with all sides equal, can further emphasise that symmetry in the frame.

For a landscape photographer, the square format may appear more restrictive than the traditional 3:2 or 4:3 aspect ratios, but that’s not the case at all. I feel I have more freedom when composing a photo as the traditional “rules” carry less weight. Having equal sides seems to reduce the need to compensate when composing the image. I’m able to place the subject close to the middle or nearer to the edge of the frame without feeling the picture lacks balance.

Michael Kenna’s work is frequently referred to as being “zen-like” and although I’m sure this has a lot to do with his photographic style and technique he uses, I think that his use of the square format and the compositional freedom it provides has a little something to do with it too.

What’s next?

It’s early days and way too soon to know where this project will go. For now, I’m enjoying heading out with my camera and shooting new images for the collection alongside my traditional landscape work.

I’m still tweaking and refining as I go and allowing the project to develop as the body of work builds.

Along with a spin-off Instagram account dedicated to the project here: https://instagram.com/_timeless.city_, I wanted to give the project a permanent home, so I created this project page. I plan to update the page now and then with newly released photos and if I publish any more “behind the lens” or general blog articles related to the project, I’ll also post them there.

I’ve started to think about how I might present the images and at the moment, I have a few themes such as views from the rooftops or from along the Thames. There are, however, other images creeping into the collection that don’t fit a specific theme just yet and as long as they align with the spirit of the project, I’m quite happy to let them lead me somewhere new.

To get the very best experience of one’s work, I truly believe photography should be printed so I will of course be printing this work. To start it will be printed just for me, but in time I would love to turn this project into a series of zines or maybe even one day, a coffee table book. Thats a little way off yet but certainly something I would like to aim for.

That’s it for this project intro. Hopefully, you found that useful, but as ever, if you have any questions and want to know more about the process or ideas for future blog posts, just drop them in the comments below.

Until next time.

Trevor

Woodland Sanctuary by Simon Baxter & Joe Cornish | My Photo Bookshelf

You may have noticed that I enjoy a bit of woodland photography. In fact, I just enjoy the woodland and spending time exploring my local forest camera in hand or not. So, when two well-established photographers joined forces and released the Woodland Sanctuary book to accompany their exhibition to showcase the trees and woodland of the North York Moors, I jumped at the chance to own a copy. I don’t say this lightly, but Joe Cornish and Simon Baxter have both significantly influenced my landscape and woodland photography over the past few years, so, owning a book and experiencing more of their work in the printed form was an exciting prospect.

Author’s Synopsis

Trees and Woodland of the North York Moors

Woodland Sanctuary is a joint exhibition between photographers Simon Baxter and Joe Cornish. The work was gathered over the last six years, all of it within the North York Moors National Park.

This book is its hand-held equivalent. It is a record of the pictures and words from the exhibition. It also contains a few pictures for which there was insufficient space in the gallery! Arranged in a series of artistically inspired themes, we hope the photographs convey a sense of joy and wonder, and sometimes other complex emotions that can be triggered by looking at trees, and walking through the woods.

My thoughts about the book

I wasn’t able to attend Simon and Joe’s Woodland Sanctuary exhibition in person and although I thoroughly enjoyed the videos they released, there is no substitute for being there in person to view their work hanging on the wall, so I guess this book is the next best thing.

For the £20 I paid, this softcover book is packed full of 90+ beautiful woodland photos, organised by themes, including taken alongside rivers, scenes shaped by humans and 7 others. It’s such a unique and effective way to present their work, aligning them to a narrative that has a deeper meaning than just the aesthetic of the scene itself.

The book starts with an introduction by Joe Cornish, who provides some of the background to the work, the artists and the exhibition. This is followed by an artist statement from them both, talking about their own journeys that led them to create their own, deep connections with the woodland.

It goes without saying that the work presented in this book is on another level, but what I like even more is how distinct the work is between the two artists. As I flicked through, I would instantly recognise Simon’s or Joe’s work without the need to look at the text underneath. Although these two photographers have their own distinct style, the thoughtful sequencing allowed them to place their photos harmoniously side by side with a nice flow throughout each chapter.

To own some of the best woodland photography I’ve seen to date for as little as £20 is quite unique. This is a book I’ll return to time and again for inspiration.

Book Details

• 300gsm fine uncoated softcover

• Size: 300mm x 240mm

• Pages: 92 Litho printed on170gsm Silk Art Paper

• Availability at the time of writing: In stock and available from Simon Baxter’s website https://baxter.photos/shop/woodland-sanctuary Also available on Joe Cornish’s gallery shop website here.

Photographing autumn colour with the Fujifilm XF50-140mm lens

Late last year, toward the end of November (2023), I popped out to the forest to photograph what was left of the autumn colours. Only having a couple of hours to spare that morning and deciding to travel light….(ish). I took just my Fujifilm XT5 camera, the XF 50-140mm f2.8 lens and my tripod. Everything else was left in the car. Don’t worry, this blog isn’t a lens review, but more of an acknowledgement of the single camera and lens combo I used for all the photos during this little photography jaunt.

I arrived before sunrise and whenever I start from this area of the forest, I’ll typically head to my favourite viewpoint with a coffee to watch the sunrise and witness the landscape appear in front of me. It was a cloudy day, but for a short period before sunrise, there was a thin mist in the air, providing a touch of atmosphere across the landscape. So, taking advantage of the cooler, pre-sunrise tones, I took this photo of the undulating landscape below.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF50-140mm | 59mm | 1.3 Seconds | f/10 | ISO125

As the light levels increased and the mist withdrew into the distance, I photographed the same scene, but this time with the colours in the foreground looking warmer and more autumnal. Wanting to take in the wider landscape and being restricted to a minimum focal length of 50mm, I decided to take a stitched panoramic image. The advantage of doing it this way is that I can switch to a portrait orientation and zoom in further to bring the foreground even closer, making it appear larger in the picture. If I tried the same with a single shot on a wider lens, then I would have a huge foreground, tons of sky and a small slither of trees in the middle.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF50-140mm | 77mm | 0.6 Seconds | f/10 | ISO125

The other benefit of taking a stitched panoramic with 7 or 8 40-megapixel images is that you end up with a super-high resolution file. The panorama above is a whopping 157 megapixels and with so much resolution to play with, I was able to create another version of the image by just cropping it down to a 3:2 aspect ratio. The cropped photo below is still over 70 megapixels. Thats nearly double the resolution of my camera!

Fujifilm XT5 | XF50-140mm | 77mm | 0.6 Seconds | f/10 | ISO125

Before heading off into the woods and being drawn to how the brighter birch trees looked against the darker trees along the woodland’s edge, I took advantage of having the telephoto lens and zoomed right into 140mm and took some close-up photos of the woodland’s edge.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF50-140mm | 140mm | 2 Seconds | f/10 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF50-140mm | 140mm | 0.5 Seconds | f/10 | ISO125

By this time, I had probably been in the same spot for around an hour, so, I decided to stretch my legs and head into the forest to have a little explore. Having just the 50-140mm lens with me, I focused on taking pictures of more intimate scenes, including just parts of the trees and cutting out any sky from the frame.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF50-140mm | 111mm | 0.6 Seconds | f/10 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF50-140mm | 52mm | 0.8 Seconds | f/10 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF50-140mm | 50mm | 1/5th Second | f/9 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF50-140mm | 140mm | 1/8th Second | f/9 | ISO125

On the face of it, having one lens can appear restricting, but while out in the field with my camera, it didn’t feel like that at all. It felt a little liberating in fact. There was no decision needed as to what lens to use, no faffing with gear and certainly less weight. It helped me to focus my mind and see in a specific way, resulting in me coming away from the shoot with a few photos I’m pleased with.

I hope you enjoyed this bite sized on-location post. In a bid to get more of my photos up on my website, look out for more like this throughout 2024.

Until next time.

Trevor

How I Process My Landscape Photos Taken with the DJI Mini 3 Pro

When I first decided to buy a drone to use for landscape photography, I had to consider the pros and cons of each model available at the time. For example, the larger Mavic models typically have a more capable camera, but the smaller, sub 250g Mini models have fewer restrictions on where they can be flown. After weighing up the pros and cons, I eventually chose the DJI Mini 3 Pro. I’ve already published a post covering my thoughts on this drone, and you can read a full review from a landscape photographer’s perspective here: DJI Mini 3 Pro | A Landscape Photographer’s Review.

Following on from the review I wrote about this drone, I published a second post demonstrating the different camera settings I use while out taking landscape photos with the Mini 3 Pro. DJI Mini 3 pro Camera Settings for Landscape Photography.

You can find both of my previous DJI Mini 3 Pro blog posts below:

So, given that I’ve written a review of the Mini 3 Pro and published a blog post detailing the settings I use to take landscape photos, what’s this blog post all about then? When I published my previous post, I had a few messages asking for a bit more detail as to how I process the Mini 3 Pro raw files and although there are countless different approaches one can take, I decided to write this post detailing the steps I took from raw to final edit using a photo I took recently in low light conditions.

Before I start, I wanted to make two points. Firstly, this post is aimed at those wanting to get their files ready to be printed. The techniques I use to sharpen and overcome noise in the image aren’t really going to benefit you if you plan to just share your drone photos on social media.

The second point to make is that both this and the camera settings for landscape photography post above applies to those using the DJI Mini 3, Mini 3 Pro and the recently released Mini 4 Pro. Features may vary from model to model, but overall, their capabilities are very similar when it comes to taking landscape photos.

Step 1: Taking the photo in the field

Let’s start with the original raw files I took in the field. This is Arundel Castle located in West Sussex and after sunset came and went without much fanfare, I decided to hang back just a bit longer to take a photo during blue hour. It’ll not win any awards but with the low light conditions, I figured this image was a good candidate to use for this processing blog post.

Raw files as shown in Adobe Lightroom. DJI Mini 3 Pro | 24mm Pano | 1/6th and 1/3rd Second | f/1.7 | ISO100

In terms of camera settings, I used the 48mp setting in PRO mode when taking this photo to get the highest resolution. I knew from previous experience that there would be some noise in the files, so I decided to take two pictures, manually adjusting the shutter speed for each. The first image was exposed for the castle at 1/6th of a second, and the other was exposed for the sky at 1/3rd of a second.

Step 2: Increase detail and reduce noise in Adobe Lightroom

As I expected, there was some noise in the sky when viewing the raw file at 100%. So, before I merged the bracketed images, that noise needed to be dealt with. Even though I can see the noise at 100% here on my screen, I’m not too sure how well that comes across on yours, so here’s a 100% and 200% crop demonstrating the noise I can see in the sky. I know the 200% crop isn’t representative in the real world but it’s just to help visualise the noise. If you still can’t see it, you’ll just have to trust me that it is there.

There seems to be a plethora of noise reduction software hitting the market recently and among those, Adobe released its own AI Denoise feature in Lightroom and Camera Raw. Having tried some of the other tools available, in my opinion, Adobe’s AI Denoise is as good as, if not better than many of the other options out there. Plus, its baked into Lightroom making for an easier workflow.

AI denoise is a part of Adobe’s Enhance feature (located in the Photo menu along the top). Along with denoising an image, it also improves raw files by enhancing the details and reducing artefacts. It can, however, only be used with raw images so needs to be applied before using the Photomerge-HDR function in the next section.

To remain consistent across both the under and over-exposed raw files, I ran them both through the Enhance feature, being careful not to add too much noise reduction as overuse can have unintended consequences.

Below is a side-by-side comparison of the original and enhanced files. With any hope, you will be able to see the refined edges and enhanced definition on the right-hand side.

Step 3: Merging the bracketed image files in Adobe Lightroom

With the two new DNG files created by the Enhance feature, I selected them both and used the Photomerge-HDR option in the Photo menu (or via a right-click on the photo). I typically use the settings you see below and once finished, a new HDR DNG file is created. This new file will have less noise in the shadow areas and more detail that can be recovered in the brighter areas, resulting in a cleaner, editable image.

Step 4: Editing the image in Adobe Lightroom

Now, with the image file prepared, it’s time to edit.

This post isn’t a tutorial as to how best to edit a photo as everyone’s style will be different. However, what I have highlighted below is the Detail panel showing that I have applied minimal sharpening in Lightroom and for the small amount that is applied, I have increased the masking to ensure it only applies to the areas of high contrast such as the castle edges, excluding large parts of the image such as the sky.

Step 5: Sharpening in Adobe Photoshop

A note on sharpening. Opinions vary as to when to apply it. During the edit or only when the file is being outputted for a particular use case such as web, socials or print. This is just my approach, and I don’t for one minute suggest it is right for everyone. I will typically add some sharpening when editing, call it a “base sharpening” if you will. This is typically fine for all of my online needs but If I feel I need to add any more sharpening for print, I will do so when preparing the file before sending it to the printer.

Not being a big fan of how Lightroom sharpens my raw files, I apply just a small amount of sharpening using the Details panel before I finish it off properly in Photoshop. For this, I use the High Pass filter. It’s a great tool to detect the edges (or high contrast areas) in a frame, which, when combined with a contrast-boosting blending mode applied to those edges, sharpens the photo without affecting the areas with less contrast, such as the sky.

First up, create a duplicate layer and then, from the menu, select Filter - Other - High Pass. Here, you will decide how much sharpening you want to add by adjusting the Radius amount. Choosing the right number depends on the resolution of the file and how much sharpening you want to add. Typically, I stick between 1-2 pixels at this stage with the view that I can add more later if needed. If you start to see colour artefacts in the preview, you’ve probably taken it way too far. Experiment with the radius yourself to get the effect you like. Once I’m happy with the thickness of the edges detected by the High Pass filter, I then hit OK.

Next, I use the Overlay blending mode for the same layer. This blending mode will hide the grey areas and add contrast to the edges highlighted by the High Pass filter, resulting in a clean, sharper file. Hopefully, you can see the effect by comparing the before and after images in the screengrab below.

The final image, ready to print

After a few Photoshop tweaks that include the spot healing brush to remove a few distracting lights and a final 3:2 crop back in Adobe Lightroom, here is the final photo with more clarity and less noise than before.

As with all processing methods, this approach, which works for me, may not work for everyone, but in some way or another, I will use some or all of these steps when processing my drone photos.

Having said all of that, the proof is in the pudding, so, next up, I plan to print this and a few other photos I’ve taken with my drone to see how the quality holds up at different sizes. If I can find a way to communicate that process in this blog format, I’ll post a follow-up article on that soon.

I hope you found this article useful, and if you have any tips or tricks or can suggest any improvements to my workflow, feel free to leave a comment below.

Until next time.

Trevor

Littoral | My Photo Bookshelf

I first heard about the books created by John Ash and Paul Gotts a couple of years ago when they released a previous book called New Beginnings. Unfortunately, I was too late to bag a copy of that book before it sold out, so when Littoral was released, I made sure not to miss out again.

The typical format of the most recent books released by John and Paul over at https://makingaphotobook.co.uk is that they will commission a limited number of photographers who will shoot to a pre-determined theme. The resulting images will be curated and published in the final photobook. What makes the books even more special is that the photographers have given their time for free as the proceeds of the book are donated to a charity in keeping with the theme of the book.

Author’s Synopsis

Littoral is a stunning new hardback photobook published in June 2023.

Black and white images from three talented photographers have been reflected on and woven together by a master storyteller at the peak of his powers.

The book is about memories and personal stories – the images and words will resonate with readers everywhere.

Photographs by: Lynn Fraser, Ali Lewis and Fiona McCowan

Words by: Jeff Young

Foreword by: Jack Lowe

My thoughts about the book

As the title suggests, Littoral includes photos with a shoreline theme running through them and with proceeds going to the RNLI, it all ties together nicely. At the very beginning is a forward written by Jack Lowe. The forward is written with much thought and affection for the RNLI as those familiar with Jack Lowe will surely know about his project to photograph all 238 lifeboat stations onto glass plate. It’s a fascinating and worthwhile project you can read more about here: https://lifeboatstationproject.com.

In the book are 35 back-and-white photos taken by Lynn Fraser, Ali Lewis and Fiona McCowan. All three of these accomplished photographers had their own unique take on the brief so the photos included are wonderfully diverse. Still, with praise for the curation and sequencing, they flowed incredibly well. I particularly liked the range of subjects in the work from small, intimate rock scenes, to man-made subjects such as swimming baths and lighthouses.

Woven in among the photos are some creative words written by Jeff Young. Inspired by the photos, I found these passages worked well to both add some artistic narrative as well as to introduce a timely pause between each collection of images.

I thoroughly enjoyed Littoral, and with an important underlying message for both supporting the RNLI and protecting our oceans, it made for an even richer experience.

Book Details

• Hardcover

• Size: 250mm x 250mm Square

• Pages: 58 pages printed on Fedrigoni 170 gsm paper.

• Availability at the time of writing: Unavailable from the usual UK booksellers. Consider looking for a used copy if available. Link to the book’s original website: https://littoralphotobook.co.uk/

My Favourite Landscape Photos from 2023

I probably start these yearly posts the same way each time but the reason for me to write them never changes. I enjoy these annual retrospectives as they give me a reason to look back at the last 12 months, enjoy some of the photos and relive some of the adventures I had with my camera in tow.

Have you ever listened to some music and it transported you back to a time and a place where you first heard it? You could have been on a big night out with friends, at home on the sofa with someone special or even in the car driving to work. However momentous or mundane the setting, there is now a connection in your mind between that song and the time or place you heard it. That’s what photography does for me. I look back at these photos and yeah, it’s great to have something nice to look at, but adding the recollection of that time I was stood in the woodland, first thing in the morning with the surrounding mist deadening all sound but the birdsong above me, or standing at the edge of a frozen lake in Snowdonia with distant mountains in front of me and the sun just rising, illuminating the peaks. That is something else altogether. However much I feel that photography is a way to express myself artistically, they are all connections to a time and place where I felt the moment was special enough to capture and keep forever.

So, to sum up, I get as much, if not more joy from writing these yearly posts than anyone might get from reading them.

The Woodland

I think 2023 was the first year since photographing landscapes that I spent more time capturing the woodland than the grand landscape. I really have put a shift in. I’ve made so many early morning trips into my local forest this year and between all that effort, practice and getting to know the woodland properly, I feel my woodland photography has progressed significantly in 2023.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 23mm | 0.8 Seconds | f/10 | ISO400

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 26mm | 0.5 Seconds | f/7.1 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 35mm | 1/10th Second | f/7.1 | ISO400

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 34mm | 1/3rd Second | f/8 | ISO125

This year, I started to think about how so many of my photos never see the light of day and decided that I wanted to release more of these photos in the form of on-location blog posts. They’re not supposed to be too overwhelming, but just enough to feature the handful of photos I might take on a successful photography outing. Here are a couple of blog posts I wrote about my trips into the woodland.

London’s Cityscape

I was quite productive when photographing London in 2023, but not in my usual way. Ordinarily, I seek the wider, epic cityscape with dramatic clouds or vivid colours in the sky. This year was a bit different as I’ve not taken as many of what some might call my traditional style of cityscape photo. So, why was it productive if I didn’t take as many of my usual cityscape photos? Check out the section towards the end of this post featuring my Timeless City project.

I still managed, however, to bag a few keepers on my many outings into the Big Smoke and I’ve shared some of my favourites below.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 16mm | 1/13th Second | f/8 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 10mm | 1/40th Second | f/11 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 16mm | 1/1000th Second | f/6.4 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 10mm | 1/100th Second | f/4 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 16mm | 2.5 Seconds | f/13 | ISO125

The Landscape

I always like to share some of the traditional landscape photos I took during the previous 12 months, but this past year, I struggled a little. With the shift to taking more woodland photos and recently feeling a little uninspired by my local landscape, I didn’t make as many trips and subsequently as many landscape photos as I normally do.

I did take a few worth sharing though, often revisiting some of my regular locations in the area to document how they have changed over time or through the different seasons. It’s something I do more and more these days. When I get to a location I like, I will revisit it time and again to try to improve on the photos I’ve taken before, or like I have been doing with the view of the low-lying woodland below, taking photos throughout the year as a mini seasonal project.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 16mm | 0.4 Seconds | f/11 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 35mm | 1/10th Second | f/6.4 | ISO400

Fujifilm XT5 | XF50-140mm | 56mm | 1/10th Second | f/9 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF50-140mm | 140mm | 1/80th Second | f/8 | ISO125

The Small Scenes

I thoroughly enjoy photographing small scenes like this and in 2023, I managed to take a handful of photos I like, some I’ve shared below.

I do, however, feel I lost my way a little when photographing the small scenes over the last 12 months. I believe that to photograph the details around me, I need to practice seeing them, looking down more often at what’s around my feet and working harder to notice nature’s textures and patterns that surround me every day. I just don’t think I did enough of that. It’s not about the number of photos I took, more that if I’m tuned in better to the details, I will spot them more often instead of just walking by. Something for me to work on in 2024.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF50-140mm | 140mm | 1/8th Second | f/9 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF50-140mm | 134mm | 1/15th Second | f/9 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 55mm | 0.6 Seconds | f/8 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF50-140mm | 140mm | 1/25th Second | f/2.8 | ISO125

The Drone

I have thoroughly enjoyed taking landscape photos with my done this year, but having only owned one since late 2022, it became apparent quickly that taking landscape photos with a drone was going to take a different approach altogether. There was quite a learning curve involved. With so much time spent photographing woodlands, not many of my dedicated landscape photography outings allowed for drone photography, but when they did, I took the opportunity and ended up with a handful of photos I particularly like.

If there’s one thing I want to take more photos with in 2024, it’s my drone, so I’ll be working hard to achieve that over the next 12 months.

DJI Mini 3 Pro | 24mm (effective) | 1/8000th Second | f/1.7 | ISO100

DJI Mini 3 Pro | 24mm (effective) | 1/30th Second | f/1.7 | ISO100

DJI Mini 3 Pro | 24mm Pano | 0.4 Seconds | f/1.7 | ISO100

Photographing Wales

With some beautiful woodland, rolling hills and chalk-lined coastlines, the Southeast of England has a lot to offer the landscape photographer, but what we don’t have is mountains and waterfalls and those lucky sods in Wales have ample amounts of both. So, over the last few years, I’ve been making multiple photography trips to both the Brecon Beacons and Snowdonia National Parks to get my fix of a more rugged landscape.

Since these were dedicated photography trips, I also wrote a couple of On Location blog posts that include more of the photos I took and some behind-the-lens stories. Select one of the thumbnails below to jump straight to that blog post.

A Landscape Photography Trip to Snowdonia

In January 2023, I spent a couple of days photographing a very wintry-looking Snowdonia. Barely scratching the surface, it was my first dedicated photography trip to this stunning location, learning lots along the way and getting to know the area as best I could in the short time I had. With any hope, the more times I visit, the better my photos will be, but as I just mentioned, this being my first trip dedicated to landscape photography, I’m still pleased with the photos I took.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 18mm | 2 Seconds | f/8 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 16mm | 1/4th Second | f/5 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF50-140mm | 54mm | 1/200th Second | f/9 | ISO200

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 16mm | 13 Seconds | f/8 | ISO200

Photographing Waterfall Country

Along with Snowdonia in January, I also took a trip to the Brecon Beacons National Park in October. Given the time of year, I was hoping for a little more colour on the trees, but the leaves were still predominantly green. Still, I made the best of it, taking some photos I was happy with, and I mentally clocked that to get the best colour, it will have to be an early-mid November trip next time.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 14mm | 0.5 Seconds | f/9 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 10mm | 1/6th Second | f/8 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 10mm | 1/5th Second | f/7.1 | ISO400

Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 15mm | 50 Seconds | f/10 | ISO125

Timeless City

I started the Timeless City project this year and was excited about it from the first photo I processed. I’ve been documenting London with my camera for a few years, making countless trips into the city and I feel I have finally found a way that allows me to share the photography as a cohesive body of work.

I deliberately used the word timeless as it represents so much about the project. The years I’ve been and will continue to photograph this great city, the way the old and new architectural styles sit side by side, and the aesthetic of the final image I create with the square crop and monochrome processing. All of it matters and represents something in the project.

I know the project has a way to go yet, not only in terms of the images I take but what it means and how it might develop. For now, I’m just excited to let it flow and see where it takes me.

Looking forward

As I mentioned at the start of this post, I usually spend a little time looking forward and thinking about what I want to achieve in the coming 12 months. Rightly or wrongly, these aspirations are relatively fluid as time is always limited and priorities can change. However, right here, right now, I’ve listed a few things I would like to achieve or make progress on in 2024.

• Be it the woodland, cityscapes or small scenes, continue to be curious and inspired by the landscape.

• Take more trips and make more memories to look back on in 12 months.

• Be more consistent with both my blog and newsletter.

• Publish my first book/zine and with hope, sell one or two.

• Develop my Timeless City project further. Write about it, give it a dedicated space on my website, promote it and continue to build the work in preparation for something more in the future.

• Print my photos more often.

• Take photos with my drone more often.

• Complete some of my seasonal woodland/landscape series.

There you go. That’s this year’s retrospective done and dusted. All that’s left to do is thank everyone who has supported me and my work this past year and I wish you all a happy and successful 2024.

Until next year.

Trevor

On Location Photographing Waterfall Country

Having made trips to the waterfalls in the Brecon Beacons twice before in 2021 and 2022, it seems these excursions are becoming an annual event, because just a few weeks ago, in late October 2023, I set off with my camera to spend a couple of days hiking the waterfalls once again.

On my previous two trips, I spent most of my time walking and photographing along the Four Falls Trail. This is probably the most popular of the main waterfall trails in the Brecon Beacons as it features some of the more dramatic falls, so it made sense that on those trips, I would focus a lot of my attention on these.

On Location bog post I wrote in 2022

I’m a big believer that to get the very best photos possible, you should try to get to know the location well, and if I tried to cram too much in those previous trips while still being new to the location, I feel I couldn’t possibly take my best photos. I’d prefer to come away with just a few keepers instead of a much larger collection of average photos.

This time around, however, I felt that I had gotten to know the Four Falls Trail well enough to incorporate another trail into trip. So, I decided to include a couple of hikes along the Elidir Trail into the weekend.

If you’re after a bit more reading (after this one of course), I wrote another on-location post about my previous trip in spring 2022, which not only features the photos I took, but also includes some info about where best to park when heading to the Four Falls Trail. Click on the blog’s thumbnail to read that previous post.

What was in my camera bag for this trip?

For those interested in the gear I took, the picture below covers everything with just one exception. The image below is reused from my “What’s in my camera bag 2023” blog post, which features the XF16-55mm standard zoom and XF50-140mm telephoto. Since publishing that post in January 2023, I’ve added the wide-angle XF10-24mm WR to my collection, and I’m glad I did because it ended up being the lens I used most on this trip.

With the wide-angle lens now in my bag, I had all the focal lengths covered and equally as important was that my Fujifilm XT5 camera and all three lenses were weather-sealed, which, given the amount of water spray I had to contend with on this trip, was an absolute necessity.

What’s in my camera bag, 2023.

Alongside my camera, lenses and tripod, the two other pieces of gear I couldn’t do without were my Kase magnetic filters and my head torch. I’ve talked about my Kase filters in a previous blog post here so I won’t go on about them too much here. The circular polariser was on the end of my lens 99% of the time to help tone down the glare reflecting off the water and I used my neutral density filters to help slow down the shutter speed as needed to get the texture I wanted in the water.

Regarding the head torch; let’s just say that no landscape photographer should head out without one in their bag.

Just a last note before we get into the photos I took. Like with my previous blog post in 2022, I visited some locations multiple times across the weekend but to keep things simple here, I grouped the pictures by location. So, if you see the same falls but in different conditions, now you know why.

Four Falls Trail

In my previous blog post, I mentioned that there is a very small car park which I try to use as it’s a lot closer to the falls than the other two main car parks and thankfully on the two occasions I walked the Four Falls Trail during this visit, I was lucky enough to find a spot there which saved me tons of time walking to and from the falls.

In Autumn 2021, I came across this intimate scene as I wandered down the path from the car park and although the colours weren’t quite as vibrant this time around, I still made a point of stopping to take another picture. I wasn’t convinced that there was a photo here until I played with the shutter speed a little until I had just the right amount of texture in the water. It’s an understated photo but I just love the feathery nature of the water and I’m pleased I decided to stop and take the shot.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 16mm | 1.3 Seconds | f/9 | ISO125

Photographing Sgwd Isaf Clun-Gwyn Waterfall

My first stop was at Sgwd Isaf Clun-Gwyn (lower fall of the white meadow) and photographically, it’s by far my favourite along this trail. From the top to the bottom, it has so many compositional opportunities and I have spent more time photographing this waterfall than any others in the Brecon Beacons.

The official waterfall trail follows the eastern side of the river, but I think the best views of Sgwd Isaf Clun-Gwyn are from the western side. From here you can take in the scale of this 20-metre cascade but, it’s a lot trickier to get to and involves a bit of a scramble down a rather steep drop which should only be attempted by someone fit and sure-footed.

Pointing the camera downstream when photographing waterfalls doesn’t always work as you can lose some of the impact from the subject and the eye doesn't always have somewhere to go and rest on, but in the case of these two photos below, I think it does work as there is a visual flow, leading you from the interesting foreground, down the cascades and along the river. So, there is plenty of depth and most importantly, the eye is not led out of the image.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 10mm | 1/6th Second | f/7.1 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 10mm | 1/6th Second | f/7.1 | ISO125

One thing I’ve not yet mentioned is just how much rain had fallen on the days leading up to my trip. The water was gushing down the valley and along with some gusty wind creating a lot of spray, it made for some tricky shooting conditions. I soaked a lot of lens cloths while taking this front-on composition of Sgwd Isaf Clun-Gwyn as the spray was relentless, but I’m glad I persevered as I managed to take one of my favourite photos from the trip.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 10mm | 1/6th Second | f/5 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 13mm | 1/6th Second | f/5 | ISO125

The final photo of Sgwd Isaf Clun-Gwyn was taken at the foot of the cascades and ordinarily, I would have liked to get a slightly better view looking up the falls, but the water level was so high and the current so strong, this is as far left as I could get. So, I dropped the tripod lower to the ground and focused on capturing some foreground details, with the falls becoming more of a backdrop than the main subject.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 10mm | 0.5 Seconds | f/8 | ISO400

Photographing Sgwd y Pannwr Waterfall

Travelling just a short distance downstream is Sgwd y Pannwr ('fall of the fuller' or 'fall of the woollen washer'). I started off at the top of waterfall with a composition I tried on my previous visit. I like the way the water falling over the long gully cleads the eye into the frame towards the tree. I would like to have a little more of the tree in the frame but any higher and the sky bursts into the image and is far too distracting.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 11mm | 1/3rd Second | f/6.4 | ISO125

Following a path around the waterfall, I made my way to the other side to get a front-on view of Sgwd y Pannwr. My plan here was to drop down to the edge of the water and try to incorporate some interesting foreground, but again, with so much water, it was hard to get close and where I could, the higher water level meant that anything interesting I could use was covered. I just couldn’t find a composition I liked. So, with the sun now rising and the warmer light helping to bring out some of those early autumnal colours, I stacked an ND filter on top of my CPL and took this long exposure from a higher vantage point.

Did I mention it was a bit windy? To get the silky-smooth water but super sharp leaves, I took two separate photos. A four-second exposure for the water and a 0.4-second exposure to freeze some of the movement in the trees. I then blended the two together in Photoshop. It’s a technique I had to use a few times on this trip.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 18mm | 0.4 Seconds/4 Seconds | f/8 | ISO125

Photographing Sgwd Yr Eira Waterfall

A bit further down the trail is Sgwd Yr Eira (Waterfall of the snow). Probably the most popular because it’s the only waterfall along the trail you can walk behind, I made a point to visit this one first thing in the morning as once other people start to arrive, it can be difficult to keep them out of the photos. So, up before sunrise with the trusty head torch guiding my way, I headed straight to here.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 19mm | 1/4th Second | f/13 | ISO125

For the photo above, I stood a bit further back from the falls and used a hanging branch to help frame the waterfall which I think works quite well.

Getting a bit closer and wider with the 10-24mm lens, I placed the tripod lower to the water so I could emphasise its energy as it made its way around the rocks in the foreground. Even though I was using the wide-angle lens, I needed to focus-stack this one to get the image sharp from front to back.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 10mm | 1/5th Second | f/7.1 | ISO400

The last photo from this Sgwd Yr Eira set was taken from the other side of the river. The last time I was here, I could wade across the river but with so much water, I had no choice but to brave the incredibly wet path behind the waterfall. On went the waterproofs and across I went. I got absolutely soaked!

Thankfully, I was able to find a composition I liked and came away with a photo, so it wasn’t all bad.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 13mm | 1/3rd Second | f/9 | ISO125

The Elidir trail

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I felt that this time around I would have the time to visit a second waterfall trail, so I decided to also tackle the Elidir trail to see what photos I could come away with. The photos I’ve posted from along this trail were taken over two visits so, to keep things simple, I’ve once again grouped them together to make for a better flow.

A note on parking. This trail has parking near the top and bottom and both work really well. Parking at the top of the trail here will mean a shorter walk as its closer to many of the falls but if you park in the village here, you can stop off at the end for a drink or food.

Photographing Sgwd Ddwli Uchaf Waterfall

As mentioned, you can hit this trail from both north or south and during the trip, I did both but, in this post, I’ll be working my way downriver from north to south starting with Sgwd Ddwli Uchaf (The Upper Gushing Falls).

Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 22mm | 0.4 Seconds | f/10 | ISO125

I’m not going to lie, I found photographing this waterfall quite difficult and it took a couple of visits to find the compositions you can see here. The first time I was here, the sun was out and the light was far too harsh for my taste. I just couldn’t see a composition, let alone take a photo, and it wasn’t until I returned when there was a bit more cloud around, I was able to take these three photos below.

With the light much more defused, I found a spot right next to the water (above), and while playing with shutter speeds, I used the textures in the water to add a bit of interest in the foreground.

I also got up close and personal with Sgwd Ddwli Uchaf, taking this portrait photo of the waterfall using the yellowing leaves on the overhanging tree to help frame the composition and at the same time, block some of the brighter sky from becoming too distracting.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 11mm | 1.3 Seconds | f/14 | ISO125

I’d seen a photo similar to the one below while researching the trail before the trip, so it’s not exactly an original composition, but I guess most of these here are like that. When photographing a popular place which has been photographed a million times before, it puts more emphasis on how you take and process your images if originality is what you’re after.

This is a very busy scene, and it took a while to fine-tune the composition enough to frame it properly, add some order to the chaos and provide a final image I like.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 14mm | 0.5 Seconds | f/9 | ISO125

Photographing Sgwd-y-Bedol Waterfall

After trying and failing to get a photo I liked of Sgwd Ddwli Isaf (Lower Gushing Falls), the next waterfall you will get to as you work your way down is Sgwd-y-Bedol (Horseshoe Falls). A multi-level, curved cascade that opens at its base into a large plunge pool.

These two photos of the same composition were all about combining the gushing water with different shutter speeds to create alternative looks, particularly in the plunge pool. I used a 3-second exposure for the first photo below which smoothed out the water a little to create a softer, cleaner finish. The second copy, for which the sun made a brief appearance to add a touch of warmth to the scene had a faster 1/2 second exposure which resulted in more texture on the surface of the plunge pool. I like them both and being just about different enough, I decided to include them both in this blog.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 18mm | 3 Seconds | f/7.1 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 18mm | 0.5 Seconds | f/7.1 | ISO800

Photographing Sgwd Gwladys Waterfall

Just a few minutes’ walk downstream, the River Neath meets Afon Pyrddin and just a little way up the Pyrddin is the jewell in the Elidir trail’s crown. Sgwd Gwladys (Lady Falls) is an incredibly popular and accessible waterfall and in my opinion, the best looking along the trail.

I had a lot of fun playing with different exposure times when photographing these falls as I wanted to include the swirling movement of the foam in the plunge pool. Like with previous photos, I had to blend a couple of exposures to get the results I wanted. With the help of an ND filter, I took a 25-second long exposure to get those streaky lines in the plunge pool. I then removed the ND filter and took another shot at 1/15th second to freeze any movement created by the wind.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 13mm | 1/15th Second | f/5 | ISO800 blended with 25 Seconds | f/13 | ISO125 | ND Filter

For the photo below, I used the same effect to blend a long and short exposure, but this time I went one step further, as to keep both the ferns in the foreground and the waterfall in the background sharp, I needed to focus stack the image too! Thankfully, the wind had died down a little so it wasn’t as hard as it could have been, but it was still a bit fiddly nonetheless.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 15mm | 0.8 Seconds | f/10 | ISO125 blended with 50 Seconds | ND Filter

The good thing about Sgwd Gwladys is that even though the water levels were high, with just a pair of wellies on, I could wade across the river and take a photo while standing in the plunge pool directly in front of the waterfall or further downstream from across the river.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 18mm | 0.5 Seconds | f/11 | ISO125 blended with 25 Seconds | ND Filter

Fujifilm XT5 | XF50-140mm | 50mm | 0.8 Seconds | f/11 | ISO125 blended with 40 Seconds | ND Filter

Sychryd Falls

My last stop on my final day before heading home was at the fantastic Sychryd Waterfall. The late afternoon sun was just about piercing through the clouds, and I spent around an hour here taking photos.

One regret from my previous visit to Sychryd Waterfall is that I didn’t get low enough or close enough to the smaller waterfall at the front of the pool, so despite the high water levels making it a little tricky and having to use some rather questionable tripod positioning, I got as close as I could, using the texture in the water as a foreground and took the photo you can see here below.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 11mm | 1/4th Second | f/9 | ISO125

For the final waterfall photo of the entire blog, I adopted the same technique I used at Sgwd Gwladys and blended two exposures to capture the movement in the water while keeping the leaves free of too much motion blur.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 19mm | 0.4 Seconds | f/9 | ISO125 blended with .5 Seconds | f/13 | ND Filter

Photographing the Brecon Beacon’s Woodland

As per my previous visits to the Brecon Beacons, I couldn’t resist taking a few photos of the local woodland as I walked to and from the various waterfalls. Being October, I had hoped for a touch more autumnal colours in the leaves, but they had yet to turn down in the valley and were still predominantly green. Regardless, that didn’t stop me from capturing some of those gnarly trees and branches which flank the river.

With the gusty wind and dull light, I found it a bit challenging at times, but with the help of a circular polariser to help take some of the glare off the wet leaves and give the colours a little punch, I came away with the handful of photos I’ve shared below.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF10-24mm | 24mm | 1/8th Second | f/7.1 | ISO400

Fujifilm XT5 | XF50-140mm | 84mm | 1/5th Second | f/9 | ISO400

Fujifilm XT5 | XF50-140mm | 120mm | 1/5th Second | f/8 | ISO400

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 29mm | 0.5 Seconds | f/10 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 50mm | 0.5 Seconds | f/10 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF50-140mm | 95mm | 0.6 Seconds | f/11 | ISO125

Flow: a collection of intimate river photographs

If you call this photography trip to the Brecon Beacons a small project, well this is a mini project inside that small project. The thing about photographing the waterfalls is that aside from your own technique, the conditions you’re shooting in and your editing style, it’s a challenge to get original images. I’m ok with that because I love the experience as much as the final photos I take but it still didn’t stop me trying something a little different during this trip.

In between the heavy rain, I had some prolonged periods of clear skies and with the sun beating down, the light was too harsh and there was too much contrast for my taste. But there were pockets of shade along the river, and it was during one of these episodes of harsh light I decided to try something different and start photographing the patterns and textures in the flowing water.

I needed to find spots along the river where the sun wasn’t directly illuminating as the highlights were too distracting and I mostly used my 3-stop ND filter to get the exposure time just right to capture the movement but retain enough detail.

I decided while out taking these photos that I wanted to present them as a single body of work. For the collection to work well together, I chose to use a square crop and process them all in black and white. In my opinion, this was the right decision, as like the water, it helped the photos flow.

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If you’ve got this far and managed to finish this blog, well done you!! It was a big one. A big one because I had a great time over those 48 hours taking many photos of this quite amazing place. I do hope you enjoyed the photos and the words that accompany them.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below and thanks for stopping by.

Until next time.

Trevor

Get To Know Your Local Woodland

Back in March, I published a blog post listing ten tips that can help photographers take better woodland images, and tip number 8 suggested that everyone should get to know their local woodlands.

You can read all ten tips here, but here is an excerpt of tip number 8: When heading to new locations or those you can’t visit as often as you like, luck can play a huge part in taking portfolio-worthy pictures as you might not get the best light, or you might not know the best time of day/year to photograph that particular location. Having a local woodland only a short walk or drive from where you live means you remove the need for some of that luck as you can keep returning until the conditions are right. If you live close enough, you can afford to be reactive to the weather conditions and as soon as the fog comes in, you can grab the camera and head out!

Well, this is exactly what I did just a couple of weeks ago. Due to other commitments, I had no intention of heading out on this particular morning but for some reason, I decided to check the weather the night before and noticed some light fog predicted around my area. When foggy or misty conditions are forecast, we photographers flock to the woodland like bees to honey as the soft, defused light can add depth and atmosphere to a scene, while at the same time help declutter the composition, providing a sense of space and room for the subject to breathe. This can result in some quite stunning woodland photos.

So, I had great conditions predicted but limited time to get out and shoot. What to do? This is where having good knowledge of the woodland and a list of previously scouted compositions comes in incredibly handy. Instead of heading out and rushing around in search of a composition and potentially coming away with a couple of hastily taken, average-looking photos, I was able to enjoy the little time I had, taking a leisurely stroll between locations knowing exactly where to set up and how to get the best composition of each tree.

An hour or so after arriving, I was back in the car, confident that I had a few keepers on my card and grateful for the time I had spent on previous visits scouting this local woodland.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 24mm | 7 Seconds | f/9 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 27mm | 1.3 Seconds | f/9 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 28mm | 2.5 Seconds | f/9 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 27mm | 2 Seconds | f/9 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 35mm | 1/10th Second | f/7.1 | ISO400

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 44mm | 1/6th Second | f/8 | ISO200

Until next time,

Trevor

Quiet Light by Adam Gibbs | My Photo Bookshelf

Adam Gibbs is a well-known landscape photographer based in Canada and by the time I discovered and started to follow Adam on his YouTube channel, he had already sold out of the first and second editions of Quiet Light. So, when the third edition was released, I ordered myself a copy as soon as I could.

Author’s Synopsis

Photography is all about light. Light is the key to creating mood, dimension, and often is the main subject of the photograph itself. "Quiet Light" is my homage to the main ingredient that makes an image, light. In this book, I share over two decades of my nature photography from around the globe. For me, the enjoyment of photography doesn't necessarily come from the final image; the joy comes from discovery, exploration and ultimately chasing the light. I hope you enjoy these images as much as I have experienced in creating them.

My thoughts about the book

Released in 2019, Quiet Light showcases 25 years of nature photography taken by Adam Gibbs. Apart from being an admirer of the pictures Adam takes on his YouTube channel, the main reason I wanted to get a copy of this book is that Adam is a big proponent of taking photos in soft, defused light such as you would find on cloudy or misty days and this is a style of photography I’ve found myself gravitating towards. Bagging an epic scene in stunning light is all well and good, and something I still enjoy from time to time, but for me, nothing beats a morning exploring my local woodland in misty or soft light, seeking out simplified shapes and woodland characters amongst the intimate landscape on offer.

As with all the Kozu books I own, it’s well made with superb picture quality. The sequencing of the images is quite clever, with pictures paired together with complimenting shapes and subjects along with a more extended colour-based theme throughout the book, starting with green and finishing with more subdued blues and greys.

Finally, the photos. Although common in being tastefully taken and presented, there’s quite an array of subjects, from the forests of British Columbia to the mountains in the Chinese province of Anhui. From small, intimate scenes to grand vistas, they are all wonderfully impactful images while somehow remaining calm and subdued.

This third edition may well sell out and, if you can, I recommend adding it to your landscape photography book collection.

Book Details

• Hardcover

• Size: 300mm x 240mm Landscape

• Pages: 87 pages printed on 170gsm paper

• Availability at the time of writing: First and Second Editions are sold about Third Edition is in stock and available at the time of writing from Kozu Books https://www.kozubooks.com/books-new/quiet-light-by-adam-gibbs-third-edition

DJI Mini 3 Pro Camera Settings for Landscape Photography

I’ve had quite a few questions, both in the comments or sent via email since I posted my 6-month review of the DJI Mini 3 Pro for landscape photography, and one question that has been asked a few times is how I find the image quality, particularly when it comes to editing the raw files. The DJI Mini 3 Pro is a very capable drone. When looking to fly almost anywhere (flight restrictions aside) by staying under the 250g weight limit, you will do well to find a more capable drone on the market today.

DJI Mavic Mini 3 | 24mm (effective) | 1/30th Second | f/1.7 | ISO100

That being said, there is no getting around the fact that the image sensor used in the Mini 3 Pro’s camera is a little on the small side. With smaller pixels and a lower resolution compared to some of the larger drones on the market, getting the very best image quality will require you to take advantage of all of the settings and features available. In this article, I will share some tips and tricks I’ve picked up over time so you can take the best aerial landscape photos possible with the DJI Mini 3 Pro.

One final point before we jump in. This article has been written with a specific focus on photos and contains my personal opinion based on my own experience capturing and editing photos taken with the Mini 3 Pro. I won’t be covering other topics in this post such as the best video settings or even flying modes. I’ll save those topics for someone else.

Set the photo mode to PRO

Like most traditional cameras, the Mini 3 Pro has both auto and pro (manual) camera modes. For those that may be apprehensive about switching their camera away from auto mode, it really isn’t as scary as you may think and making the switch provides you full control of the shutter speed, white balance and ISO settings. Having the PRO picture mode enabled will open up more possibilities to ensure the image looks the way you want, and the great thing is, the real-time feedback you get on the screen will help ensure you don’t under/over-expose your photos. Many of the settings I mention in the post rely on PRO mode being activated, so, in my opinion, this should be one of the first things you do when you’ve mastered flying your drone and want to take better photos.

To switch from AUTO to PRO mode, simply tap the AUTO icon located in the bottom right-hand side of the screen. You will know you are shooting in PRO mode as the icon will change and more settings will appear.

Shoot in J+R (JPEG+RAW)

Most people who take digital photos will be familiar with a JPG or JPEG file as it’s by far the most used image format out there. But what is a raw file? Think of it as a digital negative. It’s a lossless picture format that contains all the image data captured by the drone’s camera, without any editing or adjustments and although not for everyone, shooting stills as raw images really is the best way to ensure all of that image data is retained.

When taking JPGs, the camera’s processor will apply the default picture profile settings and discard all other data no longer used. The file size is smaller and if that’s all you need, that’s great. But if wanting to maintain full control of the final look of the image and plan to import the photos into your chosen editing software, then choosing to shoot raw is the better choice.

It’s worth noting that the Mini 3 Pro doesn’t have a raw-only mode, so whatever format you choose, you will still have a JPG copy saved onto your card. That can be useful for the times you just want to quickly grab an image from the memory card to share, bypassing the editing stage altogether. It really is the best of both worlds.

You can shoot in JPEG+RAW in either AUTO or PRO modes. To change from jpg to raw, tap the word JPEG in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, and depending on whether you are in PRO or AUTO mode you will need to select either J+RAW or J+R.

Keep your ISO as low as possible

The native ISO for taking photos with the Mini 3 Pro is 100, and although raising your ISO can be incredibly useful when the ambient light is too low to take a sharp photo, it will negatively affect picture quality. The higher the ISO, the more digital noise and artefacts will be introduced to your images, and yes, a sharper, noisier image is better than a blurry one in nearly all cases, to keep my images as clean as possible, I will only raise my ISO as a last resort.

If you are in a situation where a higher ISO is needed and PRO mode is enabled, simply tap the ISO icon located at the bottom right of the screen and slide the dial until you have the exposure you need.

Enable the Histogram and Overexposure Warning

Unlike traditional photography where you and the camera typically have the same view of the subject, taking photos with a drone means relying far more heavily on what you can see on the screen. So, in my opinion, the more info it provides, the more likely you will take a high-quality, well-exposed photo and that’s why I keep the histogram and Overexposure Warning enabled when taking pictures with the Mini 3 Pro.

I won’t dig too deep into what a histogram is, but in short, it is a graph that visually represents how much light, mid or dark tones are in the photo. The shape of the graph will depend on the type of photo being taken but the thing to watch out for is when the graph data starts to touch and overlap with the far left or right-hand side. Typically, this is called clipping and means you’re losing image details in the shadows or highlights which might not be recoverable later in post-processing.

The Overexposure Warning feature is a little easier to explain. All this really does is highlight parts of the image that are overexposed with black and white moving lines. To some, this might be a bit too distracting, but I use the same option on my main Fujifilm camera and find it a useful feature to enable to prevent overexposing parts of the image.

To enable one or both features, select the three dots on the top-right of the screen to open the main menu. From here, select the Camera settings sub-menu and scroll down. Here you will see both options with a toggle switch to enable or disable the feature.

Shoot to the right

This suggestion requires the histogram to be enabled, so check out the previous point to see how this is done.

Typically, the more light collected onto the sensor when exposing an image, the higher the quality, because less noise and artefacts will be present in the resulting photo. So, one technique to try is to overexpose an image by a stop or two where the histogram will be heavier weighted towards the right. This is where the term “Shoot to the right” or STTR comes from and is commonplace in traditional landscape photography.

Shooting to the right should be practised with a degree of caution. For example, slowing down the shutter speed risks adding motion blur to an image and if not careful, you can also end up pushing it too far and clipping the highlights. Shooting to the right along with AEB being enabled (see the next tip) can help get around these issues.

Use AEB mode when shooting in high dynamic range situations

AEB stands for Auto Exposure Bracketing and is a super useful feature enabling you to capture varying exposures of the same scene, all with a single press of the shutter button. It works by taking a base exposure using the settings you have already chosen, then taking either one or two extra photos on either side, increasing or decreasing the exposure by a stop each time. This results in 3 or 5 separate images which can be merged in your chosen image editor later.

DJI Mavic Mini 3 | 24mm (effective) | 1/2500th Second | f/1.7 | ISO100

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, the DJI Mini 3 Pro has a smaller sensor, with smaller pixels compared to the higher end/bigger drone models, meaning it will have more difficulty properly exposing a photo in high dynamic range scenes. So, to make sure I gather as much image detail in the highlights and shadows as possible, I will take 5 bracketed images of a given scene 90% of the time. Not all photos will need to be bracketed, but the file sizes are relatively small and, in my opinion, the benefits significantly out way the minimal drawbacks.

To enable AEB when in photo mode, select the icon just above the screen’s shutter button, select Photo, then AEB, then select whether you want to take three or five bracketed images. Select the AEB icon above the shutter once more to close the menu.

Capture a panoramic image for maximum resolution

The native image resolution for the Mini 3 Pro is 12MP which, by modern standards is on the lower side and if you plan to print your photos, then a great way to boost your resolution is to take multiple images and stitch them together in post. There are actually a few ways to achieve this.

First up, there are the built-in Pano options. If there is plenty of light and the dynamic range isn’t too high, then using one of the built-in pano modes is a great option as the drone will take care of panning and picture taking. All you need to do is set your exposure settings and press the shutter button.

I used the built-in Pano mode when I created the picture below.

DJI Mavic Mini 3 | 24mm (effective) | 1/2000th Second | f/1.7 | ISO100 - Wide Pano Mode

When shooting in jpeg+raw, the drone will automatically stitch the JPEG image and place the individual raw files in their own sub-folder on your memory card, ready to be imported and merged into your chosen software later.

To access the built-in pano modes, choose the icon above the screen’s shutter button and when the menu opens, scroll down and select Pano. Here you can select from the different panorama options which are Sphere, 180°, Wide Angle, and Vertical. I won’t go into all the various options here but for a traditional panorama, you would select the wide option. In this mode, the Mini 3 Pro will take a grid of 9 photos automatically.

The built-in pano modes are incredibly useful but to retain more control of the final image, I prefer to take the individual photos manually, like I would when taking traditional landscape photos with my main camera. My typical approach would be to switch the camera to portrait mode (a welcome feature introduced in the Mini 3 Pro) as this provides more vertical resolution without the need to tilt the camera up or down, thus avoiding any unnecessary distortion which would need to be dealt with in post. I will then pan horizontally, taking individual photos as I go, overlapping by 30-50% and leaving a little room on either side for cropping.

DJI Mavic Mini 3 | 24mm (effective) | 1/5th Second | f/1.7 | ISO100

Create a manual pano with AEB for maximum dynamic range and resolution

This is the number one reason why I like to create my panoramas manually. For reasons only known to DJI, the Mini 3 Pro does not have the ability to take AEB images in pano mode. Maybe it will be introduced later but this seems an obvious feature to add with a firmware update. So, for now, I manually combine the two by taking a manual panorama with the 5-image AEB mode enabled. The resulting images will have the highest (native) resolution with the most image detail and the highest dynamic range.

I will then import them into Adobe Lightroom (my chosen image editing software) and with all the raw images highlighted, I select Photo - Photo Merge - HDR Panorama from the main menu.

With the sun setting behind the mountains, I needed all the dynamic range available to avoid blowing out the sky when creating the panorama below.

DJI Mavic Mini 3 | 24mm (effective) | 1/6400th Second | f/1.7 | ISO100

Use the 48-megapixel mode, (but do so with some caution)

The Mini 3 Pro comes with a high-resolution stills mode, allowing you to take photos at 4x the resolution compared to the base 12-megapixel option. In the right conditions, using the 48MP mode can help when you might want to crop the image later or print your photos even bigger.

Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, maybe. Although the native resolution is 12MP, to achieve a 48MP image, the Mini 3 Pro’s camera has a type of filter (called a quad bayer filter) which, splits each of the 12MP into four, resulting in the 48 megapixels mentioned. The issue is that smaller pixels capture less light and can result in noisier, lower-quality images. If the conditions are good for photography and there is plenty of light, the 48MP images can look really good, but when conditions are less than ideal, the images can leave a lot to be desired. That’s certainly my experience, anyway.

My usual workflow when taking stills with the Mini 3 Pro is to hedge my bets and capture a native 12MP image with AEB first and then a 48MP version which I can then compare and decide on the best one to edit later in Lightroom.

To enable the 48MP stills mode, simply select the icon above the screen’s shutter button, from there select Photo then to the right, select 48 PM.

It’s probably worth mentioning that using the base 12MP stills mode and taking a panorama can result in high-resolution, less noisy images too, but it will be a wider aspect, requiring the drone to be closer to the given subject. There is no right or wrong here, just different options suitable for different situations.

Set your white balance to manual

There are a couple of reasons why you might consider manually setting your white balance while out taking photos with the Mini 3 Pro. If you’re taking single, raw photos, then it’s not such an important topic as the white balance can be changed later in post. But if taking JPEGs, the white balance is baked into the image at the time it is taken, so getting it right while out with the drone is much more important.

Secondly, and the main reason I set the white balance manually is to keep all images completely consistent when taking panoramic images. As you pan the camera around, the changes in the scene being photographed might lead to changes in the white balance which can add more work when trying to seamlessly stitch the photos together later.

I tend to keep the WB at about 5300-5500 on brighter days and a little higher when there is more cloud around but typically, I will judge each situation individually. To manually set the white balance, you need to be in PRO photo mode. On the bottom right corner of the screen, there will be a square with WB and a Kelvin number next to it. This number is the numerical value the white balance will be set to. Select the WB icon and a familiar box will pop up. At the top, if the white balance is set to automatic, the box with Auto will be highlighted in yellow. If so, tap that and then use the slider to scroll through the numbers to your desired white balance value.

BONUS TIP: Fix it in post!

Ok, I hear you. We all want to take the very best photos while out in the field but sometimes you will reach the limit of what the Mini 3 Pro camera is capable of and have noisy photos. Luckily, we seem to be in a bit of a boom when it comes to software-based noise reduction. Amongst others, DxO, Topaz and not Adobe have all recently released updated software with some impressive noise-reduction features. So, even if you use all the suggestions I have listed in this article and still end up with noise or artefacts in your photos, try running them through one of these applications as it might save the day.

Printing your photos taken with the DJI Mini 3 Pro

If you regularly visit my website, you will know that I am a big believer in the printed image. Be it a single print, a photo book or wall art, the physical, tangible print is a far better way to view and experience a photo compared to a screen. With this in mind, I recently printed some of the drone photos I’ve taken over the last year to get a better idea of how they look in the flesh.

I printed a selection of my photos, taken using many of the techniques I mention above at both A4 and A3 sizes, and although it’s impossible to demonstrate here, I have to say, they look pretty good. Nice and sharp and with little to no noise. If you’ve taken some photos with the Mini 3 Pro and are on the fence when it comes to printing your photos, then my advice is to power up that printer or choose a good lab and get some printed. You won’t regret it!

DJI Mavic Mini 3 | 24mm (effective) | 1/30th Second | f/1.7 | ISO100

So, there you have it. If you follow some or all of these suggestions, you will take the very best landscape pictures possible from the DJI Mini 3 Pro and if you have any suggestions I might have missed, feel free to leave a comment below.

Until next time,

Trevor

On Location Photographing a Foggy Spring Woodland

It’s always a bonus when out photographing woodland to have foggy conditions and that’s precisely what I had back in April, just before the spring growth arrived. I spent a couple of fantastic hours with my camera that morning and you can see some of the photos I took on my previous blog post On Location Photographing a foggy winter woodland.

Fast forward just a few weeks later and the forest had transformed from cold and colourless, to vibrant and very, very green. The colour of the new leaves was almost luminous and whereas it’s not a woodland known for having an abundance of bluebells, there were pockets of them all over the place. As luck would have it, on the day I chose to revisit the forest to photograph its fresh spring colours, I was again gifted with glorious foggy conditions. Lucky me!!

For this trip into the woodland, I used my standard landscape photography gear (which you can read all about here), which includes the fantastic Kase Magnetic filters. The Circular Polariser was particularly useful to add a touch of clarity and reduce a little reflective light from the foliage.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 31mm | 10 Seconds | f/9 | ISO125

Just a quick note on this character above. This was our first encounter. Set back from the path I usually tread and only a few minutes into the walk, something told me to climb the small bank to my right and take a look around. I’m glad I did. By veering off the beaten track, I’ve now found a new woodland character that, without a doubt, I’ll be visiting time and again with my camera in different conditions.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 55mm | 1 Seconds | f/9 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 41mm | 1 Seconds | f/9 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 44mm | 1 Seconds | f/9 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 40mm | 0.6 Seconds | f/9 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 31mm | 0.4 Seconds | f/9 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 55mm | 1/3rd Second | f/9 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 41mm | 1 Seconds | f/9 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 30mm | 1/2 Second | f/9 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 41mm | 1/3rd Second | f/9 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 16mm | 1/2 Second | f/9 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 31mm | 0.4 Seconds | f/9 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 24mm | 0.4 Seconds | f/9 | ISO125

Until next time.

Trevor

The Long Exposure by Gary Turner | My Photo Bookshelf

I came across Gary Turner and his A5 zines when listening to him being interviewed on Euan Ross’s Biblioscapes podcast. With what seems like the rise of the Zine in recent years and with a particular fondness for long-exposure photography, I popped over to Gary’s website and grabbed a copy.

Author’s Synopsis

My (Gary Turner’s) first foray into the world of self-publishing resulted in this limited edition zine comprising 24 pages of beautifully calming black and white, long exposure imagery of water.

My thoughts about the book

What I like about the zine format is how accessible it is for both the reader and the book creator. Zines tend to be less expensive to make and subsequently buy, which means when I come across one I like, I’ll usually buy it there and then instead of adding it to my ever-growing list of more traditional, more expensive photo books.

It might be easy to assume that with a lower price point comes inferior quality and if this zine by Gary Turner is anything to go by, that’s absolutely not the case. The Long Exposure zine is a collection of 24 black and white, long-exposure photos all with one common theme. Water. The collection includes photos taken of natural streams and waterfalls to man-made piers and canals. With 200gsm silk paper pages, the book looks and feels a nice quality and the paper choice works well to ensure the pictures retain a healthy amount of contrast which, for the photos included is important.

I really like the collection of photos Gary has put together but there are a handful that really stand out to me. Rocker Pier (which is on the front cover) is fantastic. It’s an incredibly strong composition, simplified by the softening effect the long exposure technique provides but I think my favourite is the picture of Salts Mill Wier which I particularly like as the long exposure has resulted in some fantastic patterns in the water which in my opinion makes this good photo into a great one.

Being a smaller zine full of strong long exposure photos, it’s hard not to recommend this book but as it’s no longer in print, I highly recommend the eBook version which, at the time of writing is for sale. See the link below.

Book Details

• Softcover

• Size: A5

• Pages: 24 pages of 200gsm silk paper

• Availability at the time of writing: No longer in print but an eBook copy is currently available from: https://www.shutterspot.co.uk/product/the-long-exposure-zine/

Masters of Drone Photography | My Photo Bookshelf

At the time of writing, I’ve owned a drone for almost a year now and having other options in my camera bag to capture the landscape from a different perspective has been a lot of fun. With that, I’m always looking for new ideas and inspiration to draw from, and when I came across this book on Amazon, knowing how the “Masters” series of books are presented, I knew this would be a book I would enjoy.

The synopsis

Masters of Drone Photography orbits the world of 16 leading lights, each with a creative vision of how, where, and why drones should be used to create stunning photography. Through probing Q&A style interviews, beautifully reproduced images, captions telling the story of each picture, and detailed technical information, the reader is given an insight into the photographers’ working practices, from their career paths and inspirations, to the equipment and techniques they employ to create their breathtaking and visionary works.

My thoughts about the book

As I mentioned above, this isn’t the first book I’ve owned in the “Masters” series, I also have Masters of Landscape Photography on my bookshelf, so I know the general format of the book and particularly enjoy the questions posed to each photographer and the variety in the answers provided. This gives a useful “behind the camera” perspective and contains many hints and tips the reader can implement into their own work.

The general format is, there are 16 photographers featured in the book, each sharing 6 of their own aerial photos with a small caption alongside. On top of the pictures they share, the author of the book posed 8 different questions about their work. At the end of each section is a thumbnail of each picture and some technical details such as the done and camera settings used.

I enjoyed the variety of photographers included in the book, as with photos ranging from top-down pictures of whales in Hawaii to colourful, urban basketball courts in New Zealand, it opened my eyes up to what I could achieve when I’m out taking pictures with my drone.

Talking of the photographers, the quality of the pictures included really were top-notch. All are very different and all display their own unique take on this genre of photography. After each chapter, I would often put the book down and open the laptop to research the photographer further and in many cases subscribe to their social media pages to continue to follow their more recent work.

All in all, if you enjoy drone photography and want some creative inspiration, or just want to admire the work of other, established drone photographers, then I highly recommend picking up a copy of this book.

Book Details

• Hardcover

• Size: 230mm x 285mm

• Pages: 176

• Availability at the time of writing: Still in print and available from leading bookshops.

On Location Photographing a foggy winter woodland

What is the fascination many photographers have with a foggy woodland?

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 51mm | 0.4 Seconds | f/7.1 | ISO125

I’ll try to answer.

Along with simplifying and adding a sense of depth to a composition, nothing brings a sense of mood and atmosphere to a woodland like some mist or fog. Along with softer edges and textures, the diffused light falling on the trees creates an ethereal atmosphere and a sense of mystery in the photos and being drawn to lower contrast scenes in general, the resulting look and feel it can create appeals to my taste and style.

Like a lot of landscape photographers, as soon as the weather app shows even a tiny chance of fog in my local area, I’m immediately planning an early morning trip to one of the woodlands I like to photograph, keeping my fingers firmly crossed that any fog predicted comes to fruition.

So, back in April 2023, when all my weather apps were aligned and fog was predicted for the next morning, I packed my bag and set the alarm.

In my bag was my Fujifilm XT5 and both my XF16-55mm and XF50-140 lenses but during the shoot, I stuck with the standard zoom and the telephoto remained in the bag for the entire shoot.

Thankfully, on this occasion, the predictions were right and there was thick fog throughout the woodland. I decided to concentrate on just a small section of the woodland and in the two or so hours I was there, I must have only walked two or three hundred yards.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 25mm | 1.3 Seconds | f/7.1 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 31mm | 1.3 Seconds | f/7.1 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 47mm | 0.5 Seconds | f/7.1 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 47mm | 0.4 Seconds | f/7.1 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 39mm | 0.4 Seconds | f/7.1 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 38mm | 1/3 Second | f/7.1 | ISO125

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 19mm | 0.6 Seconds | f/7.1 | ISO125

I hope you like the photos.

Until next time.

Trevor

Fujifilm XT5 | A Landscape Photographer’s Review

Towards the end of 2022, while out in the field on a shoot, the screen on my Fujifilm XT2 started to flicker uncontrollably and after a few minutes of strange behaviour, it turned itself off and however much I tried, I couldn’t get it to turn on again. It seemed after 5 faithful years of service, the XT2 was dead. So, I had a decision to make. Do I fix it? Or do I invest in a new camera body? When it comes to cameras and lenses, unless there is a particular problem I need to solve, I never chase the latest gear.

I much prefer familiarity over shiny and new. If my camera does the job for me and I know it’s strengths and weaknesses (they all have them), I tend to stick with it.

After 5 solid years of use, I decided it was time to say goodbye to the XT2 and hello to the newly released XT5. Before buying the XT5, I briefly considered the recently released XH2 but decided against it as I wanted to stick with the familiar dials and ergonomics of the XT range.

Having now used the camera for 6 months and along with a few of the photos I’ve taken with it, I wanted to share some of my thoughts and opinions on the Fujifilm XT5 from a landscape photographer’s point of view. As with my other gear reviews, this will be far from scientific (a simple Google search will provide you with those). I won’t talk about every new and improved feature this camera offers, these are my personal observations and opinions based on how I use the camera in the field and other people’s experiences may differ from mine.

What’s in my camera bag?

Before we get into the XT5, I wanted to mention what gear I currently carry with me while taking landscape photos. More specifically, the lenses I use with my XT5 on a day-to-day basis.

At the moment, I am quite happy carrying just 2 lenses, the XF16-55 f2.8 standard zoom and the XF50-140 f2.8 telephoto. These are red badge lenses so considered the best quality in the XF lens lineup and give me an effective focal range of 16 to 140mm (24mm to 200mm in 35mm terms) which is fine for 95% of the photos I take. That being said, with constant f2.8 apertures, they may be better quality but they’re also a lot heavier than Fujifilm’s variable aperture lenses. Worth thinking about if weight is a priority.

You may have also noticed the DJI Mini 3 Pro which I also reviewed from the perspective of a Landscape Photographer. You can read about that here.

For more details about all the gear I carry in 2023, pop over to my latest “Whats in my camera bag” blog post.

Is the Fujifilm XT5 bigger and heavier than its predecessors?

Well, yes and no. It would have been fair to assume that the XT5 wouldn’t be immune to the current trend that sees mirrorless cameras getting bigger over time and yes, compared to the XT2 (133 x 92 x 49mm, 507g) the XT5 (130 x 91 x 64mm, 557g) is slightly bigger and heavier, but Fujifilm has, to their credit, shaved off a little size and weight compared to the XT4.

However, in real terms, these numbers don’t really mean a lot to me. A few mm here, a few grams there won’t make a huge difference and although its important camera manufacturers keep the size and weight of their respective systems in check, it’s probably easier to say that the XT5 is around the same size as those before it. That’s a good thing.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 16mm | 1/100th Second | f/5 | ISO125

I spend a lot of time hiking up hills, exploring woodland or even as per the picture of London above, climbing the 528 steps to the top of St Paul’s Cathedral. So, what’s even more important to me is that I choose to shoot with a smaller, lighter system compared to the full frame and medium format systems. Using an APS-C system allows me to carry the XT5 along with 2 heavier, flagship lenses and still have a lighter camera bag compared to other full-frame or medium format systems.

How good is the XT5 build quality and weather sealing?

Landscape photographers need to be able to shoot in almost any condition and in all but the most extreme weather, should be able to do so without the need of additional rain covers and shower caps. The Fujifilm XT5 has a weather-sealed body and when coupled with a weather-resistant lens such as my XF16-55mm or XF55-140mm, I’m able to shoot in most conditions. In the 6 months I’ve been using this camera, I’ve shot in many a wet and rainy woodland, the wintry mountains of Snowdonia and some stormy weather by the coast and so far, so good.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 18mm | 2 Seconds | f/8 | ISO125

That’s all well and good but there have been questions raised about the amount of plastic used in the construction of the XT5 compared to previous models making it look and feel a little cheaper. I guess if being particularly pernickety, it probably does a little but in the 6 months since buying the camera, I’ve literally given it zero thought. In all fairness, Fujifilm makes no claims that the camera is fully waterproof and certainly doesn’t provide an IP rating. So, although I would happily shoot during an average rain shower, I would stop short of exposing it to a prolonged torrential downpour.

What about the XT5’s physical dials, dual memory card slots and tilting screen?

Although I already had dual memory cards, physical dials and a 3-way tilting LCD on the XT2, I now consider these a must when picking a camera to use for landscape photography.

Coming from the world of IT, I know too well how technology should not be relied upon, however robust it might seem. The last thing I want is for a whole day of shooting to be lost because my only memory card suffered a failure at the wrong time. This is why I’ve configured the XT5 to write my raw files to both cards simultaneously, creating an instant backup while out in the field.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 16mm | 1 Second | f/8 | ISO125

Next up, those physical dials. For me, these were a game changer. Apart from the warm fuzzy feeling of nostalgia I get when using them, being able to fine-tune my exposure by feel, without a menu in sight makes life so much easier when out taking photos. This is especially true in the winter when using gloves or when the camera is low down to the ground like it was when photographing the Sussex coast as pictured above, which can make accessing menu buttons trickier.

Talking of having the camera low to the ground. As a landscape photographer, this will often be the case and having a tilting screen means I don’t have to be down there too. Whether I’m shooting in landscape or portrait mode, the 3-way tilting LCD means the screen will tilt in my direction whatever its position.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 55mm | 1/10th Second | f/11 | ISO125

How good is the battery life on the XT5?

With the larger W235 battery used in the XT5 compared to the smaller X126s I was using in the XT2, for me at least, battery life has improved dramatically. A game changer in fact. This was my main gripe with the XT2 as I was constantly having to change out dead batteries midway through a shoot.

The extra battery life really came into its own during the 48 hours I spent in a wintry Snowdonia. The temperature during the day barely made it above freezing and being so cold will reduce the amount of charge the battery will hold, but irrespective of this, I was still able to shoot from sunrise to sunset on a single charge.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF50-140mm | 69mm | 1/2 Second | f/9 | ISO125

Even if upgrading from the XT4 which also uses the W235, Fujifilm still claims an improved battery over its predecessor due to the reduced power consumption of the X-processor 5. So, I think it safe to say that Fujifilm has made a big step forward in battery performance since introducing the larger W235 into their recent flagship cameras.

Is the XT5’s 40-megapixel sensor worth the upgrade?

Fujifilm announced their 40.2MP sensor a long time before it was released and the prospect of having the extra resolution was exciting, opening new possibilities for cropping in post or bigger prints. I was, however, slightly concerned about how cramming more pixels onto the same size sensor would affect image quality and, if it would result in noisier pictures.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 55mm | 1.3 Seconds | f/6.4 | ISO125

I’m pleased to report that I’ve not found the pictures I’ve taken so far to have any more noise than I was used to with the XT2. That was a big surprise and a welcome one at that! Don’t get me wrong, Do I still see noise in some of my images? Of course. There will always be situations where the light levels are such that avoiding noise altogether is impossible, but overall and in my own unscientific way of pixel peeping, I don’t see any negative impact of those smaller pixels all bunched up together on this new X-Trans CMOS 5 HR sensor.

One thing that I was hoping for and something Fujifilm appear to have delivered is improved dynamic range performance. Again, not something one expects when increasing pixel density but given this sensor is a few generations newer than what I was using, I was very much hoping for this to be the case. I did a little research on this topic and for sure, many out there say the dynamic range has gone backwards slightly and still not as good as the XH2 which uses the same sensor but from my own real-world usage, the dynamic range has definitely improved for me. Sure, it’s still not up there with the full-frame and medium format systems (pesky laws of physics), but what I can say is that with my woodland photography, where high dynamic range scenes are commonplace, I’ve not had to bracket my images nearly as much as I used to. Saving me time during editing and saving space on my hard drive too!

Talking of hard drive space, with the increased resolution comes increased file sizes so if you’re tight on raw file storage space, consider shooting with the compressed raw enabled on the camera or prepare to invest in bigger hard drives.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF50-140mm | 140mm | 1/50th Second | f/7.1 | ISO125

Is the Pixel-Shift on the XT5 worth all the hype?

Remembering this article is about sharing my experience, I’m going to say no……for now.

Pixel Shift, which can be enabled in the menu, is where the camera will take 20 separate photos, shifting the sensor by half a pixel each time and by using a separate software on your computer, you can merge the photos together to create a huge 160MP image.

Taking landscape photos can often mean a static scene where 20 separate photos won’t capture any movement but add in some waves along the coast or some subtle breaths of wind in the woodland and suddenly things start to get a little trickier. I’ve used this feature a few times to see how well it works and if you have a static scene and need that extra resolution, then having this option available is great, but, given the extra disk space needed and the time it takes to merge them together in post-processing, it’s not something I think I will use very often personally.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 53mm | 1/40th Second | f/8 | ISO125

What about the Fujifilm XT5’s improved autofocus?

This is where things went a little awry for me. Fujifilm boast that due to the higher pixel count in the XT5, the number of phase detection pixels also increases resulting in an improved AF-S focusing accuracy when taking landscape photos.

With the XT2, I preferred to use back button focus when taking landscape photos. When composing an image and selecting the autofocus area, the XT2 locked in nearly all cases without issue, and I only really needed to switch to manual focus in trickier, low-light situations. I didn’t really give it much thought as it just worked.

Fast forward to getting the XT5 out in the field and after setting the camera up to work in the same way, things were a lot different. When pressing the back-button focus, the XT5 was missing focus almost 50% of the time. It was incredibly frustrating and after a little research it seemed I wasn’t the only one to notice how poor the autofocus was on this camera.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF50-140mm | 66mm | 0.4 Seconds | f/9 | ISO125

With zero trust in the autofocus, I switched to manual focus 100% of the time which, although not the end of the world, did slow down my workflow a little.

This went on for about three or four months and although I’ve not seen anything specifically from Fujifilm on the subject, since applying the firmware updates released since, the issue has improved somewhat. I still refuse to default back to my previous workflow as my trust in the autofocus hasn’t been restored but when using features like focus bracketing, which depends on autofocus, I do have a little more confidence that the results will be sharp.

Again, this was my personal experience and there are built-in tools that can help your focusing workflow such as focus peaking, but for me, a quick zoom-in and out again to check the image sharpness works just as well.

Update: I wrote this post just before firmware v2.0 was released, which included some significant focus improvements for the XT5. Since applying this and subsequent lens updates, the camera has had far fewer issues with autofocus.

Does Adobe Lightroom play nice with the XT5 RAF files?

I’ve used Lightroom (Classic) to edit my raw files for many years, long before I swapped to Fujifilm in 2016 and I think it’s fair to say, Lightroom has not always played nice with Fuji raw files - worms anyone? If you know, you know. These days, life is a lot easier when it comes to editing Fujifilm RAF files in Lightroom, either Adobe has improved the compatibility, or I’ve just learned to avoid the pitfalls as I run through my usual workflow (step away from the sharpening slider). In truth, it’s probably a bit of both.

One approach I use is not to apply any sharpening in Lightroom and instead, when I want to prepare for print or screen, I export to Photoshop and use the High Pass filter on a separate layer (between one and two pixels radius) and the Overlay blending mode, masking in the areas I want to be sharpened. A method I still do today and works best for me.

Fujifilm XT5 | XF50-140mm | 140mm | 1/8th Second | f/9 | ISO125

There are, however, still times I feel Lightroom doesn’t render my raw file with the amount of detail I know the file contains. I’ve heard many times that other editing software is more sympathetic to the Fujifilm raw files, but I really don’t want to learn another software. Instead, for those times I need a little more detail I use a plug-in called DXO Pure Raw. I don’t run every picture I take through the software as I prefer some to be a little softer or painterly but when a bit more detail is called for, it seems to do the job nicely.

Conclusion

I’ve written a lot about the features and benefits of using the XT5 for landscape photography and there are many great features I decided not to talk about such as the 7-stops of IBIS, improved video modes, subject detection and white balance driven by AI (whatever that means) but in truth, my needs are quite basic meaning I probably only use about 10% of the camera’s features for my landscape photography and it would be wrong for me to review those I haven’t used extensively.

So, would I recommend this camera to other landscape photographers? The simple answer is yes. If size and weight is important to you, the XT5, with its fantastic image quality, intuitive ergonomics, weather sealing and much-improved battery life, packs a real punch.

I hope you found that useful and enjoyed some of the photos I shared. If you have anything to add such as any points I missed or questions about the camera, please leave a comment below or contact me directly here.

Until next time

Trevor

My Top 10 Tips for Woodland Photography

I’ve been taking photos of the landscape for a number of years now but more recently, I discovered the joy and subsequent benefits of woodland photography. Woodland photography is a beautiful and relaxing way to connect with nature while still allowing me to practice this creative craft I enjoy so much. It encourages me to explore and learn about the wildlife I see and offers a sense of peace and tranquillity, allowing me to escape life’s more hectic demands, even if it’s just for just a few hours.

During this time, I’ve made plenty of mistakes, learned lots of lessons and picked up new skills that have helped me take better woodland photos. So, this blog post is my attempt to share some of those lessons and provide a little inspiration to those who might not be quite as far along in their own woodland photography journey.

So here are my top 10 tips for woodland photography.

Fujifilm XT2 | XF10-24mm | 11mm | 1.5 Seconds | f/10 | ISO400

#1 Photograph the Seasons

There are so many reasons to pay attention to the way a woodland changes over the course of 12 months and being aware of these can open up so many creative possibilities when it comes to woodland photography. One popular example is to find a particular composition that works in all seasons and take the same picture in spring, summer, autumn and winter, creating a ‘through the seasons’ series. This might sound cliché, but some I’ve seen are simply amazing and it’s a useful little project that encourages you to go back to the same place to observe how it changes. To get the best photos, you might have to wait several years to get a portfolio image of a particular season but chasing that shot is part of the fun. I have a few on the go but haven’t quite made it to all four yet.

Alternatively, knowing how your local woodland changes through the year may also open up new photographic opportunities. There will be places that lack photographic allure in (let’s say) summer but come alive with opportunities at other times of the year. For instance, in my local woodland, there is a lot of fern growth which means parts of the forest are completely cut off in the summer months but from late autumn to late spring, those areas of woodland are easier to explore with the camera.

Another example is the bluebell picture below. Of course, bluebells in spring are beautiful in their own right but in this particular location, the woodland floor is typically messy with fallen branches and patchy plant life, but, for a few weeks each year, the bluebells completely cover the messy floor resulting in a much cleaner photo.

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#2 Photograph the woodland whatever the weather

While perfectly defused golden hour lighting can create beautiful woodland photos, don't be put off by cloudy, or even rainy days with less inspiring light. I for one love to head out into the woodland while the sun is obscured as the softer, diffused light of an overcast day can result in quieter, lower contrast images, helping to create a moody and ethereal feel to your photos.

Even if the sky is blue and there is high contrast, midday light to contend with, don’t let that stop you. Personally, I struggle in such situations but when I do find the light too bright and distracting for my usual style of woodland photography, I will change tact and more often than not, point my camera down towards the ground and seek out small scenes with interesting patterns and details hiding in the shadows and away from those pesky specular highlights. More on that in the next tip!

Fujifilm XT2 | XF55-200mm | 55mm | 1/8th Second | f/9 | ISO250

#3 Point your camera towards the floor

Getting into the habit of taking pictures of the woodland floor is something I’m still getting to grips with. It took a while for me to move away from the traditional “landscape” style photo and start paying attention to the smaller shapes and textures hiding amongst the undergrowth, but once I did, I never looked back. A year or so into my woodland photography experience, I started heading out into the forest just to see what small scenes I can photograph, completely ignoring the wider landscape photos I usually look for.

With so much texture and pattern on offer, once you get the camera up close to these smaller scenes, you will be able to tap into a wealth of photographic opportunities and although getting down that low can often be a little tough on the back, by slowing down and taking your time to compose the image properly, you will undoubtedly capture some beautiful, intimate woodland photos.

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#4 Look out for mist and fog in the woodland

Although it should never be considered the be-all and end-all of woodland photography, I think it’s safe to say that the majority of woodland photographers prefer to shoot in misty/foggy conditions, and for good reason. A scene full of branches and leaves can be a cluttered, messy affair and one of the challenges with woodland photography is simplifying the composition. This is where a foggy woodland comes into its own as not only can a fog add depth and atmosphere to a scene, but it can also help declutter the composition, providing a sense of space and room for the subject to breathe.

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#5 Avoid a distracting sky

Unless you are blessed with the defused light of a foggy woodland, there’s a good chance that by including the sky in your woodland photos, you will be left with some distracting highlights around the top of the frame. With the lower light levels under the trees and the bright sky, the dynamic range will be extreme enough to push the limits of most modern cameras. So, what to do if you come across this situation yourself?

Avoiding the sky completely in your woodland photos can be tricky, but one option to avoid it is to shoot from an elevated position. Keeping the camera pointing slightly downhill can cut some or all of the brighter sky out of the frame. Alternatively, if there is space to do so, try stepping back away from the scene and then use a telephoto lens to zoom back in to better isolate your subject.

Lastly, choose a time of year when there are plenty of leaves on the trees. Like with the picture below, during the warmer months, the woodland will be much fuller and as a result, a lot less sky will be included in your compositions.

Fujifilm XT2 | XF55-200mm | 55mm | 1.4 Seconds | f/13 | ISO200

#6 Pack a circular polariser to give your photos some punch

If like me, you enjoy photographing the woodland early in the morning or in damp conditions, you will almost certainly come across wet, reflective leaves in your scene. Reflective light can be pretty distracting in your woodland photos which is why I recommend packing a circular polariser (CPL) filter in your camera bag. A CPL filter works by blocking the reflective light from entering your lens which means less glare and more punchy colours in your woodland images. This effect is practically impossible to replicate in post, so, to get the very best quality pictures in these conditions, it’s definitely worth mounting a CPL onto the end of your lens.

Just a word of caution. A common mistake many photographers make is to automatically turn the CPL all the way; removing all reflective light from the image. This can result in flat, highly saturated pictures. My advice is to rotate the filter back and forward until there is a good balance between eliminating the distracting reflections and retaining some of the life in the scene.

Fujifilm XT2 | XF18-55mm | 29mm | 2 Seconds | f/10 | ISO200

#7 Remember, the woodland is always changing

These two images below were taken in separate woodlands and are among my favourite woodland photos I’ve taken. I’m so happy I found and photographed them when I did because they now look very different as they were both devastated by stormy weather in early 2022.

So, tip number seven is to not take the apparent static nature of woodland for granted. If you find a location worth photographing and conditions are not quite right at the time, don’t wait too long to return. Through the hand of man, or mother nature herself, it can change literally overnight and like in my case, a couple of locations I planned to return to look completely different now.

Fujifilm XT2 | XF18-55mm | 31mm | 0.6 Seconds | f/9 | ISO200

Fujifilm XT2 | XF18-55mm | 29mm | 1/6th Second | f/8 | ISO200

#8 Get to know your local woodlands

This may seem similar to shooting the seasons or observing the changes in your woodland but getting to know your local woodland goes a lot deeper than that. If you speak to any experienced woodland photographer and they will tell you that knowing a location intimately is by far the best way of getting the best woodland photos.

When heading to new locations or those you can’t visit as often as you like, luck can play a huge part in taking portfolio-worthy pictures as you might not get the best light, or you might not know the best time of day/year to photograph that particular location. Having a local woodland only a short walk or drive from where you live means you remove the need for some of that luck as you can keep returning until the conditions are right. If you live close enough, you can afford to be reactive to the weather conditions and as soon as the fog comes in, you can grab the camera and head out!

Taking it one step further, having the ability to return again and again means the pressure to get a portfolio image on any given trip is removed, meaning you can relax more as you wander the woodland. This will help you slow down and get under the skin of the woodland, helping you fully engage your mind and in turn, spot compositions you might have otherwise walked straight past.

The below four pictures were all taken from the same woodland only 5 minutes’ drive from where I live.

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#9 Try different focal lengths

Depending on the subject you are trying to shoot, experimenting with different focal lengths can transform the look and feel of the photos you take.

A wide-angle lens can help you include more of the scene and capture the grandeur of the woodland you’re in, enabling you to include more compositional elements such as an interesting foreground or more dramatic lead-in lines. As appose to using a wide-angle, the telephoto lends itself to seeking out more intimate details, helping you to eliminate distractions and focus on the shapes, colours and texture the woodland offers. As I mentioned in tip #5, when you have a bright distracting sky, this is where a telephoto focal length can save the day.

Play around with different lenses to see which ones work best for the photos you want to take.

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#10 Leave no trace

The enthusiasm for the natural landscape is on the rise, particularly since the pandemic as so many people have re-discovered the beauty of their local woodlands. But all this footfall is having a big impact on these important natural spaces. That’s why, through effective education and following a few simple principles, these popular places can still be visited and enjoyed, but remain protected for future generations to experience.

I’ve shared the bluebells photo below as this is a good example of how our actions directly impact these natural spaces. The bluebell is actually a protected species in the UK and picking or digging them up is illegal but not many people know just how fragile they really are. Bluebells can take years to recover from the damage caused by people trampling over them just to take a selfie, and if their leaves are crushed they can be weakened (as they can no longer photosynthesis). This can all be avoided if everyone sticks to the woodland pathways.

Nature First is just one of many organisations trying to help us woodland photographers to keep these natural spaces safe and they have a few simple principles to follow. By doing so, we can all do our part to preserve our beautiful woodlands.

• Prioritize the well-being of nature over photography.

• Educate yourself about the places you photograph.

• Reflect on the possible impact of your actions.

• Use discretion if sharing locations.

• Know and follow rules and regulations.

• Always follow Leave No Trace principles and strive to leave places better than you found them.

• Actively promote and educate others about these principles.

Fujifilm XT2 | XF55-200mm | 67mm | 1/13th Second | f/9 | ISO200

There you have it, with a few simple techniques and ideas, you can take your own woodland photography to the next level.

I hope this blog post will help anyone that might be lacking some inspiration and the motivation to get out there and take amazing photos of our beautiful, wooded areas. if you have any more tips you want to share, feel free to leave them in the comments below.

Until next time
Trevor