One of the upcoming "issues" with my living room Photo Studio is daylight. Once we go into spring time, and from there into early summer - the light will dominate a lot, until there will barely be any night time outside. This of course affects the light inside the Photo studio (in order to see how the flash light strengths are proportioned)
Dark Curtains in three places
I need to install dark curtains in my room, as well all the openings (to the kitchen) as well to the hall, from which a lot of light comes in. So, during the upcoming months i will see what I could do, or how to install black or dark gray curtains, in order to shut out the light. It doesn't need to be 100% - but it needs to shut out the most. Then i can have photo sessions at any time during the day in spring, summer in autumn.
In winter it is rarely a problem, due to the very short length of daylight, often just 6 hours.
Quick and Dirty Method ?
I can either use simple black fabric, hanging them up with nails - or use real curtain stuff. I have not decided yet, and will discuss it with Sal. He is the kind of handy guy who knows the most, and his opinion is valuable to me.
I personally tend to use short cuts, or better said sometimes "cut and dry" or just "quick and dirty". Which would be just using big nails, and hanging black fabric on it in order to darken the large door openings as well the big windows - when needed. (Kind of non permanent in other words).
There is of course nothing wrong with such an installation. It doesn't really have to be permanent.
But I do need to address this - because doing photo studio work with daylight flooding into the room - ain't working that well, in my opinion.
Malleable Fujifilm GFX RAW files
It is quite fascinating working with a mediumformat camera - giving access to such malleable RAW files ! The Sony 51 MP image sensor was originally introduced in the commercial market via Pentax, with the Pentax 645z medium format camera. So, the sensor tech is largely old, with roots from 2012 ! In other words now 13 years old.
Yet - it does hold remarkably well, I must say.
The main photo of Sal was a rather dark. Afraid of blowing out the highlights on his nose and jaw i kept the exposure tight (e.g. dark) preserving the highlights, but the rest would get much darker. But that was not a problem, as I was able to lighten up the background pretty much. - but made the entire image much darker. Below
Here
you see the original BW image.
Pixels and Pixels
I have no idea how the newer 102 MP sensor works or is handled in real life in post processing - because I do not own a Fujifilm GFX 100 type of camera. Maybe in the future something like the GFX 100s II or something. But the time being, i have plenty of space with the GFX 50s II which i think is amazing.
Compared to my other cameras, which are mainly around 20MP (except the Canon EOS R with 30 MP) - the Fuji GFX gives me plenty of room to play with. I don't really think i would need a 102 MP sensor. (I would only choose it, because of the better AF due to that the sensor now exhibits AF support pixels). I wouldn't choose it because of those whopping 102 MP resolution. Almost nobody prints in 5 meter size...
(I always prefer lower pixel amount, to be honest) and clearly prefer the 51 MP in the GFX 50s II ! It is just a pity that it only supports contrast based AF. That has its quirks and is sometimes unreliable in terms of focus accuracy.
Nevertheless - in the Photo studio, i work with manual focus. And manual lenses. So, there is that - and it is not a problem. Therefore my models have to be still (more or less). Just a little movement places them quite often outside the very shallow focus area.
Same pixel pitch like EOS R (30 MP)
Speaking of Canon EOS R with 30 MP. The Fujifilm GFX 50s II with its 51 MP, has the same pixel pitch as the EOS R with 30 MP. If i crop the files from a GFX 50s II down to fullframe (24x36mm) - i get 30 MP; which is that of the EOS R camera.
Of course the Pentax 6x7 show their age
In the digital era. One of the front most issues with them is the chromatic aberrations (LoCAs) in more contrasty areas; creating green and red outlines in fine details. When i try to iron them out in Photoshop, it often leaves a sort of gray seam around - which too looks a bit weird, when you look really close. Some of it, i corrected manually very carefully. But in Sal's hair i didn't do that - that would be a total overkill.
And yet, I don't mind.
I like them a lot
I still like how those 6x7 mediumformat lenses perform on a modern digital camera. I wouldn't see any point in using them on a fullframe camera, e.g. smaller sensor. Here the Fujifilm GFX platform is perhaps the best compromise we have today.
Black & White - LoCAs not an issue
By the way; in Black & White chromatic aberrations are not really issue. They turn out largely invisible. I also love that i can today use Photoshop AI, in order to transform the rectangular photo 51 MP GFX into a larger quadratic one, without ever having to cut off, or sacrifice resolution in the main photo.
An alternative would been, to set the Fujifilm GFX 50s II into 1:1 mode, which means you crop off the sides, and leave a quadratic image. Which would correspond to something like 35-38 MP, i believe.
That is a way, too.
38 MP resolution still more, than doing the same thing with let's say a 20 MP Canon EOS R6 or an 30 MP EOS R model - leaving a lot less Megapixels, in order to achieve the quadratic "Hasselblad 6x6" look.
Phase One IQ4
The Phase one IQ4 (Review here) has an even larger sensor (40x54 mm i believe) slightly closer to the original 645 film format, but cost close to a Tesla or something if you add lenses).
The IQ4 has fantastic features (which are important for such a high res camera) - like image stacking, as well the fascinating long time exposure averaging, and of course all the "basics" like AF etc.
At the same time, it is not only a heavy camera, but also extremely demanding due to its extreme resolution requiring extreme caution in terms of stability and handling - otherwise you fuck up those 150 MP resolution advantage for nothing.
Went for around $ 65.000 in 2019 (+ tax !) for the body, but might now be around $52.000 (+ tax). It is rumored that the pros are holding off, because most likely and for the survival of the company i assume - a new IQ5 is expected with 247 MP sensors. 
Maybe it is an architectural photography favorite ? Those who demand the highest possibly resolution. No, I don't know who would need or want such a camera. I have no honest clue, just assumptions.
"More meant for photographers that are taking shots of luxury cars and jewelery, shoots for fashion magazines or museums, or gigantic high-quality prints."
Try to hold the Phase One IQ4 still - i doubt you can do that without a tripod. But I am glad they implemented focus bracketing/stacking - because I would think it made a lot of difference for photographers who uses that system. (Reminds me of Olympus feature... where the image is averaged while you are exposing for a longer time, and see the image building up in LCD screen)
Phase One XT series (mirrorless mediumformat)
I also think Phase One just introduced more recently the Phase One XT series, a mirrorless camera mainly aimed at landscape photography - and you can change lenses.
Plus they also introduced a "mirrorless compact", where you can't change lens  - called the Phase One XC for $62490 + tax.
Phase One XC-series
Phase One XT-Series
DPreview writes:
Whereas Phase One's XF camera system is more designed for the studio, the XT is deemed a 'field camera,' meant more for landscape photography. In fact, Phase One goes so far as to say it's 'The world's only camera dedicated to landscape photography.' While we often look to tilt/shift lenses for architectural photography, adjusting for both tilt and shift in landscape images can help with capturing panorama images without needing to move the lens and help correct for perspective in-camera to keep vertical lines from converging in scenes.
Last to Consider
- "It's really about the right tool for the job".
I guess professionals do have a different mindset, when it comes to serious or high profile assessments. And I can understand that. When money is no issue, type of thing.
Phase One Company
is if i didn't get it wrong, a Danish company who bought in 2009 the majority stake in the legendary Japanese company Mamiya - eventually taking it over - but ended just about everything from it over a couple years. I think they stopped selling Mamiya stuff in 2015.
Wikipedia refers also to following:
On 18 February 2014, it was announced that UK-based private equity firm Silverfleet Capital would acquire a 60% majority stake in the Phase One company.
On 17 June 2019, Phase One A/S was once again sold, this time to the Danish investment company Axcel.
One thing is for sure - the Phase One cameras are so expensive, that they don't sell many of them globally. Maybe a couple hundreds ? I really don't know.
Fuckups: "Private Equity firms"
Yeah. Those frikkin' "Equity firms " - I don't know how many traditional companies got fucked up, even destroyed, due to the overtake from "Equity companies ". They are often act more like vultures who cut things down, do not truly invest - while sucking out as much money from a company as possible. Swedish Hasselblad almost went into the grave due having been bought by various "equity firms". Now it is the Chinese who seem to be more stable behind Hasselblad, and the company has gradually become a name in the digital world (again).
Equity
Funny that word "equity" - means "The Quality of being Fair and Impartial". Like a joke in my ears. As so many strange appearances in our current world of affairs. |
