Hi ,
I hope you’ve all had a great autumn so far, and also enjoyed a wonderful weekend, whether you spent it relaxing and eating good food with your family, playing outside or shopping for unbeatable deals. I stayed away from all the Black Friday chaos this year, although I did score a good deal on some music software. For the most part, I spent a very quiet Thanksgiving at home, enjoyed some much needed guitar time and finished up a project, which I’ll tell you about in a bit.
Since your inbox is probably crammed full of Cyber Monday emails, I’ll make this a relatively short newsletter.
2018 Fujifilm X-Photographers Nature & Travel Summit
Right at the end of October, we held third Fujifilm X-Photographer’s Nature & Travel Summit in the Great Smoky Mountains. During this intensive Fuji-centric summit, Jack Graham, Bill Fortney and I spent 4 days worth of in-class and in-field time with our participants. In addition, we had two Fujifilm
reps on hand to loan out demo gear and provide technical assistance.
For those of you who attended the summit, it was a pleasure to meet you in person and work with you on-on-one. I always enjoy when I have the opportunity to connect with readers and get to know you guys as people instead of names on my email.
It’s also great to get direct feedback from you about my writing and teaching style, and bounce ideas off of you for future projects. After meeting with a small group on the last morning, I came away with some helpful insight that will help me for designing new eBooks, courses and workshops.
With all of the brilliant fall foliage, I enjoyed shooting quite a few scenes in black and white. You can see some of my favorite monochrome Great Smokies images here.
I’m hoping that we’ll do another Fujifilm summit in 2019. I’ll let you know as soon as next year’s workshop schedule gets sorted out.
Upcoming Events
I'll be in Columbus Ohio on Saturday December 8 for the Midwest Photo Exchange “Feature Fair.” I’ll be giving my two-hour presentation, The Adventure of Photography: Shooting Outdoor, Action and Travel with the Fujifilm X Series, at 11:00am, and will be hanging around at the store for the rest of the afternoon. If
you’re in the area, come by and see my talk, or else just stop by and say hi!
Space is limited, but you can register here and see more info about the Feature Fair activities.
Photography Tip - Exposure Basics with Mirrorless Cameras
I often get questions from readers and workshop students about how I exposure for my scenes.
Which exposure mode do I use, how often do I bracket, and in what increments? Which metering pattern do I prefer, center weighted, spot or multi segment? How do I handle challenging light? What should the histogram look like? Do I exposure for the right or the left?
Since proper exposure is such a vital part of photography, I thought I’d give you a quick primer on the exact exposure methods I use with my Fujifilm mirrorless cameras. Note, these techniques work with pretty much any kind of mirrorless camera.
The real-time Live View viewfinders/LCD screens used on mirrorless cameras show you exactly what the pictures will look like before you take them. That’s because what you’re looking at on the screen is an exact view that’s being fed directly from the sensor.
Even in the most challenging lighting situations imaginable, you can still see EXACTLY what your final image will look like. And that changes everything.
With this in mind, here’s my basic exposure workflow:
1 Turn on camera and set to Aperture Priority Mode.
2 Point it at the scene.
3 Look at the LCD or peer through the EVF.
4 If I like what I see, I press the shutter button.
5 If it looks too dark, I turn the EV+/- Dial a few click up until I like what I see. Then I press the button.
6 If it looks to bright, I turn the EV+/- Dial a few click the other way, until I like what I see. Then I press the button.
I’ll say it again: IF I LIKE WHAT I SEE, I PRESS THE BUTTON.
It’s as simple as that. Most of the time, the camera gets it right, but if I want something different than what the camera is showing me, I simply turn the EV Dial until l get the look I want. Even if I’m using a different exposure mode, like Shutter Priority or Program.
In other words: The EV+/- Dial is your friend.
To see more detail about how to use this technique with different exposure modes, including manual mode, and also how ISO and the histogram play into all this, read my post Exposure Basics with Mirrorless Cameras.
Cyber Monday Deals
As I mentioned a coupe weeks ago, Luminar will be releasing their long-awaited catalog module on December 18.
Anyone who is a current user of Luminar 2018 at that time will get the library module update for free, as well as any and all updates through the end of 2019.
The new version, Luminar 3 will feature a Library module that easily lets you import, organize, find, edit and export your images. I met with the development team last month in New York and was able to get a brief preview of what’s coming, and I’m impressed with what I saw.
The catalog module is clean, simple to use, it runs fast and it ties seamlessly with all the creative and problem solving editing tools found in Luminar 2018, plus the newly released AI Sky Enhancer filter.
Right now, Skylum is on sale for $10 off. It’s the last sale before they release the update, and again, if you own or purchase Luminar 2018 before December 18, you’ll get the Library update for free, plus a lot of bonus bonuses and discounts.
If you use discount code DANBAILEY, you’ll save another $10 and get Luminar with all the tools and the catalog module for only $49. The sale ends in two days on Nov. 28.
Savings on Mirrorless, Apple Products, Monitors, External Hard Drives and More
It's Cyber Monday today, and there are a ton of deals going on right now. Memory cards, tablets, lenses, cameras, storage, accessories, you name it. If there's any gear you've been wanting to pick up, now is the time. Here's the general link to all of the deals found at B&H Photo
and Amazon. The Sandisk Extreme Portable SSD Drive is on sale right now at an amazing value. It's my current favorite
drive. You also can find holiday savings on a huge number of Canon, Nikon and Olympus lenses as well.
FYI, if you do purchase anything through these links, you'll be helping me out with a small commission, and it won't cost you anything.
My Brand New ebook is Coming This Week!
I’m excited to let you know that my latest eBook is about to be released. It’s called BEHIND THE LANDSCAPE.
In this book, I take you behind-the-scenes during the creation of sixteen of my favorite landscape images I’ve made in the past five years. In this way, it’s like taking a virtual photography workshop with me.
For each image, I walk you through the entire process. I let you look over my shoulder as I outline the exact gear I had with me, the specific concept I had in mind, my creative approach, potential problems I faced, and how I solved them.
I describe my compositional techniques, my lens choice, how I used the light, specific exposure information and any other details that went into the method of bringing the image to life. I also highlight the types of challenges that you might face when shooting a similar style of imagery and for a few images, I highlight the processing steps I took to create the final shot.
I even show you the outtakes that led up to the one final select of the series to illustrate that creating a great image is rarely a one-off activity. I feel this is one of the most valuable aspects of the entire book. Even if you don't read a single word, you could just look at the pictures and get a feel for how each shot developed in the scene. It's formatted in a similar style to my Behind The Action eBook, which follows this style of instructional method for shooting action and adventure sports.
Here's an exclusive sneak peak of the table of contents so you can see what images are included in the book. Nobody else has seen this except for my proofreader.
At over 100 pages, formatted horizontally with two columns, it’s the equivalent of a 200+ page manual that’s full of insight, instruction and inspiration. And, as a special treat, you’ll even get a special bonus image: An aerial photo of the Church Mountains shot at the peak of magic hour.
For the story of this particular image, I take a slight departure from the standard format. Rather than being another how-to chapter, this is more of an adventure tale.
In this chapter, I take you along with me on one of my aerial photography missions. You get to see what it’s like to be sitting next to me in the right seat of my little yellow Cessna as we chase magical light around the sky in the middle of winter.
My goal with this book is to walk you through the process of shooting a landscape, just as if I was right there with you, and give you some time tested techniques and methods that can be used to create your own dynamic and exciting imagery in the outdoors. I’m confident that it will help you learn to see, evaluate and capture better landscapes.
I’m really excited about this book and I plan to release it later this week. As a subscriber, you’ll be the first one to know as soon as it’s out, and you’ll of course, get a special discount. This title has been in the works for about two years and it's about to see the light of day!
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That’s all for now, . If you can make it to my Midwest Photo event, then I’ll look forward to seeing you in two weeks!
Otherwise, have a great week, enjoy my recent blog posts and keep in touch.
Best regards,
-Dan
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