Category Archives: How To

How I Hold My Camera – Best Practice Tips for Outdoor Photographers

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Today’s lesson is called “How I Hold My Camera.” 

I realize this might seem like a rudimentary topic, but I’ve actually heard from more than a few photographers who are struggling with this, especially shooters who have recently switched from DSLRs to Mirrorless. I received one email from a gentleman who was having problems with cramps in his hand when he was trying to shoot.

Given that DSLRs are often twice as big and twice as heavy as mirrorless cameras like the Fujifilm X-T3. My guess is that they’re having a hard time adapting to the much smaller and lighter bodies. 

So, I’m going to play show and tell and let you know I hold my camera. If you’re having a hard time getting comfortable with the camera, then hopefully you’ll find these tips to be useful. 

Left hand

Under the lens. Always. I’ve seen people hold the camera with the left hand over the top of the lens, but that’s not the best way to hold the camera. Aside from making you look a bit amateurish, it doesn’t offer you the same level of stability and functional control. 

If I’m using both hands, then I always hold my camera with my hand cradled under the body, not holding hard, just resting it there, and this puts your fingers in the right place to operate the focus and aperture ring. This also gives you a much more steady grip if you’re using a bigger lens. 

Right hand

My right hand grabs the molded grip in an easy, natural way. Not tightly at all. It’s just there to help keep the camera steady and keep my finger on the shutter.

By not holding it very tightly, my right hand is also free to operate the other controls, like the dials on the top deck and various buttons and the focus joystick on the back. 

In fact, when the camera is up to my eye, it’s hardly holding the camera at all, it’s a surprisingly loose grip that offers me that that extra stability. 

Of course, there are some times when I’m shooting one handed. I’ll grip the body a little more tightly, but I’m not squeezing very hard at all. Most of the stability comes from just resting my fingers and thumb on the contours of the body, and this puts my finger right there above the shutter. 

I realize that everyone’s hands are different size and shape, so it might take some practice for you to get a feel for the best, most stable one-handed grip.

However, in most situations, I’m just doing this little back and forth dance between my two hands, but neither hand is holding very tightly at all. Sure, I might have a little firmer grip with a bigger lens, or when using the battery grip, but again, I’m never squeezing  very hard. 

Natural Tripod

When I’m shooting handheld, especially when I’m using slightly slower shutter speeds, or if I need added stability, I usually try to hold my camera up to my face and suck my elbows into my chest. This creates a natural tripod between my elbows and my face. 

When I’m about to shoot, I’ll slowly let my breath out, the right when it’s at the bottom of my breathing cycling, when my body is the most still, that’s when I press the shutter. 

The Strap

Security

This is a big one with me. I always use a strap. Always. There’s never a time when my strap is not on the camera. It’s always there, and I use it for security, safety and stability. 

It ensures that I won’t ever drop the camera, and because I know it’s always there, it allows me to keep that relaxed grip on my camera, because I know I can always just let it drop safely back down. I’m so used to having it there, that it feels completely natural.

Funny story. No… It’s actually a scary story. There was one time a couple of years ago, when I was shooting right next a glacier pool. The tripod was precariously perched on this little incline right by the water, because that was the vantage point I wanted.

At one point, I accidentally kicked the tripod and it started tipping forward. Without even thinking, I just threw my hand across and snagged the strap with my forearm, and saved the whole rig from falling into the iceberg filled lake. Yikes!!!

Stability

I often shoot using the live view mode on my LCD screen. If I’m holding the camera away from my body, then I’ll use the strap to help brace the camera and give me extra stability. 

I do this a couple different ways. Pulling it tight against my neck gives me an extremely stable grip. This method is very effective for ensuring the kind of sharpness you seek in your images. I’ll often shoot down to single digit shutter speeds and still get sharp images using this method.

I can do this same thing down at my waist, just by flipping the screen up. By pulling tight on the strap, I get that extra degree of steadiness. 

If I’m shooting one handed, I’ll grab and hold the strap with my left hand. This gives me that same level of stability and it also allows me to shoot at different vantage points, like over my head, using the flip screen, or holding it down below while shooting from a low vantage point.

So, again, I can’t accentuate enough how important the strap is in my life with the camera. It offers steadiness, and it offers freedom. And if I need to get it out of the way, I just sling it around my shoulder.

Freedom

The strap offers me an incredible degree of creative freedom and liberation from always being tethered to your tripod.

I know that there are some photographers out there who never use the strap. These are usually people who almost always shoot with the tripod, and they don’t want it to get in the way. If you’re one of those people, then I can’t force you to use the strap, but I don’t see why you wouldn’t. I just think it makes life so much easier and more fun.

Think about it, this means you can never just walk around with the camera around your neck as you’re looking at the world and surveying the scene. It also means that whenever you take it out of your bag, you have to grab it and hold it with this level of desperate security, so that you won’t accidentally drop it. And really, how fun is that?

If you really don’t want to have the strap on your camera when it’s on the tripod, then you could get one of those quick release straps so you can take it off once you’ve got it securely fixed on the tripod.

I know that some people like that Black Rapid sling style strap. If it works for you, then that’s great. I just prefer the regular old-school strap. Always have. It’s a very simple design, but it’s extremely functional in the widest variety of settings. Either way, I highly recommend using the strap.

My Favorite Film Simulations on the Fujifilm X Series Cameras

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When designing the X Series, the Fujifilm engineers had the idea to incorporate the looks of some of their older films right into the cameras. This was a brilliant move; after all, with an 80+ year history surrounding film and color imaging, this played to their strengths.

Ask any photographer who has used actual Fuji Photo Film why they shot it, or ask an X Series shooter why they use Fuji, and their likely answer is because of the colors. In short, no one does color like Fuji, which I why I feel this is such an integral feature on the cameras.

I’d even go so far and say that the Fuji Film Simulations are the lifeblood of the X Series cameras. This wonderful collection of fifteen ultra-classic color and monochrome palettes give you some of the most iconic looks in the history of photography.

Developed over decades and culled to perfection for the X Series, these built-in color presets offer you a diverse and dynamic set of tones with which to craft your artistry.

(Click here to watch the video companion to this blog post.)

The idea is that as you gauge your scene, you make creativity decisions right there in the moment, based on how you want to show your subject, and then pick a film simulations that best matches those ideas.

For example, are you going fo bold and beautiful, subtle and subdued? Rich and powerful, careful and contemplative? Clean and crisp, garish and gritty? You’ve got it all right there at your fingertips, from the rich drama of VELVIA and the wonderful skin tones of ASTIA, to the soft, muted colors of ProNeg Low, and the classic journalistic tones of Classic Chrome, as well as a fantastic selection of black and whites modes!

Here’s a detailed rundown of my favorite film simulations on the X Series cameras, and what kinds of subjects I typically use them for. I strongly encourage you to play around with them. Get to know the film sims intimately. Commit them to memory and make them an integral part of your own shooting experience.

VELVIA

In 1991, Fuji Photo Film as they used to be called, unveiled an ISO 50 color reversal (slide) film that shook the world of photo imaging with its wonderfully rich color, highly saturated color palette and inky black shadows. Outdoor photographers loved it and seemingly overnight, VELVIA quickly became the favorite film of landscape, nature, travel and adventure shooters everywhere.

VELVIA has a very vivid look. It was my favorite slide film and it’s my favorite film simulation because it delivers colors that are larger than life. It’s not always accurate or nor is it always true to life, but for general outdoor photography, it delivers the intended emotion and confidence of your scenes with a bang.

In fact, when designing the original VELVIA color profile, the Fuji color engineers tweaked the color recipe in such a way that it makes images more “memorable”.

Funny thing about the human brain: We often remember things as being more “enhanced” than they really were in real life. That’s just how we work. In fact, if we were to look at a faithfully accurate photo of a memorable scene, we would think it’s “missing something.” VELVIA plays on this psychological aspect of human memory and helps us create imagery that has a strong impact in the memory of our viewers.

I LOVE VELVIA and I always have, even when I shot it back in my film days. Having bought my first roll of VELVIA back in 1993, I’ve been shooting those colors for half of my entire life. In that way, those VELVIA colors have been an integral part of my development as a photographer.

VELVIA works for just about anything on bright sunny days: Action, adventure, landscapes, travel, people… It’s not so great on cloudy days or for close portraits, especially with darker skin tones.

ASTIA

Based on Fuji’s professional ISO100 color reversal portrait and fashion film, ASTIA does great with skin tones and clothing, which makes it ideal for photographing people outside under natural light. That said, it looks great on any kind of subject, inside and out, because it has great color that doesn’t block up when the contrast of your scene increases.

For this reason, ASTIA is my preferred film sim on cloudy days when VELVIA is too contrasty. It’s one of my favorite film sims, and I find it incredibly useful for a variety of subject matter and lighting conditions.

CLASSIC CHROME

Although the Fuji people can’t officially call it as such, Classic Chrome was designed to emulate Kodachrome, the most classic of all film stocks. With the lowest saturation of any of the other film sims, Classic Chrome produces softer colors and gives a wonderful muted look to your images.

At first, Classic Chrome might seem a bit boring, especially when compared to VELVIA, but when you realize what it’s doing, you’ll find that it almost produces a very pleasing, almost monochromatic look, but in color.

The tonality of Classic Chrome is interesting, it’s relatively soft in the highlights and harder in the shadows. This makes it quite usable for shooting under overcast skies. Shadows become a bit more rich, but your brights don’t blow out so easily. You can use this to your advantage in a wide variety of situations.

When you want your story to be about the subject and not the colors, Classic Chrome is a great choice. Think photojournalism, environmental portraiture or street photography. It’s even great for certain landscapes, because when you take away bright color, you force your viewer to concentrate on shape and tone and imagine the colors that were present. In that sense, it’s like VELIVA in reverse.

PRO Neg. STD

The two PRO Neg sims are patterned after Fuji’s popular NS 160 print film, which was the go-to choice for wedding and portrait photographers

PRO Neg. HI has slightly more tonality than STD, which gives it a little more contrast. It’s ideal for outside portraits or street photography.

On the other hand, PRO Neg. STD has the lowest tonality of any of the film sims, and it produces images with minimal contrast and soft, muted colors, but with slightly enhanced skin tones. It’s designed to give the best results when photographing portraits inside under studio lighting and flash.

Where CLASSIC CHROME has muted colors, but retains hard tonality in the shadows, PRO Neg. STD pulls everything back evenly. You get those nice Fuji colors, but at a very low saturation level with much softer shadows.

I actually love shooting with this film sim and I use it quite often to give a much more lower contrast look to my imagery, especially when fighting shadows on bright days.

ACROS

ACROS is a black and white film simulation with an exceptional level of tonality and a very complex grain structure. It requires a higher degree of processing than regular Monochrome sims, so it’s only found on the newer X Series cameras (X-Pro2, X-T2/3, X-H1, X100F and X-T20/30.)

With a tonality curve that’s capable of holding detail in both bright whites and dark shadows, ACROS produces an exceptional level of depth and tonal gradation across the entire image.

It also produces a wonderful, characteristic level of grain that very closely mimics actual film grain. Just like you would see in a black and white print, ACROS has more grain in the darker areas and almost none in the highlights, and it increases in strength as you move up the ISO dial.

At ISO 3200, ACROS looks incredible, with superb tonality and gorgeous, film like grain. At ISO 12800, images still hold up with a surprising amount of detail, and the grain looks just like what you’d see on a print made from Kodak T-MAX 3200.

I absolutely love ACROS. You will too. If you have a newer Fuji, definitely shoot in ACROS mode and don’t be afraid to shoot it any ISO setting. I’ll often shoot ISO 3200 in broad daylight, just so I can get that awesome looking grain. Remember, photography is all about representation and a little bit, or a lot of grain never hurt anyone.

You Should Try Them All

Although these are my favorites, I use all of the film simulations in my photography, and you should too. Or at least experiment with them and see which ones you like. Each of them renders the colors and tones of your scene differently, and can impart a slightly (or drastically) different feel to you photographs.

Here’s a video companion to this lesson where I explain each of these film sims in a little more depth and show you a few more images examples. I cover all of the film sims in my bestselling Fuji eBook, X SERIES UNLIMITED.

To read about how to customize the film simulations for adding an even more stylized look in your photography, check out this post.

How to Use the PRE-SHOT ES Setting on the Fujifilm X-T3

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One of the coolest features found on the Fujifilm X-T3 is a setting called PRE-SHOT ES. Found in the SHOOTING SETTINGS Menu, this powerful setting is included specifically for photographing fast action and subjects that move very quickly. (EDIT: The new X-T30 also has PRE-SHOT ES.)

However, being a brand new setting that is only described in the manual with a single, confusing run-on sentence, that doesn’t leave new X-T3 users with very much to go on. It took me a bit of experimenting and a few messages to my Fuji contacts to figure it out myself, but now that I have a handle on it, I’m happy to share with you exactly how PRE-SHOT ES works and what you can do with it.

The first thing you should know is that PRE-SHOT ES only works when using the Electronic Shutter and CH mode. That’s because it takes advantage of the X-T3’s highly improved electronic shutter and faster processor, which allow for much faster read rates than what the ES offered on previous models.

PRE-SHOT ES is designed to compensate for the lag time between when you “see” your ideal shot, and when you actually press the shutter. With extremely quick subjects, that delay can easily cause you to miss your ideal moments, especially if your subjects are moving between obstacles, as seen in the shot above. 

By enabling PRE SHOT ES, the X-T3 will lock onto the subject and begin tracking at high speed as soon as you press the shutter halfway down. You’ll see the autofocus sensors start to track your moving subject.

As long as you keep your finger pressed halfway down while you’re tracking, the camera will start recording images into the buffer. It will continue to refresh so that you always have up to 20 frames stored in the buffer. 

Then, when you press the shutter all the way down, the camera will actually write those buffer images onto the memory card, essentially saving those frames that were recorded during the period of “half press,” as well as the new frames that are captured right when you start shooting. It will continue to capture and write new images the card as long as you hold the shutter.

In effect, PRE-SHOT ES allows you to nail your sequence and capture the entire series, including those initial moments, even if you end up pressing the shutter a little bit late. Normally, those moments would be lost, since it’s nearly impossible to recognize a passing moment and take the picture. Combine this with CH frame rate options of 10, 20 and 30 fps, this becomes a very powerful tool in your bag of tricks. 

To capture the forest scene above, I aimed my camera and started tracking the rider while she was still relatively out in the open. I used AF-C Custom Settings option #2: Ignore Obstacles and ZoneAF so that the X-T3 would keep the focus locked, even as she appeared through gaps in the tight trees.

It’s a little confusing at first, but once you understand how this setting works, you’ll see that it can be an incredible tool to help you capture extremely challenging scenes. It helps you nail the perfect body position, the perfect placement in the frame, or the perfect fleeting expression, running wildlife, flying birds, frolicking children, the list goes on…   

I’ve done extensive testing with PRE-SHOT ES and I’ve been highly impressed with how well it works. Combined with incredible speed at which the X-T3’s autofocus system can acquire moving subjects, PRE-SHOT ES has given me an amazing mechanical advantage for shooting action.

I’ll position myself where I think the peak of the action will unfold and put my camera on AF-C and Zone AF, setting the AF box size and position to match where the subject will enter the frame. I might do a couple of “practice pans” before the subject arrives, just so I know what I’ll be working with.

Then, when I’m ready, I’ll go beyond my estimated pan so I can acquire the subject(s) when they get close. Again, I do this before I reach my idea spot so that I can get a good lock with the AF. As soon as they’re in my view, I’ll half press the shutter and start the buffer rolling while the AF keeps tracking the subject. When I think I’ve got a good lock, I’ll go ahead and press all the way down while I follow them through my scene.

You don’t need to pan in order for this to work, you could keep the camera positioned at the “ready spot” with your ideal framing set. Then, as soon as you see the subjects enter your frame, press the shutter all the way. PRE-SHOT ES and CH will do the heavy lifting and take care of you.

With improved sensor technology coming out each year, this is sure to become a common feature on more high-end mirrorless cameras. Nikon had something similar on one of their “action cameras” a few years go, but it wasn’t implemented or advertised very well, and it went nowhere. Fujifilm has done an amazing job utilizing and refining this technology and rolling it into an already awesome and powerful camera.

I encourage you to play around with PRE-SHOT ES, even if you aren’t a dedicated sports shooter. There are a multitude of subjects and moments that unfold very quickly, and this feature can help you start nailing them with more accuracy and confidence.

To read more tips for using autofocus with fast moving subjects, read my post 10 Essential Autofocus Tips for Sports & Action Photography.

5 Tips For Photographing Sports and Fast Action in Low Light

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Shooting action is a blast. Except when it’s not. There’s nothing more exciting than trying to freeze an exhilarating moment when your subject is whizzing by; trying to capture the feeling of speed and physical exertion in a single frame, … Continue reading →

Behind The Scenes – How I Got My Favorite Road Biking Photo

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One of my favorite things to shoot during the past couple of summers here in Anchorage are the short track road bike “crit” races that happen every Wednesday evening from May through August. I got this image back in July of 2016, … Continue reading →

Brand New eBook, X SERIES UNLIMITED – The Definitive Fujifilm Camera Guide

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I’m excited to announce the release of my brand new ebook, X SERIES UNLIMITED: A Comprehensive Guide for Mastering Techniques and Maximizing Creativity with your FUJIFILM Camera. This comprehensive 329-page guide will teach you eventing you need to know in order order to gain mastery with your … Continue reading →

Using The AF-C Custom Settings on the Fujifilm X-T2 and X-T3

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With the development and introduction of the X-T2 last year, Fujifilm brought mirrorless cameras into the realm of performance previously ruled by DSLRs. One of the main advancements of the camera was a fast, highly predictive 325-point autofocus system that’s able … Continue reading →