I started my journey with FUJI in 2017 and it was very different to say the least. First the entire system is much smaller than what I was use to (Canon DSLRs). One of biggest shocks was the EVF —‚ clear, vivid and sharp like looking at a 70″ flat screen at the proper distance.
Yet the XF 35mm 1.4 lens that I heard was sooo legendary was my biggest amazement. It showed me so many nuances of the faces I took. I began to wonder what FUJI did with this camera and lens combo that made it soo amazing.
VINTAGE GLASS
One of the biggest help I received before I even brought my XT-2 was from a Film Maker / Colorist Kholi Hicks who runs a site called Comet Color.
Kholi told me that he owed and XT20 and was shocked at the accuracy of color as well as the dynamic range. I was a bit taken back because I thought what I saw on YouTube was over saturation and a sort of fake coloring added to the video. Yet as I look back at it now, the footage looked like some films I have seen, in the sense that the images don’t look over processed (at least once I understood what I was seeing). For example an over processed video can look fake, the colors muddy, artificial and the overall picture unnatural. Most times you can tell that colors have been adjusted and that this is not how the image was captured.
Knowing what to Look For
Looking back over the past 7 years I realized my brain was fixated on filters, LUTS, and applications like Magic Bullet. All along I forgot what flesh tones look like I forgot the foundation of color.