At the time I didn’t think this image would work. I was certain the conditions were too bright, and the dynamic range of the scene was too high. These were just a couple of the challenges that almost made me not bother taking the image. In the end, I decided to just take the shot and see what I could make of it in post-processing. Boy am I pleased that I did.
If you want to read more about what I learned and see the starting image, you can read about it in my November newsletter. The newsletter goes out overnight tonight. If you don’t already receive this, you can subscribe here
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The image is of Derwentwater in the Lake District, taken near to the landing stage for the boats at Keswick. I used my Fuji X-T3 with the new Fuji 16-60 lens. I shot this handheld and without filters at ISO160 (the base ISO for the Fuji X-T3). This gave a shutter speed of 1/280” at f/11.0.
Post capture processing was in Capture One for the RAW conversion which allowed me to do a lot of the shadow and highlight recovery. I then used Nik Viveza to improve the light after which I softened the image with a faint blur to the highlights.
Have a great weekend.
The Lightweight Photographer 
Hi Robin,
I am am currently reading you’re book on Photoshop to get to grips with improving my skills…I note you are using capture One, where I use Lightroom/ Photoshop and I am interested to know if you prefer Capture One, and if you still use The Lightroom/ Photoshop combination as well.
Regards
John H
Hi John. I switched to Capture One for processing my Fuji RAW files as the results are much better than doing the RAW conversion with either Photoshop or Lightroom (which I still use for other processing). I then take the TIFF file from the RAW conversion into Photoshop for additional processing where I also apply Nik adjustments. I hope this helps.
Thanks a Robin, I will get to grips with Photoshop thanks to you’re book then have a wee look at Capture One
Regards
John H
You certainly framed it up nicely. How did you get the bird to cooperate?
My friend who is just out of frame had a dozen of them in a cage. Each time I was ready to shoot he would frow one into the air.
No seriously, it was just good luck. I shot about 8 frames quickly and noticed this one had a bird in it. I liked the bird so I picked that frame.
The bird is just in the right place to stand out. Great photo.
Thanks. I think it’s called good luck.
Wow – glad you did 🙂 Beautiful shot.
Thank you. Ot just goes to show that you shouldn’t give up without trying.
Beautiful indeed Robin! Glad you took it and shared it.
Thank you. I really like this image and find it hard to believe how well it turned out.
Be interested in your view . I’m a hobbyist photographer ..I enter camera club competitions . I have the 18-55 and 55-200 which I use with my XT3. I have often toyed with the idea of getting the 18-135 for versatility because I often switch those 2 lenses ? Held off getting the 18-135 because I’m not convinced that I would get better IQ than my 2 existing lens . Thinking about getting the 16-80 to use instead of 18-55 …but need to be convinced . Grateful for your view . Thank you .
This is a tricky one. I think you may get a little better quality with the 18-55 at the wide end than the 18-135. I think there is a little more distortion with the 18-135 that needs to be corrected which may affect the results. The long end of the 18-135 is pretty impressive. I did write a review of the 18-135 which may help you https://lenscraft.co.uk/photography-blog/fuji-18-135-review/. The 16-80 is an interesting one as well. I like it because of the focal range and the 16mm at the wide end. BUT I think the 18-55 I have gives better results. I’m really not convinced by the 16-80 at the moment. This could be that the lens profile that’s embedded in the software isn’t very good and it seems to have to remove a lot of distortion. If I set the distortion correction to 0 the edges of the frame are much improved. The results may improve when the likes of Capture One start to ship their own lens profiles for it. I also don’t think it resolved detail all that well at the long end. The image stabilisation is always on which is a pain if you want to pan on a tripod for panoramics. Fuji says it won’t be an issue but I think it is. You need to allow a couple of seconds for the camera to settle between each shot when shooting a panoramic on a tripod. The IS is amazing though and allows you to shoot handheld at very slow speeds. Having both the 16-80 and 18-135 is a problem for me as they seem to fight for my attention. I bought the 16-80 to replace my 16-55 (which is a lump of a lens) so I could shoot more handheld. Decide what you value most from a lens in this range and then buy one or the other. I hope my review on my website for the 18-135 might help you.