ENDING SOON: The Magic of Black & White eBook with Lots of Fujifilm X Series Images with Launch Discount

Fellow Fujifilm shooter Andrew Gibson has published the 11th anniversary edition of his popular book “The Magic of Black & White“. For this occasion, Andrew has completely rewritten it and added new photos and lots of new material.

Most of the images inside the book have been taken with a Fujifilm X-T1 and Fujifilm X-T2 camera.

The book is available with a launch discount. You pay $10 instead of $14 until April 30. So just a few days left to grab it with a discount.

Also, you can buy The Magic of Black & White and The Black & White Landscape together for just $14 (normal price $18).

The Magic of Black & White:

  • It teaches you how to see in black and white.
  • It shows you how to become a better photographer (many of the ideas apply to color photography as well).
  • It’s easy to read. The book comes in three formats – PDF, ePub and Mobi for Kindle so you can choose the one that is best for your device.
  • It’s practical. You can treat each chapter as a creative exercise and go out and put the lesson into action.
  • It has depth and will become an invaluable reference guide you’ll return to again and again as your understanding of black and white deepens.

Some of the subjects covered.

  • Why black and white is so popular with photographers.
  • How to capture mood and atmosphere with black and white.
  • Why black and white is perfect for capturing the character of both people and places.
  • The common misconceptions that stop people becoming good black and white photographers.
  • Which camera settings are important for black and white photography.
  • Why it’s so important to connect with your subject.
  • The key elements of composition in black and white.
  • How to use light effectively in black and white photography, and why it’s different from color.
  • How to see when a scene will look good in black and white.
  • The role of shadow and contrast in black and white.
  • How to use storytelling to make more poweful black and white photos.
  • How to add drama and excitement to your black and white photos.
  • How to capture the spirit of place with black and white.
  • Which software to use to develop your black and white photos.
  • How to become a better black and white photographer through themes and projects.
  • Why it’s so important to print your black and white photos and make photo books.

IN CROP WE TRUST: The Lens I Chose to Start my GFX System Adventure and Talking 102 Megapixel Crops & Prints

My First GF Lens

So guys, the decision has been made.

In the last second, I took advantage of the €500 rebate on selected Fujinon GF lenses and I bought the Fujinon GF32-64mmF4, which was your most recommended G mount lens for landscape photography. Thanks for helping me out with the decision :).

I still don’t own it, as like everywhere on the world, Fujinon G mount lenses are a rare good.

In fact, when I went to my local store, the store owner told me that since Fujifilm launched the GFX100S, sales for GFX gear went through the roof.  He also told me that for many of his customers, the Fujifilm GFX100S is their first GFX camera and this also pushes sales for G mount lenses. That’s why they run out of stock constantly.

So I had to put myself in line, and now I wait for a lens that is harvesting 5 star reviews all over the web:

In Crop we Trust

Now, if you have read my GF lens help article, you’ll know that over the last few years, I somehow shifted from privileging dramatic wide angle shots to focusing more on compressed landscape shots.

This is why I was hesitant between getting the GF32-64mmF4 or the GF45-100mmF4 to start with.

But here is the thing: I can’t get into my frame parts of a landscape scenery that are too wide for my lens (unless I stich). On the other hand, thanks to the power of the Fujifilm GFX100S and its 102 megapixel, I can crop the heck out of my images and still get usable and printable results.

Therefore, afraid to miss out on something beautiful on the wide end, I decided to go with the wider zoom, trusting the crop-power of my GFX100S to get a more compressed look.

In fact, I am now thinking that as a second lens, I’ll probably go for the Fujinon GF100-200mmF5.6, which I got my hands on in store, and it actually surprised me how light it is for its size. “Definitely portable” I thought. It will fit well and be easy to carry in my Photohiker trekking backpack.

But of course one step after another.

In early 2021, I already supported Fujifilm by buying the XF27mmF2.8 R WR (which you can see here), the XF80mm Macro, the Fujifilm GFX100S and the GF32-64mmF4. One more 2K lens right now would mean deciding between gear and marriage. ;)

But in not too distant future, I imagine my GF lens arsenal to look like this:

Yep, no fast lenses in the lineup for now, but I have a couple of f/1.2 and f/1.4 primes on the X system, so I’ll get plenty of bokeh out of that system when I need it.

So, the Fujifilm GFX100S and the GF32-64mmF4 will mark my first steps into the G mount system. Now all I need is to get those nice packages shipped, and I hope that maybe this summer I can already hike on the Dolomites with it.

Crop & Print

I love to print. From photobooks to single images.

And sometimes I print rather big.

But even my biggest print at my home (90x60cm / 35×23 inches) looks absolutely fantastic when taken with 24 MP.

So why the heck do I need a Fujifilm GFX100S, if my APS-C gear does a great job already?

The answer is: crop!

In fact, I assume that not only for me, but also for many of you, cropping is a very fast and effective post production step we sometimes take to improve our images.

So you get it: I don’t need to print bigger. But what the GFX system allows me to do better than any other system out there, is to still print big even images that are significantly cropped.

For example, this image I took at the Gardena mountain pass with my X-T4 and XF10-24mmF4 looks great on the web. But truth is that I had to crop quite a bit to get it how I wanted, hence mostly focused on the Sasslong. And while on Instagram it still looks great, I doubt I could print it as big as I sometimes like to print.

But if my starting point would have been 102 Megapixel instead of 50MP or 26MP, then I’d know I’d still retain so much information in my cropped image, that I could still make a huge epic print out of it.

With that said, every system has its Pros and Cons. The balance Fuji’s APS-C system offers remains unmatched to me compared to full frame of medium format. But the GFX shines in an area where I love to take pictures and to print: landscape photography.

This is why I bought the Fujifilm GFX system, and I look forward to finally capture the lovely Dolomites with it ;).

Fujifilm GFX100S

Fujinon GF80mmF1.7

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All GF Lenses

DPR: Fujifilm GFX100S Gets Gold Award (with Error)

DPReview has published its full Fujifilm GFX100S review.

No surprise, it gets the Gold Award.

If gaining the extra image quality it offers over full-frame is valuable to you, we suspect you’ll be happy to work around any of the GFX’s shortcomings

[…] the Canon EOS R5, Sony a7R IV, Nikon Z7 II and Panasonic S1R are all quicker cameras with faster AF systems and all offer focus tracking and eye-detection functions that work more dependably than the Fujifilm. They’re also all smaller and less expensive than the GFX. However, none of them can match its image quality.

DPR says the Panasonic S1R is smaller than the GFX100S, but I am not so sure about that. It’s actually even lighter and slightly smaller. Rather significant error by DPR. Full Frame does not have to win at any price ;).

Anyway, here are their Pros and Cons:

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