After being home sick for several weeks, I was finally feeling well enough this weekend to head out for some photography. So on Sunday afternoon, we headed down to Venice Beach to check out the Venice Fishing Pier. After a few weeks off, it felt great to get out with a camera and to enjoy yet another beautiful Southern California sunset. Here are three of my favorites from the visit, all shot with the X-Pro1 and XF 14mm and edited using the new VSCO Film 04 presets.
After spending a bit more time with VSCO Film 04, I have really taken a liking to many of the slide film presets. My favorites thus far are the landscape versions included for the Fuji Fortia SP, Fuji Velvia, and Kodak E100VS film types. While these presets can produce images that are more vibrant than what I'm now accustomed to, I definitely see potential for using these as the starting point when editing my landscape images. To give you an idea of the possibilities, here are a few before and after samples of some images I edited using the landscape presets.
Fuji Fortia SP Landscape (before)
Fuji Fortia SP Landscape (after)
Fuji Velvia 50 Landscape + (before)
Fuji Velvia 50 Landscape + (after)
Fuji Velvia 100F Landscape (before)
Fuji Velvia 100F Landscape (after)
Kodak E100VS Landscape (before)
Kodak E100VS Landscape (after)
It's been nearly two months since I started using VSCO Film 02 to edit my X-Pro1 RAW files. My favorite preset, without a doubt, is Fuji Superia and its many variations. As good as the Superia presets are however, I still missed the Provia, Velvia, and Astia simulation modes of the X100 and X-Pro1. Well, it looks like I no longer have to choose between shooting in RAW and using the film modes because VSCO just released their slide film presets, VSCO Film 04, which includes emulations of these three films.
Since I just purchased VSCO Film 04 yesterday, I haven't had much time to work with the presets yet. I will say this though, if you're using one of the newer Fujifilm X Series cameras and have been on the fence about VSCO, these are probably the presets to get. With that, I'll leave you with two images I made in San Francisco edited using the Provia, Velvia, and Astia presets.
Original
Fuji Provia 100F
Fuji Velvia 100F
Fuji Astia 100F
Original
Fuji Provia 100F
Fuji Velvia 100F
Fuji Astia 100F
The Disney Concert Hall is one of the most iconic buildings in Los Angeles. I've visited the concert hall on various occasions, but I've never spent much time photographing the architectural marvel. Partly because I have never really had the time to do so and partly because it has always seemed quite challenging to create unique images of one of the most photographed locations in Los Angeles.
Yesterday, during an outing to photograph Grand Park in Downtown Los Angeles, I decided to stop by the Disney Concert Hall to make a few images. Soon after arriving with the Fujifilm X-Pro1 and XF 14mm, I found myself completely immersed in finding interesting ways to capture this fascinating building. Before moving to the Fujifilm X-Series system and getting the XF 14mm, I had always preferred shooting at more normal focal lengths between 35 and 50mm. Since fitting my X-Pro1 with the XF 14mm however, my preferences have changed and I'm truly enjoying the task of learning to compose with this awesome wide angle lens.
