Street Photography Therapy Weekend with the Fujifilm X-H1

First of all, if you’re reading this, I hope you had a much better week than I did. Mine was really challenging, but the good news is, the sun is finally shining in Vienna again. So, I decided to go out last weekend and take my Fujifilm X-H1 for a spin around the city for some street photography therapy—hopefully to clear the brain fog I’m currently in.

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The Setup

All the photos in this post were taken with the X-H1 and the Fujifilm XF23mm F1.4 R—except, of course, for the photos of the camera itself. I also used both a PolarPro mist diffusion filter and the Shortstache Everyday filter.

A 23mm lens gives you a 35mm equivalent focal length, which has been my favorite for a while now. It’s not too wide and not too tight—it’s a great storytelling lens, if you ask me.

The Ordinary

I try to make it a point to take photos or videos daily of the most mundane things — things I would normally pass by, the ordinary. This is also one of the reasons I feel that the 35mm focal length equivalent of the Fujifilm XF23mm F1.4 R fits perfectly for these types of shots.

Today, I noticed that people leave cigarette butts on this electrical post. I must’ve looked like a very clueless tourist to the elderly couple who were watching me when I looked up from my viewfinder after taking a photo of it while waiting for the Straßenbahn.

Shadows and Silhouettes

To capture shadows and silhouette shots, I adjusted my exposure compensation dial to around -1.0 to -1.6. I’ve always shot in manual mode, but Fujifilm’s camera design—especially the dials, which I really love—kind of forces me to learn how to shoot in aperture mode more often.”

I love looking for streaks of light or pockets of shadows that fall onto the streets and buildings on sunny days like this because it always feels like there’s a photo just waiting to be taken. The shapes and contrast are something my eye is always drawn to.

Film Simulation

I found a Fujifilm recipe for X-Trans III sensors from this blog and I thought I’d give it a try. However, I tweaked a few things from his settings. Instead of the beautiful classic chrome, I find myself drawn to using the Provia for some reason. I also changed the white balance shift ever so slightly. I don’t call this recipe anything, But I also know people like to test out so I’m putting it here.

• Film Simulation: Provia
• Dynamic Range: DR200
• WB: Auto – Shift +2 Red -4 Blue
• Highlights: +1
• Shadows: +1
• Color: +3
• Noise Reduction: -4
• Sharpening: 0
• Grain Effect: Strong
• Exposure Compensation: mostly +1/3 and -1.3 for silhouettes

Sample Comparisons

The final jpegs were adjusted slightly – mostly white balance and contrast and nothing too crazy. I would say the straight out of camera (SOOC) jpgs are very very close.

I tend to lean more towards a cooler palette (at the moment) so that’s what you’ll mostly notice.

I find myself drawn to using the Provia for some reason.

Into the night

In the spirit of breaking routines, I decided to continue walking around even after the sun went down. It’s a good thing that the weather is also starting to warm up ever so slightly at this time of the year.

While taking photos, I realized the Polarpro mist filter i’m using is a bit too strong. I love the bloom effect, but for night time situations like this, I think I prefer something less pronounced. Something to note for myself.

Taken with Fujifilm X-H1 + Fujifilm XF23mm F1.4 R

Do something different

I spend most of my time creating video content and editing on my computer nowadays, so doing something different, like walking around to take photos, can be refreshing. I’m not 100% sure if this will lead to something or if it will clear my brain fog, but I knew I needed a change of environment and activity. It felt good not to be thinking about cinematic sequences and scripting, even for just a few hours. It also felt good to shoot in JPEG—being more intentional with my shots instead of relying on how much I could save a photo later in post.

I also squeezed in a quick coffee and we had pizza at our daughter’s favorite Italian restaurant called i Terroni in Westbahnstraße for one lunch.

I even witnessed a traffic jam of Straßenbahns because of a vehicular accident right in front of the Votivkirche – Definitely a rare sight for me.

This weekend was not about getting absolute Instagram bangers, but rather documenting what caught my eye, observing the light, shapes and colors. It was simply about taking a camera around and shooting with it because it had been a while since I went out just to take photos, a while since I used my X-H1, and, like writing this blog post, it was simply fun.