Fuji x100 low light

Hi all!

I plan to take photos of a party with my X100 F. I have decided not to use the flash and will allow the camera to go all the way to ISO 12800 with minimum SS of 1/60, since there will not be much light and my priority is to get photos.

Also, I will shoot B&W (RAW + JPG). Would you reccomend Acros and which (Red,Yellow,Green?)

I dimmed the lights in my house and try the settings out. I was shocked, my X100 F almost allways picked the ISO 12800 and the shutter speed even went bellow 1/60.

Did anyone tried something similar?

Thank you

Neven

It's not really the best camera for low light...just to make sure aperture was f2?

If you shoot RAW you can use the Fuji X-Raw software to develop each raw in whatever film sim and color filter you like. Lightroom or C1 ca do the same.

Miskec wrote:

Hi all!

I plan to take photos of a party with my X100 F. I have decided not to use the flash and will allow the camera to go all the way to ISO 12800 with minimum SS of 1/60, since there will not be much light and my priority is to get photos.

Also, I will shoot B&W (RAW + JPG). Would you reccomend Acros and which (Red,Yellow,Green?)

I dimmed the lights in my house and try the settings out. I was shocked, my X100 F almost allways picked the ISO 12800 and the shutter speed even went bellow 1/60.

Did anyone tried something similar?

Thank you

Neven

Make sure the ND filter isn’t engaged (3 stops, I think in the F). I shoot in low light with my X100 (V) all the time, the ISO will be very high, but in a “normally” lit interior space, you really ought to be able to get away below ISO 12800. I would seriously want to avoid going below 1/80” with people, 1/125”+ would be better if you can manage it. Don’t “dim” the lights. You will likely get significantly better results shooting RAW, especially if you want some in color. If you must shoot in jpeg, I would probably go with a B&W sim without a color filter, interior light will already give you an orange/red effect. Go RAW+Jpeg for maximum flexibility.

I would use the flash, dial it down a few steps. Otherwise you might get some keepers, but most of the pics will be blurry or overly noisy. If not using flash, look for some places with halfway acceptable light or even talk people into posing with the available light in mind or use some people as assistants and hand them some flashlights to lighten your subjects.

Miskec wrote:

Erik Baumgartner wrote:

Miskec wrote:

Hi all!

I plan to take photos of a party with my X100 F. I have decided not to use the flash and will allow the camera to go all the way to ISO 12800 with minimum SS of 1/60, since there will not be much light and my priority is to get photos.

Also, I will shoot B&W (RAW + JPG). Would you reccomend Acros and which (Red,Yellow,Green?)

I dimmed the lights in my house and try the settings out. I was shocked, my X100 F almost allways picked the ISO 12800 and the shutter speed even went bellow 1/60.

Did anyone tried something similar?

Thank you

Neven

Make sure the ND filter isn’t engaged (3 stops, I think in the F). I shoot in low light with my X100 (V) all the time, the ISO will be very high, but in a “normally” lit interior space, you really ought to be able to get away below ISO 12800. I would seriously want to avoid going below 1/80” with people, 1/125”+ would be better if you can manage it. Don’t “dim” the lights. You will likely get significantly better results shooting RAW, especially if you want some in color. If you must shoot in jpeg, I would probably go with a B&W sim without a color filter, interior light will already give you an orange/red effect. Go RAW+Jpeg for maximum flexibility.

Thank you for you helpfull tips. I will try to do my best and catch some light on peoples faces. I will use acros or maybe monochrome.

Neven

There's a pretty encouraging write-up of the x100f's low-light capabilities on Shark & Palm:

https://www.sharkandpalm.com/photography-tips/high-iso-on-the-fuji-x100f-is-low-light-shooting-possible

topline takeaways:

1.) sounds like you should be fine going as high as 12800 in Acros, but color starts breaking down after 6400.

2.) AF is quick with the illuminator light, but will probably struggle without it. manual focus with peaking on may be your best bet if you don't want the illuminator constantly flashing.

3.) might not hurt to reconsider using the onboard flash in some situations. it looks pretty well balanced. you could also get a small godox, meike, or similar flash with a swivel head and bounce some low-power flash off a ceiling or wall if you just want to avoid blinding people.

I have good results with flash compensation dialed down -2 or -3 in similar situations.

That 90s in the face flash if done right is the flavour of the month anyway.

I never used the inbuilt flash of my cameras prior to owning the x100v, but with the x100, I have become a fan.

If using the flash, don’t use auto-iso!

The available light is the available light, if you want dim lights at your party then you have to accept the camera is going to have to compensate, either through high ISO, low shutter, wide aperture, or most likely a combination of all three.  The X100F’s lens can only go to maximum f2 which is ok but not great, bearing in mind that’s cutting out half the light available to an f1.4 lens for example.

Your only real answer is to increase the available light, either through switching on the flash, or turning those dimmer switches the other way!

A couple of things:

Short bursts instead of single shot. It's a good way to make sure you get the best facial expressions and body positions while people are dancing. If you are shooting groups of non-moving people then a burst will let you get one photo that is sharper than the others if you need to use a slower shutter speed.

Shoot Raw because it will let you underexpose by one or two stops when shooting, so you can have a faster shutter speed or lower ISO, and push the exposure afterwards with no extra noise.

Be prepared that your F have have a harder time acquiring focus if you try to get it on something lower contrast like faces so use something like the person's clothing and focus and recompose. You may even choose to shoot a little wider so you can crop afterwards. If you still cant acquire focus, angle the camera a little and then recompose.

There is nothing about your X100F which makes it fundamentally worse than an X-T2 for this kind of shooting. An f1.4 lens wouldn't be better because what good is faster aperture when it means that some people will be soft due to the shallower depth of field.

DarnGoodPhotos wrote:

There is nothing about your X100F which makes it fundamentally worse than an X-T2 for this kind of shooting. An f1.4 lens wouldn't be better because what good is faster aperture when it means that some people will be soft due to the shallower depth of field.

It’s academic of course, and also entirely subjective, but I don’t agree with this - a 23mm 1.4 would work just fine for a party. Yes the DOF would be narrower at 1.4 but by no means problematic for most shots at a typical distance, and closer a little separation could work well to separate individuals or intimate small groups together. If it was me, and my X-Pro2, that’s the lens I’d be using. Not an option for the OP though obviously.

I am looking on a 14 inch screen on my Mac Book.  Your pictures look GREAT given the lighting limitations.  I also have a 100F and while trading up is tempting, how much would your pictures improve if they had been taken on a 100V instead?

Miskec wrote:

nysteveg wrote:

I am looking on a 14 inch screen on my Mac Book. Your pictures look GREAT given the lighting limitations. I also have a 100F and while trading up is tempting, how much would your pictures improve if they had been taken on a 100V instead?

Thank you. As i wrote, the noise did not bother me at all. I would say 6400 was perfect and 10000 really acceptable. Only two highhest settings were a bit too noisy The most challenging part was the focus. I used singe focus and back button focusing tehnique. I presume that switching to V would get you slighty better AF and sharper pics due to new lens. And tilt screen would make me even less noticable. Next time I will shòot iso 8000 max and maybe close the apperture only a smidgen. I will underexpose and brighten in post.

Thank you for looking

Neven

The V is definitely sharper a f/2 and at close range, but the F's sensor is a bit better in the noise department. As far as AF goes, I think you'd be well served to forget about BBF and just use AF-S single point, AF box on the subject (face sized in low light) and full-press the shutter button all the way down (no pause at a half-press). You will get the snappiest AF response and the exposure at the moment of focus acquisition not a split second later after you or your subject has moved enough to screw things up - this works on moving targets as well and is miles better than AF-C in low light with that camera too. Did you use Acros with or without a color filter? Your images look very nice and punchy, whatever you did. If you can turn off the artificial grain that is normally a part of Acros, that might be a good idea as you'll get plenty without it in that kind of light. I don't see ISO 12800 really being an issue with these kinds of shots, the noise looks OK in B&W and could certainly be cleaned up quite a bit with the RAW files if you wanted to. Your shots came out great in any case. Well done.

I'm not saying this necessarily looks better (you'd get better detail, less plasticky skin and fewer artifacts with the RAW) , but even these noisy jpegs can clean up pretty well if you want to dial down the grain a bit (yes, maybe dialed down a bit too much here)...

A few tweaks in Lightroom with a little Topaz DeNoise.