So after Fuji X T 1 passed with flying colours on our first date I decided to give it a proper try in the studio to see how it faired with my Bowens flash heads.
My model of choice was the rather fabulous Felicity hayward, (who I have blogged about in the past). Felicity is the modern day Renaissance Woman, not only is she a muse for the likes of Miles Aldridge, been held in high esteem by British Vogue, she is also a DJ, ASOS stylist and exceptional artist (I attended her exhibition: “I’d rather go Blind” at Eaton House Studio late last year and was somewhat impressed) – GO FELICITY!
So back to all the technical stuff…
The lighting set up was very simple. I used just one Bowens Gemin 400rx flash head with the 40˚ Sunlite reflector in a paramount position and had placed Felicity against a white/black wall. See Below for Diagram:
Unlike the Fuji X pro 1 the X t 1 doesn’t have a sync cable socket so you will need a wireless flash trigger, I high recommend the Calumet 4 channel Wireless Trigger kit, as it’s reasonably priced and even though it says Canon fit, works perfectly well when fitted to the X T 1 hotshoe.
All images albeit the 2 with the black wall were shot on 35mm. The ones on the black wall were shot using the XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR
Now my main issue with the X t1’s performance here was the exposure preview mode (which by default is switched on) This is a great feature when using ambient light of continuous lighting but is extremely frustrating when shooting with studio flash, as the electronic viewfinder renders completely dark so you cannot see what you are shooting and it’s not easy to work out how to switch the thing off; it took me a good 30mins on google to figure it out. So for all of you who are having the same problem you go into the menu > set up 1 > screen set up > preview exp./WB in manual mode and make sure this is switched off when using flash.
Again, a bit of an hiccup on a second date but all is now sorted and overall I’m still really pleased with the results.
Model: Felcity Hayward
Make up: Viktor Charles
Photography: Michelle George