Surfing with Acros
I've never been much of a post processing guy. That could be from decades of shooting film or possibly Art Director's commanding me to deliver RAW images so color profiles aren't messed up in print. Probably the latter. I am always after the best possible shot I can produce with the camera. "I'll fix it in post", isn't part of my regular shooting process. Fortunately, with the addition of my new Fujifilm X-Pro2 camera also comes the ability to finally use the newest film simulation, ACROS. Could this be the secret sauce I've been looking for to achieve richly saturated monochrome black and white photographs without spending much time in post?
After browsing some of my favorite Fujifilm photographers websites, it seems most are using ACROS to shoot street photography. Something that I will also be using it for, but not limited to. I decided to head to one of my favorite sunset surf spots, San Clemente pier. Walking down the pier with less than an hour of sunlight remaining, I realized how lucky I was. The waves were packed with surfers ready for their moment to shine.
Coming from the X100 and X-T1, the X-Pro2 feels like a rocket ship. Flipping it on you are ready to shoot immediately. There is no startup lag at all. Scratch missing the crucial moment because you're camera wasn't ready off the list.
How many surfers can you spot? Did you catch the guy that looks like he's running across the water? It didn't take long to realize Fujifilm did their homework with ACROS. Much like the old film I remember, I found the blacks deep with plenty of contrast, making the whites pop. It feels raw. The waves seemed to glow when reviewing images on the cameras LCD screen. For these shots I was using ACROS/Y, Shadow Tone +3, Sharp +1.
The X-Pro2 did a fabulous job of separating scattered wave patterns and surfers popping in and out of frame. Very light post processing was done to these images in Lightroom. Minor 1-2% bumps in contrast here and there.
Are you still counting heads? The light was in my favor tonight. Just enough left to grab the front of surfers flying over the waves.
The surfing community travel in tribes. Ushering in and out of waves seems chaotic, but only to those uninitiated. What looks like dominos is actually more like chess.
The separation of tones in this image is incredible. The littering of white wash makes everything seem three dimensional.
My favorite from today has to be this flying high Point Break style shot. The rider is encompassed in shadow from the wave shooting across his body blocking out the sun. I kept the shutter speed as slow as possible allowing wave movement to show while still quick enough to grab the rider.
Color me impressed with ACROS after my first official trial. Next, I'll be giving it a run on the street and maybe even grab a few shots during an upcoming portrait session. I'm curious how it handles grain when ISO gets pushed. Time will tell.
I was going to relax around the house tonight and surf the web. Happy I got up and decided to take aim at another type of surfing all together.