Recently I’ve Changed The Way I Shoot With My Fujifilm X-T5

Amtrak Train #94 westbound in Windsor, Virginia (click to enlarge)
This is a example of the kind of image in which I want full control over shutter speed and aperture.
The train is moving at about 75-79mph (120-127kph) and I want sufficient DOF for the vegetation
 in the foreground to be in sharp focus.

For most of my photographic life, being a generalist photographer, almost always I have had my camera set in aperture priority mode.  That has served me best in the majority of situations in which I photograph.  Yes, if I'm photographing fast moving trains, birds, my grandchildren participating in sports and such, I changed that primary setting to shutter priority in order to successfully freeze the movement of my subject.  

For most of the kinds of photography I regularly practice—travel, nature, landscape, close-up, cityscape, Americana, old infrastructure, etc., as well as for my photographic projects (see my website for those), controlling the depth of field has been more important than setting the shutter speed.  Most of my subject matter doesn’t move much.  But that has gradually changed over the past few years.

Over time, more and more I found myself moving the camera controls out of aperture priority and manually setting the shutter speed AND aperture controls to what’s most appropriate for the particular subject before me.  I’ve taken control of one more variable previously set by the camera.  With the advent of Auto ISO, this has now become my preferred way of working. 

Whether I am standing in front of an old covered bridge with a river flowing beneath or a steam locomotive barreling toward me or a moose in the distance or an old service station on Route 66, I now find that picking a particular shutter speed and a particular aperture serves me better than allowing the camera to pick.  Too often in the past with one of those settings on automatic and upon later review, I found that the camera's automation did not pick what I believe would have been the optimum settings.  Typically, just a bit faster shutter speed or a bit more depth of field (DOF) would have improved my image.  Now, with Auto ISO, that becomes the only variable and I control how long the shutter is open and how deep or shallow I want the depth of field.

There is another setting that I use in conjunction with full control over shutter speed and aperture.  It’s not new but it has changed slightly for my Fujifilm cameras.  I wanted to mention it.  For the past many years, for all of my cameras, I've set them up with back-button focus (BBF) and set the AF control for continuous (AF-C) rather than using the shutter button to actuate AF using AF-S.  That way, I have the ability to ‘press the back button and release’ which simulates AF-S or ‘press and hold’ which gives me AF-C.  For my Fujifilm cameras I’ve slightly modified this technique.  I set the AF/MF switch to Manual Focus and, in the menu system, Instant AF for AF-C.  (Menu>AF/MF Setting> Page 2 of 3>Instant AF Setting>AF-C) That way, without touching a button or a switch I can focus the lens manually, press and release and I essentially have AF-S or press and hold which gives me AF-C.  All three focus modes without changing any settings.

Here is the last part of the Fujifilm equation.  I enable focus peaking.  Now, when I press the back button (AF-On on the X-T5) to focus in the manual focus mode, focus peaking is enabled and by looking at where in the frame the peaking is visible, I also now have a very good idea of how much depth of field will be included in my image.  That instantly allows me to judge if my selected aperture is sufficient for my desired DOF.

If I have not been clear how I now set up my cameras or why I now set them up the way I do, please let me know in the comments and I’ll try to better explain.  

Everyone likes to do things differently.  I'm not saying what I do is right for you.  I just wanted to let you know how my thinking has changed with the addition of features and capabilities now in our digital cameras.  Who knows, I may move away from this in the future but, for now, manually setting the shutter and aperture, setting the ISO on Auto and the AF for Manual Focus with Focus Peaking enabled is working really well for me and the kinds of photography I practice.

Oh!  One of thing about setting the AF/MF to Manual Focus.  Why would I set if for Manual Focus rather than AF-C as I have done in the past?  For Fujifilm cameras, and maybe other mirrorless cameras, when the AF is set for AF-S or AF-C, the lens stops down to the set aperture when focusing.  That, to me, allows the possibility of inaccuracy.  The AF system has to figure out where, within the limits of the DOF, is the desired focus point.  That can be quite a distance range.  When set for MF, the lens focuses wide open (minimal DOF) no matter what aperture is set for the lens.  With that minimal depth of field, in my opinion (and like DSLRs and old film SLRs), accuracy in focusing seems better.

Join me over at my website, https://www.dennismook.com.  

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

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