Air hair lair. This post is going to be a good one, because asking this question might save you thousands over the years, as well making your photography more enjoyable. I wish I had asked this question earlier.

This YouTube video below goes along with this post, and I’d love it if you’d give it a watch (like and subscribe motherfucker). But it’s all here in the post if you’d rather read. If you want to receive updates for this blog, you can also read it via email, or subscribe via RSS (if you’re also old school).

TLDR

There’s a particular angle this channel comes from, which you’ll pick up on pretty quickly if you hang around. I’m all about a personal, honest and creative photographic practice, one that gets you out shooting and not editing. Apple Photos has been key in finding this path, because it has worked so well at what it needs to do and got out of the way otherwise.

Because I’m all about straight out of camera, I try to learn my cameras and shoot jpeg. If I was still shooting RAW, this might mean I’d have to look elsewhere, but there are some options available ill tell you about later.

Apple Photos is a streamlined multi-device workflow, with basic editing, cloud syncing

It’s library management is simple but powerful and easy to use. It’s a product where Apple is really delivering on it’s brand promise.

In all, Apple Photos suits my style of photography perfectly, but I didn’t start here. I’ve used all kinds of cameras, including dslrs sooting RAWs processed in lightroom. I went on bit of a journey to disccover what I liked, what I needed, and what I didn’t.

Context (AKA ‘story of my life’)

I got my first iPhone in 2010, which helped me fall back in love with photography. I took so many great shots, mostly because I didn’t think of what I was doing was anything other than having fun, experimenting. But in 2014 I when I started using “real cameras”, I thought you needed professional software to finish images. I shot in raw and loaded the photos into Adobe Lightroom, trying to get various looks I was envious of.

Too many photos in Lightroom

Fast forward a year and I was starting to feel overwhelmed by the by the number of photos in my library. It didn’t feel easy to find them. I was also tired of editing photos. I felt like I was approaching the whole thing wrong, but wasn’t sure what I should be doing. I was doing it the only way I knew how.

Too much emphasis on processing

I began to feel that I was putting too much emphasis on processing, that the magic was happening at my desk, rather than at the point of capture. Polishing turds is what we call this down under. Although fun at first, it began to feel like a grind - and frustrating too as none of my photos ended up looking like the ones I liked.

Raw file sizes are too large

These feelings multiple as I planned a Japan trip in mid 2015. I guessed, correctly, that I was going to be be taking 10,000 photographs. Shooting raw was going to be out of the question due to file-sizes alone, and this had me asking a lot of other questions. It was scary - was shooting jpeg going to make my photos worse?

Jpegs are fine!

Turns out, no, not at all. I enjoyed the holiday, and photographic process with it, hugely. I was loading the photos onto an iPad via the camera’s wifi. Shooting Jpeg was a non issue. The photos weren’t for publication, they were for me. And that was 2015 - today, the jpegs I get from my Fujifilm xpro-3 are fit for just about any purpose, so long as the shot was taken properly. I think as time goes on, the more viable this workflow is.

I also found Apple Photos really fun. I was limited in how much I could work on a photo, but this only helped me realise I needed to take better photos and relax. So I really worked on my photography, instead of working on the photographs.

The next couple of Japan trips were made with iPhones, making it even easier. I’m going to talk about how that went in an upcoming vlog, but for now, I do mostly shoot with a fuji camera.

Iphone shots from Japan 2017-8

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Apple Photos Workflow

Here’s how my Apple Photos workflow goes. The first thing I do is try to get it right the first time, by taking a second to think about exposure, how to best portray the subject, and what I want to achieve with the photo in a more meta sense.

Planning the shot

Taking this second or two is laying the groundwork for a smoother process henceforward. I will inevitably take two or three variations of every shot, which is probably a habit, and usually use the last one.

This is actually one of the main things I’ve learned from life so far - think, research and plan as much as you can before jumping into the main work. This gives the process real direction, making it smoother and faster, with better results.

Importing

After a day of shooting, I’ll connect the camera to the computer in card-reader mode, which I find to be easier than taking out the SD card or fiddling with the wifi connection (which hasn’t worked so far on the X-Pro3, but i’m sure it’s user error [if it needs instructions it’s broken]). Apple Photos opens as the default endpoint for connected cameras.

Using thumbnails to cull

Looking at the thumbnails of photographs is handy for getting an overall vibe for the photo and composition, and I like making import decisions without seeing the details. I trust that all the shots are in focus because of the effort I put into this while shooting. I’ll import the better shots, and give them the once over, deleting seconds. I leave the rest on the card, which will eventually be deleted.

I then make any basic exposure tweaks that might be needed. You wouldn’t count this as ‘saving’ any shots, but just slightly improving some. That’s all I do in Apple Photos, unless I think a black and white conversion will work. In that case, I get a little more involved.

Black and white conversion in Apple Photos

Apple’s black and white conversion options are reduced, compared to your average photography software, but they get the job done in a fun way. Instead of having adjustments for each colour, you have one slider that alters how all the hues are mapped to tones globally. I find this is enough to convert a photograph to black and white, so long as the photo itself works.

To be honest, I do this less and less now. It’s more about shooting for me, so if I want to be shooting in black and white, the camera is capturing in black and white. Otherwise, if it’s colour, it’s colour. It’s just that sometimes I’ll be like’ hey, this would make a great black and white photo’ and will try.

Because Apple Photos is saving changes non-destructively, I can reset the image to the original import ay any time, even years later.

Tweaking

When you edit photos, Apple saves the original, and you can revert to it any time.

I’m not going to go into super detail on how I edit photos in Apple photos, but it might involve a slight highlight or shadows tweak, and typically a slight curve adjustment. I’m still putting together some jpeg simulation recipes for the X-Pro3, and learning how to use it in general, but in time I hope most shots need little or no editing.

Once tweaks have been made,

Sharing

Because of iCloud Photo Library, which is optionally connecting your devices’ Photo app to a cloud-based library, it’s pretty simple do anything once the photo is in the Library. I typically do one or more of these things:

VSCO - Something I’ll talk about more in an upcoming video on iPhone travel photography, I might import a select few photos to VSCO for some dishonest filter/simulation fun. These will mostly get bordered up and instagrammed.

Instagram - Occasionally I’ll post a single photo to instagram straight from the library. I do less of this now and prefer this third, last process:

Affinity Photo Instagram carousel

You can also drag photos from the main browser into any other program that accepts drag and drop images, including browser windows or graphics software. It’s not the full size you drag out, but a more optimised one. Sometimes. I haven’t quite worked it out. But the dragged out version is great for most purposes, being well over digital requirements.

Because I’ve got so many photos to share, usually all around a theme or place, I’ll drag them from Apple Photos into an Affinity Photo template setup with 10 export slices. This lets me get a little wonky with the composition, and I like to add a line of text that will stretch across the whole carousel maybe with some Easter eggs for people with the deidication required to read like that.

Honest photographs

Look, I know Lightroom, Capture One etc can do much more than Apple Photos. But for me, the things Lightroom does aren’t necessary, and I’m trying to help you work out if this applies to you too. As in all cases, it’s really helpful to set intentions for your photography. Checkout this video that will help you work out what you need in photography.

There’s a concept I mentioned earlier - the honest photo. It means the photograph that gets taken is the photograph that gets shown, with enhancements to improve the visual comprehension and faithfulness only. I like honest photos. It means the emphasis is on the act of photography, not the processing. It certainly doesn’t mean turning a photo into something it’s not.

Clientwork is something else. There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s just clients rarely want reality looking like reality. This is why Lightroom etc exists, I guess. But for honest photos, Apple works just fine.

Well, there are some professions in which processed RAWs aren’t required, or in fact, banned. Checkout what Reuters did in 2015 in order to keep it’s photographs honest.

Apple Photos + Affinity Photo for raw photo editing

Now if you don’t work with Reuters, you can easily extend Apple Photos with Affinity Photo. This works like a charm.

I hate Adobe

To finishing on a high note… here’s why I hate Adobe. I was on a really tight budget for a while and went to cancel my subscription. I went through some steps, declined hugely reduced offer, and was hit with a surprise payment for cancelling the plan. I had actually forgotten it was a plan, it being the era of month-to-month subscriptions. It would have been in the small print, but it still felt a bit sneaky because there was no mention of it leading up to it, when it would probably have influenced my decision to exit. It felt like a punishment. That, and their monopoly on creative industries is kind of gross. Fuck you Adobe for ruining my creative career. Or thank you for protecting me from people who think software is more important than creativity? Oh wait, that’s everyone.

So I’ll never use an adobe product again, at least not one I have to pay for. I get by on the Affinity suite for design, and Apple’s pro suite like Final Cut and Logic Pro.

This post is a longer version of the accompanying video:

I’ve had a few mirrorless cameras, but none of the Fujis have been new (until now). In fact for a while it seemed that every time I ‘upgraded’ my camera it was to an older body. I got into photography with an iPhone, and feeling the bug bought into the m43 system, which I promptly upgraded to Sony full frame, realising as you do that the bottleneck in your photographic output is the sensor size. 

My first fuji was an x100s. I remember using my mum’s x100s to take a random picture of a cup, and compared it to my old m43 GX1. A world of difference. The x100s photo was smooth and alive by comparison to the cold and dead GX1 – which I was just fine with up until that point. Anyway, I didn’t get the x100s fuji until a few years after that memorable shot, having gone through my full frame dalliance and come out the other side disillusioned. I had realised I wanted to shoot jpeg with a minimum of fuss, and didn’t need a heavy, expensive camera to do that, especially when it’s jpegs weren’t … special. 

I then got an x-e1, which was again, a downgrade in sensor generation, but it was an interchangeable lens camera. I stuck an ancient Pentax 28mm lens on the front of it and recaptured the randomness of photography I remembered from my youth. A few years later again I exchanged the x-e1 for an x-pro1, which is essentially the same camera with a bigger body, a few more dials, and a better build. I loved the x-pro1, but I was seduced by the mod cons and new film simulations of the xpro3. In truth I had really wanted to get the x-pro2 when I got the x-pro1, but my wallet wasn’t up to it. the X-pro3 was the kind of upgrade you don’t make on a whim, it’s planned years in advance in one’s subconscious, and when the stars align, you are propelled by greater forces to follow through. 

Still, I’m asking forensic questions about this decision. It was inevitable in my case, but in your case, should you not be so helpless in the face of latent desires, the points raised below may help you work out whether you’d be happier – not just satisfied – with an older fuji body. Because there are advantages, and if they’re in the areas that matter to you, they’re big ones. 

Do you need a camera at all?

But, before you even go get a camera, here’s a challenge. Think about what kind of photographs you want to make. If you think it’s remotely possible to make these kinds of photos with the camera in your pocket (alluding to your phone here), take that camera out just once, and try to make these photos. Do a little research ahead of time to see if you’ll need a different camera app rather than the stock one, such as halide, or VSCO. 

iPhone (the phone I’m familiar with so I’ll be writing in this context from here on) photos deservedly get a bad rep among enthusiast photographers, because of the very destructive, and not always pleasing post processing that applied to all shots. What you and many may not know is that the iPhone can also shoots raw, and that you can access those raw files with little or no processing. What you essentially have in this case, is a very versatile small sensor camera, albeit that imposes some creative constrains, but which may encourage your creativity without hampering your vision. 

In 2017/8 I took an iPhone 8 Plus to Japan. Now, while you can’t peep on the pixels without gagging, the experience was a boat (butt?) load of fun. As I went, I was editing my best (read: favourite) shots in VSCO and posting them as journals. The convenience afforded me a lot of creativity. I wasn’t stuck in the camera, I was making photos, albeit, having sacrificed quite a degree of control. But sacrificed control is a creative constraint in itself. 

I repeated this at the end of 2019 with an iPhone 11, which did not have the telephoto lens of the 8 plus (and which I really missed). Frankly the 8 plus was just as good. The fun was the same though. Take a look at my VSCO journals which span these two trips, to see what kind of experience and results the iPhone + VSCO can offer. On a sad note, VSCO no longer offer their journals which was an insanely bad decision on their part. I guess they saw more value in social sharing. Shame. 

Old or new?

OK. Let’s assume that you’ve decided you’d like to use a camera. Fair enough! You enjoy the photographic process as an end in itself, and a phone just doesn’t do it for you. Also, cameras are cool. 

(This articles does not apply to a professional photographer. I have no idea what you need and you should not be reading this.)

Before you even start thinking about cameras, keep thinking along the lines above: what type of photos do you want to take? Why do you enjoy taking photos? Are your photos for you, for others, or both. Why? 

Why is a phone camera not enough for you? What does your camera need to be able to do well? Make a prioritised list. This will help you work out what’s important to you. 

Here’s how that works using myself as an example. 

I know I want to keep exploring creative, experimental and abstract photography. For this, I’m probably going to want full control over the exposure triangle (shutter speed, aperture, ISO), and to be able to change at least aperture and shutter speed easily and quickly. I’ve already landed on the Fuji line because I like having these things explicitly available with dedicated dials – DLSRs are too abstract for me now… I don’t enjoy playing with them as much because the physical actions feels too distant from the process – and this kind of 1:1 photography is where Fujifilm is unmatched… leaving me not much choice.

This excludes most of the cheaper bodies, unfortunately, which is fine because they also feel cheaper and don’t have a viewfinder, which I know I like. 

But if I still want to save some money, that means I could look at some of the more premium lines, but on the used market. I know I’d be happy with something like the x-pro2, x100t/f or x-t2/3. The x100 line is great as a second camera, but I know I want to have an interchangeable lens system, even though I do prefer the 23mm view that the x100 line comes with. And of the xt3 and xpro2, it’d probably be the x-pro2, because I prefer the styling. Having owned an x-pro1, I know I’ll want to use it. In my case, I picked up the x-pro3, but I could just have well have got the 2. 

My reason in going for the 3 was the flip down screen and the extra jpeg simulations, because I shoot jpeg and want to play with recipes. That’s literally it though, and to be honest I feel a little dumb sometimes for having gone with the 3. 

If I were you, I would not stretch your dollars for the latest model unless it comes with something that is going to enable your photography in ways older models can’t – and I can’t think of any possible example here really when it comes to stills. 

The exception is video. This is where the majority of improvements are happening, so if you value this, a newer body may be worth the extra dollars. But even in this case, the xt-2 or x-pro2, both did great video, which wasn’t really topped in any meaningful way until the more recent xt-4, which comes in at almost a thousand more. So even in this case you’d better know what you need and buy accordingly. I’m shooting this with the x-pro3 which wasn’t made for video but fits this purpose just fine. 

This is all moot if you’ve got the money to burn, in which case you might as well support the camera companies, vote with your dollar, by purchasing their greatest and latest. 

But if this isn’t you, be aware of this major trap. It’s often called Gear acquisition syndrome, GAS, but really it tells of something a bit more serious than wasting money on things you don’t need. It usually means you’re lost, and don’t want to believe you need to work harder – with the gear you’ve got – to improve your photography. It’s hard to avoid this, because photographs are subjective, which means any photograph is a bad photograph out of context. Take for example, a simple, straightforward picture with basic framing, of an old house. If you don’t have a love of old houses, it’s not going to rock your world. So if you’re not photographing with intention, and are trying to work to the standards and preferences of other people, you’re always going to feel less than, and a very easy way to deal with this is to open up eBay and look for new gear. In the absence of any well defined path or criteria to grow into, increased technical quality is a mentally safe space. However, without looking for and working on the underlying cause, you’ll be in that space forever and spend a hell of a lot of money. 

So this is why knowing what kind of photographs you like to take is important. If you’re not sure, you can think about what photos you like, or even what you like in other areas, and translate that into the photographic realm. For example you’re a mad mountain biker, or you love felting… how might you involve photography in that? daydream a little, and when an idea takes hold, explore it with your camera… maybe the one you’ve got. 

Comparing X-Pro1 to X-Pro3

I’ve been shooting mirrorless since 2015, with bodies from Panasonic, Sony and later, Fujiflim. I started with the x100s, have had an x-e1, added an X-pro1, and recently, upgraded to the X-Pro3. 

Where to buy an X-Pro3

Just quickly, before we get into it, as most people who want an X-Pro3 already have one. That means many camera suppliers are getting rid of their last stock, and you can ask them to price match. I got mine for $2000 Australian, which is $1,452.49 USD. That’s a good 300 off the current advertised price. But, If you’d like to avoid that hassle, and get one from Fujifilm directly, here’s an affiliate link to the Amazon listing for the Fujifilm X-Pro3.

There is only one real reason NOT to upgrade, and that’s if you mainly shoot stills in RAW, with adapted lenses, and aren’t interested in much else. 

That’s because for me most of the value in the X-Pro3 compared to X-Pro1 is in:

• the more advanced and customisable jpeg engine

• much more usable autofocus

• and slightly less importantly, a focusable viewfinder

• and if you shoot video, the video output.

I do shoot with adapted lenses, but also some native fuji autofocus lenses. I also shoot JPEG exclusively, and am interested in exploring video. So this upgrade has been great. 

There are many other improvements that are nice to have that make the X-Pro3 a much more versatile camera, but again, if you mostly shoot stills with adapted lenses in RAW, I wouldn’t upgrade. 

Now with all that said, the lower prices reflect that X-Pro4 is likely around the corner, so you need to decide whether potential upgrades to the series will be worth the extra $600 or so you will pay for the launch price for the X-Pro4. 

For me, X-Pro3 at a reduced retail cost is a great value proposition, especially considering that used X-Pro2s aren’t much cheaper! 

Jpegs

While there’s not a lot of difference between the sensors for stills (resolution aside), where the X-Pro3 really outshines 1, is in it’s jpeg output. 

There are a few new simulations, notably Acros and Classic Negative. Acros was introduced in the X-pro2, but Classic Negative made me pretty glad I waited for the X-Pro3. Jpeg is the main reason I upgraded to this newer model and I’m glad I did.

The jpegs are also more customisable than they were on the X-Pro1. You’ve got stronger tone options and better dynamic range options. Even the task of managing your custom settings, or recipes, is easier with user-named profiles and the inclusion of white balance. 

Jpegs were the reason I got into fuji. I took a picture of a polka-dotted cup with mum’s x100s in 2013. It struck me as so filmic, especially compared to the older m43 body I was using.

The new jpeg grain features are brilliant. The X-Pro1 had none, the X-Pro2 introduced Across computational grain, with some grain options for other simulations. The X-Pro3 increases the customisability of that grain, if only barely. I love the weak/large combo and use it on everything because it’s awesome. 

I admit I don’t know what a 100% crop actually is. Whatever it is, this isn’t it.

Hidden/reversed screen

I was a little worried about this beforehand, even though I classed myself as the type of shooter who would appreciate a hidden LCD as a feature. The Viewfinder on the X-Pro1 wasn’t enjoyable for me as it isn’t focusable. 

But I shouldn’t have worried because the X-Pro3 EVF is great and I’ve been enjoying a more slow and deliberate photography experience. Fuji knew me better than I knew myself! Nice going. 

However the OVF is still uncharted territory for me. With a DSLR, you get a preview of focus, as you do in EVF mode. But in OVF, to check focus you need to switch out of OVF via focus checking. Shooting with the OVF is a little abstract for me currently, but one day I’ll dive in. I’d like to be a little more comfortable with the camera and my recipes first. 

Geotagging with the X-Pro3

The Fujifilm Camera Remote app might not be great for doing anything much, but it’s perfect for geotagging. Connect the camera to a phone once and it’ll reconnect automatically as long as the app is open (even in the background). Occasionally the connection fails but you can see if it’s working with an EVF/LCD icon before you start shooting. All this adds up to automatic geotagging if you’ve got your phone with you and you use the Fujiflim camera connect app semi-regularly. 

Geotagging is one of those few features I felt I was missing out on using older bodies. It’s nice to be able to search by location, and see where you’ve been, even if not ‘travelling.’

Focusing

When adapting manual lenses, I mostly use the focus check feature (zooming into centre frame) which is unchanged between X-Pro1 & X-Pro3. The X-Pro3 does offer some other advantages with its manual focusing affordances, notably much easier to see focus peaking. 

But I don’t only use an adapted manual lens, and the improvements in autofocus are huge. I also use a kit zoom, the XC 16-50mm, which I bought for $100au (cheap). The focus isn’t very usable when this lens is on the X-Pro1, but It’s great, even in very low light, on the X-Pro3.  I’m planning to get one of the fuji f2 wr lenses. Theyre focus by wire and I don’t think ill enjoy using that as much and will probably use autofocus more, especially with people. 

I tried to shoot video with the xc16-50mm lens in continuous focusing mode on the X-Pro1, and it had no idea what was in front of it at all, even in daylight. In the same conditions, the X-Pro3 drives it acceptably. That tells me the autofocus improvements are quite large. 

Face & eye detection on X-Trans IV

One of the major reasons I wasn’t happy with either the X-Pro1 or x100s, was the risky on autofocus. I’d get around it with back button or half-pressing and recomposing, but it was slow and that’s not what you want with people. Sometimes, with a person front and centre, I’d trust the camera to get it right, but it still choose the background. There are so many otherwise great shots in my photo library where this happened. 

The X-pro3’s eye and face detection work really well, so it’s good to know  the chances of this happening are much less likely. I’ve only tried the feature out with a mirror as yet, but it seems to work as expected. I do like photographing family.

Other nice things

Dual cards are great. If I pickup event or other professional photography work in the future, I’ll make use of them. I’m glad I have the option and won’t need to panic about upgrading my gear if photo work comes along.

Touch. Touch to focus/shoot is might be useful in specific circumstances, maybe with people, but the touchscreen itself is really useful for typing – specifically when naming custom settings which you do more often than you think when you’re trying recipes. 

The minimal button layout is also good. It’s nice to have buttons that work (not all of them do on my X-Pro1). Having less buttons overall lends well to the ‘slow’ photography theme. I myself like to have about three customisable buttons, so I’m nicely covered. I’ll talk about how I set the camera up some other time (if ever). 

Wishlist for the X-pro4

• Recipe (jpeg settings) information tagged in the metadata more clearly. Not really sure how it works, but I’d like to be able to see the settings at a glance, even if they were just translated into a dumb tag of some kind. I know the info is in there ‘somewhere,’ but it’s not accessible in Apple Photos, for instance.