Shooting still life with my Fuji X100T

There were several reasons I decided to add the X100T to my Fuji camera pack. It's ability to focus so close with the 23mm lens was at the top of my list. Turns out I am using this camera much more than I had even anticipated. One of my primary applications is for still life photography. Getting in close with its 23mm (35mm equivalent) lens delivers a rounding effect to the subject, while the fast f/2 lens produces a pleasing selective focus with plenty of story-telling detail. This gives the images more of a casual, candid realism that sometimes mimics a cell-phone snapshot, or an old film camera.

Used wide open f/2 aperture, the images also have a soft glow about them that is very pleasing. Close the lens down for even one stop and the lens reverts to being sharp making it quite versatile. The Fuji style modes are another plus with this camera. I've come to really like Classic Camera with its muted colors and deep contrast. Although I always shoot in both RAW ans jpg at the same time, I can apply the camera style later in Adobe Camera Raw while using the jpg image as a reference for color and contrast. I usually go on to tweak the colors and contrast even further by adding a Vibrance adjustment layer in Photoshop to mute the colors even further. The photos below taken during a still life session in the studio using available window light were all done that way.

I almost never go anywhere without a camera. More and more, the camera around my neck is my Fuji X100T.