fujifilmxindia
Putting the X-H2 through its Paces
When Fujifilm India reached out to me to work up a shoot with the new X-H2 camera I knew that my usual style of highly controlled photography would have to be shaken up to truly get the most out of this camera. After all, this is a camera that thrives in blink and you miss it situations.
The challenge was to still have the work look uniquely mine while also showcasing the abilities of the camera. To this end, I decided on creating two shoots that were completely opposite in nature but unified by image quality and lighting.
As a photographer I draw influence from my years of experience on stage doing musical theatre and my love for cinema and art. I pool these references together in service of creating imagery that could be moments in time from a larger ongoing story wherein the viewer chooses where the story goes next.
The stark contrast between a controlled environment studio shoot and the all-out outdoor biker shoot was done for two reasons:
- To showcase the incredible capabilities and versatility of the Fujifilm X-H2 camera
- To fulfil my own desire to tell stories through stills.
The Fujifilm X-H2 performed absolutely flawlessly no matter the situation. Be it focusing in-studio with just the modelling lights or catching and tracking focus pre-dawn while travelling on curvy roads down a gravel path. There was never a moment where I had to wonder if the camera was doing what I needed it do, it just did. The X-H2 did an excellent job of picking up all the detail I wanted it to pick up. Allowing me to focus on the moment and directing the talent.
The camera truly came into its own when paired with the XF 50mm 1.0 and XF 23mm 1.4 lenses. They are unrivalled in their class and truly helped define the visual language of this project. Coming from the GFX series, I noticed something that had me pleasantly surprised.
While processing the files I noticed a staggering amount of detail that could be pulled and recovered from the files and was something I really did not expect out of an APS-C sensor. The 40 MP X-Trans censor resulted in files with pixel dimensions of 7728 x 5152 which could result in some beautiful large format prints.
All in all, the one takeaway I have after using various products from Fujifilm over the years is that these are pieces of technology that are constantly evolving and improving and can be consistently relied on.
I would like to thank Fujifilm for constantly supporting my work and providing the tools that I as a professional enjoy creating with.
Connect with Shahzad Bhiwandiwala
Shahzad Bhiwandiwala, is an award-winning internationally published commercial photographer and educator from Mumbai, India. After a brief stint in the corporate world of Human Resources, he decided to make a career out of his passion for photography. He is an alumnus of the Academy of Art University, San Francisco and the Eddie Adams Workshop Batch XXXIII.
As he started creating his own stories, Shahzad chose photography as his medium to tell the stories that mattered most to him. In his pursuit of being the best version of the artist he can be he has racked up a few achievements that are particularly noteworthy; a 1st place Advertising-Fashion awardee at the International Photography Awards (IPA), Communication Arts Photo Annual Award winner, a former professor in the Art & Art History (Photography) department at San Jose State University and a Diversify Photo – Up Next Photographer. Shahzad’s work has also been covered by Vogue India, Profoto India, aPhoto Editor, Verve Magazine, MW Magazine and many more.