Tutorials – Fujifilm Corporate Blog

instaXmas – Get closer to your loved ones with instax

by Fujifilm EMEA December 12, 2020 Comments0

2020 has been and still is a particular year to all of us. Now that we are facing Christmas time we all are asked to find new ways of celebrating togetherness while keeping our loved ones safe through distancing. Our instaXmas DIYs can help you to be close to family and friends during December – even in those times of social distancing. Have yourself a festive Advent Season and “instax” your Christmas.

Many thanks to instax UK for the inspiration and the shots! Check out their instax Blog to get even more inspirational instax DIY ideas.

INSTAX BAUBLES
What you’ll need:
-Clear DIY 100mm baubles
-Festive string
-Scissors
-instax prints
-Shredded paper/tinsel

The DIY baubles need to measure 100mm or your instax prints won’t fit.

Gently open a bauble and place your instax print in one half and fill the other half with shredded paper/tinsel and then carefully fit the bauble back together. This may take a few attempts, to ensure that none of the paper or tinsel hangs out or obstructs your instax print, but we know you’ll be pleased with the results! Once slotted together, thread some festive string through the whole in the top. Check the string length for hanging and once you’ve got your desired length tie a knot.

INSTANT HANGERS
What you’ll need:
-Festive string
-Hole punch, or needle
-Scissors
-instax prints

If you don’t fancy trapping your instax prints in baubles then why not simply let them hang free? Using the instax SHARE app, print your favourite pictures upside down so that the wider white area is at the top of your image. Use a hole punch to make a hole in the widest part, or if you’d prefer a smaller hole, carefully use a needle.

Important – never punch a hole into undeveloped film as the chemicals sit inside the wide white part of the film and will be harmful to your skin! If you don’t want to punch a hole, you can print as normal and stick the instax print to a piece of card and punch the hole in the card instead.

Thread through your string, tie a knot then get decorating. We definitely recommend this idea for your office Christmas tree, especially if you have shots from any Christmas jumper days!

CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS
Who says you’re too old for a stocking? Not us! These personalised stockings can make a great gift bag alternative or make yourself one (and hope it gets filled!).

What you’ll need:
-Christmas stocking
-Glue gun or craft glue
-Scissors
-Crafty extras of your choice

Print off your instax pictures of yourself if the stocking’s for you, the person you’re gifting it to or a festive-themed image.

Place your pictures on the stocking to lay out the design – we advise doing this before you glue anything down so you can see what everything looks like. Arrange your crafty bits and then when you’re happy with your layout, get gluing! Take care as glue guns get hot. Make sure to let your design dry before you fill or hang your stocking.

We wish you a festive Advent Season and creative time together with beautiful pictures to share with your loved ones.

Autumn Wildlife Photography

by Fujifilm EMEA November 4, 2020 Comments0

Alan Hewitt, a professional wildlife photographer based in the UK and part of the 2020 X-Photographer line-up, shares tips, tricks and experiences on photographing wildlife you can find near your home. As it’s getting colder, the days are getting shorter and the light is playing tricks on us, we are happy to pick up Alan’s insights.

Many thanks to fujifilm-x.com and Alan Hewitt for the inspiration and the impressive wildlife photographs.

In his article, Alan explains how to find the right subject – for example by creating a mini nature reserve in your garden. If you don’t have a garden, there’s tips on how to spot animals in parks or other green spaces in or around your city.

Whether colourful birds in your garden, vivid squirrels or rabbits in a nearby park or even coastline wildlife – these beautiful photos by Alan Hewitt show the diversity to be captured.

Having found animals to shoot, the next step is to get geared- and set-up. Alan has helpful tips on what equipment to bring and how to set it up for best results.

Not only knowing how to shoot wildlife, but actually understanding your surroundings is key – field guides as well as researching on the internet or joining interesting social media groups can help with this.

Ethics is an important topic when shooting wildlife. Alan, therefore, offers some advice on best practices when working with animals in nature.

We encourage you to read Alan’s post in its entirety. We hope you will find a few autumn days with interesting light and fun, beautiful animal friends to be photographed.

Filed under Be Inspired blog Photography subject Tutorials Wildlife

Women4Women

by Fujifilm EMEA October 24, 2020 Comments0

What happens when your colleague tells you about the importance of breast cancer prevention and manages to get you hooked on her story? Thus WOMEN4WOMEN was born – the magazine written by women who work at Fujifilm every day to spread the technology and culture of breast cancer prevention. This work is dedicated to all women so that they never let their guard down and take care of themselves.

We dedicate the first edition of our magazine to you – no matter if man or woman, so you can become passionate about reading intense and exciting stories and look at technology as a fundamental aid in the fight against breast cancer, too.

For this year´s Pink October, we have asked colleagues from the Medical Systems field across EMEA to share their experiences and become our ambassadors. Expect to meet biomedic engineers, radiologists, scientists, electronic engineers, industrial chemistry scientists, business and marketing managers, and physicians.

While collecting their stories, we were thrilled about how personal and professional experience can have such a positive influence on the result of their work. Being focused on women who offer their experiences, this approach might look like it is relevant for women only. But we can surely say that breast cancer is a disease that every gender should be aware of.

In case you got curious, feel free to follow the link to the magazine.

Filed under Be Inspired blog Interviews Spotlight Tutorials

How To Photograph Comet Neowise

by Fujifilm EMEA July 20, 2020 Comments0

Stargazers take note: A comet from the outer reaches of the Solar System, nicknamed Neowise, is providing a spectacular show. It’s definitely a special heavenly spectacle, because it passes by Earth so closely, it’s visible to the naked eye. Neowise (aka C/2020 F3 NEOWISE) won’t be back for another 6,800 years. It will reach its closest point to Earth on 23 July, at a distance of just over 100 million km. The comet can be spotted across the northern hemisphere, approximately one hour after sunset and before sunrise.
Neowise is visible when the sky is dark enough to show it’s bright tail and makes for a special treat for astrophotographers.
So, here are a few basic tips for photographing the comet successfully.

Planning

First of all, you have to ask yourself when and where to set up the shooting location.
Your chances of spotting it are better, the closer the comet is to earth – which is the case between 15 – 25 July. You can easily track where the comet is for your location by using star-tracking and night sky apps. The chance of seeing it in the early evening improves – so long as the weather co-operates and the sky is nice and clear. That’s why checking the weather before heading out is crucial to a good photograph of the comet.
After checking the right timing, and where to see Neowise, pick an elevated spot, away from light sources. The further away from city lights the better.

Equipment

As essential as the camera itself, is a tripod sturdy enough to take the weight of your gear and hold it still for up to 30 seconds.

Beyond that, you really just need a lens with a focal length of at least 100mm, though obviously the longer your lens, the more the movement of night sky objects will be magnified and the better your shot will be. Because you will be shooting in the dark (obviously!), you should shoot with a fast lens.

Photo by Eugen Kamenew | X-T1 | XF10-24mmF4 R OIS | F4 | 30.00 sec. | ISO 6400

Settings

For focusing at night, you will want to switch your camera over to manual focus. Manually adjust the focus ring until you have a sharp pinpoint of light. In manual mode, we’ll need three things: a wide aperture; long shutter speed; and high ISO. This maximises brightness when shooting in the dark. Set your aperture to maximum because you want to let in as much light as possible.
Then, you need to use a suitable exposure time to ensure you get a sharp picture of Neowise. If you’re not sure how long to expose for, check the ‘500 Rule’ which suggests you take 500 and divide it by the focal length (in full frame terms) of your lens to give you the longest exposure you can use before stars begin to trail.
Because we are limited to relatively short exposure times, we need to bump up the ISO considerably. Expect to shoot at ISO 1,000 or more depending on how dark the sky is and the maximum aperture value of your lens.
Images of the night sky need to be edited slightly differently from daytime images, so make sure you shoot RAW so you can pull out more detail and colour in your final image.

Now, you may also want to use an external shutter release remote, turn on exposure delay mode, or use a self-timer mode to avoid camera vibration during the exposure.

Astrophotography takes patience and technical skill, but the results are worth the effort. We hope this article helps you to capture Neowise, this rare and incredible spectacle in the coming days.
So for now, we wish you clear skies!

Filed under Be Inspired blog Tutorials