Interview
“That ended up being the ethos for this trip. I didn’t want to slow down to keep changing lenses,” Luke adds. “And it was hardly a sacrifice not having an F1.4 aperture most of the time. Even for night photographs, I was quite happy at F2.8. The ISO capability on the X-E5’s sensor is just crazy – there are a couple of shots I did at really high settings, but the images came out looking amazing. “The IBIS on the X-E5 also lets you quite easily get down to about 1/5 sec for a static night scene. And for the video clips I got, I could get that locked-off tripod-style shot just working handheld. The camera’s nice and stable in that way.” Working Intentionally “A lot of the final images from the trip were edited from RAW,” notes Luke. “That said, something I really love about Film Simulations, even if I’m not using them for the final image, is getting a preview in the viewfinder. It means I can give myself a good approximation of what the final image is going to look like.” Speeding up this process, the X-E5’s recessed Film Simulation dial
lets users quickly switch between analogue-inspired colour profiles. “There were certain scenes I knew would require a bit more vibrance, so I would switch to a Film Simulation that provides it. If I was in a forest, for example, and wanted to see really deep greens, I’d switch to CLASSIC Neg. On a cloudy day, it was nice to be able to use ACROS to provide a monochrome preview, knowing the intention is to edit the image like that eventually. “A lot of the time, I stuck to a Film Simulation recipe I developed. It is as close as I can get with a recipe to the result of editing from RAW myself. I use that recipe basically every day – a lot of work I shoot straight out of camera uses it. Of course, the X-E5 has the ability to save custom recipes onto the Film Simulation dial, which is really helpful for my photography.” A Change in Style “A lot of the photographs I am most fond of from the trip are the least similar to my usual style,” Luke muses. “Nighttime street photography is quite a departure from what I usually do. The silhouette of the security guard
After seeing a few low-shutter-speed drag shots, Luke was inspired to try
to create one himself (right)
(pictured left) was taken towards the end of our time in Tokyo. We walked past him multiple times – he was on guard around Tokyo Tower every single day and we always locked eyes, but I never saw him from this angle until the day I took the photo. I could not believe how ominous and cool it looked.” Typically a user of the larger FUJIFILM X-T5 camera, Luke ponders over whether it was the change of environment or equipment that pushed him into a different imaging style. “I could tell from people in the street’s reactions that they had their guard up a lot less. I suppose the X-E5 is a more disarming camera,
“I NEVER SAW HIM FROM THIS ANGLE UNTIL THE DAY I TOOK THE PHOTO. I COULD NOT BELIEVE HOW OMINOUS AND COOL IT LOOKED”
28 FUJIFILM Focus Magazine
May/June 2026
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