> 4 minute read

Refine Your Long Lens Technique

Get sharper, more detailed and better focused images with your X Series telephoto lenses.

No matter how long you’ve been making pictures, there’s always more you can learn and better ways of working to try. This applies to all aspects of photography, and using long lenses is no exception. In fact, getting better, sharper and more creatively satisfying results with telephoto optics is something you can keep improving throughout your photographic life. Here are some tips that more experienced photographers might like to try.

Use Your Focus Limiter

When making wildlife, action and sports pictures, you’ll often be in a position where there are objects close to the lens and between you and the subject. Out in the wild, it could be plant life and when working pitch- or trackside, it could be spectators or fences and safety equipment. The point is that it’s easy for the camera to try to focus on what’s in front of it, unless you tell it not to.

One way of doing that is to work with subject tracking AF, which should lock on to the subject and ignore other objects in the scene.

But if you’re using XF100-400mmF4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR or XF200mmF2 R LM OIS WR, you’ll also have access to a focus limiter via a switch on the lens barrel. When activated, this prevents the lens from focusing at its full range, instead switching to a more limited distance, so foreground objects can be ignored. Using the focus limiter is also a good move when you deliberately want to focus through an object like a fence or a window.

On XF100-400mmF4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR, you can select Full (which covers 1.75m to infinity) or 5m to infinity. On XF200mm F2 R LM OIS WR, the full range of 1.8m to infinity can be limited to 5m to infinity, too.

It’s the same deal for the XF80mmF2.8 R LM OIS WR Macro lens – but this time you get even more control. This lens’s focus limiter gives three options, Full (which is 0.25m to infinity), 0.5m to infinity, and 0.25m to 0.5m. So in this case, the limiter helps you ignore objects in the foreground – as when shooting through leaves or grass – and discount objects in the far distance, too.

Selected X Series models have an AF Range Limiter setting in the AF/MF Setting menu, which works with all XF lenses. X-T4, X-S10 and X-Pro3 all have this function, while X-T3 users can gain the feature by upgrading to Firmware v4.00. Once accessed, the AF Range Limiter has two presets – 2m to infinity and 5m to infinity – plus a user selectable custom option.

Hold on Tight

As you know, when using longer focal lengths, camera shake is magnified along with everything else. This can be helped enormously by using the lens’s Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS), and/or the camera’s in-body image stabilisation (IBIS) if it has it. But good handling goes a long way, too.

For starters, try supporting the lens with your left hand as close to the front element as possible. Cradle the lens hood if possible. The further out you can support it, the less shake there’ll be.

For extended periods or with heavier lenses, this can get tiring, so if you need to frame up for a long time waiting for the action, mount the lens using its tripod collar rather than the tripod mount on the camera. This will give a better balance.

You can add this to a regular tripod head or monopod, but much better is a gimbal head. Once the camera and lens are balanced properly on a gimbal, you’ll be able to move them around to follow the subject in a smooth and stable way, and also take your hands off the camera safely without it falling over.

Choose Your Aperture Carefully

The very wide maximum apertures of telephoto zooms like XF50-140mmF2.8 R LM OIS WR and XF200mm F2 R LM OIS WR mean you can achieve superb subject separation, but you need to choose your aperture carefully when photographing moving subjects to maximise sharpness.

Whether it’s a surfer, a cyclist, or a hockey player accelerating at you, or a dog sprinting around at play, in very high-speed situations, you may find that you can keep more of the subject in focus by stopping down to a smaller aperture. The increased depth-of-field will come at the cost of light in the exposure, so increase ISO for these situations.

Your Next Steps

• CHALLENGE Show us how sharp and clear your long lens and macro images can be by applying some of these tips to your technique. Post your favourite image to social media with the hashtag #learnwithfujifilm and #telephoto. You can also submit your work here for a chance to be featured on our social media channels.
• LEARN Download our booklet Capture the Action with FUJIFILM X Series