Drummond Ranch – Pawhuska, OK – Fujifilm X-Pro2 & 60mm “Kodachrome II”
I was asked by a couple different Fuji X Weekly readers if I could create some film simulation recipes that mimic the look of renown photographers Ernst Haas, Luigi Ghirri and William Eggleston, each of which are known for their unique style. As I was contemplating how to go about this, I learned that all three of them used Kodachrome film. Although none of them used Kodachrome exclusively, they all used it extensively at one time. If I could make a Kodachrome recipe, I would have something that covers Haas, Ghirri and Eggleston. To copy their look using this recipe, simply find color and light in the same manor as those famous photographers did (easy, right?).
You might be thinking, doesn’t Classic Chrome already look like Kodachrome? No, it actually resembles Ektachrome more than Kodachrome, but it is a good starting point since it has a general Kodak aesthetic. What about the Kodachrome recipe I already made? Actually, that mimics an earlier version of the film, which has a little different look than what I was going for here. You could use that, as I’m certain that some of Haas’ early color work was shot on that era of Kodachrome. Primarily, the Kodachrome that Haas, Ghirri and Eggleston used was Kodachrome II and Kodachrome-X.
In 1961 Kodak replaced the original Kodachrome with a new and improved version called Kodachrome II and a higher-ISO sibling called Kodachrome-X. These films had more accurate color, finer grain and faster ISOs (ISO 25 and 64, respectively, compared to ISO 10 of the original) than the previous version. It was a big leap forward for color photography, and so it is no surprise that the innovators of color photography in the 1960’s and 1970’s relied heavily on it. It’s also the version that Paul Simon sang, “They give us the greens of summer, makes you think all the world’s a sunny day.”
Kodachrome II and Kodachrome-X produced a very similar look to each other. The main differences were in grain, contrast and saturation, but overall the variations were quite minor. Kodachrome-X was slightly more bold while Kodachrome II was slightly more clean. Even so, comparing slides, it’s tough to distinguish one from the other (conveniently, I have my grandparents old slides at my home). Even though I have named this film simulation recipe “Kodachrome II” I think it more closely resembles Kodachrome-X, but I find it to be a reasonable match for both.
Chair Shadow – Pawhuska, OK – Fujifilm X-Pro2 & 60mm “Kodachrome II”
Because of the toxic chemicals used in the development of this era of Kodachrome, plus the complexity of the process, Kodak changed from K-12 development to K-14 development, which ushered in new Kodachrome in 1974, called Kodachrome 25 and Kodachrome 64. This version of the film is the one that I have personally used. Interestingly enough, even though this version wasn’t all that much aesthetically different than the previous, there was a big outcry among photographers, and a large group who used Kodachrome II and Kodachrome-X did not appreciate the change.
I believe that Haas, Ghirri and Eggleston continued to use Kodachrome even beyond 1974 when the new version came out, but it seems they used it less extensively, especially Eggleston, who became known for his work with color negatives. Still, each of these three photographers captured some of their most recognizable images on the second era of Kodachrome. And that’s the look that the film simulation recipe below is based on.
Classic Chrome
Dynamic Range: DR200
Highlight: +1
Shadow: +2
Color: -1
Noise Reduction: -3
Sharpening: 1
Grain Effect: Weak
White Balance: Auto, +3 Red & -4 Blue
ISO: Auto up to ISO 6400
Exposure Compensation: +1/3 to +2/3 (typically)
Example photos, all straight-out-of-camera JPEGs captured using my Fujifilm X-Pro2 Kodachrome II Film Simulation recipe:
Roof & Sky – Wichita, KS – Fujifilm X-Pro2 & 60mm “Kodachrome II”
Small Green Hill – McAlester, OK – Fujifilm X-Pro2 & 60mm “Kodachrome II”
Ranch View – Pawhuska, OK – Fujifilm X-Pro2 & 60mm “Kodachrome II”
Foal Shy – Pawhuska, OK – Fujifilm X-Pro2 & 60mm “Kodachrome II”
Blackberry Lemonade – Pawhuska, OK – Fujifilm X-Pro2 & 60mm “Kodachrome II”
From Dust To Dust – Great Sand Dunes NP, CO – Fujifilm X-Pro2 & 60mm “Kodachrome II”
McDiner – Taos, NM – Fujifilm X-Pro2 & 60mm “Kodachrome II”
McTaos – Taos, NM – Fujifilm X-Pro2 & 60mm “Kodachrome II”
Pawhuska Reflection – Pawhuska, OK – Fujifilm X-Pro2 & 60mm “Kodachrome II”
Open Window Reflection – Pawhuska, OK – Fujifilm X-Pro2 & 60mm “Kodachrome II”
Kitchen Flowers – Pawhuska, OK – Fujifilm X-Pro2 & 60mm “Kodachrome II”
White Water Lily – Princeton, TX – Fujifilm X-Pro2 & 60mm “Kodachrome II”
Park Boys – Pawhuska, OK – Fujifilm X-Pro2 & 60mm “Kodachrome II”
Rural Sunset – Pawhuska, OK – Fujifilm X-Pro2 & 60mm “Kodachrome II”
Weed At Sunset – Montrose, CO – Fujifilm X-Pro2 & 60mm “Kodachrome II”
See also: My Fujifilm X-Pro2 Vintage Agfacolor Film Simulation Recipe
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This simulation looks fantastic! Well done.
Thank you! It has become my favorite for color. I’m really pleased with how it turned out.
It looks ace. I have been using your standard Classic Chrome simulation recently as I really like it. Will have to give this new one a go now too. Cheers!
If you do give this one a try, I’d love to see your results.
Man, you’re killing me with all these wonderful presets! We’re going to have to ask Fuji for more preset slots in the cameras! 😀 Looking forward to try these one out too.
Thanks! I do agree, I wish there were more preset slots. Let me know what you think.
Hi Ritchie! It was me who asked you to look at Haas, Ghirri and Eggleston. Their colous works are wonderful.
Yes, I agree! It’s amazing that they could create such vastly different work with the same film. I had a couple requests for Eggleston, but the biggest issue for him is that he used so many different films, and he was heavily involved in the printing process, often altering the final look of the photo. His most consistent look, as far as aesthetics go, was when he shot Kodachrome, in my opinion.
Hi Ritchie! It was me who asked you to look at Haas, Ghirri and Eggleston. Their colour works are wonderful. I think you enjoyed your research&developments 🙂 Great, great results and a very interesting article! I think it is your best so far 🙂 Congratulations! And thank you so much man for your time and ideas and results. Your are great!
I appreciate your kind words and encouragement!
Hi Ritchie. Amazing! Are there any of your kodak recipes until now that you think also looks like kodak gold 200? Stig
From what I remember about Kodak Gold is that it had a warm tone. I would think that my Porta recipe would be a decent starting point, with a white balance adjustment likely required.
https://fujixweekly.wordpress.com/2018/05/30/my-fujifilm-x100f-kodak-portra-400-film-simulation-recipe/
Ritchie, thank you for everything you do on your blog! This recipe is amazing! Right now I tried it and decided it was time to finally thank you for your works! I posted this photo on Instagram with #kodachrome2_recipe_by_fujixweekly 🙂
Awesome! Glad you like it!
Hi! Thanks for all these amazing recipes! I have one small question: a lot of times I see tweaked auto white balance settings (like in this case). But you can’t store these in Q settings, can you? How do you manage these? Do you change them everytime you switch to another Q setting?
Thanks, Steven, for commenting! You are correct in that you cannot save the white balance shifts. One option, on some Fujifilm cameras, is to custom name the settings, and include the shift in the name, making it easy to remember. I pretty much have them memorized myself, but it’s a bit easier for me as I was the one who created them. Hopefully, in the future, Fujifilm will allow a custom white balance shift to be saved with each custom Q setting.
Thanks Ritchie! I may do that on my X-Pro2 and hope that someday we’ll be able to name them on my X100F too! Looking forward to your blog-posts!
I think you can. just shift the white balance first, then hit „save current settings“ in the q menu. afterwards you have to set the other parameters and save with the normal procedure. works with my xt20.
great recipes by the way!
Thank you! I will definitely try that out!
Yet another excellent film simulation recipe with which I can experiment. Thank you Ritchie!
You are welcome!
lovely, thank you sir!
You are welcome!
Thanks Ritchie!
The simulation is quite accurate comparing it to my Kodachrome results back in the day.
Down here in Australasia our light is generally contrastly … I have no idea regarding the northern hemisphere however down here as a rule of thumb with film chromes ‘expose for the highlights and let the shadows take care of themselves’—this simulation allows me to do exactly that!
Magic! 🙂
All the best.
I appreciate your comments and encouragement! Glad that this recipe works for you. Take care!
So am I right in assuming that in order to use these with my X-T2 I have to go into the menu and put my camera in JPEG mode and then I can use these that I stored in the “Q” button menu? Thanks, these look great and I really like your work!
I appreciate the comment and kind words. You’ll have to use either JPEG or RAW+JPEG. You can use them with just RAW, but the outcome will be determined by how the software you use interprets the settings, and the results are likely going to be a little different.
Thanks for the fast response!
I do shoot RAW mostly because I like to edit some. Going to try these out this afternoon and see how they look.
Thanks again!
You are very welcome!
Beautiful colours Richie, I love your simulations and started to use them a lot. I have no defaults anymore, and all custom settings are taken up by the simulations you have created here.
I have a tip on “storing” settings that do cannot be saved in Custom: rename the custom title to incorporate the missing settings as “instructions”.
For example, for Provia, “PROVIA R-1 B-1 <6400 +2/3". For positive WB shift, just use R1, B1, etc. And when you select a film simulation, first press the Q button to display the saved title. Then, you use the instructions from title to setup the WB shift, ISO and exposure compensation.
Now, I wish Fuji would make changes to save all these settings in Custom, also allow us to store multiple WB Auto + shifts and let us store as many Custom settings as we wish, save them to SD card and recall them as needed. Another thing that Fuji could do is to allow split toning. This could improve film simulations further and allow more unique experimentations. How hard could that be? Would make us happy…
Thank you for your kind words! That’s a great suggestion! I know that will be helpful to many people. I appreciate your comment. Take care!
Hi Ritchie, I’m new to camera and I’m so confused about how to adjust white balance R 0 B 0 into your setting. I’ve searched on the Internet but not found much useful information. Btw, I’m using Fujifilm XE2S with X-trans II
In the menu, select White Balance and then arrow over to the right on Auto White Balance to open White Balance Shift. Unfortunately, this recipe isn’t directly compatible with X-Trans II.
Hi Ritchie, I was out earlier to try out the recipes you made.They were all great! totally made me excited to shoot. However, just when I imported the pics to LR CC. The recipes were removed when I hover my mouse to each picture. I wonder if this happened to you and if you have a fix for it!
Continue cooking recipes man! They are great.
I’m glad that you like the recipes and found them useful. I appreciate your kind words! I don’t use Lightroom so I have not experienced that problem, and I apologize that I don’t have a solution. I hope that the fix is easy.
Recipes are removed when you hover over a RAW picture. With JPG they are baked in the picture and cannot be changed. Shoot RAW+JPG.
Hello. Nice work you’re doing with these recipes. I have a doubt for this one: what’s the Color Chrome Effect setting? It is missing in the recipe. It is OFF, Weak or Strong? Thank you! Daniel Gordon (Rio de Janeiro – Brazil).
Thank you for your kind words! The X-Pro2 doesn’t have Color Chrome Effect, so that’s why it’s not included in this recipe. But, playing around with an X-T30, I think Color Chrome Effect Weak and color set to 0 looks nice with recipe.
That’s right. Sorry. Didn’t realize that. 😉 I’m using the X-T3. Will try with different Chrome Effects and plus or minus Color. Thank you!
Hi Ritchie,
Thanks for the effort. The sample photos look really wonderful. I’ve been using your older recipes. Will try this one on my X-Pro2.
I wonder how these would behave on the Bayer sensors.
Especially the GFX line
Thanks
Nevin
I wonder, too! Don’t know if I’ll ever find out, though. Thanks for your kind words.
Hi Ritchie, how should X-T30 users tweak the recipe? Thanks in advance!
You can use it just as it is. Something I have done, and I like the results (but admittedly it’s not much different) is set Color Chrome Effect to Weak and set Color to 0.
Hi Ritchie, should X-T30 users tweak the recipe, given the new sensor? Thanks in advance!
I don’t think you have to change it, but you can if you want. The new camera has new tools. I personally like with this recipe Color Chrome Effect Weak and Color set to 0. I hope this helps!
Hi Ritchie, first of all thank you for sharing your recipes. I’ve tested some of them and they come in really nice.
Now, I’m not an expert in analog film, and even less in Kodachrome, but I was always wondering why you use Classic Chrome as a starting point for your Kodachrome II recipe. I always associate Kodachrome with rich, saturated, warm (I guess that this is why you use the WB shift) colors (Steve McCurry!) but Classic Chrome for me is just the opposite: muted, desaturated colors. In your recipe you even decrease color by -1.
I have no idea if there is another film simulation that would fit better (I once read that using Velvia with color set to -2 would match better) or maybe it’s just that my idea of Kodachrome is totally wrong. Any thoughts?
I appreciate your kind words and feedback. Kodachrome was not a highly saturated film, particularly in the earlier iterations. It was most saturated in red, and a lesser extent yellow. Many professional photographers who shot on Kodachrome printed their pictures, and there was plenty that could be done in the darkroom when printing to adjust to taste. Also, the look could very depending on the subject and how the photographer shot the film. You can see different photographers who used the same Kodachrome produce significantly different results. The Velvia film simulation is too saturated and has a cool color cast, so it’s not a good starting point, but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t adjust it to make it work. I hope this answers your questions. Take care!
I would add, also, that beginning in the 1980’s photographers like McCurry begun to scan and digitally manipulate their pictures. Photoshop has been around a very long time. You can probably see how developing a recipe isn’t as straight forward as it might seem because there are so many variables.
Thank you so much Ritchie! Your reply is much appreciated. I clearly see your point. Possibly my idea of what Kodachrome should look like is too much associated with McCurry‘s photography. Would you mind to help me out with two more questions: (1) I see you use a lot the DR function (Auto, 200). Is this just for technical reasons (highlight protection) or does it also influence in the look as such? (In case of the WB shift I can see that you would like to give the look a warm cast but I‘m not sure about the DR setting.) (2) Is there a way to make this recipe also work on a X-Trans II sensor (X-T10)? Thank you once again! Much appreciated.
If I choose DR Auto, it’s for highlight protection. If I choose DR 200 or DR 400 it’s because I want the lower contrast that those DR settings provide. You can try my XF10 Classic Chrome recipe, which is compatible with X-Trans II. https://fujixweekly.com/2018/09/30/my-fujifilm-xf10-film-simulation-recipes/
Thank you, Ritchie! Will definitely try this.
You are welcome!
Thank you for taking the time to create and post these recipes! This one, in particular, has been a joy to use and experiment with and I have truly enjoyed the way my photos have looked. I’ve bookmarked your page and I look forward to exploring all of your other recipes. This is such a fantastic resource!
Thank you! I appreciate your feedback so much!
Hello Ritchie! Congrats for your nice and so helpfull blog! I start experiment your recipes and start with this one! I love the almost pastel look! For the people that is trying to get the recipe on Raw files, for the ones that use Capture One, in the Base Characteristics tab, if you choose the Auto option on the curve menu, you get the simulation like in the camera. I try and compare with the jpg, and the differences are very low!! Just need to decrease a bit the saturation and go up a little the blacks! but the essence of the recipe is all there!!
I appreciate your kind words and helpful input! I’m sure this will be very good information for some. Kodachrome II is one of my favorite recipes, and I’m glad you like it too.
Hello, can someone help me please? I’m trying to edit and save custom simulation recipes on my two bodies (X-T20 and X-T3) and my problem is that i can’t find how to save particular and precise settings of the white balance for each custom setting. Impossible for example to save Auto +3 red, -4 blue for the first custom setting, auto -2 red, +5 blue for the second and so on… Thank you in advance for your help and thanks to Ritchie for all those great recipes!
Unfortunately you cannot save custom white balance shifts. I really wish that you could. I hope someday that Fujifilm will allow this. On your X-T3 you can include the white balance shift into the custom preset name, which might make it easier to remember. I also have programmed a button on the body to take me directly to white balance for easier access to make the adjustments when I switch recipes.
This looks amazing mate! Can’t wait to try this out, cut down my post processing so I can concentrate on the photos!
I’m glad you like it!
Hello Ritchie! First of all, thank you for your amazing work on these recipes: your blog is truly one of the finest photography websites available! Since you wrote that you personally used the last and final Kodachrome64 version (the one discontinued in 2009, right?), I’d love to ask if you could provide a tweak to this KodachromeII/X recipe in order to render the final K64. Thanks in advance!
I appreciate your kind words and feedback. I have had many requests for Kodachrome 64, and it’s high on my to-do list. Maybe I will work on it today. Take care!
Hey man ! This is an absolute beauty of a recipe ! Have you tried it on the Xt30 or XT3 ?
I own both of the above and was wondering if you knew what modifications I would need to make to the above recipes to make it work with X-trans IV ?
Thanks for all the awesome recipes !!
Brandon
Thank you! I appreciate it! I use it pretty regularly on an X-T30. Initially I would use Color Chrome Effect set to weak and Color set to 0, but I decided that I prefer the recipe as is without that modification.
I have asked the Fuji reps at a X-Pro3 demo here in Sydney, if they have “fixed” the issue to save all settings in the custom presets. The rep replied that No they have not considered it. Such a lost opportunity.
Hopefully that’s not true. A Fuji X Weekly reader who was given a pre-production version of the X-Pro3 reported that he could save white balance shift in the custom presets. Sometimes changes are made between the final production model and the pre-production version. I hope it was simply a case of the Fuji representative not understanding the question or the capabilities.
Hello, can you introduce more film simulations for X-Pro2? thank you very much.
Any of the X-Trans III recipes, including those that are made with an X100F and X-T20, are fully compatible with the X-Pro2. Some of the X-T30 recipes are also fully compatible with the X-Pro2.