Mesa Trail – Castle Valley, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 – Velvia
I already have a Velvia film simulation recipe. I’ve been using it for about a year-and-a-half now and I like the recipe. It’s designed for X-Trans III cameras. With the Fujifilm X-T30, which has the new sensor and processor, including the new Color Chrome Effect, I decided to revisit Velvia. Can I make Velvia better on an X-Trans IV camera?
I don’t know if this recipe is better than the old one. It’s a little bolder with slightly more contrast and color saturation. It’s probably a little more accurate to Velvia 100 than the old recipe, and a tad closer to Velvia 50, too. I do like this recipe more than the original, but the old one has its place, too. I don’t think this replaces the old recipe, but more supplements it when the situation calls for something punchier.
Red Mesa – Castle Valley, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 – Velvia
I have grain effect set to weak on this recipe, but I only like to have grain on when using ISO 1600 or below. Above that the digital noise acts as a grain effect, so I like to turn the grain effect off when working with higher ISOs. Depending on the image, +4 color can sometimes look better, so don’t be afraid to bump that up when needed, but I think +3 works best as the standard setting. This recipe has a stronger shadow setting than the old one, and if you find that there’s too much contrast, simply set Shadow to 0. The original Velvia recipe called for DR200, but I went with DR-Auto on this one. If you’d prefer to use DR200 instead of auto, feel free to do so.
Velvia
Dynamic Range: DR-Auto
Highlight: 0
Shadow: +1
Color: +3
Noise Reduction: -4
Sharpening: +2
Grain Effect: Weak
Color Chrome Effect: Strong
White Balance: Auto, +1 Red & -1 Blue
ISO: Auto up to ISO 6400
Exposure Compensation: +1/3 to +2/3 (typically)
Example photographs, all camera-made JPEGs, captured using a Fujifilm X-T30 with this film simulation recipe:
Rock Balanced – Arches NP, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 – Velvia
North Window Arch – Arches NP, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 – Velvia
Red Hill – Castle Valley, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 – Velvia
Castles To The Sky – Castle Valley, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 – Velvia
Water & Stone – Moab, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 – Velvia
Cactus Noon – Moab, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 – Velvia
Dead Tree Point – Dead Horse Point, SP, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 – Velvia
Desert River – Dead Horse Point SP, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 – Velvia
Peak Through The Thin Clouds – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 – Velvia
Sunset Red Mountain – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 – Velvia
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Looks fab!
Thanks!
So nice colors there!!!
I’ve been away from extra saturated recipes (as Classic Chrome was always enough) but I see there is a magic with this recipe and sunset light that I will have to try 😉
Thank you! It’s not something for everyday, but sometimes it’s very nice, especially around sunset.
Hi Ricardo.
One of my favourites presets on my X-T2 is a tweaked version of one of Ritchie’s “Chrome” recipes. I have been using it daily for street photography in Philadelphia. With the tall buildings, the sun only illuminates parts of the streets and the lights shifts as the day progresses. I get some beautiful shadow and highlight contrasts.
But, sometimes a scene needs more pop. I think that is where this recipe “shines”. That was a bad pun.
would you share your version “beta” of your CC recipe also? (any instagram to see those pictures?
So far, for Classic Chrome, I’m using the Kodachrome II recipe, with Color Chrome Effect set to weak and color set to 0. I will have to work on some new settings.
My Instagram is https://www.instagram.com/khurtlwilliams/. But Richie’s gram has excellent examples of his presets: https://www.instagram.com/khurtlwilliams/. The CC work is more challenging but I start with adjustments to contrast, saturation and blacks.
Ugh. That link was supposed to be https://www.instagram.com/fujixweekly/
Weather permitting, very early tomorrow morning, I should be out in a field in New Jersey taking photos of Yellow Warblers. I think I’ll use this Velvia preset to help me some SOC JPEGs for instant sharing. Thanks, Ritchie.
You are welcome! And best of luck with the warblers.
I love Acros and don*t usually shoot color, but I love the way this recipe renders human skin tones… especially indoors, at night, both with and without flash. Of course, it also does wonderfully outdoors during the daytime.
Thanks very much for all your Acros recipes, and also for this very versatile indoor nighttime recipe for me.
You are welcome! Glad you like it.
Thanks for the recipe. I like velvia and use it most of time on landscape. However I feel your recipe has too much saturation towards red, I would turn the color red to 0 from +1
Thank you for the feedback! I like to say that all of these recipes can be seasoned to taste, so I appreciate the suggestion. Take care!
Hi, This might be a silly question, but can you save these presets into your camera or do you have to manually program to these settings each time? Thanks!
I program them into the camera using “Edit/Save Custom Settings” and I access them through the Q menu.
Hello, My new X100v has a Velvia film simulation, is this recipe here any better or worse?
I tried the Rockwell recipe but found it a bit too strong for my taste. So is this a more fine tuned version or only for cameras that don’t have any Velvia film sim built in? ..thanks.
Yeah, try this or Velvia v2. You’ll have to decide for yourself if you like Grain Small or Large (I would try Small), and whether you want Color Chrome FX Blue Off or not, and whether Clarity should be set to 0 or not. The “built-in” Velvia film sim is just the defaults (everything set to 0 or Off), so I do think you’ll find these to be better.