Red Hill – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 – “Redscale”
Redscale is a photographic technique where you shoot film backwards. Instead of shooting the film through the front, you shoot it through the backside. In order to do this, one must load the film into the canister backwards, or buy film that’s already been purposefully loaded backwards. Normally, in color negative film, the red layer is exposed last, for the light has passed through other layers and filters before it reaches it. When you shoot from the wrong side, light hits the red layer first. The results can be quite unique!
What’s interesting about Redscale photography is that the results can vary greatly, depending on the film, exposure and development. Most commonly, Redscale images have a strong maroon, red, orange or yellow color cast. Sometimes the color cast can be extraordinarily bold and sometimes it can be quite subtle. Even one roll of film can produce different looks depending on the light and how it was shot. Generally speaking, darker images tend to be more red and brighter images tend to be more yellow, but there are certainly exceptions to that. A Redscale image is easy to spot when you see one, but it can be difficult to strictly define the aesthetic.
Peach Morning – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 – “Redscale”
I was asked by Fuji X Weekly reader Aycan Gonenc to create a Redscale film simulation. He had developed one already and shared his settings with me, but was hoping that I might make some improvements. I made some changes and adjustments and the results are this recipe, so it is a collaborative effort. What I will say is that the settings can be adjusted considerably, and one can still achieve a Redscale look. Simply change the film simulation from Astia to something else and you will create a different Redscale look. The white balance can be dropped to as low as 7700K, and the shift can have blue added or subtracted. Any of the settings can be adjusted to taste. These settings are only what I felt would produce a good Redscale facsimile, and I believe it does that.
Astia
Dynamic Range: DR200
Highlight: +1
Shadow: +2
Color: -2
Noise Reduction: -4
Sharpening: -2
Grain Effect: Strong
Color Chrome Effect: Strong
White Balance: 10000K, +9 Red & 0 Blue
ISO: Auto up to ISO 6400
Exposure Compensation: -1/3 to +1/3 (typically)
Example photographs, all camera-made JPEGs captured using my Redscale film simulation recipe on a Fujifilm X-T30:
Building Sky – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Cloud Around The Ridge – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Red Mountain – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Overcast Ridge – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Clouds Floating Above The Mountain – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Orange Hill Under Red Sky – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Westbound I-84 – Peterson, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Evening Freight – Henefer, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Wood Fence Roses – South Weber, Utah – Fujifilm X-T30
Red Rose Fence – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Really Red Rose – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Pink Bud – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Floral Red – Ogden, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Yellow Rose Gold – Ogden, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Daisy Red – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Small Wild Blossoms – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Corner Trunk – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
T is for Tree – Ogden, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
An American Home – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
299 – Coalville, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Red Engineer – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Continental Bike Tire – Ogden, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Red Window – South Weber, Utah – Fujifilm X-T30
Night Window – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Red Cross – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Tree Top – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Sunlit Leaf – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Russian Red – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Bolsey Orange – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Red Birds – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Red Eye Horse – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Girl & Hungry Horse – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Cat Cone – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Tractor Mirror – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Stucco Lamp – South Ogden, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
Iced Coffee Cups – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30
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Oh my god!!!!!
Thanks so much Ritchie!
You definitely took it to a next level!
I was sure you would anyway!
Thank you very very very much indeed.
Be sure that it will be one of my go to settings now.
You are the man!
You are very welcome!
Fascinat results!
Thanks!
I never heard of redscale before. I love learning new facets of photography.
Am I mistaken that I can’t save the WB offsets (the “+9 Red & 0 Blue”) with a custom simulation?
You cannot, unfortunately. Sorry.
Hey Ritchie! I just saw a post about Lomochrome purple! I have already started to play with settings in camera. I set +9 R + 9B auto WB , velvia as starting point and classic chrome after. Looking forward for your help. Thanks
John
I will take a look at it and let you know if I have any success.
Really cool, Ritchie! Can this be achieved using a camera with X-Trans III?
Yes. It will look almost the same, but obviously you won’t have Color Chrome Effect, so the red will be slightly different.
I just bought a Fuji camera, and I had to try your Kodachrome II film simulation for X-Trans III cameras. I really like it! I will try your other film simulations too, they look really good. I don’t know anything about film photography, so I have to ask: This photo is taken in 1994. Do you know what film is used, and how could I get the same look? Someone said that it might be Kodak Gold 200 or 400. (Also was this film especially popular in Asia?)
https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/ifeQ1pwh52G0/v1/-1x-1.jpg
The photo in question, captured by Gerhard Joren, was likely shot on Ektachrome, at least that’s what it looks like to me. I researched it a little, and I found an article that stated he shot color photographs on slide film back then. Ektachrome was quite popular, especially among (but certainly not limited to) travel photographers and photojournalists. There were several verities, and I’m not sure which one he might have used, but likely it’s Ektachrome 100X, 100G or 100GP. That’s just guess, though. I’ve shot plenty of Ektachrome over the years, it’s a very good film, but the downside is that it doesn’t have an especially long life, particularly if not stored well.
Thank you! I’m going to try your Ektachrome 100SW film simulation and see how close it gets. I like the colors in that picture, and for some reason, my mind associates those colors to Asia, particularly to Hong Kong (I have no connection to that area or continent, but I find pictures like that pleasant).
Ektachrome 100SW is a little different. I would think that the original Classic Chrome recipe would be fairly close, but maybe set the white balance shift to 0 and highlight to +1. That should be in the neighborhood.
https://fujixweekly.com/2017/08/27/my-fujifilm-x100f-classic-chrome-film-simulation-recipe/
I will try that one, it certainly looks good! By the way, did you try to simulate any specific film in your Classic Chrome recipe, or was the motivation just to make Fuji’s Classic Chrome look more like “generic Kodak slide film look”?
No, it wasn’t any specific film. At the time that I made it I didn’t have the idea yet to create specific film looks. It’s fairly close to Ektachrome, though.