Boy with a Bubble Gun – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
When the Fujifilm X-Pro3 came out late last year, which was the first camera with the new Classic Negative film simulation, I began to see some wonderful pictures that looked like they were captured using Superia film. Classic Negative is supposed to resemble Fujicolor Superia, most likely Superia 200, although Fujifilm doesn’t say. I believe there were more than 10 variants of Superia film made by Fujifilm, so it’s hard to know which version the film simulation was mostly modeled after. Whichever version of the film it’s intended to be, Classic Negative does a great job of mimicking it, because it definitely looks like Superia.
The Classic Negative look that was most intriguing to me was by Luis Costa, and I couldn’t wait for the day that I’d be able to try it for myself. Luis’ Classic Negative film simulation recipe, which can be found on his website, is nothing short of wonderful! It’s especially great for sunny days. It’s every bit as good as Luis made it look in his photographs. It’s programmed into the C1 slot on my Fujifilm X100V, and I doubt that it will move. It reminds me a lot of Superia X-Tra 400 with a warming filter, or maybe Superia 200 pushed one stop. Either way, it just looks good.
Warm Light on Reeds – Farmington Bay, UT – Fujifilm X100V
I did modify Luis Costa’s recipe slightly. Nothing big, but I added Color Chrome Effect and Clarity, and set Grain to Weak instead of Strong. It doesn’t change the look much at all. Feel free to turn off Color Chrome Effect and Clarity and set Grain to Strong if you’d like, which is Luis’ exact recipe. I want to thank Luis Costa for making and sharing his great Classic Negative recipe, and for allowing me to post it here. I encourage you to visit his website.
Because the Classic Negative film simulation changes look depending on how it’s exposed, you can get a couple different aesthetics with this recipe. I encourage you to increase exposure on some shots and decrease it on others (over and under exposing slightly), and see how it renders the picture. You might find that you prefer one look over the other, or that you prefer one in some situations and one in another. It’s fun to experiment with, and I invite you to do just that.
Classic Negative
Dynamic Range: DR200
Highlight: +1
Shadow: 0
Color: +3
Noise Reduction: -4
Sharpening: 0
Clarity: +2
Grain Effect: Weak, Large
Color Chrome Effect: Weak
Color Chrome Effect Blue: Weak
White Balance: Auto, +4 Red & -4 Blue
ISO: Auto, up to ISO 6400
Exposure Compensation: +1/3 to +2/3 (typically)
Example photographs, all camera-made JPEGs using this Classic Negative film simulation recipe on my Fujifilm X100V:
Red Rose Bush – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Flowers by the Fence – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Suburban Blooms – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Dragonfly – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Spring Leaves – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Girl in Evening Light – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Upside Down Wheelbarrow – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Neighborhood Bubbles – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Suburbs Illuminated – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Boy in the Window Light – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Little Yellow Ball in the Sky – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Lake Reeds – Farmington Bay, UT – Fujifilm X100V
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Fujifilm X100V Black Amazon B&H
Fujifilm X100V Silver Amazon B&H
Awww man, I’m so proud that you like it this much! It feels great to be able to give something back to the person who literally changed my whole approach to digital photography. 🙂
I’m glad that we can help each other. This is such a great community, and I’m honored to be a part of it.
I like your recipe but can it be set up on the X_Pro2 or the X-H1.
No, unfortunately. Only X-Pro3, X100V and X-T4. Maybe possibly the X-T3 and X-T30 someday, but not right now.
Can’t wait for Classic Negative to be made available on X-T3/X-T30. I’ll shoot with your awesome Superia 800 recipe in the meantime.
I really, really hope Fujifilm does it, and does it sooner than later. We’ll see, though.
How would you say the color chrome and clarity affects the pictures in this recipe compared to Luís’s original? 🙂
Thanks for great content!
Very little. It makes it a little more contrasty, and very subtly changes the color, but it’s very minor.
Hello Ritchie! Im very glad that you share your beautiful recepies, thank you! I have a question. Is there a way to shoot two recepies at the same time? It would help if i could shoot a recepie for b&w and one in colour. I have the x-pro2 by the way.
I know on other cameras, such as the X-Pro2, you can bracket film simulations, but not film simulation recipes. I haven’t looked deep enough into the X100V yet to know if they changed it on that camera.
Hi!
Thanks for good and inspiring thoughts and tips! 🙂
I do have a question/remark, though… When using clarity or noise reduction the writing speed slows down to painful levels… When putting them both to zero again the speed gets to normal/fast.
I’m using a Sandisk Extreme 150 mb/s U3 C10 card – perhaps it will work better with a slightly faster card?
Best regards!
I’m not sure that the noise reduction affects writing speeds much if at all, but Clarity definitely does. A faster card might help, but I think that setting Clarity to 0 and adding it later (if you shoot RAW+JPEG) might help; it’s what Fujifilm recommends. I just “use” the pause to slow myself down.
Thanks, Ritchi!
And I will take your thoughts about the opportunity to have those small slowing down moments to my own capturing process👍
Hey there, this looks beautiful. I’m also really enjoying classic neg on my x-pro3. Have you got any recipes in the works using classic neg? The way it changes in different lighting is fascinating and I’m sure with your knowledge and experience you could make a great recipe from it. Also, how do you think classic neg is compared to your Superia 800 recipe?
I have several different Classic Negative based film simulation recipes in the works. In fact, I have probably 5 or 6 different film simulation recipes that I’ll be publishing over the next couple of weeks (not all Classic Negative). I think that Superia 800 is as close as you can get on X-Trans III, but I can likely make a more accurate version using Classic Negative. That’s on my to-do list.
I was also blown away by Luis recipe, but after a few tries I had the impression of too much red, especially on skin tones. So I changed the color (+3 => +1) and WB adjustement (+4R/-4B => 0R/-3B). Experiment in progress…
Anyway, thank you so much Ritchie for your great work on Fuji film simulations!!!
This recipe is great for sunny days, but it can get a little too warm indoors or on overcast days. It’s fun to experiment with white balance shifts, let me know how it goes!
Hi Richie, I absolutely love your recipes! This one and the Superia 100 are definitely my favorites! Do you have any suggestions or an alternate recipe for them on the xt3? I know these use classic negative which the xt3 doesn’t have but i just love these colors and would like to apply them to my work in camera. Thank you for all the work that you do!
Thank you! Unfortunately, I don’t think you can recreate this look on the X-T3. I hope that it gets Classic Negative in a firmware update so that you can use it.
What would be the closest thing to classic neg for Xtrans II sensors?
I see others have mentioned Superia 800, but I assume that was made for Xtrans III. I will give this a try as much as it is possible.
I would really love to mimic Classic Negative for those cameras that don’t have it, and I’ve tried. The unusual color shift plus the way it changes depending on exposure (which is unique) makes it pretty much impossible, but I’d love to figure out something that’s close. I actually think that the Fujicolor 100 Industrial recipe is closest, and maybe I’ll attempt to tackle that for X-Trans II next.
Hello!! Greetings from Argentina!! This week I discovered your page! It’s very interesting, I really liked discovering all the different films! I have a fujifilm x30 camera and yesterday I programmed the portra 160 simulation which I really liked! I wanted to ask you if there is any simulation of a film similar to classic negative for xtrans II sensors? I read that you were going to try to simulate the film “Fujicolor 100 Industrial” … do you continue with that project or did you find any other film that resembles the classic negative?
So I don’t have anything that resembles Classic Negative for X-Trans II. I keep trying, but haven’t figured it out yet. Fujicolor 100 Industrial is on my to-do list for X-Trans II, maybe I’ll work on that next week. Thank you for the reminder!
Hi. Is it possible the Classic Negative can be made on Xe-1? or acceptable closest color?
Oh, I wish! There really isn’t anything like Classic Negative, not just because of the color shifts, but because it changes depending on the exposure.
Hi Ritchied! Thanks a lot for this recipe too! A general question, though: what’s the role of the “grain effect”? I mean, in the original recipe of Classic Neg from Luis Costa, the “grain” is set to “Strong, Large”, and indeed I don’t like it too much, since also at low ISO (let’s say 320 ISO) it seems the photo has been shot at much higher ISO values… I prefer in fact your “Weak” effect, but how does it relate to the general aspect of the pictures? And, maybe you compensated the use of “Weark” grain (instead of the original Costa’s “Strong” one) by using the Clarity effect?
Grain doesn’t do a whole lot except add a faux film grain onto the image. I think sometimes I like to dial back the grain (depending on the recipe) if I’m using high-ISO, because the digital noise is a natural film-grain-like effect. Acros, which has it’s own built-in Grain that increases as the ISO increases, can sometimes need Grain dialed back when shooting high-ISO.
Ok thanks Ritchie! Another question, if I can: as you wrote, this recipe (which I love btw) seems a bit too warm indoors, or when outside is a quite cloudy… maybe it also depend on the WB shift you make? I mean, I noted that your “Superia 100” recipe works better for me indoors, especially for skin tones etc.: maybe the main reason is that your “Superia 100” has less or minor WB “shift” than this recipe?
So much depends on the light. Back when I shot film, you had two “white balance” (didn’t call it white balance, though) options: Daylight and Tungsten. I carried warming and cooling filters for different light situations. You can do the same with digital cameras (use warming and cooling filters), or you can adjust the white balance (and shift) for various lighting situations, or you simply get what you get. There’s no right or wrong way. Feel free to adjust as you see fit for your photography and situations.
Another beautifully (and entertainingly) written recipe, Ritchie – thank you, once more, for what you have done and continue to do on this website. It’s truly a treasure trove, and not merely metaphorically speaking! And thank you, also, for referencing Luis Costa’s excellent recipes and his website. I’ve been reading some of his ideas with interest and his photographs are compelling illustrations of many things.
I have two smallish questions regarding both this recipe – and recipes in general. The specific one is: I have noticed, on occasion, while attempting to fool around or dial-in different recipes. It has to do with my X-Pro3’s DR (aka Dynamic Range) setting. Theoretically, my camera allows 4 possible settings: Auto – DR100 – DR200 – and DR400. But in actual practice, while occasionally attempting to set or alter the DR for a given recipe, I have noticed the setting is ‘grayed out’ – or only allows me one or two of the possible options (and, occasionally, not the option listed in a recipe. (Example: currently my X-Pro3 is set to Classic Neg – but the DR only allows me two options, Auto or DR100.) Hmmmm…. do you have either an explanation for this phenomenon? or practical advice on how to deal with it?
My general question is: after fooling around with a number of recipes – I can’t for the life of me remember WHAT THE EXACT ORIGINAL RECIPE of my X-Pro3 is – or was? – for “Classic Neg”. I’d like to go back to it on occasion – and also be able to switch between it and some of my newer variations, for (immediate and practical) comparisons. I’ve searched and searched – but nowhere can I find (including in Fujifilm’s wordy and dense owner’s manual) any specifications for what must be the ‘default settings’ for film simulations. Do you have them or know where they can be found?
Muchas gracias, again, for your ongoing creative work in this remarkably fascinating universe!
Short version: Ritchie…. You DA Man!
Thanxxxxx
Miguel
Thanks so much for your kind words! Luis Costa’s pictures are great, and I appreciate his website and work. I’m happy to point people towards it.
The answer to the DR settings question is this: it is ISO dependent. DR200 requires a minimum ISO (on the X-Pro3) of ISO 320 and DR400 requires a minimum ISO of DR 640. So if your ISO is lower than that, you cannot select those DR settings. I hope this makes sense.
As far as resetting to defaults, each C1-C7 Custom Setting can be reset to factory defaults. I forget which one is Classic Negative on the X-Pro3, but it might perhaps be C6.
I hope this helps!
https://fujifilm-dsc.com/en/manual/x-pro3/menu_shooting/image_quality_setting/index.html#edit-save_custom_setting