Bridge Over Stream – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X100V – “Kodak Portra 400”
This is a brand-new version of my X-T30 Kodak Portra 400 film simulation recipe, designed specifically for the Fujifilm X100V, X-Pro3 and X-T4. My “old” recipe isn’t, in fact, old, as I published it only one month ago, but already I have improved on it, thanks to Fujifilm’s new tools, and also thanks to Fuji X Weekly reader Thomas Schwab, who helped tremendously refine the recipe to be more accurate to actual Portra 400 film. You see, he captured some pictures with Portra 400 film and made some identical pictures with his X-Pro3. After a few small changes, this new recipe emerged. It’s very similar to the X-T30 Portra 400 recipe, the differences aren’t huge, but it is subtly better in my opinion.
Portra 400 was introduced by Kodak in 1998, and was redesigned in 2006 and again in 2010. As the name implies, it’s intended for portrait photography, but can be used for many other types of photography. It’s similar to Portra 160, but with more contrast, saturation and grain. Believe it or not, ISO 400 was considered “high ISO” by many photographers back in the film days, and Portra 400 was one of the absolute best “high ISO” color films ever made. Like all films, results can vary greatly depending on how it’s shot, developed and printed or scanned, and even which version of the film you’re talking about.
Backlit Forest Leaves – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X100V – “Kodak Portra 400”
This new Portra 400 film simulation recipe requires the use of Clarity, which slows down the camera considerably. Fujifilm suggests shooting RAW and adding Clarity later, but I just use the pause to slow myself down. The use of Clarity also means that this recipe can’t be used on “older” cameras, only the X100V, X-Pro3 and X-T4 (as of this writing), but feel free to apply the white balance shift of this recipe to the X-T30 version and see if you like it better.
Classic Chrome
Dynamic Range: DR-Auto
Highlight: -1
Shadow: -2
Color: +2
Noise Reduction: -4
Sharpening: -2
Clarity: +2
Grain Effect: Strong, Small
Color Chrome Effect: Strong
Color Chrome Effect Blue: Weak
White Balance: Daylight, +3 Red & -5 Blue
ISO: Auto, up to ISO 6400
Exposure Compensation: +1/3 to +1 (typically)
Example photographs, all camera-made JPEGs using this new Kodak Portra 400 film simulation recipe on my Fujifilm X100V:
Light Green Leaves – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Sunlight In The Tree – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Forest – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Creek Through The Trees – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Light on the Water – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Creek – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Big Green Leaf – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Sunshine & Tree Leaves – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Sunlit – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Stone & Blooms – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Jo Swinging – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Brother & Sister Driving – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Protect & Serve – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Seagull on a Lamp – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Stormy Reeds – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
See also: Film Simulation Recipes
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This looks fantastic Ritchie. I had some issues with the older recipe which I think was due to user error.
Thanks! Let me know what you think once you have a chance to try it.
Would I be able to use the same recipe with my x100F?
You can use this one on your X100F: https://fujixweekly.com/2018/05/30/my-fujifilm-x100f-kodak-portra-400-film-simulation-recipe/
Or this one (except disregard Color Chrome Effect): https://fujixweekly.com/2020/05/10/my-fujifilm-x-t30-kodak-portra-400-film-simulation-recipe/
This should be fun to try out!
I am curious though – how do you deal with the extra in-camera processing time that the “clarity” setting provides? Do you just re-run the RAWS through Fuji X Studio later? The delay and blackout keep me from using it.
I just use the delay to slow myself down. Back in the film days, unless you had an electronic advance (which I didn’t), you had to wind the film between exposures. I kind of think of it as that. If I needed to be quick, I would set Clarity to 0 and adjust it later by reprocessing in-camera, but I haven’t had to that yet.
Yeah, but I guess with film I was the factor in whether or not I could take the next shot. Plus, I could keep my eye in the viewfinder while advancing the film. Perhaps that’s when I should use the OVF on my X-Pro3 as to avoid the blackout 😀
Cheers!
The OVF can indeed be a wonderful tool.
Hi Ritchie, absolutely love your presets. I read it somewhere that we can use CL low or Ch High drive mode to skip the extra in-camera processing time
Yes, but it doesn’t apply Clarity, so if you want the Clarity setting you’ll have to adjust it by reprocessing the RAW file, either in-camera or with X RAW Studio.
Great simulation! Have you by chance created a Kodak Porta 160 Simulation for the XT4/X100V?
I’ve tried finding it here on the blog, but was unable to locate it.
Thanks for all you do Ritchie!
Thank you!
Use this:
https://fujixweekly.com/2020/04/03/my-fujifilm-x-t30-kodak-portra-160-film-simulation-recipe/
Set Grain to Small & Weak, Clarity to 0 and CCEB to Off, and it’s compatible with the new cameras.
You made my day with all those recipes !
Do you think we’ll get that clarity and chrome blue settings in the xt-3 ?
Thank you again for the hardwork !
Thank you! I’m glad that you like them. I truly hope that the X-T3 will get those features.
I’m ashamed to admit I have been reading your recipes for years and years now but never left a comment. I’ve probably tried at least 20 of your recipes but none really stuck with me. I shoot film and really lean towards Kodak Portra and Ultramax, so I had to try this recipe on my XT2 and X100F. This is THE BEST RECIPE I HAVE EVER USED. I just tried it on some wedding photos I took recently (I processed photos using the in-camera Raw to jpeg function) and it looks just beautiful (sometimes I set the WB to auto instead of daylight). I am trying this recipe on my GFX 50R now! Thank you very much!!
Thanks so much for your kind words and feedback! I’m so glad that you like this recipe and found it useful to your photography.
How did you get on with the GFX?
This is great. Would love To see a Portra 800 recipe.
Thanks! Portra 800 is on my to-do list. I hope to tackle that at some point soon.
This is great. Would love to see a Recipe for Portra 800.
Hi Ritchie! Thank you so much for this Recipe! I use Portra 400 a lot but recently the price went way higher 🙁 so this simulation would really help so I could shoot both film and digital! I have a question. Does this setting only work for JPEG? How can I keep this setting when I shoot in RAW (RAF)? Thank you!!
If you shoot RAW+JPEG, your RAWs will have the settings “built in” but it will be up to your software to interpret those settings.
Thanks for getting back to me. Which software is good to use to keep the setting? Sorry I am still learning how to use this camera. Thanks!!
Maybe Capture 1? I don’t currently have any RAW editing software, so I’m not much of a help. Sorry.
I’ve tried with the newest Photoshop (Camera Raw), Lightroom, FUJIFILM X RAW studio etc but nothing worked 🙁 Camera Raw and Lightroom, I can change to ‘Fuji: Classic Chrome’ (the original color setting) but then they don’t have the advanced settings. FUJIFILM X RAW studio software reads the setting but only converts from RAW to JPG, not TIFF 🙁 Capture One doesn’t read RAF file… I will keep researching…
Capture One does in fact read Fujifilm’s RAW files. It’s the preferred software for editing Fujifilm RAW files by many, many, many people. I would keep working with it, and find some articles or videos or classes that explain how to use it. My recommendation is to keep at it, I’m sure the learning curve is steep, but you’ll soon enough be able to do with it what you want.
Have you tried this using Classic Neg?
As I understand it that film sim reacts differently to exposure changes and gives a more film like response. Haven’t figured out how to get Portra from that base sim.
Actually, I did about a week ago. It looks interesting, but nothing like Portra. Classic Negative is definitely a Fujicolor palette.
hi guys I am loving these recipes sooooo much on my x100v! I would like to contribute financially if needed to the creation of the recipes for the Fuji Superia Premium 400, probably my favourite film. Shall we discuss this? Thanks 🙂
I’m actually working on that one right now! My email is roeschphotography@yahoo.com, send me a message, I’d like to talk more about it.
Hi! Thanks for sharing amazing recipe..
For some reason, when I put all that numbers and setting in my x100v, all the photos I take look very orangy..
I don’t know what I’m touching wrongly but do you have any solution to this? Really really wanna try this recipe properly and just shoot JPEG without worrying about retouching later on… thanks in advance!
It’s hard to know, I would double check the White Balance. I will say that best results are in daytime sunlight. It can produce a strong cast under artificial light.
Hi!,Do you think it would work on bayer sensor anyhow?considering most of them don’t have advanced settings such as color chrome effect,etc?and how bout the white balancing? 😊
This one won’t work on Bayer. You can try this:
https://fujixweekly.com/2020/03/29/not-my-fujifilm-x-t1-x-trans-ii-kodak-portra-160-film-simulation-recipe/
Hi, I just discovered these Fuji recipes and was curious why sometimes you have the white balance on other settings besides auto? Here we’re using daylight, so would that mean this recipe is more geared towards shooting outside as I assume using this in different lighting conditions would cause colors to be quite off? Was genuinely curious!
That’s a great question!
Back when I shot film, there were two “white balance” (I don’t recall hearing the term “white balance” used back then) options: Daylight and Tungsten. I had warming and cooling filters that I would haul around for when the lighting was different. So in the digital age, Auto White Balance makes the use of warming and cooling filters obsolete. Many of my earlier recipes use AWB. But, I got feedback that the recipes don’t behave like the film they were intended to mimic because of AWB. So I began to avoid using AWB for this reason, which had several benefits. But, I got more feedback that some recipes look pretty awful under (for example) artificial light because they don’t use AWB (which is often how film behaves). Some recipes use AWB and some don’t for this reason.
That’s the long answer.
The short answer is if the WB of a recipe isn’t working for you in the light conditions you are in, feel free to “season to taste” and change the WB to something that does, which might be as simple as using AWB instead. This particular recipe (in my opinion) looks best in daylight conditions.
I hope this helps!
This is phenomenal! I used a dozen of recipe here and this is the one I use most often! Great work.
Awesome! I appreciate the report!
By far this is the best recipe I found for x100v. I tend to use this setting for harsh sunlight situations and this has been one recipe fits all for me. Whether it’s portrait or landscape or street photography it never fails. Mild warm colors fill the overexposed area and makes everything look beautiful. Also looking back at photos with this recipe brings back the true memories of hike or beach day. I sometimes change the film simulation to velvia with same recipe and get exceptional photos of the nature.
That’s great! I’m so happy that it’s helpful to you. I’ll have to try it with Velvia! Thank you for the comment!
Hi! Do you have a portra 400/800 recipe for the x-trans 1 sensor by any chance? I love the look of these kodak film simulations and would really like to use it on my x-pro 1. Thank you so much for your hard work!
I don’t. It’s something that I want to work on. The difficulty is that X-Trans I doesn’t have Classic Chrome.
Hello,
Question: My camera custom presets are full, now I add film simulations into Fuji X raw studio as a new preset. The only problem is adding a preset the only selection for dynamic range is DR100, 200 and 400? This Portra 400 calls for a DR-Auto setting? How do I set a DR- Auto in X Raw studio when it only lets me choose 100, 200 or 400?
Not sure what to set it at? .. any help Appreciated. thanks
That’s a great question! The camera, in DR-Auto, will usually pick DR100 unless there’s a bright light in or near the frame, then it will select DR200 (never DR400, though). So if the picture has bright highlights, use DR200, and if not, use DR100. Hope this helps!
Hi Ritchie !
First of all thanks for the tremendous work you’ve done that’s a gold mine !
I was reading your articles on D-Range Priority and I immediatly think about this portra 400 recipe. What would you think about tweaking this reciper to use D-Range set to weak ? Since you are already at S:-2 and H:-1. The mid-contrast boost provided by the D-Range settings could be usefull to Portra 400 right ?
Regards,
Michael
It’s definitely worth trying! I did something like that with this:
https://fujixweekly.com/2021/09/22/fujifilm-x-e4-x-trans-iv-film-simulation-recipe-portra-style/
Hi… I like this better then the V2 for Australian conditions Now I have a XT-5 does this Portra 400 need any tweaking for the new sensor? Thanks.
Hi! So for the X-T5, you’ll want to set Color Chrome FX Blue to Off (instead of Weak).
https://fujixweekly.com/2022/11/25/ive-got-the-fujifilm-x-trans-v-blues/