For some reason, black-and-white film simulation recipes aren’t as popular as color, but Fujifilm cameras are capable of some great monochrome images straight-out-of-camera. This new “Classic Monochrome” recipe was made by Thomas Schwab (B&W Instagram), who has created several of the film simulation recipes on this website and collaborated on several others. He’s a friend of this blog, and I’m honored that he allows me to share his recipes here!
Thomas said that he started with one of the Ilford recipes, and this evolved from that. It’s called “Classic Monochrome” because it has a great old-school B&W print feel. The only change that I added was Toning, which is optional, but it seems to look nice with these settings. This recipe has quickly become one of my favorite black-and-white options! It’s most similar to Dramatic Monochrome, so if you like that recipe you’ll like this one, too. Thank you, Thomas!
This recipe is contrasty and clean. It reminds me of Agfapan 25 printed using a high-contrast filter (maybe a #4, or even split-filtered). It’s not intended to look like it, but that’s what it reminds me of. It does have a limited dynamic range, and it’s easy to clip highlights, so the exposure should be carefully considered, or perhaps try DR-Auto if you are concerned. It’s compatible (as of this writing) with the Fujifilm X100V, X-T4, X-Pro3 and X-S10 cameras.
Monochrome (+Y, +R, +G)
Dynamic Range: DR100
Highlight: +4
Shadow: +2
Noise Reduction: -4
Sharpening: +1
Clarity: +4
Toning: WC +1, MG 0
Grain Effect: Weak, Small
Color Chrome Effect: Strong
Color Chrome Effect Blue: Strong
White Balance: Auto, 0 Red & 0 Blue
ISO: Auto, up to ISO 12800
Exposure Compensation: -1/3 to +1/3 (typically)
Example photographs, all camera-made JPEGs using this Classic Monochrome film simulation recipe on my Fujifilm X100V:
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Fujifilm X100V Black Amazon B&H
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Nice. The images look crisp on the iPad Pro screen. For this winter I’m shooting mostly in B&W. Your T-Max 400 has become my go-to recipe.
Thanks! The T-Max recipe is a favorite, too. I think it falls under the radar a little because of Tri-X, but it’s very good.
TMax 400 is also my favourite b&w recipe. I use it primarily for portraits. It’s not as high contrast as some other recipes and also uses toning to give it nice warm look.
I’ll try this recipe next.
Awesome! I hope that you like it. 😀
Hello！I can not find this item? Thank you！
> 2021年1月12日 上午6:46，FUJI X WEEKLY 写道： > >
What item can’t you find?
Thanks for all of the work you do with these film simulations. Just picked up an X100V and these are proving invaluable
Thanks so much! I appreciate the feedback!
Thanks for all these recipes. Just got an X100V and I’m putting in some of your recipes. I have a question about the ISO and the Exposure Compensation in recipes. Do these two settings still need to be done externally after saving the custom recipe, or can they be saved within the custom recipe itself? Because I don’t see these settings in the customisation itself? When making custom recipes (the 7 custom recipes available) does this overwrite Fujifilm’s built-in recipes?
Yes, you’ll have to set them manually, although ISO can be set to Auto and you can program the parameters of that. The “typical” exposure compensation is more of a starting point than a rule, and each exposure should be judged individually. The “built-in” default recipes are nothing special to lose, and if you really want one you can reprogram it if you’d like.
Thanks for the info. I’m still confused by the custom film simulation and how many film simulations can be saved. For example, I’ve set the custom Tri-X simulation. When I go into the quick menu under C7, there’s a “Base C7” for Tri-X and a “C7” for Tri-X when I’m scrolling through the custom film simulations. I don’t see this with the other custom film simulations (for example, there’s no “Base C1” and “C1” for the Kodachrome64 simulation).
The “Base” setting thing is confusing. “Base” simply identifies what the current settings are. It took me a little while to understand it. It’s a weird quirk of the programming.
Hello Ritchie,
I love trying out your simulation recipes, especially monochrome. You are doing a great job.
One thing that bugs me a bit is that the custom setting is not recorded in metadata, meaning copious notes for each image with a simulation.I know this is not your problem but I wonder if you or any of your contacts have found a better solution than pen and paper?
Many thanks.
Peter Jones the Photo Space Charity CIO Regd No 1184898 Quality Square Ludlow SY8 1AR tpsc.online
Yeah, that would be great! I have spoken with someone at Fujifilm, but only a couple of times. I have no idea if they’ll contact me again, but I’ll keep this in mind if they do. I appreciate the comment!
What monochrome setting should it be at: Y, G, or R?
Thank you, Rob.
It all depends. +Y mimics the use of a yellow filter. +G mimics the use of a green filter. +R mimics the use of a red filter (although it’s really more like an orange filter). So if you would use one of those filters with b&w film, you’d use the appropriate “filter” with Monochrome.
This might help:
https://fujixweekly.com/2019/03/07/understanding-acros-film-simulation-options-on-fujifilm-x-cameras/