This Kodak Portra 800 v2 recipe is beautiful! It was created by Thomas Schwab, who has made several film simulation recipes published on this website, including Superia Xtra 400, Urban Vintage Chrome, Kodachrome II, Classic Monochrome, B&W Superia, and Monochrome Kodachrome. Thomas has also collaborated on other recipes, playing an important role in getting them right, including Kodak Portra 800, Kodak Ektar 100, Kodachrome 1, Kodak Portra 400, and Kodak T-Max 400. This new Kodak Portra 800 v2 recipe might be his best one yet!
Kodak introduced Portra 800 in 1998. The Portra line has seen a number of revisions and updates over the years, but I couldn’t find any information if the current Portra 800 film is the exact same emulsion from 1998, or if it’s gone through some changes over the years like the ISO 400 and 160 versions. Portra 800 is one of the best options for high-ISO color photography, but I’ve never shot it myself.
Thomas compared images side-by-side captured with actual Kodak Portra 800 film with images captured with his Fujifilm X-Pro3, making numerous adjustments in X RAW Studio, to achieve this nearly-identical picture aesthetic. He put in a lot of work, and it shows! Thank you, Thomas, for creating this great recipe and for your willingness to share! You’ll find some of Thomas Schwab’s pictures below. This Kodak Portra 800 film simulation recipe is currently compatible with the Fujifilm X-Pro3, X100V, X-T4, X-S10, and X-E4 cameras.
Classic Chrome
Dynamic Range: DR400
Highlight: 0
Shadow: -2
Color: -4
Noise Reduction: -4
Sharpening: -2
Clarity: -5
Grain Effect: Strong, Small
Color Chrome Effect: Strong
Color Chrome Effect Blue: Strong
White Balance: Daylight, +3 Red & -6 Blue
ISO: Auto, up to ISO 6400
Exposure Compensation: -2/3 to +1 (typically)
Example photographs, all camera-made JPEGs using this new Kodak Portra 800 v2 film simulation recipe:
Thomas Schwab
Ritchie Roesch
Find this film simulation recipe on the Fuji X Weekly — Film Recipes App!
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Makes me want to get the E-X4!
I’m definitely enjoying it!
This is gorgeous can’t wait to get out and try it
I’m so glad that you like it!
Great looking recipe! Ritchie, what do you suggest to adjust the settings to on an X-T30 to use this recipe?
I think if you used a 1/4 Black Pro Mist or 10% Cinebloom filter, that would be a good alternative to the minus Clarity. Because you don’t have Color Chrome FX Blue, you might consider setting WB Shift to +3R -5B. That’s probably the closest you’ll get.
Every time there is a nice recipe that is not suitable for the x-t30, I cry inside 🙁
And almost everyday I check on the fuji website hoping in a new firmware update! Tough life! 🙂
I hope it comes, too. Fujifilm, please listen!
Hi, I tried this recipe on my x100V however my blues are very vibrant and saturated. Any suggestions? Thank you in advance.
Are you using the correct WB Shift? You could also try Color Chrome FX Blue set to Weak or Off.
This is my favorite recipe so far. Thank you for creating this!
I’m so glad to hear! You are very welcome!
I can’t select DR 400 on my X100V, it’s greyed out. Only options are DR 100 and Auto. Any ideas?
Thanks
I’ve figured it out, it was to do with my ISO settings
I was not getting the desired effect of Portra in the portrait shot with this recipe. I might have done something wrong somewhere. Please help me out
Is it indoors or under artificial light? If so, you might try AWB instead of Daylight and see what happens.
What default sensitivity do you use?
I’m not sure if you’re asking ISO or Exposure Comp, so I’ll cover both. I usually set ISO to Auto with 6400 as the maximum, and the camera will choose the lowest ISO that is compatible with the shutter and aperture settings, often ISO 640 if there’s good light. For exposure comp, it can vary with this recipe, but 0 or +1/3 is a good starting point, and you can go from there if it needs more or less light. I hope this answers your question.
Just wondering if the Color setting of -4 is correct. I saw a different version using a color setting of 3 or 4 so I thought -4 might be a typo.
Color -4 is correct.
Could I use this on XT-3
The X-T3 doesn’t have Color Chrome FX Blue, Clarity, or Grain size. You could ignore CCEB, use a strong diffusion filter in lieu of Clarity, and ignore Grain size, and get similar results, but they won’t be identical.
Hello and thank you for this fabulous blog!
I just got an X400V and I’m trying to run some simulations. On the other hand, when it comes to ISO and exposure compensation, I cannot record it. Will I need to change this setting when shooting?
You can’t set exposure compensation within C1-C7; it’s a knob on top of the camera. You can select an Auto-ISO (if you are using Auto-ISO), but programming the three Auto-ISO options is done within the camera Menu and not Edit/Save Custom Settings. I hope that makes sense.
https://fujifilm-dsc.com/en/manual/x100v/taking_photo/exposure/index.html
https://fujifilm-dsc.com/en/manual/x100v/menu_shooting/shooting_setting/index.html#iso_auto_setting
A word on “typical” exposure comp: it’s not meant to be a rule, but just a general starting point. Each exposure should be judged individually.
Thank you very much for this very complete answer Ritchie 🙂
I did some tests and indeed, I understood very well what you explained. It’s magical, thank you very much for all these recipes
You are welcome!