This Kodak Portra 400 Warm recipe came about after the Kyle McDougall Portra-Style comparison article. These settings are an attempt to get closer to Kyle’s preset aesthetic. Some film simulation recipes are good for everyday use, while some are good only in the right situations. This is one falls into the latter category, I think. This recipe isn’t for everyone or every situation, but for some people in the right situations, this recipe will be greatly loved! I think it looks best in sunny daylight, but can produce interesting results occasionally in other lighting situations, too. Thank you to Ryan for helping out with this!
One film can have many different looks depending on how it’s shot, developed, and scanned or printed. This Kodak Portra 400 Warm film simulation recipe is an alternative aesthetic. 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.
If you like my other Portra recipes, you might like this one, too. It uses Clarity, which slows down the camera considerably—I hope that Fujifilm speeds this up with a firmware update at some point. This recipe is only compatible with the latest Fujifilm X-Trans IV cameras: the X-Pro3, X100V, X-T4, X-S10, and X-E4. This was a Patron early-access recipe on the Fuji X Weekly App, so if you are a Patron you’ve had access to this Kodak Portra 400 Warm recipe for awhile—there’s now a new early-access recipe in its place, so be sure to check that out!
Classic Chrome
Dynamic Range: DR400
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: Off
White Balance: 5500K, 0 Red & -7 Blue
ISO: Auto, up to ISO 6400
Exposure Compensation: +2/3 to +1 1/3 (typically)
Example photographs, all camera-made JPEGs using this “Kodak Portra 400 Warm” film simulation recipe:
Find these film simulation recipes and many more on the Fuji X Weekly — Film Recipes App!
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Thank you so much for this one Ritchie! I can’t tell you how long I’ve been waiting for it! : )
Awesome! I hope that you enjoy it!
Hi Ritchie! If you use brust mode with clarity effect do you don’t have a problem with recording time 🙂 you can capture all shoots and then the camera will process all file with custom film
Unfortunately, burst mode disables Clarity, and that is why it’s faster. This is a good strategy, but you have to know that Clarity is not applied, so if you shoot RAW+JPEG, you can add Clarity later (either in-camera RAW processing or X RAW Studio), or, if you like the results without Clarity, simply leave it be.
Really beautiful look and feel to the photos with this recipe!
Thank you so much!
Super
Thanks!
it would be awesome if there was a way to convert these recipes to LUTS for filming on flog
It would be awesome! Much more complex than it might initially seem, though (I tried… with one of the top people in the photo-software field… but it didn’t work out, for various reasons).
Great simulation! But isn’t compatible with Fuji x-t30 II ?
It is indeed compatible. When I published this, the X-T30 II didn’t yet exist, that’s why it’s not listed.
Thank you very much! And thanks again for your absolutely great work!
You are welcome! 😀
Hi there. Thank you for your recipes, just got my hands on the XT-300 and have been trying to find a few recipes that work for me. My question is, when you say +2/3 I understand its rotating the exposure compensation dial to +2 and a bit, but for +11/3 what does that mean on the exposure compensation dial? Where do I rotate it to? Apologies, this is probably a very basic question.
You mean X-T30? The exposure compensation dial is in 1/3 increments, and each number is a full exposure. So +1 is a one-stop increase, and the two dots in-between 0 and +1 are +1/3 and +2/3. So if a recipe says +2/3, you would set it to the second dot, the one right before +1.
A word about “typical” exposure compensation: it should be taken as a suggested starting point, and not a rule. It’s only meant to point you in the right direction. Each exposure should be judged individually.