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.
Would this recipe work on Xpro 2 please?
No, sorry it won’t.
Hope you’re well! Love this recipe! I’ve been testing it out recently and enjoying it. In October, I am traveling to Arizona for a weeklong trip around the state. I am coming from the Northeast and have only been out west a single time for work, so the desert climate will be a new experience! Would you recommend any other recipes to mess around with for such a trip?
I hope that you enjoy your trip to Arizona! Where will you be visiting? I can suggest some Recipes, but first: which camera do you have?
Ha ha! The problem with this, if you continue to browse the site, you forget on which one you posted a comment, pages are hard to find and the most recent comments does not help as it has only the last five comments… If the time passes by, then it becomes even harder. But I cannot see how this can be solved, unless the poster make some notes in a diary or something… The notification by mail is avoided by the most people instinctively. But of course, there can be lots of reasons why people don’t return to continue the conversation…
In this case, the person contacted me on Instagram and got an answer there. But, yeah, there are a lot of instances where there was no response, so it’s just kind of sitting there now.
I just want to say I am such a fan of your work! You are amazing! I have been loving the Kodak Portra 160 and it has been my go-to recipe. I’m now loving the look of the Kodak Portra 400 Warm but unfortunately my camera, X-T20, isn’t listed as compatible. Any thoughts on how I could get the look of the warm for my camera?
There’s not a good way to replicate Color Chrome Effect Strong on the X-T20, so you’ll just have to be ok that it will be different on your camera. Setting Shadow to -1 (instead of -2) is the closest you can get to replicating that. Obviously, ignore Grain size. Consider using a 5% CineBloom or 1/8 Pro Mist filter since the X-T20 doesn’t have Clarity.
Hello I can’t put 400% DR only 200% why is that?
Your ISO isn’t high enough. This article will help:
https://fujixweekly.com/2023/07/13/answers-to-the-10-most-common-fujifilm-how-to-questions/