Anders Lindborg (Instagram) sent me a black-and-white film simulation recipe to try, which he modeled after Ilford Pan F Plus 50 film. Anders, you might recall, created the Kodak Tri-X 400 recipe, teamed with Thomas Schwab to create the Kodak T-Max 400 recipe, made seven Fujicolor Pro 160NS recipes, created seven Fujicolor Pro 400H recipes, and made an important D-Range Priority discovery. His contributions to the Fujifilm community are significant! The Kodak Tri-X 400 recipe is a favorite of mine that I use frequently, so I’m personally very grateful to Anders for his hard work on this recipe and all the others.
And hard work it was! Anders sent me a lengthy note on his process to create this recipe, and I want to share with you a short snippet just so you get an idea of the effort put into this. “I checked the spectrum sensitivity chart and looked for any significant bumps in the wavelengths,” he wrote. “For the largest bump, I checked what color it represents to try to match it as close as possible with the white balance shift. This recreated the bump in the recipe to make the simulation a bit extra sensitive to that specific color.” This was point four of seven in his process, and shows the kind of effort that can go into creating film simulation recipes.
Ilford Pan F 50 Plus is a low-ISO, contrasty, sharp, detailed, fine-grain, black-and-white negative film. It has the punchiness of a mid-ISO film, but is very clean, and can be printed large and still appear crisp and fine-detailed. Of course, how a film is exposed, developed, scanned and/or printed will affect the exact aesthetic. Ilford Pan F 50 Plus is one of the best black-and-white films you can buy today, and this recipe is a pretty darn good facsimile of it.
“This one needs some care,” Anders wrote of this recipe, “and really soft light is recommended for portraits, but the reward is wonderful! If you’re looking for drama, this is it. Great in studio where lighting can be controlled, but can sometimes also work nicely for certain kinds of street photography. High contrast with a really classic black and white look, emphasis on the black.”
I modified Anders recipe a little. His version calls for Shadows to be +2 and Clarity set to 0, but he says that +2 Shadow can sometimes be too strong, and that +1 is not always strong enough, but +1.5 (for those cameras that are capable) is probably just right. I wanted to use this recipe on my Fujifilm X100V, which isn’t capable of .5 Shadow adjustments, so I set Shadow to +1 and Clarity to +2 (to increase the contrast, similar to what +1.5 Shadow might be)… alternatively, Shadow +2 and Clarity -2 is an option, too, but I didn’t like it quite as much. Because of Clarity, I decreased Sharpening to 0 from +1 (what the original recipe calls for). Instead of -3, I set Noise Reduction to -4, which is my preference. If you want to use Anders full recipe, set Shadow to +2 (or +1.5 if your camera is capable), Clarity to 0, Sharpness to +1, and Noise Reduction to -3. Otherwise, you’ll find my slightly modified version below. This recipe is compatible with the Fujifilm X-Pro3, X100V, X-T4, X-S10, X-E4 and X-T30 II cameras.
Monochrome
Dynamic Range: DR100
Highlight: 0
Shadow: +1
Noise Reduction: -4
Sharpening: 0
Clarity: +2
Grain Effect: Weak, Large
Color Chrome Effect: Off
Color Chrome Effect Blue: Off
White Balance: Daylight, +1 Red & -6 Blue
ISO: Auto, up to ISO 6400 (for best results, try to limit the ISO to 1600 and lower when able)
Exposure Compensation: -1/3 to +1/3 (typically)
Example photographs, all camera-made JPEGs using this “Ilford Pan F Plus 50” film simulation recipe on my Fujifilm X100V:
Find this film simulation recipes and over 200 more on the Fuji X Weekly — Film Recipes App!
Anders! This is one of my Black and White favorite recipes, now!
Beautiful and useful for many purposes. Thank you very much for sharing! 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
BR Thomas
really wow.. ritchie,,, i don’t know why i’m asking since much of this i dont know what it means. maybe it’s the aquarian in me that needs to know,,,,what is the prurpose of adjusting chrome effect, chrome effect blue, and wb (settings i associate with color),,,FOR A B/W SHOT?
CCEB doesn’t affect B&W. Some people will tell you that CCE doesn’t affect B&W, but I think it makes greens and reds a hair darker grey (Strong vs Off), but it’s barely noticeable when closely studying side-by-side (maybe it’s just my brain playing tricks on me, who knows–if it does it’s barely perceivable, and I do believe I can perceive it). But White Balance can have a big affect. I explored it a little here:
https://fujixweekly.com/2018/11/12/using-white-balance-shift-for-black-white/
You can also see it in this recipe:
https://fujixweekly.com/2020/08/11/fujifilm-x100v-film-simulation-recipe-black-white-infrared/
a pretty popular photographer friend of mine used to print his b/w’s “in color” (i hope i’m getting this right). that is, instead of printing on regular b/w paper with a b/w process he actually printed the b/w negatives on color paper using a color process. he said, and i’m paraphrasing, he felt the grey scale had more depth.
i think i got that right…is that kinda what you mean? and so you believe tinkering with cceb helps in digital imagery
Not really. Color Chrome FX Blue doesn’t affect Acros or Monochrome whatsoever. Color Chrome Effect is debatable if it extremely subtly deepens the grey of red and green. White Balance can significantly change how different colors are rendered in grey, kind of like (but not exactly the same as) using color filters in b&w film photography.
Curious if you are using monochrome with one of the built-in filters? Monochrome standard, Yellow, Red, or Green? Thanks.
No filter, just straight-up Monochrome.
Found it, reminding me of my dad who was a professional photographer in Poland when communism still ruled there and he was always at awe at Ilford films. (it was extremely hard to obtain and expensive for him). He primarily dabbed in B&W since color was only available from East Germany, it was called ORWO, very poor colors. Congratulations, I am going to use this recipe, there is something very silky smooth and elegant about it, exactly reminds me of what my dad admired about Ilford. Just got myself X-T5. Will make donation, best from California.
Wow, I appreciate this kind comment! 😀
I’m late to the party, but I really like this recipe in my X100V. I’ve shot the actual film a couple of times, and this feels very much like the real deal. Thanks to you and Anders for the hard work in creating such a fine look! I think I may like it even more than the native Acros simulation.
Awesome! Glad that you like it! 😀
Love this one but have a question regarding saving it to my X-E4. I’m new to recipes so please pardon the newbie question. The “Monochrome” setting it refers to at the top of the setting list: where is that found in the X-E4 setup menu? I searched the camera manual but don’t see where it’s located. Is is the “Film Simulation” menu item? If so, I don’t have one that simply says “Monochrome”, but rather “Monochrome + G filter”. Do I pick that one and edit out the G filter? Any help from those of you more experience with this than I am would be greatly appreciated…
Kurt
It is indeed in the Film Simulation list. You have four Monochrome options: Monochrome, Monochrome+Y, Monochrome+R, and Monochrome+G. The +Y, +R, and +G versions are simply simulating the use of color filters (Yellow, Red, and Green). This article might help (ignore that it is about Acros and not Monochrome… it applies similarly):
https://fujixweekly.com/2019/03/07/understanding-acros-film-simulation-options-on-fujifilm-x-cameras/
Here is where you find it in the X-E4 manual:
https://fujifilm-dsc.com/en/manual/x-e4/menu_shooting/image_quality_setting/#film_simulation
Fujifilm talks about it briefly on this page:
https://fujifilm-x.com/global/products/film-simulation/
I guess to be most specific, in the Film Simulation list, Monochrome (without a “filter”) is designated as “B STD”. I hope this helps!
I have a possibly silly question: I love this recipe in my X100V. I decided to add it also to my X-T5. There aren’t any specific settings prescribed for that sensor since it’s newer than the article, so is it a given that I should use the recipe as is for the newer camera?
Or are there any recommendations for modifying it to maintain the same look on the X-T5? I guess the same question would apply to retroactively using older recipes with newer models.
This Recipe is compatible with the X-T5. No modifications necessary.
Some X-Trans IV Recipes are compatible and some are not. The largest difference in rendering between X-Trans IV and V are that some film sims (namely, Classic Chrome, Classic Negative, Eterna, and Eterna Bleach Bypass) render blue more deeply on X-Trans V.
I appreciate the elaboration. Thanks. 🙂
Hello Roesch! Just found your website yesterday, and I love it.
I loved PanF+ 50 when I used film until just a couple years ago (stopped because it was expensive and digitally scanning film felt strange, like isn’t it more direct to use a digital camera? But in hindsight I could have bought many many rolls of film with the money spent on camera and lenses. And now I’m learning from you how special film is, even if it ends up scanned. Maybe I’ll return to film…)
anyhow, I should probably just test it out on the GFX 50R when I get home, but if I wanted to simulate using a red filter (my favourite on film!), do I just use this recipe but with Monochrome + R film simulation?
I’m wondering if the camera applies stuff like White balance first (which I suppose is used to approximate the spectral sensitivity of PanF+), then afterwards red-filters and monochromes the photo
Thank you!
Yes, use the Monochrome +R Film Simulation to simulate using a Red filter with this Recipe (although you are likely to find it more similar to an Orange filter than Red).
I’m not sure where exactly in the image processing pipeline WB and WB Shift are applied. It’s a good question. I do know that they affect the outcome. Below are some older articles that you might find interesting regarding this topic:
https://fujixweekly.com/2018/11/12/using-white-balance-shift-for-black-white/
https://fujixweekly.com/2020/08/19/fujifilm-white-balance-shift-what-it-is-how-to-use-it/