Old Tractor 15 – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-H1 – “Analog Monochrome”
This film simulation recipe began as an attempt to fulfill a need. You see, there are many Fujifilm cameras (like the X-H1) that are not capable of saving the White Balance Shift within Custom Presets, but there’s a solution: if each Custom Preset uses a different White Balance type, the camera will remember one White Balance Shift per type, and you won’t have to remember to adjust the shift when switching presets. This makes the camera experience more enjoyable.
The problem is that most film simulation recipes use the Auto, Daylight, or Kelvin White Balance types, and you have seven Custom Preset slots. The remaining White Balance types have a limited number of choices. Prior to this recipe, Incandescent had only one option: Eterna Bleach Bypass. Now, if you are using this solution, you can choose either this Analog Monochrome recipe or the Eterna Bleach Bypass recipe—one color and one B&W—for one of your C1-C7 slots.
Doll – Bountiful, UT – Fujifilm X-H1 – “Analog Monochrome”
I didn’t model this Analog Monochrome recipe after any specific film. Instead, I simply set out to create some settings that look good. This recipe has nice contrast with deep blacks, and whites that are bright yet don’t easily clip. I set Grain to Weak for a clean look, but feel free to try Strong for a grittier look. I feel that it has a very nice classic B&W film aesthetic that some of you will really appreciate.
Acros+G Dynamic Range: DR400 Highlight: +1 Shadow: +3 Noise Reduction: -4 Sharpening: -1 Grain Effect: Weak White Balance: Incandescent, -8 Red & -8 Blue ISO: Auto up to ISO 12800 Exposure Compensation: +1/3 to +2/3 (typically)
Example photographs, all camera-made JPEGs captured using this “Analog Monochrome” film simulation recipe on my Fujifilm X-H1:
Minolta SRT303b – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-H1
Car Console – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-H1
Jon Smiling for the Camera – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-H1
Joy Laughing at a Funny Message – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-H1
Horse Close Up – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-H1
You Shall Not Pass – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X-H1
Jesus Loves You! – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-H1
Friendly Neighborhood Snowman – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-H1
Winter Walking Path – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-H1
Farmington Creek in Winter – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-H1
Three Ducks in the Creek – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-H1
Snow and Creek – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-H1
Winter Tree – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-H1
Stump In Snow – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-H1
Wild Grass in Snow – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-H1
Melting Snow In The Tall Grass – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-H1
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Did you know that there’s a faster way to switch between the C1-C7 Custom Presets on your Fujifilm camera?
The C1-C7 Custom Presets are a great place to store up to seven Film Simulation Recipes. Not all Fujifilm cameras have the ability to store Custom Presets, but most do, and they’re pretty easy to program, especially after you’ve done it a time or two. Once you have the Custom Presets programmed into the camera, for most models, you access them by selecting the Q-Button, which brings up the Q-Menu. In the Q-Menu you can scroll through the C1-C7 options using (usually) the Rear Command Dial. There’s some variance between models, so your camera might be different, and there’s more than one way to access Custom Presets, but this is likely how most of you do it.
If you have an X-Trans III or X-Trans IV camera, with a couple exceptions, there’s a faster way to switch between Custom Presets. This will work only if your model has the ability to assign “Select Custom Setting” to the Rear Command Dial. For those with a capable model, on you camera, select Menu and go to the Set-Up (Wrench) subset, select Button/Dial Setting, then Function (Fn) Setting, scroll down to R-Dial, and choose Select Custom Setting. That’s it! Now let’s try it out.
To switch between C1-C7 Custom Presets, simply push the Rear Command Dial to open a C1-C7 menu on your screen. Use the Rear Command Dial wheel, Joystick, or D-Pad to scroll through the options, and push the Rear Command Dial, Joystick, or the OK button to select the one you want. Because you can use the Rear Command Dial to open the menu, scroll through the options, and select the Custom Preset, you can do this very quickly with one finger while looking through the viewfinder. For some of you, this will noticeably improve your Fujifilm user experience!
Obviously if you use the Rear Command Dial for something else already, this might not be a good solution for you. And this won’t work on every Fujifilm camera. I have my X100V, X-T30, and X-H1 programmed this way, and I much prefer this method for switching between C1-C7 Custom Presets. I think some of you will, too.
If you do program your Fujifilm camera this way and find that it works better for you, let me know in the comments!
After my Why I Love… series, which included the Fujinon 18mm f/2, Fujinon 27mm f/2.8, Fujinon 35mm f/2, and Fujinon 90mm f/2, I’ve been asked a few times which Fujinon lenses I currently own. I have a few third-party lenses and a number of vintage lenses, too, but the questions were specifically which Fujinon lenses are in my collection, so I’ll just talk about that.
My favorite Fujinon lens is the 27mm f/2 (read my review here). Because this is also my wife’s favorite lens and we share it, I often use the Fujinon 35mm f/2 (read my review here) as an alternative that is a close second-favorite. When I want to go wide-angle, I use the Fujinon 18mm f/2 (read my review here), and when I want to go telephoto, I chose the Fujinon 90mm f/2 (read my review here). This is actually a really good wide-standard-telephoto setup, and if I wasn’t sharing lenses, I’d only need the 27mm or 35mm and not both.
Some of you might be surprised to learn that I have other Fujinon lenses (and I’m not talking about the one permanently attached to my Fujifilm X100V). I own a Fujinon 100-400mm telephoto zoom (read my review here) that I occasionally use when I need something longer than 90mm. It’s the most expensive lens that I’ve ever purchased, and for how much it cost, I don’t use it nearly as much as I should. My wife owns three Fujinon lenses (that I have access to): the Fujinon 10-24mm f/4, the cheap kit Fujinon 16-50mm (read my review here), and the Fujinon 50-230mm (read my review here). The 10-24mm lens is the most used of those three, and I do borrow it occasionally, but if my wife isn’t using the 27mm f/2.8, then she’s using the 10-24mm f/4 (especially for video), so it’s not always available. The 16-50mm lens is almost never used by either of us, although it has been attached to a camera for video a few times. I borrowed the 50-230mm lens occasionally before I purchased the 100-400mm, but now it’s pretty much never used, except by my wife every once in a long while.
In order of most used to least used by both my wife and I combined: 27mm f/2.8, 35mm f/2, 90mm f/2, 10-24mm f/4, 18mm f/2, 100-400mm, 50-230mm, 16-50mm.
Now it’s your turn! Which Fujinon lenses do you own? Let me know in the comments!
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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.
Sugar House Traffic District – Salt Lake City, UT – Fujifilm X100V – “Ilford Pan F Plus 50”
“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:
Item Number – Bountiful, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Snow on Seat – Salt Lake City, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Wheelchair Shopping – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Face Masks For Everyone – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
What’s in the January issue? How big is it? There are four articles: Behind the Picture: The Story of Rock Balanced, Rising At Dawn, The Man Who Came Back, and Yosemite In Vintage Color. There are 29 photographs, including the cover image (above). This issue is 20 pages long cover-to-cover. I hope that you find it entertaining and inspiring!
Note: this was a Creative Collective article, but now it’s available to everyone.
