This new film simulation recipe comes from Anders Lindborg (Instagram). Anders is the one who created the Kodak Tri-X 400 recipe, Ilford Pan F Plus 50 recipe, Kodak Gold v2, seven Fujicolor Pro 160NS recipes, seven Fujicolor Pro 400H recipes, and made an important D-Range Priority discovery. So I know that you’ll love this one, too! He was kind enough to share it with me and allow me to share it with all of you—thank you, Anders!
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.
Specifically about this recipe, Anders noted, “Middle gray is the game here. Soft highlights and things disappearing into deep dark shadows, but never as black as Tri-X. Great for all day shooting in just about any weather. Looks totally awesome on winter shots!” I can add that it looks great on both sunny days and rainy days, too. I think it does especially well in moderate and high contrast situations.
Ilford began the Hypersensitive Panchromatic (HP) series in 1931. HP5 Plus 400 is the latest version, released in 1989, and still available today. This is a classic black-and-white film stock that has stood the test of time, and Anders did a great job mimicking it on Fujifilm cameras. This recipe is intended for use on the X-Pro3, X100V, X-T4, X-S10, X-E4, and X-T30 II cameras; however, for the X-T3 and X-T30, as well as X-Trans III cameras, simply ignore Grain size, and this recipe is compatible with those cameras, so anyone with an X-Trans III or IV camera can use this.
A side note: this recipe is different than my old Ilford HP5 Plus and Ilford HP5 Push Process recipes, which I still quite like, and are both excellent in low and mid contrast situations. Try those or Anders’ version—or all three if you are feeling adventurous!
Monochrome
Dynamic Range: DR400
Highlight: -1
Shadow: +1
Noise Reduction: -4
Sharpness: -2
Clarity: 0
Grain Effect: Strong, Large
Color Chrome Effect: Off
Color Chrome Effect Blue: Off
White Balance: Daylight, +1 Red & -8 Blue
ISO: Auto, up to ISO 6400
Exposure Compensation: -2/3 to +2/3 (typically)
Example photographs, all camera-made JPEGs using this “Ilford HP5 Plus 400” Film Simulation Recipe on my Fujifilm X100V:
Find this film simulation recipes and over 200 more on the Fuji X Weekly — Film Recipes App!
Wow! It seems really good for many different conditions…
It sure is! 🙂
I’m wondering if there’s one of the “filter” monochrome version that particularly fits this recipe…
I’m guessing +R with blue sky, but I didn’t use any of the filter options with my photographs.
Hi Ritchie,
This is a bit of a broad sweeping question, but what is your recommendation for a really moody, contrast-rich B+W recipe? I’ve played around with several of your fantastic recipes, but wonder what some of your go-to in- camera ones are. Thanks for any advice.
My go-to is Kodak Tri-X 400. Definitely give that a try. I think some others to consider are Moody Monochrome, Dramatic Monochrome, Kodak Tri-X Push Process, and Ilford HP5 Plus Push Process.
I replicated this recipe for my X70, but with Underwater WB instead with the same color shift, in outdoor and indoor testing (Provia) to my eyes it surprisingly looks like there’s no difference!?
Any idea why that is? I can’t find any kelvin values online for Underwater, it seems to be around 4800K with some kind of shift to make it whiter🤔
The user manual says that it reduces a blue cast, but in my experience Underwater looks identical to Daylight. One difference is that, with Underwater, the camera will adjust the temperature when using a flash (and not with Daylight). I think that’s the main divergence between the two.