Reggie Ballesteros (website, YouTube, Instagram, Instagram), also known as Reggie B Photo, is an official Fujifilm X-Photographer based in San Fransisco, California. He shoots both film and digital, and on his Fujifilm cameras he likes to use both RAW and JPEG. For his JPEGs, Reggie developed a Film Simulation Recipe that’s a close match to the Kodak Portra 400 film that he shoots and has developed and scanned (on a Noritsu) at Richard Photo Lab. He was very kind to allow me to share his Portra recipe with you on this website and the Fuji X Weekly App. Thanks, Reggie!
Portra 400 was introduced by Kodak in 1998. It used to come in two varieties: “NC” (Neutral Color, which had less saturation) and “VC” (Vivid Color, which had more saturation). I shot a little of both Kodak Portra 400NC and Kodak Portra 400VC back in the day, and I preferred the more colorful version. The film was redesigned in 2006 to improve grain and scanning. It was again redesigned in 2010, with the NC and VC emulsions dropped, replaced by a new mid-saturation version (simply called Portra 400), with more improvements to scanning.
As the name implies, Kodak Portra 400 is intended for portrait photography, but can be used for many other genres 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. It’s still available today, and is very popular among film photographers.
When developing his Portra recipe, Reggie used the Kodak Portra 400 Film Simulation Recipe from this website as his starting point, and he tweaked it to more closely match his Portra scans and to better suit his photography. One film can have many different aesthetics, depending on how it’s shot, developed, scanned, and a whole host of other factors, so it’s great that Reggie made this alternative version, which might be closer to the exact look that you are after. Also, because this recipe uses Auto White Balance and doesn’t use Clarity, you might find that this one is more versatile than some other recipes. Oh, and take a look at the Kodak Portra 400 v2 and Kodak Portra 400 Warm recipes, which could potentially produce your desired aesthetic.
One special note: Reggie has a 5% CineBloom diffusion filter attached to his lens whenever he shoots with this particular recipe. I have been using my Fujifilm X100V as a monochrome-only camera, but because I, too, have a 5% CineBloom filter attached to it, I made an exception so that I could test this recipe on that camera with the diffusion filter. For the shots captured on my X-E4, I did not use a diffusion filter; however, I do like how the 5% CineBloom subtly affects the image, and I recommend pairing it with this recipe if you can.
This Film Simulation Recipe is compatible with the Fujifilm X-Pro3, X100V, X-T4, X-S10, X-E4, & X-T30 II cameras. To use it on the X-T3 and X-T30, simply ignore Grain size and Color Chrome FX Blue, since your camera doesn’t have those options—the results will be slightly different, but nearly identical. More than likely this recipe is compatible with GFX and X-Trans V, but I haven’t tested it to know for sure.
Classic Chrome
Dynamic Range: DR-Auto
Highlight: -1
Shadow: -1
Color: +2
Noise Reduction: -4
Sharpening: -2
Clarity: 0
Grain Effect: Weak, Small
Color Chrome Effect: Strong
Color Chrome Effect Blue: Weak
White Balance: Auto, +2 Red & -4 Blue
ISO: Auto, up to ISO 6400
Exposure Compensation: +1/3 to +1 (typically)
Example photographs, all camera-made JPEGs using “Reggie’s Portra” Film Simulation Recipe on my Fujifilm X-E4 and Fujifilm X100V cameras:
Abandoned in Childress
A Walk in the Ozarks
Cadillac Ranch
Below is a video that Reggie made which illustrates his Portra recipe quite well (he notes that the Shadow setting is incorrect in the video—it should say -1, not -2). Be sure to like and subscribe and all that stuff. Enjoy!
This post contains affiliate links, and if you make a purchase using my links I’ll be compensated a small amount for it.
Fujifilm X100V Black Amazon B&H
Fujifilm X100V Silver Amazon B&H
Fujifilm X-E4 Black Amazon B&H
Fujifilm X-E4 Silver Amazon B&H
CineBloom 5% Filter Amazon B&H
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Since his video came out, I have been using his recipe for my everyday shots, but I never knew the shadows settings was not supposed to be -2, I’ll have to change it and try it out. So many sims to try, it gets overwhelming.
If Shadow -2 works for you, then I’d keep using that.
Thx! I am a new Fuji XS10 user. I’ve been using your recipes for half a year, and I like them very much!
I was wondering if you could release more recipes especially for portrait photography? I would be very lucky. Because I always have skin tone issues — my photos of girls’ skin are always weird. I don’t like that digital-ish looks, and that’s why I chose to Fuji for its film-ish looks.
Anyway, thanks, man, keep up the work.
I appreciate the suggestion! I’m not a portrait photographer (although Reggie is), and I’ve never done a lot of “people pictures” (it’s not my thing), but I do agree that it would be helpful to have more portraits in the samples. Thanks so much for the feedback!
Tried this out pre sunrise , and really impressed . Looking for to trying it when the light is better. Hopefully this will be the ‘everyday’ simulation rather than Astia soft all the time 👍
Awesome! This is an easy one to appreciate.
Does this translate well onto the Xtrans II sensor?
You know, I think Reggie does use a variation of it on his X70, but I’m not 100% certain what he modifies. He might have information about it on his IG/YouTube/Website.
Reggie just now posted his recipe for X-Trans II sensors on his IG, it’s:
Film Simulation: Classic Chrome
White Balance: Auto
White Balance Shift: R:2, B: -4
Dynamic Range: Auto
Color: +2
Sharpness: -1
Highlight Tone: -2
Shadow Tone: 0
Noise Reduction: -2
It has the same WB & WB Shift as his X-Trans IV Recipe; since X-Trans II is warmer than X-Trans IV, the new X-Trans II Recipe will be warmer than the original (I can tell that without having seen any pictures). Otherwise, it should be pretty close to the other. Also, I would assume that the rendering is pretty similar to the Kodak Color Negative Recipe under certain light situations (and dissimilar under other light situations). Thanks for sharing!
Hello! – so how do I adjust the WB to go better with light-medium caucasian complexion? Reggie mentioned in his video that he tweaked the settings to match the tone of his family more…
I use it for my family without adjusting anything. I don’t think any WB Shift change is necessary.
Hi, I know Reggie uses a Moment Cinebloom 5% diffusion filter on his X100 V with his Reggie’s Portra recipe. I don’t have a diffusion filter, how much should I set clarity to to get the same effect? I know the camera will be a little slower, but I don’t mind. Thanks for your help!
That’s a great question! I like the 5% CineBloom because it is quite subtle. Clarity set to -2 will emulate its use fairly well. I hope this helps!
Thanks a lot Richie, I trust you perfectly, and I’ll test tomorrow!
I’ve input all these settings on my X100V except for Highlight and Shadow. I don’t see these among the items that can be tweaked within the custom settings. I can see there are supposed to be 3 “pages” of items listed but page 3 is grayed out. When I toggle down on the joystick to access the 3rd page it jumps from the IQ menu to the AF/MF screen.
Any thoughts on how to get to the Highlight and Shadow menus?
Look for Tone Curve, that’s where you will find it.
https://fujifilm-dsc.com/en/manual/x100v/menu_shooting/image_quality_setting/index.html#tone_curve
Perfect! Thanks so much for the direction.
I know it says auto ISO but when I do this it basically always picks 6400 unless I put the SS to insanely high.
Is there an ISO you typically use or am I putting a setting wrong? Thank you.
When you have Auto-ISO set, the camera will display the maximum ISO value of what is programmed until you half-press the shutter button, at which time it will display the actual ISO value, which (depending on your camera) might be ISO 640; on initial glance, that might appear the same as ISO 6400, and the missing zero could go unnoticed.
Increasing the shutter speed only potentially will increase the ISO due to the exposure triangle. Less light from the shutter (due to its quicker speed) means that you need more light from the Aperture (larger aperture) and/or more sensitivity from the sensor (higher ISO) to compensate.
I’ve recently started to setup my X-S10 with multiple recipes to test at different conditions, preparing for a family vacations in Portugal. This is by far the best recipe I tested, very nice results and very versatile for all conditions. I’m mostly choosing between recipes that use Auto WB. This will be my default in the camera from now on. Yesterday I shot hundreds of pictures on a friend’s birthday all with Reggie’s portra and the result is awesome. Next month I’m cancelling my lightroom subscription no longer needed and switching to Jpeg shooting. Will keep RAW only for Fuji X RAW studio for very specific conversions.
So glad that you like it! 😀