I wanted to make another recipe that uses the Fluorescent 2 (or “warm white fluorescent”) white balance. Why? Because this is a very underutilized and under appreciated option. I have only four other recipes that use it—Provia 400, Fujicolor Super HG, Super HG Astia, and Fujichrome Sensia 100—and those are all very good recipes. I didn’t have any specific film in mind when I made this, I was simply attempting something that looked good.
After shooting with it awhile, and looking at the pictures, the results looked familiar, but I couldn’t put a finger on it. I started digging through my old pictures, and wasn’t finding anything. Then I stumbled on a few Kodak Ektachrome E100GX frames, and the results were similar.
Ektachrome E100GX was a color transparency film made by Kodak from 2001-2009, and is what replaced E100SW. It was known for vibrant saturation, a warm color cast, and fine grain. It wasn’t quite as warm, vibrant, or sharp as E100SW, but overall very similar, yet with finer grain. Some people thought it was better than E100SW, some people thought it was worse. I liked E100SW a bit better, but E100GX was still a good film, particularly if you wanted something warm, colorful, and contrasty, but not overly so.
This recipe is compatible with Fujifilm X-Trans III, X-T3 and X-T30 cameras. For those with newer X-Trans IV cameras, to use this recipe simply set Color Chrome FX Blue to Off, Clarity to 0, and Grain size to Small.
Classic Chrome
Dynamic Range: DR200
Highlight: -2
Shadow: +2
Color: +4
Noise Reduction: -4
Sharpness: -2
Grain Effect: Weak
Color Chrome Effect: Off/NA
White Balance: Fluorescent 2, -1 Red & -6 Blue
ISO: Auto up to ISO 6400
Exposure Compensation: +1/3 to +1
Example photographs, all camera-made JPEGs captured using this “Ektachrome E100GX” film simulation recipe on my Fujifilm X-T30 & Fujifilm X-H1 cameras:
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The yellows are fantastic!
I agree! Thanks!
This one is simply beautiful! Love it! I will definitely keep it forever in my XT30 (again… I hope there could be a new XT40 so I can try more recipes that you’ve designed based on Classic Neg or Nostalgic Neg…)
Thanks so much! I really hope an X-T40 is in the works.
Sorry, just coming back from the future.
Could this shoot with other WB?
Like, if i were using Kelvin/Auto/Daylight or Shade.
What will the most suitable Color shift?
Because i never tried film photography 👉👈
You could probably use some Kelvin number and WB Shift combination to replicate it, but I couldn’t tell you what that might be without going in and doing some experiments to try to match it up. My recommendation would be to use the Fluorescent 2 WB. Are you asking this question because you also want to use the Fujichrome Sensia 100 Recipe, which also requires the Fluorescent 2 WB?
Well… that was the simple reason,
the real reason is, sometimes i use the photo in RAW, So i can use another recipe with the same image,
also, when im using LRC and the photo didn’t have neutral color to help me using WB Picker, i’m a bit confused to balance the color to mimic the neutral color balance
And btw… about the Expossure, sometimes i see “Typically” in Expossure Compensation, what is the real meaning of that? did it mean full manual expossure?
Thanks In Advance
“Typical” Exposure Compensation is simply meant as a suggested starting point. It’s not a rule. It’s only intended to give some direction. A lot of times a Recipe needs a slight boost in exposure, sometimes a significant boost in exposure, sometimes a small reduction in exposure, and occasionally a significant reduction is exposure. But each situation is unique, so each picture should be judged individually.
Hi Ritchie,
Now I found this old recipe for my old X-E3 🙂 And autumn is coming, it seems like a good match!
Question: what led you to use Fluorescent2 ? And what are charactereistics of three kinds of fluorescent (which honestly seems pointless, I would appreciate having more custom or even better Kelvn settings instead) Maybe when I learn how to use fluorescent WB I may understand the “why” behind them.
So the answer to your question is in the first paragraph of the article. Prior to this article, I had only used Fluorescent 2 for a few Recipes, and those Recipes were all good Recipes. So I wanted to use it again.
But a larger answer is that “older” cameras like your X-E3 cannot save a WB Shift within C1-C7 Custom Settings presets; however, it will remember one WB Shift per WB type. So if each of your C1-C7 presets are Recipes that use different WB types (Auto, Kelvin, Daylight, etc., etc.), you won’t have to remember to adjust the WB Shift when changing between the various C1-C7 options. So having some Recipes with the Fluorescent 2 WB helps with this, and can be quite valuable towards usability.
Why there are three Fluorescent options on Fujifilm cameras is because different fluorescent tubes can have much different color casts, from warm to cool. You can see the three options in your camera’s user manual:
https://fujifilm-dsc.com/en/manual/x-e3/menu_shooting/image_quality_setting/index.html#white_balance
The three Custom White Balance options are three custom measurements, which can be combined with a WB Shift. This is useful for (say) a wedding photographer who will be shooting in three different places and can ensure consistent results by making a custom measurement for each of those three locations. Because each custom measurement is unique to the specific light situation of the moment the measurement was made, it’s not particularly useful for Recipes, because it’s near impossible to ensure consistent results from one person’s particular situation to the next person’s particular situation.
On “newer” cameras (X-Trans IV except the X-T3/X-T30, and X-Trans V) there are a lot more Kelvin options. You can choose by 0010 adjustments anywhere between 2500K and 10000K.
Thank you for a long answer!
Great, now I know the “why” (for three Fuorescent WBs). I only do not know how and when to use them… But that’s not an issue if I do not create my recipes (yet).
If it comes to more Kelvin options, well for me it’s not about ability to select more smoothly. The 0010K step is way too fine. I would appreciate if the camera could have say three independent Kelvin WB settings (like three fluorescent) where i might set for example 2700 and two 5500K as a replacement for lightbulb and daylight twice – exactly for the reason you mentioned – inability to save WB shift to the recipe.
My workaround for the above mentioned issue is to modify a recipe requiring say Daylight WB like this:
– either I use Kelvin 5500 and your WB shifts
– or I use one of custom WB by exposing a piece of white paper at noon’s sunlight plus again WB shifts from our recipe
This way I can have multiple daylight WBs with various shifts for your recipes. Of course replace “5500K” or “noon’s sunlight” by whatever condition I need to emulate for another recipe using same WB with different shifts.
If newer models CAN save the shift to a recipe instead of WB itself then that’s great! until now I thought it’s a common problem for the all of them. Maybe you mentioned this somewhere and I simply forgot this detail.
On the new cameras (X-Trans IV except the X-T3/X-T30, and X-Trans V) you can indeed save WB Shifts within C1-C7. So it’s not an issue on the newer models. I highly doubt Fujifilm will provide any more kaizen firmware updates for the older models, and I don’t expect a good solution other than my workaround of using different WB types.
Here’s an example of 7 that use different WB types that can be utilized on the X-E3:
https://fujixweekly.com/2022/11/15/which-film-simulation-recipes-when-part-iii-x-trans-iii/