I published the Pacific Blues Film Simulation Recipe just four months ago, and it has already become one of the most popular on Fuji X Weekly. The aesthetic is intended to emulate Lucy Laucht‘s Spirit of Summer series, particularly the Positano Blues photographs. While it is intended for a summer day at the beach, the recipe works great for many different subjects and situations. Foggy mornings? Yes! Dreary overcast? Yep! Desert landscapes? Sure! Garden flowers? Autumn leaves? Dramatic portraits? Absolutely. And lots, lots more. I’ve even seen some really interesting night photographs with it. Try this recipe for many different light scenarios and different subjects—you’re bound to love it!
Pacific Blues was made for X-Trans IV cameras, and I discovered that a slight tweak is needed for X-Trans V models, because the new sensor renders blues just a little deeper on some film simulations. For X-Trans IV recipes that use Classic Negative, Classic Chrome, Eterna, or Eterna Bleach Bypass and calls for Color Chrome FX Blue Strong, you’ll need to adjust it to Weak on X-Trans V; if it calls for Color Chrome FX Blue Weak, you need to adjust it to Off. If it calls for Color Chrome FX Blue Off, well, you just have to know it will render differently on X-Trans V and there’s nothing you can do about it. For Pacific Blues, setting it to Weak instead of Strong makes it compatible with X-Trans V.
If you have an X-Pro3, X100V, X-T4, X-S10, X-E4, or X-T30 II, you’ll want to use the original Pacific Blues Film Simulation Recipe. For those with an X-T3 or X-T30, unfortunately Fujifilm never gave your camera the Classic Negative film simulation, so you cannot use Pacific Blues. For those with GFX, if it’s an older model, I think the X-Trans IV version is likely most compatible, and for newer models, this version is likely most compatible; however, I have not tested either version on any GFX model to know for sure. If you have an X-H2, X-H2S, or X-T5 (or any other X-Trans V camera that is released after publication), this is the Pacific Blues recipe that you want to use.
Film Simulation: Classic Negative
Grain Effect: Strong, Large
Color Chrome Effect: Strong
Color Chrome FX Blue: Weak
White Balance: 5800K, +1 Red & -3 Blue
Dynamic Range: DR400
Highlight: -2
Shadow: +3
Color: +4
Sharpness: -2
High ISO NR: -4
Clarity: -3
ISO: Auto, up to ISO 6400
Exposure Compensation: +2/3 to +1 (typically)
Example photographs, all camera-made JPEGs using this “Pacific Blues” Film Simulation Recipe on my Fujifilm X-T5:
See also:
Fujifilm X-Trans V Film Simulation Recipes
Fujifilm X-Trans IV Film Simulation Recipes
This post contains affiliate links, and if you make a purchase using my links I’ll be compensated a small amount for it.
Fujifilm X-T5 in black: Amazon B&H
Fujifilm X-T5 in silver: Amazon B&H
Find this Film Simulation Recipe and over 250 more on the Fuji X Weekly — Film Recipes App!
Help Fuji X Weekly
Nobody pays me to write the content found on fujixweekly.com. There’s a real cost to operating and maintaining this site, not to mention all the time that I pour into it. If you appreciated this article, please consider making a one-time gift contribution. Thank you!
$2.00
That’s fast! When I get a new camera it’ll be the first recipe to be set up. Waiting to see what’s going to become of the XP/X-E/X-Txx/X100x next year(s). Not keen on SPASM dial and camcorder screen so the X-H line is not really an option but I really need its viewfinder.
Meanwhile Pacific Blues has a permanent custom slot on my T30ii since you posted it!
Awesome! Pacific Blues was one of the first few recipes I programmed into my X-T5… because I like it that much. 😀 I’m glad that you like it, too.
I’m interested to see what becomes of those lines, too—hopefully a few fun surprises but mostly I hope they don’t mess with it very much. Thank you for your comment!
Pacific Blues renders the fog in an otherworldly way, it makes me recall photos by Steve McCurry in the India, with that kind of fog that insinuates a vast and soon to discover country. Also in your photographs with fog the trees seem a glimpse into an infinite series. Thank you, Ritchie for sharing both your photographs and your recipe.
Wow, what an observation! It is indeed quite similar to those pictures. And what a compliment! Thank you so much! 😀
Even Aqueduct of Padre Tembleque is quite similar, too.
One of my favorite film recipes of yours! I’ll need to buy or rent the X-T5 to try this out now!
😀 😀 😀
On my X-T30 II I didn’t really dig this recipe because I think it is too characteristic. But after change to X-T5, somehow it became my go-to recipe when I think the photo is to plain. Really appreciate your great work!
Will you develop/update some B&W recipes for X-Trans V soon? E.g. ilford HP5 Plus, it’s my favourite B&W film. Really looking forward to it.
Thanks so much for your feedback! Yeah, I definitely plan to publish many more recipes for X-Trans V, including B&W. 😀
Hello, I am new to the Fuji world and just got the XT5. Upon finding your articles and then this beautiful recipe I had to give it a try. I have only one issue setting the recipe which is my camera won’t let me change the DYNAMIC RANGE. Any suggestions on that ? Thank you
You have to have a minimum ISO of 500 for DR400, and ISO 250 for DR200. They’re ISO dependent, if that makes sense.
My T5 arrives tomorrow! 😀 Compiling a collection of your X-Trans5 recipes as we speak. I hope you have time to develop new/more recipes in the coming months and years. Fuji cameras are so thin on the ground nowadays (not to mention the RIDICULOUSLY high price they want for older Fuji cams!) I decided to snap one up (for 200 less than launch price) today. Am still pining for a P4, though.
Cheers
Congrats on your new camera!
The best photo with the Pacific Blues recipe, that I think it deserves the right to be on the cover (although I don’t know if it looks the same on version 5 of the sensor), is “Pacific Poppies”, the one on the very top of the article Travel: Central Coast of California “En Plein Air” — w/Ken Rockwell & Dave Wyman — Day 4, Part 2, I won’t post a link, to avoid moderation.
That color of those poppies is amazing and to be honest, I like that flower very much, I had an envelope with some seeds that I planted in Romania (from a relative of mine from California), my country, and I enjoyed them an entire summer. I lost them in the next year 🙁 . So I am somehow biased 😛
I appreciate your kindness! That’s definitely one of my absolute favorite pictures captured with this Recipe… if not number one, then definitely Top 5.
https://fujixweekly.com/2023/06/24/travel-central-coast-of-california-en-plein-air-w-ken-rockwell-dave-wyman-day-4-part-2/
Hey I am new to fuji film simulations. When you do 5800K, the viewfinder of course shows the photo to be super yellow.. in setting the White Balance to 5800K, are all the photos you’ve shared on this article all white balance fixed/corrected in post-processing like in LightRoom?
I don’t personally do any corrections/editing or use programs like Lightroom. This Film Simulation Recipe is intended for sunny daylight situations. I’ve had good luck in fog, too. In artificial light it will be very warm. It’s a matter of using it in the right situations.
You might find this article helpful:
https://fujixweekly.com/2022/01/19/film-simulation-recipes-why-pictures-are-too-yellow-how-to-fix-it/
This might be helpful, too:
https://fujixweekly.com/2023/03/28/which-film-simulation-recipe-when-part-5-fujifilm-x-trans-v-x-t5-x-h2-x-h2s/
Yeah, it might look yellow in certain lighting conditions, but then there is also the WB shift…
Anyway, back in the days, using some cheap film emulsion in shadow areas, you had even some color shifting… it looked right only in sunny scenes… this is true with a fixed White Balance. The Auto settings continuously corrects the WB for the image to always look “neutral” and the problem is that you kinda fail to “record” the real color of the light – your image will always look WB correct, but not great. You could not do that with films as they had a fixed WB, only through optical filters to a certain extent. So, before anything, select Provia as your go to simulation and set your WB to Daylight and test it throughout the entire day and observe the effect on your images… In golden hour, you might appreciate the look of your photo more than having WB on auto… After you get the hang of it, you will understand more what the film simulations are there for (some of them are indeed on Auto WB, as sometimes you want something versatile)…
I am unable to adjust the Clarity like the recipe calls for (it’s greyed out). Any reason that might be? As a newbie to film simulations, I assume it’s something I am overlooking as I haven’t come across this issue on other formulas. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
It is either because you are in a burst mode (CL or CH), HDR, or that your camera is set to HEIF instead of JPEG. Whichever one of those is causing Clarity to be disable, once you change it, you’ll be able to adjust Clarity.
I’ve found that using clarity slows down the speed a lot, even though there is indeed an impact on the look, i’m opting to leave clarity at 0 and adjust sharpness a bit up or down according to the recipe, is there any trick i might be missing so that clarity changes doesn’t slow me down?
Clarity and Sharpness are two different things. One isn’t necessarily a good substitute for the other. I think, if you don’t want the Clarity pause (which is about the same amount of time as advancing to the next frame on a film camera… I use it to slow myself down), is to use a diffusion filter in lieu of negative Clarity. Roughly speaking, a 5% CineBloom or 1/8 Pro Mist can be used to substitute -1 or -2 Clarity, 10% CB or 1/4 PM for -3 or -4 Clarity, and 20% CB or 1/2 PM for -5 Clarity. I hope this is helpful.
thanks a ton for those inputs Ritchie, indeed the look isn’t really the same, i think i’ll try to adapt to a slow down mode, at least under some specific circumstances 🙂
Just a quick note to confess that it’s taken me far, far too long to try this recipe – Pacific Blues – out, on my X-T5… but now that I have finally begun using it… it truly creates a living, breathing and rather stunning palette of subtle but rich tones. I think you have hit a metaphorical homerun with this one, Ritchie. And some of the ways in which it renders tones – and light (and shadow, too) – do have a definite resemblance to – and relation to – some of Lucy Laucht’s more memorable work.
Short version: I love it. And just wanted to thank you, again, for the creativity, time and energy you have devoted to both this and so many other recipes. Getting the iPhone Fuji-X App (which I did some time ago) is my small way of saying thanks, every day.
I appreciate this so much! Pacific Blues has been a favorite of mine for sunny daylight photography, and only recently have I discovered just how good it can be for other situations, like dreary rain. Thanks for your kindness, encouragement, and support!
Hi there and thank you for this! I am unable to figure out how to save the exposure compensation settings that you included (sorry for the noob question) on my x100vi. Is this a manual adjustment that I need to save ? Thanks !!
The (typical) Exposure Compensation cannot be saved. It’s adjusted via a knob on top of the camera (marked by +1, +2, -1, -2, etc.).
A word on “typical exposure compensation”: this is merely meant as a starting point and not a rule. Since each situation is different, each exposure should be judged individually. This part of the Recipe is simply to get you going in the right direction, but definitely deviate from it whenever it is warranted by the light situation.