Andrew Goodcamera (formally known as Andrew & Danae) just published a YouTube video in which he conducts a blind film simulation and Film Simulation Recipe test. In the video Andrew shows six sets of 15 pictures. The images are a mix of stock film simulations (no recipe) and various Film Simulation Recipes. As you watch, you are supposed to take note of which pictures stand out to you—perhaps even take a guess at which Recipe you think was used for your favorite—and maybe discover a new Recipe to try that you didn’t realize you’d like. It’s a fun little experiment!
Back in January Andrew reached out to me because he had a video idea, and he needed a list of popular Film Simulation Recipes for it. He didn’t tell me what his video idea was, only that he was going to mention Fuji X Weekly and needed a list of Recipes. I happily provided him with what he requested, and that was the end of the story until today when I noticed he posted a new video. I’m very appreciative for his kind words and honored for the shoutout—thank you, Andrew!
I’m not going to say anything more until you’ve watched the video. I have some commentary that I want to add, but don’t want to spoil it for you, so take a moment right now to watch the video. Don’t scroll past the video below until you’ve watched it! Oh, and make sure you have a notepad handy to keep track of your picks.
Did you watch it? If so, keep scrolling down and let’s compare notes. If not, this is your last chance before you encounter some spoilers, so don’t go any further until you’ve seen the above video!
I had provided Andrew with 10 Film Simulation Recipes, which were the top ten most popular (by page views) from 2022. I wasn’t sure if he had used all of them or not, and I didn’t find out until the reveal that he had used six. I didn’t try to guess which pictures were which Recipes, but just wrote down which three images I liked most (best, second best, and third best) in each set.
What I picked most was picture J. In almost every set (four out of six) I chose that one as my favorite, and if it wasn’t number one it was second or third favorite (six selections total). I had a strong suspicion that it was Pacific Blues, and it turns out that it was indeed that Recipe. Pacific Blues is one of my absolute favorite Recipes, and this blind test just affirms that.
My next most-picked picture was O, although it was not my top favorite in any of the sets, only second or third (picked four times total). I wasn’t really sure which one that was, and was surprised when it was Vintage Kodachrome. I haven’t shot much with that particular Recipe in awhile, so I guess I need to!
The third-most picked picture was G (picked three times total: once number one and twice number two). I had a hunch that it was Kodachrome 64, but I wasn’t certain; turns out my hunch was right.
Picture I, which turned out to be Kodak Portra 400, was picked once for number one and once for number two. Picture H, which turned out to be Kodak Ektar 100, and picture D, which was my Classic Chrome Recipe, were each selected once for third favorite. The only stock film simulation (non-Recipe) picture that I selected was E, which is default Classic Negative, chosen once for third favorite.
Now it’s your turn! What were your top picks? Were you surprised by your findings? Comment below to let me know!
One last note: if you missed today’s SOOC Live broadcast about Street Photography, you can watch it now (click here). We had a great show, which was the first with the new format, so you’ll want to make sure to give it a view. Also, I want to give a big “thank you” to everyone who tuned in and participated!
I was very much surprised I liked Astia most, followed very closely by Kodachrome 64, and Velvia in 3rd.
Consider I never shoot Astia, standard non-sim is Provia; guess that will change.
Interesting discovery! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks a lot for bring this content! I’m always doubt in which recipes to use, and I tend to use Astia with slight changes, but this video was a surprise to me.
I’ve choosen Pacific Blues 5 times, Kodak Portra 400 also 5 times, Kodakchrome 64 4 times, and Vintage Kodachrome 3 times.
Of course this tests depends a lot on the source material, but I’m definitively take a deeper look on this recipes!
All credit goes to Andrew on this one! I had a lot of fun with it… must have paused and rewound 10 times before (finally) getting to the reveal 🤣. Glad that it was helpful to you, and thanks for sharing your results! 😀
My overall favorites were probably Astia A, Velvia N for plain profiles. For recipes Ektar 100 H, Kodachrome 64 G, and Pacific Blues J, but they could be feast-or-famine, and sometimes felt really excessive. With the dog or the motel, J was just a bit much. I never disliked Portra 400 I, but it was seldom my favorite.
Hated Bleach Bypass B and Eterna F in just about every one, and Classic Neg E often did poorly (but I liked it on 3 and 4). Eterna and Bleach Bypass seem like they need really specific situations to work. ProNeg Standard L usually didn’t work for me.
When it came to Classic Chrome, I think overall I liked FXW’s D more than the stock C.
Very interesting! I feel like everyone who has done this blind test has learned something, which is great.
Hey Ritchie, loved the blind test video using your recipes! Same as you, my first favorite happened to be Pacific Blues and I’m not surprised since this is my most favorite color recipe and the one I use the most. So grateful to you for making it! My second favorite was Vintage Kodachrome and this was a nice surprise and discover since I never used it. Same as your version of Classic Chrome, which came as my third favorite. I will definitely add these 2 to my Xpro3 and test them out. As I commented on Andrew’s video,
it would be great for him to make a blind test video this time using B&W profiles and recipes. Hope he will make it! Best
We must have very similar tastes 😀
The B&W blind test idea is great!
This was really interesting for me — I love Fuji film sims and hugely admire the work you do here, but most often am happiest with the native Fuji sims, and the B&W ones when it comes to your recipes. No offense (this is just my preference), but the color cast to many of the recipes just isn’t my thing (hence my preference for the B&W ones when it comes to your recipes). But I was eager to do a blind test to see if what I *thought* were my preferences really panned out! I ranked favorites and assigned points for each, then totaled up the points before the reveal of what was what.
Ranked from favorite to least favorites, mine were Classic Neg, Classic Chrome + Kodachrome 64 (tied), Pro Neg Std, Provia, Astia, Pro Neg Hi, Eterna, Bleach Bypass + Velvia (tie), Kodak Ektar 100 + FXW ver Classic Chrome (tie), Kodak Porta 400, Pacific Blues, Vintage Kodachrome.
So I guess my preferences are just different haha 🙂 But we agree on the beauty of Kodachrome 64, which (to my eye) captures the retro film aesthetic of native sims, while having a more subtle/versatile overall color palette than many of your recipes. I bet if there were more of your recipes like that in this blind test, more recipes would rank higher for me.
Anything surprise me? I was surprised that I scored Pro Neg Std a little higher than Pro Neg Hi, and I was surprised to see Eterna ranked in the middle of the pack for me. I hardly ever shoot with either for stills, finding them too bland (though I love Eterna for video). And I was surprised to see Velvia rank 8th — but I think that’s just a reflection of the photos used for the comparison. For the nature/landscape/wildlife photography I do regularly, many of my favorite images in the past year are Velvia.
Thanks for this!
It was definitely a fascinating exercise. I hope you’ll use that Kodachrome 64 recipe a little more often 😀. Thanks for sharing the results!