This Appalachian Negative Film Simulation Recipe was sent to me by Logan Ballew. Like a lot of Fujifilm photographers, he really likes Classic Chrome Recipes, but one day he thought he’d like to try the Nostalgic Neg. film simulation. Instead of loading one of my Nostalgic Neg. Recipes into his camera, he simply used Nostalgic Neg. instead of Classic Chrome with my Kodak Portra 400 v2 Recipe; however, the results weren’t quite right, so he made a number of tweaks and adjustments until he got the look that he wanted. While this Recipe initially began as Kodak Portra 400 v2 but with Nostalgic Neg., it doesn’t much resemble that now, and produces a significantly divergent look.
Logan’s goal was an aesthetic reminiscent of home: the Appalachians near Asheville, North Carolina. “I spent most of my time as a kid hiking around the Blue Ridge Mountains or with my grandfather,” he told me. While his grandfather, Lanny Phillips, was an avid photographer (among other arts, including woodworking), it wasn’t until after college that he picked up a camera and began his own photographic journey; he’s been a hobbyist photographer for about five years now. This Recipe reminds him of his childhood memories in the Appalachians.
“The foliage back home is super dense, and trying to capture that without blowing out the greens and messing up the saturation is somewhat of a task,” Logan said. “What’s nice about Nostalgic Negative is that it gives this amber color to your images.” While this Recipe is specifically intended for photography in the Appalachians, he found that it works well in many other environments, too. After using it in Los Angeles, California, I can attest that this one works quite well for urban scenes. I especially like the feelings of nostalgia that this Recipe infuses into the photographs.
Logan is enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and is currently stationed in Norfolk, Virginia. Joining the Navy allowed him to travel quite extensively—not just across the country, but internationally. However, he initially found Virginia to be photographically underwhelming; however, Logan says that Jason Hunter and other local photographers have been a huge help and inspiration, and now he spends a lot of time walking the boardwalks and driving around town capturing things that he would have overlooked before.
Thank you, Logan Ballew, for sharing this Recipe with me, and allowing me to share it with the community! This Appalachian Negative Film Simulation Recipe is compatible with all fifth-generation X-Trans cameras, which (as of this writing) are the Fujifilm X-H2s, X-H2, X-T5, X-S20, X100VI, and X-T50. I’m sure it can be used on newer GFX models, too, but will likely render slightly different (try it anyway, though). Logan encourages the use of a diffusion filter, such as a 5% or 10% CineBloom, with this Recipe. I used a 5% CineBloom for all of the photographs captured in Los Angeles.
Film Simulation: Nostalgic Neg.
Dynamic Range: DR400
Grain Effect: Weak, Large
Color Chrome Effect: Strong
Color Chrome FX Blue: Weak
White Balance: 5200K, +2 Red & -2 Blue
Highlight: -1.5
Shadow: 0
Color: +4
Sharpness: +2
High ISO NR: -4
Clarity: 0
ISO: Auto, up to ISO 6400
Exposure Compensation: +2/3 to +1 1/3 (typically)
Example photographs, all camera-made JPEGs captured using this Appalachian Negative Film Simulation Recipe on my Fujifilm X100VI:
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Fujifilm X100VI in black:
Amazon, B&H, Moment, Wex, Nuzira
Fujifilm X100VI in silver:
Amazon, B&H, Moment, Wex, Nuzira
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Nice one. Pass my congrats to Logan 👌👏 And thanks for sharing 👍
Thanks!! He did a great job!
Just thinking about teams IV sensors, would you use eterna or classic neg to try to get a close approximation? With the mention of the amber color I’m thinking eterna.
Eterna would be the best choice; however, Eterna is nowhere near vibrant enough, unfortunately. Classic Negative would be much different overall.
Thanks for sharing and congrats for the great work!
I’ll try it later out. I prefer to use auto white balance instead of a fixed value.
What do you think how it will work out ?
Thanks
It will look a little different, particularly in situations other than daylight. You can try with AWB and see if you like the results.
Normally I don’t comment here. But this time it’s different. I use many of your recepies. The last days I was on a business trip in the near of Barcelona. I tried some new ones on my XT5. Then while I was on a small photo trip your app send me a notification. I look into the app, because that was the first time I got a notification. I tried it, right in this moment and wow this is gorgeous. I am not a Porta Fan, but this is nice!
So awesome! The notification is a new feature. Glad that it worked out 😀 😀
This is an amazing recipe! I don’t know why I see it as a complement of Eterna based Kodak Vision3 250D! At least that is what I’ll do, pair it with that.
I can definitely see that… a nice one-two option that is complimentary. Thanks for the input!
My absolute favorite recipe at the moment. Thanks for sharing and many greetings to Logan.
Happy to hear it!
First time I regret not having this film sim on my X-E4…
I would be surprised if Fujifilm gave the Nostalgic Neg. film sim to X-Trans IV models, but it would be really cool if they did. I think a lot of people would be quite happy by that.
I always come back to this film recipe because I don’t have Nostalgic Neg. on my X-E4 and at the moment, it’s really the only simulation I regret. I started with Classic Neg. but I got tired of this very marked vintage look, and I don’t find it very flattering for facial tones in family photos. At the moment I oscillate between a personal version of Astia to keep richness and realism in the tones, or Reggie’s Portra even if the problem I have with Classic Chrome is the blues too turquoise for my taste that I have to modify each time. I find that Nostalgic Neg really has no hype compared to the results I see and the potential with this simulation which has a very film and nostalgic rendering while keeping a lot of richness in the tones. Where does this lack of hype around Nostalgic Neg come from?
I’m not sure. Classic Chrome is by far the most popular among those who use Recipes, followed by Classic Negative. Acros, Reala Ace and Nostalgic Neg. are all pretty close for third, fourth and fifth place (not necessarily in that order). I could definitely see Nostalgic Neg. giving Classic Chrome a run for its money; perhaps because only the new cameras have it, that’s the reason it hasn’t become more popular.
Hey Ritchie, great work. This seems a bit similar to this https://www.instagram.com/p/DQUaJe2jEl6/?img_index=1 What do you think this recipe is please?
I don’t think that photographer uses Recipes or straight-out-of-camera photography. But, the Appalachian Negative Recipe seems to be in the general ballpark of many of his pictures.