I’m in love with this Aerochrome v2 Film Simulation Recipe! It’s for full-spectrum infrared cameras like the Fujifilm X-T4 ES, and not “normal” cameras. You must have a full-spectrum X-Trans IV or X-Trans V model, which requires an expensive and invasive procedure from a third-party vendor; otherwise, the X-T4 ES (“Extended Spectrum”) is a full-spectrum camera briefly offered by Fujifilm (it’s very difficult to find, but in my opinion totally worth owning). So if you have the right gear, you’ll want to try out this Aerochrome v2 Recipe today!
Not only do you need the “right” camera—a full-spectrum model like the Fujifilm X-T4 ES—but you also need the “right” filters. This Recipe requires three: Kolari Vision IR Chrome filter, Hoya G(XO) Yellow-Green filter and Tiffen Yellow 2 #8 filter. The IR Chrome filter is intended for infrared photography, while the Yellow-Green and Yellow filters are for B&W film. I’m not sure if the order matters, but I have the Yellow filter first (closest to the lens), the IR Chrome next, and the Yellow-Green last (furthest from the lens).
This Recipe produces Aerochrome-like pictures, but it doesn’t behave exactly like the film. Even so, the fact that you can get this look straight-out-of-camera is amazing! If this was the only Recipe that I could ever use on my Fujifilm X-T4 ES, I’d be very happy. I do have an Aerochrome v1 Recipe that has less green and yellow hues and a more pronounced blue tint, plus I’m working on a handful of others, so if this isn’t the look that you want, there are (or will be shortly) other options. But this Recipe… it’s what I hoped to achieve when I purchased the camera a couple of months ago. Oh, and surprisingly, it’s excellent for night photography.
Filters: Kolari Vision IR Chrome, Hoya G(XO) Yellow-Green & Tiffen Yellow 2 #8
Film Simulation: Velvia
Dynamic Range: DR400
Grain Effect: Strong, Small
Color Chrome Effect: Strong
Color Chrome FX Blue: Strong
White Balance: Daylight, +7 Red & +6 Blue
Highlight: +2.5
Shadow: -0.5
Color: +4
Sharpness: 0
High ISO NR: -4
Clarity: -2
ISO: Auto, up to ISO 6400
Exposure Compensation: 0 to +2/3 (typically)
Example photographs, all camera-made JPEGs captured using this Aerochrome v2 Film Simulation Recipe on my Fujifilm X-T4 ES:
Comparison:
Wow. Awesome recipe Ritchie 👍👌
Major improvement indeed that I need to try out went it will stop raining here (again).
Thought having not latest setting possibilities like the Chrome Effects, I will need to adapt a bit. Maybe grab an additional filter to compensate the lake of Chrome effects.
I like very much in this v2 you are not pushing high the Highlights and Shadows and use Velvia. It stays in the margins of my X-A3 FS converted 😉
This v2 is producing exquisite images 👌 Your shots are superbe 🤩
I’m in love too ❤️
Thanks! Stacking three filters is a bit crazy, but it definitely does the trick. Let me know how it works out on your X-A3.
Crazy but very effective 👌👍
Again thx a lot for the idea.
I took back some litterature and older post of yours on Colour Chrome Effect.
Lacking the functionnality on my X-A3, I will go even more creazier by adding a polarised filter!
Quite easy to do, as I’m using Cokin system (Nisi or the like will do the same), so I can stack up to 4 extra filters 😋
Quite overkill on my poor and tiny TTArtisan AF 27mm F2.8, but it manages so far well the load 😉
This coming Sunday should bring back big sunshine and summer heat temperature in Belgium, so I do intend to try it out with and without the pola.
I’ll keep you posted for sure 👋
The polarizer might just do it. Definitely report back how it goes.
By the way, this is so much fun trails 😎😋
So much fun indeed! 😀
Well with this was a big sunny Sunday with hard light as needed (going along with raised temperature but you can’t have it all 😉).
Sadly I have to report that I’m limited with the firmware and physical possiblities of the X-A3 with it’s Bayer sensor.
Recipe v1 and v2 doesn’t achieve the desired reds on grass and trees when they are green 😭
On settings level v1 and v2 for me doesn’t produce much difference.
I prefer still to work with a customed WB on a dedicated IR White card (like the one produced and sold by IRRecams.de) aw I get better results with less extremes.
BUT adding a pola filter does help just a little bit to get a kind of Colour Chrome Blue Effect.
What I can achieve with a customed WB on is a pinkish result on grass / trees.
And like on your images I’ve got mainly the sky of teal colour.
All and all it is not bad results at all 😁
But going thought with Daylight WB and lacking your extended settings with Highlights + Shadows + Color and both Colour Chrome effects, with the huge balanced shift I end up with more psychedelic colours and lose completly the possibility of keeping white building whitish.
So way too extreme unfortunately.
And Velvia setting are not exactly the same as Fujifilm tweak its sim…
I tried shifting a bit after doing the customed WB, but then came some clouds at the end of the afternoon. So I stopped messing around.
I need to retry again an another sunny day.
Of course one could say with post-editing. But that defeats the purpose here.
I would need at least X-Trans IV sensor converted camera to get along to your X-T4 ES results. Unfortunately within my family I can only grab vIII ones (X-T2 or X-T20) which will give approximately the same results as on my X-A3…
I’m not disappointed as it was extra fun to test.
Since your post I was looking at the meteo.
And today I said to family: ‘Well sorry guys, see later, don’t wait for me’, and rushed out for the whole afternoon.
Definitely extra cool and fun afternoon.
And like every work, you need to rework and retest, to achieve better results.
It might take me a while, but it’s the journey which is here interesting.
Meanwhile, without all thise tuning and filters, with silmpy a customed WB, I’m getting straight out with the Kolari Vision IR Chrome filter an orange look on grass and trees is already quite cool to get.
So with those 2 recipes and filter addition, I’ve got more possibilities out of this expensive filter. Which is extra!
With B&W IR photography (I’ve made a bunch of shots this summer time with my X-E1 IR 720nm converted), I have definitely quite nice image stock to show at a future exhibition 👌
Let’s continue to work on the matter. And I need to make more trials with my IR blue filter + UV ones 😉
Keep us posted of your adventures with your X-T4 ES Ritchie.
Thanks! If you have links to any of your pictures, don’t be afraid to share them… would love to see them!
To resume I can with my (Bayer) X-A3 be pretty near the recipe v1 (which is great already), so pinkish, but not v2 which get better reds like the film stock.
I assume from sensor and firmware techs that match the X-A3, it will be the same for X-Trans I & II sensors at least.
Most likely it will need to be X-Trans III at a minimum, but I’m not certain.
I’ll send you over email some samples to review this WE if I can.
I should use my Adobe portfolio but still I did not yet determined what to do about it (with my work I do not have much free time to make if grow. Much more difficult and time consuming than I expected after leaving IG).
About sensor tech, I think more we need the full flavor of X-Trans IV tech.
It happens that I’m testing right now the repair of an X-S10 from a fellow photographer of my photo club.
I’m therefore rediscovering the X-S10 which got everything right in the box like the X-T4: higher settings for highlights & shadows + color, Color Chrome Effect + Blue one, etc..
+ Only one with the 20 to get new BT Instax Link models option.
Only issue for me it is PSAM design but the grip is nice in my hand…
Last here in Europe it is the cheapest body on second-hand market…
IRRecams.de should be able to keep the IBIS running after the conversion process (unlike my X-E1, he was able to keep all the vibration cleaning stuff on my X-A3. But I need to check on him to be sure).
Unfortunately going to an X-Trans IV converted FS camera is definitely not for this year… And I need to see what I will do with my X-A3 FS afterwards…
I look forward to your email! Definitely keep me updated with whatever you decide to do, I’m very curious.
I love this Do you think this will work on Fuji x100VI? Three lenses is a bit of a overkill but if it works I would love to try
Hi Lydia,
It will NOT work on your X100VI.
It will work ONLY with a converted camera to Full Spectrum photography, aka removing the UV/Infrared native filter (that goes over ALL sensors) which is designed to let pass ONLY visible (human) light (aka blocking UV and Infrared light).
Full Spectrum (FS) photography goes approximately from 260nm (near UV) to over 1000nm (near IR).
On a FS camera you need to use external dedicated filters for that kind of photography so to have the UV / visible / infrared (650nm, 720nm + 850nm + 1000nm Black and White Infrared photography) look you want.
Also FS photography involves generally post-editing.
The conversion is a very intrusive operation that needs to be done by pecialized firms to be done well (like Kolari Vision in USA) and not ruin your camera.
As this is an invasive operation it will void completely Fujifilm warranty on a new camera like the X100VI, X-T5, X-T50, etc…
So way better to be done on an old used / second-hand camera.
It is also not a cheap operation (couple of hundred of dollars depending on the company doing not including shipping).
And I would never advise to convert a X100 series or X70 to Full Spectrum as they have a fixed lens. You need to tear down too much hardware (and here the lens) so to get to the sensor and remove its build-in UV/IR filter.
An interchangeable camera is way better. Or grabbing the ones done by Fujifilm like the X-T5 ES (Extended Spectrum) that is using Ritchie.
Also not all lenses work well in infrared due to lens optical design and coating (by design made to prevent inner reflection, UV and IR light pollution).
On many lens, in infrared usage, you end up with the dreaded Infrared central white spot, extra difficult to remove in post.
Here in Ritchie post (and previous ones) we are discussing how to achieve the Kodak AeroChrome film stock look used during WW2 so to detect hiding army nets and during the psychedelic years (70′) by using the Kolari Vision IR Chrome filter designed to achieve this look on digital converted cameras to Full Spectrum. This is an expensive dedicated Infrared filter (price depends on filter size).
On using only the Kolari Vision IR Chrome filter, depending on the sensor technology and it’s construction, you do not end up directly sometimes, like advertised by Kokari Vision, to the Kodack film stock look.
You still needs some post-editing operations which Ritchie and I do not want at all to do.
Ritchie here had the very bright idea to used those 2 (old fashioned way) Black and White filters used in BW film photography so to get immediate matching results without relaying to any post-editing and thus keep our Straight Out Of Camera (SOOC) way of shooting.
Much appreciation!
It requires a full-spectrum converted camera. While you can pay to convert your X100VI, I don’t recommend it… I would choose an interchangeable-lens model instead, because not all lenses work well with IR photography, so you have to be careful with the lens choice. In any event, you need a full-spectrum infrared converted camera to get this look, and not a “normal” camera.
Hello Ritchie,
Lovely work as always! I’ve been following the blog for quite some time and I had a question on IR. I was extremely interested in converting my camera, but am still hesitant to pull the trigger on the FS conversion for my X-t30 and didn’t know if there were any nuances I needed to be cautious of with the process. Is there a filter (other than those mentioned in the blog post) that you would need to use to protect the sensor from UV light that would otherwise be protected pre-conversion? Unfortunately, my search engine skills don’t seem to be up to par as I can’t find an answer to this online.
I can’t speak for the process of converting a camera to full-spectrum, because mine came from Fujifilm already converted (B&H might still have some… it’s still on their website). But I believe if you have a full-spectrum conversion done, there is not any special nuance, other than you need various filters to achieve various looks. I hope this is somehow helpful.
Yes! Very helpful, thank you. I was under the assumption that the sensor not having it’s typical UV protection from the standard filter over it would somehow make it dangerous for UV light to have direct contact with it.