About a month-and-a-half ago, Dan Allen sent a Recipe for me to try. It was based on Provia and was specifically intended for spring blossoms, so he called it Spring Provia. When I had the opportunity, I loaded it into my camera and tried it out. I didn’t get to use it a lot, but I did like the results. Fast forward to Fujikina Copenhagen. There was a Magnum exhibit that had a light table wall with hundreds of color transparencies displayed. It was really cool! I noticed one group of slides—I couldn’t tell you who the photographer was or what film was used or any technical information—that was reminiscent of Dan’s Recipe. I found the images I had made using his Recipe on the SD card in my X-E5, and reprocessed them in-camera to better match the slides. While I don’t think I got it completely perfect, I was very happy with the results. Then I continued to use the Recipe—a variant of Dan’s Recipe—while in Copenhagen.
My modified version, which I’ve called Provia Positive, is highly versatile. It’s hands-down my favorite Provia Recipe of all-time. As many of you may know, Provia is not my favorite Film Simulation, and I don’t personally use it often. This Recipe gave me a new appreciation for it, and is one I could see myself using regularly. It’s highly versatile, great for most subjects and situations. While portraits are probably hit-or-miss, it’s excellent for landscapes, still-life, street photography, etc., etc..
For Dan’s original Recipe—Spring Provia—use Provia, DR400, Grain Effect Off, Color Chrome Effect Strong, Color Chrome FX Blue Off, White Balance Daylight, WB Shift +1 Red & -1 Blue, Highlight -1, Shadow +1, Color +3, Sharpness 0, High ISO NR -4, and Clarity 0. I invite you to try Dan’s Recipe, it’s pretty good. My variant adds Grain (because grain was visible in the slides, and I like it personally), Color Chrome FX Blue Strong (to mimic the blue sky in some of the slides, perhaps the photographer used a polarizer filter), Auto White Priority (some of the pictures in the group were in different light situations, and Daylight didn’t match those), WB Shift +2 Red & -3 Blue (I went back-and-forth between +1 and +2 Red… +1.5 Red would have probably been most appropriate if it was possible, so I settled on +2), Color +4, Sharpness -1, and Clarity +2. I made quite a few small changes, but the core idea of Dan’s Recipe remains, so I want to give him credit for the original concept.
This Provia Positive Fujifilm Recipe is compatible with “newer” fourth-generation models—X-T4, X-S10, X-E4, and X-T30 II—as well as all fifth-generation cameras—X-H2s, X-H2, X-T5, X-S20, X100VI, X-T50, X-M5, X-E5, and X-T30 III—and “newer” GFX models, like the GFX100S, GFX100 II, GFX100S II, and GFX100RF. For the X-Pro3 and X100V, simply use Auto WB instead of Auto White Priority (outside of artificial light scenarios, it will look the same). For the X-T3 and X-T30, try Dan’s Spring Provia Recipe, which is compatible with those cameras.
Film Simulation: Provia/STD
Grain Effect: Strong, Small
Color Chrome Effect: Strong
Color Chrome FX Blue: Strong
White Balance: Auto White Priority, +2 Red & -3 Blue
Dynamic Range: DR400
Highlight: -1
Shadow: +1
Color: +4
Sharpness: -1
High ISO NR: -4
Clarity: +2
ISO: Auto, up to ISO 6400
Exposure Compensation: +1/3 to +1 (typically)
Example photographs, all camera-made JPEGs using this Provia Positive Film Simulation Recipe on a Fujifilm X-E5, X-T5, and GFX100RF:
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This recipe looks nice, so that I’ll try it.
One question though, what is the benefit of turning up FX blue to strong and reducing blue by 3?
Hello, this is unrelated to the topic, but I’d like to ask you a question.
If I were to ask which is the best Kodak roller and which is the best Fujifilm roller, which two rollers would you recommend? I use an XT4 and your opinion is very important. I want rollers that people will recognize and say, “This was definitely shot with a Kodak roller,” and “This was definitely shot with a Fujifilm roller.”
I eagerly await your reply. 🙂
My English isn’t very good, I hope you can understand my question.
What about Kodachrome 25 or 64, and Fuji Velvia?
There’s a lot of different ways that you could approach this. I think, in general, Nostalgic Neg. and Classic Chrome are the most obvious Kodak-like, one being more retro ’60’s/70’s and the other being more 80’s/90’s/00’s. Classic Negative and Velvia are the most obvious Fuji-like, but in much different ways. If the goal is to make people think that you shot some image on film instead of digital, something like Kodak Gold 200 or Kodak Portra 160 or a Recipe along those lines, as well as Fujicolor Superia 100 or Fujicolor Superia 800 or one like that.
So those are two very different settings. Color Chrome FX Blue darken/deepens the color blue, which is intended to mimic using a polarizer. The Blue WB Shift is about the tint of the overall image, with the negative value leaning yellow; -3 Blue is somewhat similar to using a warming filter, such as an 81A or 81B. I hope this clarifies.
Ooh, I’m going to have to try this one! I like the vibrancy of the colours without them being OTT.
Thanks for this. 👍🏻
You are very welcome! 😀
Definitely tasty.
Your choice of grain might be more acceptable on the bigger sensor.
Still going to be annoyed by waiting for the Clarity processes.
That is for Fuji to fix.
Best Rgds.
I really hope that Fujifilm address the Clarity pause on the sixth-generation cameras.
Hello Ritchie, this is unrelated to the topic, but I’d like to ask you a question.
If I were to ask which is the best Kodak roller and which is the best Fujifilm roller, which two rollers would you recommend? I use an XT4 and your opinion is very important. I want rollers that people will recognize and say, “This was definitely shot with a Kodak roller,” and “This was definitely shot with a Fujifilm roller.”
I eagerly await your reply. 🙂
My English isn’t very good, I hope you can understand my question.
In general, Nostalgic Neg. and Classic Chrome are the most obvious Kodak-like, one being more retro ’60’s/70’s and the other being more 80’s/90’s/00’s. Classic Negative and Velvia are the most obvious Fuji-like, but in much different ways. If the goal is to make people think that you shot some image on film instead of digital, something like Kodak Gold 200 or Kodak Portra 160 or a Recipe along those lines, as well as Fujicolor Superia 100 or Fujicolor Superia 800 or one like that, is your best bet, I think.
I used a lot of Sensia and Provia in the late 90s and early 2000s and this simulation gives a pretty good representation of these films. I think I mentioned this here before but it’s very disappointing that the standard simulation that comes with every Fujifilm camera isn’t a serious attempt at recreating the look of film.
I think they should drop the current one and replace it with something just called Standard, and add a proper Provia option.
If I had to guess the film used for the group of slides, I would probably say Provia or Sensia, but I’m definitely not certain. Nothing written or printed on the border gave an indication, unfortunately.
I agree with your assessment (and disappointment) of the standard film sim. I would love a more serious attempt at Provia, and not the “standard” option that was designed to be most appealing to those without a film background (Fujifilm’s words, not mine). Thanks for the comment!
Thanks for sharing this. This recipe does gives an anime feel to it. Can’t wait to try it during my trip to Japan in November.
A Studio Ghibli vibe is definitely possible. Have fun in Japan!
If you use a cinebloom 10% filter would you still leave clarity at a negative value on your film sims? Or set it to 0.
A diffusion filter like CineBloom (or Pro Mist) is kinda sorta equivalent to minus Clarity. It’s not 1:1, but they more or less do similar things. For CineBloom, 5% is roughly equivalent to -1 or -2 Clarity; 10% is roughly equivalent to -3 or -4 Clarity; 20% is roughly equivalent to -5 Clarity. I hope this helps!
Hi Ritchie, thank you very much for all the Film Stock Recipes you’ve been creating over the years. The only irritating thing is when you have to remember different WB Shifts, if the recipes share the same basic WB, so I came up with this idea:
I save your recipe as custom profiles and add the WB-Shift info in the profile name. Currently my custom profiles are named like this:
– Gold200 D R4 B-5
– Vision3 F1 R-3 B-1
– Kodachrome K5900 R-1 B4
– Porta400 D R2 B-6
– Ektar100 A R3 B-2
First is the film recipe name, followed by an abbreviated WB Type (A = Auto, D = Daylight, F1 = Fluorecent Light 1), and finally the Shifts (R4 = Red +4; B-5 = Blue -5)
When I use the Q-Button to switch between different recipes, I can see all the info the profile name and quickly adjust the Shifts if necessary.
Maybe this is helpful for you or some of your readers here too 🙂
Thanks again and all the best from Switzerland,
Fabian
Thanks for the tip! Unfortunately, cameras older than the X-Pro3 (such as the X-T3, X-T30, X-Trans III models, etc.) only remember one WB Shift per WB type. Your method seems like it would work well to remember the WB and Shift (for example, switching between the Gold 200 and Portra 400 Recipes), which I’m sure will be helpful to some. I appreciate the comment!
Yep, you got me, I’m using an X-T3… Thanks for the info, good to know they changed it for newer models. What do you think about using vintage lenses combined with your film recipes? I started using my old FD lenses and love the look
I love using vintage lenses. My favorites are a Helios 44-2 and Pentax-110 50mm, but I have a dozen or so that I use from time-to-time.