I got back from Fujikina NYC yesterday. Apparently, it was the most-attended Fujifilm-specific event ever in the world! I got to meet a lot of you, and shake a lot of hands. I had some great conversations with many different photographers. One specific conversation was with Dan Bailey, who I’ve talked with before but never met in-person until a few days ago. He gave me a suggestion that I thought was great, and I want to share it with you right away.
You see, when people are new to Fujifilm cameras and Film Simulation Recipes, it’s difficult to know where to begin. There are over 400 Recipes on the Fuji X Weekly website and in the App, and figuring out which ones to use first can be overwhelming. Dan suggested that people should start with just three. Finding and programming seven Recipes can be a lot; however, a list of only three Recipes is a lot easier for the newcomer, and a great way to get your feet wet. After that, if you want to try others, you can add one or two (or up to four) more if you’d like.
Dan’s idea is that there could be many different groups of three Recipes, with various styles or use-cases in mind. Maybe one could be for a 1970’s aesthetic. Perhaps another is for portrait photographers. Another could be for your summer vacation. The potential ideas are endless! I hope to make many of these lists, and organize them somewhere for easy access (I haven’t figured that part out yet). Thanks, Dan, for the wonderful suggestion!
This is the first set of three Recipes. If you are new to this whole Fujifilm Recipe thing and don’t know where to begin, the three below are a great starting point. Before we get to them, though, let me give you a brief guide on how to add them to your camera. You have to know how to program them before you can use them.
It’s not difficult to add Recipes to your Fujifilm camera, but it can be intimidating the first time or two. Pretty soon you’ll be comfortable with it, and adding them will seem easy. The slide above shows the quick steps. While in shooting mode (not playback), press Menu/OK, which opens the main menu. In the IQ set at the top, find and select Edit/Save Custom Setting—it’s usually on the third page. That will bring you to the screen seen in the picture above. Select one of the C1-C7 slots that you want to program the Recipe into, and enter the Recipe parameters (like Film Simulation, White Balance, Color, Highlight, etc., etc.). Save the Recipe, and don’t forget to give it a custom name so that you remember which one it is. There is a little variation between the models and generations, so your camera might look a little different.
The easier way is to send Recipes straight from the Fuji X Weekly App to your camera using the new App-to-Camera Recipe Transfer feature. Be sure to click the link in the last sentence for a how-to guide and to learn more about it. This feature makes the process really quick and simple. You can easily locate the three Recipes below in the App by using the search tool.
Now, to the Fujifilm Recipes! If you have a fifth-generation camera or a fourth-generation model (except the X-T3 and X-T30), these are must-try Recipes for those unsure which ones to use. Specifically, if you have a Fujifilm X-Pro3, X100V, X-T4, X-S10, X-E4, X-T30 II, X-H2s, X-H2, X-T5, X-S20, X100VI, X-T50, X-M5, X-E5, X-T30 III, GFX100S, GFX100 II, GFX100S II, or GFX100RF, this set is for you!
For this specific list, I wanted one Recipe that’s colorful and versatile, one that is more stylistic and color-negative-like, and one for black-and-white photography. I also wanted it to be compatible with the largest number of cameras. Some future lists might be for smaller groups of models, but for this first one I wanted to maximize compatibility. Without any further delay, here are three must-try Fujifilm Recipes:
Provia Positive is one of my newer Fujifilm Recipes, published in May of this year. It was a collab between myself and Dan Allen. It’s colorful and highly versatile, and my personal favorite Provia-based Recipe. Use it anytime of the day or night. It’s great for most subjects and situations, especially travel photography. Provia Positive has a vaguely slide film look. It’s a great option for the C1 slot in your Custom Setting presets. I’ve been using this Recipe a lot lately.
Pacific Blues is bold yet classic. It’s intended for a sunny summer day at the beach, but it works in a variety of situations, including fog. While not modeled after a specific film, it unquestionably has a negative film like aesthetic. It’s one of my all-time favorite Recipes. There’s a version for fourth-generation models, and a version for fifth-generation cameras—make sure you pick the correct version for your camera.
In my opinion, there’s not a better B&W Recipe than Kodak Tri-X 400. If you love monochromatic images, this is a must-try. Created by Anders Lindborg, it’s a true honor to have it available to you on Fuji X Weekly. This is probably my top favorite Recipe for Fujifilm cameras.
This set of three offers a good introduction to the world of Fuji X Weekly Recipes. If you are new to all this and aren’t sure where to begin, give these a try. You might love them all and keep them in your camera, or you might only appreciate one or two—that’s ok, with over 400 to choose from, there’s bound to be a few that match your style.
Find these Film Simulation Recipes and many more on the Fuji X Weekly App! Consider becoming a Patron subscriber to unlock the best App experience and to support Fuji X Weekly.
Great idea! One awesome way to organise them for easy access would be in your FujiXWeekly app, in the Custom Recipe Sets. And wouldn’t it be great if the user could access, compose and alter these Sets in the app, even when their camera is not attached?
Hello Ritchie,
Thank you for this article! The idea of providing a sort of guide on how to use the recipes is a really good one. I get the impression this is a topic that comes up regularly. I’ve been using the recipes myself for several years now… but I feel as though I’ve never really found the right way to do it.
At first, I’d select the recipes I liked in the app and simply copy them onto my device. But I realised that whilst this might work for trying them out or testing them for a photoshoot, for a larger project it lacked consistency to jump from one recipe to another. So, in the end, I only used one of the seven recipes to maintain a degree of consistency. But even then, there was a limitation: some recipes work very well under certain shooting conditions, but not at all under others. So I came up with the following approach: I choose a base recipe, then I create variations by adjusting the settings (particularly the white balance) for the different shooting conditions. As I’m sticking with the same simulation, I’m therefore maintaining a certain consistency in the project.
Here, you’re suggesting three recipes (I think that’s a good idea, because seven is too many…). But these recipes are based on different simulations and are therefore, in my view, difficult to use for the same project…
It would be interesting to find out how Fuji users apply the recipes in order to identify the best approach (or to get some ideas, because there isn’t just one way that suits everyone). For me, it’s still a bit confusing… In fact, I regularly find myself wondering whether to go back to shooting in RAW…