Classic Chrome | Fuji X Weekly

Fujifilm X100V Film Simulation: Kodak Portra 400

Bridge Over Stream – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X100V – “Kodak Portra 400”

This is a brand-new version of my X-T30 Kodak Portra 400 film simulation recipe, designed specifically for the Fujifilm X100V, X-Pro3 and X-T4. My “old” recipe isn’t, in fact, old, as I published it only one month ago, but already I have improved on it, thanks to Fujifilm’s new tools, and also thanks to Fuji X Weekly reader Thomas Schwab, who helped tremendously refine the recipe to be more accurate to actual Portra 400 film. You see, he captured some pictures with Portra 400 film and made some identical pictures with his X-Pro3. After a few small changes, this new recipe emerged. It’s very similar to the X-T30 Portra 400 recipe, the differences aren’t huge, but it is subtly better in my opinion.

Portra 400 was introduced by Kodak in 1998, and was redesigned in 2006 and again in 2010. As the name implies, it’s intended for portrait photography, but can be used for many other types of photography. It’s similar to Portra 160, but with more contrast, saturation and grain. Believe it or not, ISO 400 was considered “high ISO” by many photographers back in the film days, and Portra 400 was one of the absolute best “high ISO” color films ever made. Like all films, results can vary greatly depending on how it’s shot, developed and printed or scanned, and even which version of the film you’re talking about.

Backlit Forest Leaves – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X100V – “Kodak Portra 400”

This new Portra 400 film simulation recipe requires the use of Clarity, which slows down the camera considerably. Fujifilm suggests shooting RAW and adding Clarity later, but I just use the pause to slow myself down. The use of Clarity also means that this recipe can’t be used on “older” cameras, only the X100V, X-Pro3 and X-T4 (as of this writing), but feel free to apply the white balance shift of this recipe to the X-T30 version and see if you like it better.

Classic Chrome
Dynamic Range: DR-Auto
Highlight: -1
Shadow: -2
Color: +2
Noise Reduction: -4
Sharpening: -2
Clarity: +2
Grain Effect: Strong, Small
Color Chrome Effect: Strong
Color Chrome Effect Blue: Weak
White Balance: Daylight, +3 Red & -5 Blue
ISO: Auto, up to ISO 6400
Exposure Compensation: +1/3 to +1 (typically)

Example photographs, all camera-made JPEGs using this new Kodak Portra 400 film simulation recipe on my Fujifilm X100V:

Light Green Leaves – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Sunlight In The Tree – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Forest – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Creek Through The Trees – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Light on the Water – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Creek – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Big Green Leaf – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Sunshine & Tree Leaves – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Sunlit – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Stone & Blooms – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Jo Swinging – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Brother & Sister Driving – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Protect & Serve – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Seagull on a Lamp – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Stormy Reeds – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V

See also: Film Simulation Recipes

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My Fujifilm X100V Kodachrome 64 Film Simulation Recipe

Posted on May 27 by Ritchie Roesch

Evening at a Pond – Farmington Bay, UT – Fujifilm X100V “Kodachrome 64”

The Fujifilm X100V has some new features, including Clarity and Color Chrome Effect Blue, that my X-T30 doesn’t have, despite sharing the same sensor. The more JPEG options that I have, the more accurately I can create in-camera looks. My hope is to revisit some of my film simulation recipes, and create what I hope are more accurate versions using the new features. The first one that I revamped is my Kodachrome 64 film simulation recipe.

Many people love my Kodachrome 64 recipe, but not everyone. The biggest complaint that I’ve heard about it is that the reds aren’t vibrant enough. I don’t disagree with that, but there are always compromises when recreating looks in-camera because the tools available to me are limited. Of course, what Kodachrome 64 looks like depends on how you’re viewing it, whether projector, light table, scan, print, and how so. You can find some vastly different looking pictures that were captured on Kodachrome 64. For this revamped recipe, I spent some time studying the Kodachrome slides that I captured many years ago.

Red Lights & Rain – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V “Kodachrome 64”

While I feel that this is an improved Kodachrome 64 recipe, it’s still not perfect. Those who disliked how reds were rendered on the old recipe will certainly like this one better, but is it 100% exactly like the film? No. I think +2 Color might be too much, but +1 Color doesn’t render reds and yellows vibrant enough. If you prefer +1 Color, feel free to do that instead. There’s a little less contrast with this new version. Both of the Color Chrome Effects, the lower Dynamic Range setting, and Clarity add contrast, so I changed Highlight and Shadow to compensate. The X-T4 has .5 Highlight and Shadow adjustments, and I would set Shadow to +0.5 if I were using these settings on that camera (I hope that Fujifilm updates the X100V and X-Pro3 to allow this, too). I think it would be acceptable to use +1 Shadow, but I felt that was a tad too much, so I set it to 0. Despite not being perfect, I do feel that this version is a little more accurate to actual Kodachrome 64 film.

If you have an X100V, X-Pro3 or X-T4, I invite you to try this new-and-improved Kodachrome 64 film simulation recipe. Be sure to let me know what you think! Here are a couple pictures comparing the two versions of this recipes:

Original Kodachrome 64 recipe.

New Kodachrome 64 Recipe.

Original Kodachrome 64 recipe.

New Kodachrome 64 recipe.

Classic Chrome
Dynamic Range: DR200
Highlight: 0
Shadow: 0
Color: +2
Noise Reduction: -4
Sharpening: +1
Clarity: +3
Grain Effect: Weak, Small
Color Chrome Effect: Strong
Color Chrome Effect Blue: Weak
White Balance: Daylight, +2 Red & -5 Blue
ISO: Auto, up to ISO 6400
Exposure Compensation: 0 to +2/3 (typically)

Example photographs, all camera-made JPEGs using this new Kodachrome 64 film simulation recipe on my Fujifilm X100V:

White Horse by a Stream – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Horses in the Grass – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Curious Horse – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Country Tires – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Yellow Flowers, Blue Sky – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Wishful Day – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Beer & Board – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Road Bicycling – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V

All the World’s a Sunny Day – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Orders & Pickup – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Red, White & Blue Day – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Flag Up Close – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Reeds by the Water – Farmington Bay, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Evening Reeds – Farmington Bay, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Landscape Flowers – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Handlebar – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Kodak Colors – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Half of an Orange – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Ground Beans – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Pallets – Centerville, UT – Fujifilm X100V

IHOP – Centerville, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Cupcake – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Sitting on Concrete – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V

Spring Snow – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V

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My Fujifilm X-T30 Kodak Portra 400 Film Simulation Recipe

Posted on May 10 by Ritchie Roesch

Around The Bend – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 “Kodak Portra 400”

Portra 400, which is a color negative film, was introduced by Kodak in 1998. It was redesign in 2006 and again in 2010. As the name implies, it’s intended for portrait photography, but can be used for many other types of photography. It’s similar to Portra 160, but with more contrast, saturation and grain. Believe it or not, ISO 400 was considered “high ISO” by many photographers back in the film days, and Portra 400 was one of the absolute best “high ISO” color films ever made. Like all films, results can vary greatly depending on how it’s shot, developed and printed or scanned, and even which version of the film you’re talking about. Interestingly, Kodak briefly made a black-and-white version of Portra 400!

I’ve been meaning to revisit Kodak Portra 400 for some time now. As you may know, I already have a Kodak Portra 400 recipe, which I created two years ago, but it requires a difficult-to-achieve custom white balance measurement. I was never really satisfied with that recipe, even though it can produce interesting results. I have been eager to create a new Portra 400 recipe, and, In fact, I’ve tried a couple of times, but without success.

Blue Sky Day – Syracuse, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 “Kodak Portra 400”

A Fuji X Weekly reader suggested to me that if I use my Kodak Portra 160 recipe, except increase Shadow, Highlight and Color by one, that should be pretty close to Portra 400. Indeed it is! I liked what I saw, but I played around with the settings more to see if I could improve on it. Turns out not much needed to be tweaked. I liked the results better with Color Chrome Effect set to Strong, but if you have an X-Trans III camera, which doesn’t have that feature, you can still use this recipe, but it will look slightly different. The only other change that I made was I set Grain to Strong.

Classic Chrome
Dynamic Range: DR-Auto
Highlight: -1
Shadow: -1
Color: +2
Noise Reduction: -4
Sharpening: -2
Grain Effect: Strong
Color Chrome Effect: Strong
White Balance: Daylight, +4 Red & -5 Blue
ISO: Auto, up to ISO 6400
Exposure Compensation: +2/3 to +1 (typically)

Example photographs, all camera-made JPEGs using this Kodak Portra 400 film simulation recipe on my Fujifilm X-T30:

Mountain in the Evening Light – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Reeds To The Sky – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Jensen Pond – Syracuse, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Water Beyond The Trees – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Paved Trail – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Spring Green & White – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Fries in the Sky – Syracuse, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Royal Lunch – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Evening Suburban Home – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Boy in the Striped Light – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Boy Sitting – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Sunlight Through The Pink Blooms – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Pink Tree Bloom – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

See also: Film Simulation Recipes

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My Fujifilm X-T30 Kodacolor II 126 Film Simulation Recipe

Posted on April 28 by Ritchie Roesch

Blooming Pink – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 “Kodacolor II 126”

A Fuji X Weekly reader asked me to recreate the look of some old family prints from the 1970’s that he found. After some investigating, it was determined that the pictures were captured on an Instamatic camera using 126 film (also called Kodapak). 126 film was basically 35mm film, except with a paper back and no sprockets (like 120 film), and in a cartridge that didn’t need to be rewound (similar to 110 film). It was intended for low-budget point-and-shoot cameras, and the cartridge made loading and unloading film easier. Basically, Instamatic was Kodak’s attempt to open up photography to the masses, as it required little to no skill or photographic background. It was very popular in the 1960’s and ’70’s, and became less popular in the 1980’s. A quirk of Instamatic cameras and 126 film is that it captured square pictures.

It’s unknown what film was used on the pictures in question, but most likely it was Kodacolor II, which was by far the most popular color 126 film during the time that these pictures were captured. Kodacolor is a name that Kodak gave to a number of different color negative films going back to the 1940’s. Kodacolor II was the very first C-41 process film. It was introduced in 1972 and discontinued in 1981, replaced by Kodacolor VR, which is the film that my Kodacolor film simulation recipe resembles. The prints likely have some fading and color shifts due to age, but they appeared to be in good condition overall.

Instamatic – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 “Kodacolor II 126”

This film simulation recipe, which I’ve called Kodacolor II 126, is a bit unusual in that it is supposed to mimic a look that came from cheap cameras. It calls for Image Quality to be set to Normal instead of Fine (I normally use Fine). The only other recipe that I’ve done this with is my Kodak Elite Chrome 200 Color Fade. I keep the ISO high on this recipe to make it look more grainy. While I’ve done that with several black-and-white recipes, this is the first time I’ve done it with color. This is also the only recipe that calls for the 1:1 aspect ratio, although feel free to use 3:2 or 16:9 if you’d like. These settings pair well with vintage lenses, and if you “miss” focus a little sometimes, well, that just makes it resemble Instamatic even more.

Classic Chrome
Dynamic Range: DR200
Highlight: -1
Shadow: +3
Color: -4
Noise Reduction: -4
Sharpening: -4
Grain Effect: Strong
Color Chrome Effect: Strong
Image Quality: Normal
Aspect Ratio: 1:1
White Balance: 6300K, +6 Red & +3 Blue
ISO: 3200 – 6400
Exposure Compensation: 0 to +2/3 (typically)

Example photographs, all camera-made JPEGs using this “Kodacolor II 126” film simulation recipe on my Fujifilm X-T30:

Polaroid Girl – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Lizard, Boy & Wall – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Boy in the Alley – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Two Cans – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Suburban House & Tree – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Suburban Trees & Distant Mountain – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Tree Top & Mountain Top – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Suburban April – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Robot in the Window – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Heart & Soul – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Wreath & Flowers – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

White Paper – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Bowl on a Trike – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Hose & Elephant – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Concrete Path – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Little Colorful Chair – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Summer Chair – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Day Dreaming – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

See also: Film Simulation Recipes

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My Fujifilm X-T30 Kodak Gold 200 Film Simulation Recipe

Posted on April 16 by Ritchie Roesch

Crown Burger – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 “Kodak Gold 200”

I’ve been asked countless times to create a Kodak Gold film simulation recipe. I’ve tried several times to make one, but I couldn’t get it quite right. Last week I was scrolling through Instagram and I saw a picture that I thought at first glance was captured using my Portra 160 recipe. It’s not unusual to see pictures that were captured using my different recipes, as some of them have become quite popular. It was an interesting picture, so I took my time looking at it, and as I did I thought that there was just too much saturation, contrast and grain for it to be my Portra recipe, yet it was still very similar. When I read the description I realized that the picture was captured with actual Kodak Gold 200 film! At that moment I knew that I could create a Gold recipe simply by modifying the Portra recipe.

Kodak Gold, which was introduced in the late-1980’s and is still around today, is a general purpose color negative film. It was originally called Kodacolor VR-G, then Kodacolor Gold, and finally Gold. It replaced Kodacolor VR. While the film has been improved a few times over the years, it still looks pretty much the same today as it did in the 1980’s. The film is prone to color shifts, and results can vary significantly depending on how the picture was shot, developed and printed or scanned.

Flowing Farmington Creek – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 “Kodak Gold 200”

Even though this Kodak Gold film simulation recipe is very similar to my Portra recipe, it took many experiments to get it right. I tried different combinations of Highlight, Shadow and Color before settling on these settings. I adjusted the white balance shift several times before returning to the same shift as Portra 160. I feel that this recipe is a good facsimile to actual Gold film, although, like all recipes, it will never be exact, as it cannot account for all the variables. It’s pretty close, though, in my opinion. I want to give a special thank-you to Fuji X Weekly reader Piotr Skrzypek for creating the original Portra 160 recipe for X-Trans II, which allowed me to make one for X-Trans III & IV cameras, which in turn made this Kodak Gold 200 recipe possible. This recipe is compatible with X-Trans III & IV cameras.

Classic Chrome
Dynamic Range: DR-Auto
Highlight: -2
Shadow: +1
Color: +3
Noise Reduction: -4
Sharpening: -2
Grain Effect: Strong
Color Chrome Effect: Off
White Balance: Daylight, +4 Red & -5 Blue
ISO: Auto, up to ISO 6400
Exposure Compensation: +2/3 to +1 1/3 (typically)

Example photographs, all camera-made JPEGs using this Kodak Gold 200 film simulation recipe on my Fujifilm X-T30:

Space Communication – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Sky Traffic – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Little Grass Runner – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Pear Tree Top – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Spring Tree – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Tree Blossom – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Backlit Pear Blossoms – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Pear Blossom Day – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Boy in Spring – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Branch & Sky – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Pear Blossom Reflection – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Phragmites – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Easy Feelin’ – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Girl in the Backyard – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Stages of Tulip Blooms – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Crescent Tulips – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Floral Decor – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Cheese – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Grill & Chill – Centerville, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

No Door Dash in the Drive Thru – Centerville, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Corner – Centerville, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

KFC – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Everette Brown – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Outside 7-Eleven – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Sunlight Through The Trees – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Tree Trunk Above the Pond – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Boulder Above the Pond – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Father & Son Fishing in Farmington Pond – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Fishing in Farmington Pond – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Staircase Down to the Water – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Flowing Creek – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Creek in the Woods – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Rocky Farmington Creek – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Winter is Nearly Over – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Red Car in Green Grass – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Bug in the Dirt – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Sunset on Burger Customer Parking – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X-T30

Classic Chrome for Those Who Don’t Have It (X-Trans I)

Posted on April 10 by Ritchie Roesch

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One of these two pictures is Classic Chrome and one is PRO Neg. Std. Can you guess which is which?

Classic Chrome is probably the most popular film simulation created by Fujifilm. It is the most common starting point for my film simulation recipes. It was introduced by Fujifilm beginning with the X-Trans II sensor, so those who have X-Trans I cameras or older Bayer sensor cameras don’t have it as an option. The X100, X100S, X-E1 and X-Pro1 all lack Classic Chrome.

I’ve been asked many times how to replicate Classic Chrome for cameras that don’t have it. I figured it out! And it’s not what you might expect. It’s not the advice that I have been giving out over the years, which was based on Astia. I figured that Astia with the contrast turned up and color turned down would be close, but I was wrong. It’s difficult to get the contrast correct when using Astia, and with Color set to -2 it’s still much too vibrant. Turns out PRO Neg. Std is the film simulation required to mimic Classic Chrome. Shocked? I was. It was literally the last color film simulation that I tried.

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One of these two pictures is Classic Chrome and one is PRO Neg. Std. Can you guess which is which?

My experiments were conducted on my Fujifilm X-T1. Using Classic Chrome, I set Color, Highlight, Shadow and Sharpness at 0, Dynamic Range to DR100, Noise Reduction to -2, and White Balance to Auto with Red and Blue both set to 0. Then I tried to replicate that look using one of the other film simulations. I figured out how to get pretty darn close using the PRO Neg. Std film simulation.

There are some differences between actual Classic Chrome and these settings. This faux Classic Chrome is actually slightly more yellow. If there was a way to shift the white balance by fractions this could be made more accurate, as the actual shift should be closer to +0.3 Red and -0.6 Blue, but that’s not possible. You could set the white balance shift to 0 Red and 0 Blue if you prefer less yellow, and I think that’s a legitimate option, as I debated between that and this, but ultimately I went with the warmer white balance shift. There’s also slightly deeper shadows and more saturation with these settings than real Classic Chrome. I think +0.7 Shadow and Color would be more accurate, but +1 is as close as I could get. I found that setting Shadow and Color to 0 produced results that were further away from Classic Chrome, but that’s something you could consider. These settings are not perfect, but for those who don’t have Classic Chrome as an option, in my opinion this is as close as you’re going to get, which is actually pretty close.

PRO Neg. Std
Dynamic Range: DR200
Highlight: +1
Shadow: +1
Color: +1
Sharpness: 0
Noise Reduction: -2
White Balance: Auto, 0 Red & -1 Blue

What about the pictures above? The top one is the faux Classic Chrome using PRO Neg. Std and the bottom one is actual Classic Chrome. Did you guess correctly?

Below are example photographs, all straight-out-of-camera JPEGs from my Fujifilm X-T1, that compare faux Classic Chrome using PRO Neg. Std with Classic Chrome.