Kodak | FUJI X WEEKLY

Film Simulation Review: Planting Flowers with “Kodak Gold 200”

Posted on April 25, 2020 by Ritchie Roesch

White Tulip Bloom – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 & Fujinon 35mm f/2

Believe it or not, there are over 70 different film simulation recipes on Fuji X Weekly! That’s amazing! There are lots more than I would have guessed before I counted them. And I’m working on even more!

Something I’ve realized is that I haven’t spent all that much time on the practical use of these different recipes. You might not know which ones to choose, or when to use them, or maybe even how to use them. Perhaps you are overwhelmed by all of the options. Maybe you are not sure which ones can be used on which cameras. I haven’t done a great job with this side of it, the practical side. Moving forward I hope to make things easier for you by showing you the “what, where and why” of the different film simulation recipes.

This post is the very tiny tip of what I hope is a great big iceberg of information. I plan to publish many articles that I hope are helpful to you, that answer some of the questions you might have about these recipes. This article is a very simple one: an example of when to use my Kodak Gold 200 film simulation recipe. I get asked often, “What’s the best recipe for this situation?” Whatever that situation might be. I thought it would be helpful to showcase different recipes being used in various situations. I hope to do a whole bunch of these types of articles, and I’m calling them Film Simulation Reviews. You’ll be able to see a certain recipes used in a certain situation, and you’ll be able to judge for yourself if you like it or not. If you appreciate how a certain recipe looks in a certain case, for example Kodak Gold 200 with flowers and shaded light, which is what you see here, then you can use it yourself when in a similar situation.

My wife, Amanda, was going to plant some flowers in a pot on our porch, and I wanted to capture it. I grabbed my Fujifilm X-T30 and attached a Fujinon 35mm f/2 lens to it. Why this combo? I like that camera and lens; I don’t have a profound answer. Initially I planned to use my Portra 160 recipe, but after judging the light, which was shady and flat, I decided to go with the Gold recipe instead because it has more contrast. I think it was a good choice for this scene. Actual Kodak Gold film was considered a good all-around choice for many situations, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the film simulation that mimics it is also good for many different situations.

Pot & Soil – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 & Fujinon 35mm f/2

Digging Dirt – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 & Fujinon 35mm f/2

Planting Tulips – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 & Fujinon 35mm f/2

White Tulip Blossom – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 & Fujinon 35mm f/2

Adding Yellow – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 & Fujinon 35mm f/2

Adding Soil – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 & Fujinon 35mm f/2

Potted Blooms – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 & Fujinon 35mm f/2

Just Add Water – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 & Fujinon 35mm f/2

Wet Potted Blossoms – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 & Fujinon 35mm f/2

Wet Tulip – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 & Fujinon 35mm f/2

Porch Blossoms – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 & Fujinon 35mm f/2

Potted Blossoms – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 & Fujinon 35mm f/2

My Fujifilm X-T30 Kodak Gold 200 Film Simulation Recipe

Posted on April 16, 2020 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

Kodak & Fujifilm Unite! Sort of….

Posted on April 26, 2019 by Ritchie Roesch

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When I first started out in photography, two big names in the industry were Kodak and Fujifilm. While they both made cameras, it was not their gear that they were famous for. Kodak and Fujifilm were known for their photographic films. Kodak was the long-standing big dog on campus, while Fujifilm was the distant runner up. Back then, almost everyone used film, as digital capture was new and not particularly good, and so there was a lot of business to be had. These two companies were rivals, and they both battled very hard for your business.

When the film industry collapsed, it was very abrupt. Within a couple of years, both companies went from record profits to full-fledged panic. Film sales dropped about 25% each year for many years in a row. Kodak, the giant in the industry, fell especially hard, eventually going bankrupt. What remained was divided and sold, and Kodak today, in its various forms, is mostly insignificant in the current photographic industry. Fujifilm, on the other hand, made some smart decisions, such as diversifying by applying their unique knowledge to other fields (such as cosmetics and pharmaceuticals), which allowed them to not only survive, but grow. Now photography is a small part of their overall business model, but nevertheless it is a successful and profitable arm of the company. While Kodak had the upper hand for a long, long time, Fujifilm won in the long run.

A Kodak Moment – Antelope Island SP, UT – Fujifilm X-T20

When I purchased my Fujifilm X-T30, I wanted to upgrade to a better camera neck strap than the one that came with the camera. I browsed the web for different ones, and I ended up going with a vintage Kodak strap. A cool feature is a built-in film canister holder (it can hold up to three), which is completely useless in today’s photographic world, but would have been handy 20 years ago. I’m not completely sure how old the neck strap is, but it was in great condition, like it was barely used, if used at all. It adds a retro touch that nicely compliments the retro-inspired design of the X-T30.

It might seem strange to put a Kodak strap on a Fujifilm camera. At one time these two companies were serious rivals. Back then I used film made by both of them, as well as other companies like Ilford and Agfa. I supported these companies with my hard-earned dollars. It’s sad that film has become a small niche market. It’s sad that the mighty Eastman Kodak Company experienced such a big fall. I’m happy to display their logo on my gear in honor of the pictures that I made with their products. I’m also happy to use a Fujifilm camera today, as it’s such a great photographic tool. While it may seem unusual to unite these two brands together in this way, I feel privileged to do so, since both have played an important role in my photography.

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[Not] My Fujifilm X-Pro2 Tri-X Push-Process Film Simulation Recipe

Posted on August 25, 2018 by Ritchie Roesch

Hail Storm – Kaysville, UT – Fujifilm X-Pro2 “Tri-X Push Process”

Fuji X Weekly reader Luis Costa shared on his website, Lifeunintended.com, a brilliant black-and-white film simulation recipe for Fujifilm X-Trans III cameras. I’ll get into why it’s genius in a moment, but I wanted to give Luis a big “thank you” for coming up with these settings and sharing them. I strongly encourage you to visit his site and check out his photography and articles, as it’s worth your time to do so.

For most of the 20 years that I’ve been making pictures, one rule of thumb has been to keep the ISO as low as you can get away with. A big reason for this is that high-ISO film typically wasn’t very good. In fact, my favorite choice for high-ISO photography was Ilford Delta 400, and if I needed something higher than ISO 400 I might push that film a stop or two. So, if I really needed to, I’d go as high as ISO 1600. I did shoot Delta 3200 once and found it barely usable. Usually ISO 800 was my limit. Most often I was shooting between ISO 50 and ISO 100.

I was a little late to the digital photography game. Even so, my first digital camera, a Pentax DSLR, didn’t look great at ISO 1600 except for “grainy” black-and-white pictures. At one time I used a Sigma Merrill camera that even ISO 400 was pushing it. The crazy high ISOs that are common today are a recent development. Now ISO 3200 doesn’t seem all that high, and many people use it freely without thinking twice about it. It’s really quite amazing!

I have found on X-Trans III cameras, such as the Fujifilm X-Pro2, that ISO 12800 is the upper limit, and it’s better for black-and-white than color. Even so, I stopped using ISO 12800 and made ISO 6400 my upper Auto-ISO limit some months ago just because I felt that ISO 6400 was a better top ISO for color photographs and I didn’t want to bother changing the ISO depending on if I was shooting color or black-and-white. Besides, ISO 6400 is plenty high for almost any situation. As it turns out, that wasn’t the greatest idea I’ve ever had, and I’ll explain why.

Shutter Speed – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-Pro2 “Tri-X Push Process”

Luis made a film simulation recipe that requires the ISO to be high. In fact, he uses ISO 12800, and only moves the ISO down when he has to because there is too much light. In case you didn’t catch that, he purposely chooses ISO 12800 because of how it looks. This is a radical move! It works because of the genius of the Acros film simulation. You see, Fujifilm designed Acros to have a built-in grain effect that automatically increases the graininess of the photograph as the ISO increases. At and near ISO 12800 the grain looks absolutely beautiful, and his recipe takes full advantage of that.

The film simulation recipe that Luis invented produces results that resemble Kodak Tri-X 400 film that’s been pushed one or perhaps one-and-a-half stops, and I would add using Agfa Rodinal. The grain pattern and structure isn’t a 100% match, but for straight-out-of-camera results, it’s pretty darn convincing. I’ve only been using it for a week, but it has already become one of my favorites! It’s better than my Acros Push-Process recipe that I use frequently, and I like that one a lot, too.

The one thing that I do different than Luis is I set Auto-ISO to be between ISO 3200 and 12800, with the minimum shutter speed 1/500. I find that ISO 3200 is the lowest ISO that still gives an acceptably grainy result (but the results are better when the ISO is higher). Using 1/500 as the minimum shutter speed forces the camera to use a higher ISO except for when there is a lot of light. Initially I tried a lower shutter speed, but it wasn’t pushing the ISO up enough, so I found 1/500 to be better. Now the camera will often choose an ISO of 6400 or higher, which is where this recipe shines.

Acros (Acros+Y, Acros+R, Acros+G)
Dynamic Range: DR200
Highlight: +3
Shadow: +4
Noise Reduction: -4
Sharpening: -1
Grain Effect: Off
ISO: Auto between 3200 & 12800
Exposure Compensation: +1/3 to +2/3 (typically)

Example photographs, all straight-out-of-camera JPEGs made using [Not] My Fujifilm X-Pro2 Tri-X Push-Process Film Simulation recipe:

Camera Shutter Dial – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-Pro2 “Tri-X Push Process”

Aperture – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-Pro2 “Tri-X Push Process”

35mm Film Rolls – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-Pro2 “Tri-X Push Process”

Strange Plant – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-Pro2 “Tri-X Push Process”

Chair Stripes – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-Pro2 “Tri-X Push Process”

Canadian – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X-Pro2 & 60mm “Tri-X Push-Process”

Storm Building Over Wasatch Ridge – South Weber, UT – Fuji X-Pro2 “Tri-X Push Process”

Writing Lessons – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-Pro2 “Tri-X Push-Process”

Learning The Letter S – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-Pro2 “Tri-X Push Process”

Joshua Bowling – Kaysville, UT – Fujifilm X-Pro2 “Tri-X Push Process”

Watching The Rainfall – Kaysville, UT – Fujifilm X-Pro2 “Tri-X Push Process”

Boy On A Rocking Chair – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X-Pro2 “Tri-X Push-Process”

Cracker Barrel Checkers – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X-Pro2 “Tri-X Push Process”

Deer On The Wall – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X-Pro2 “Tri-X Push Process”

Reverends – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X-Pro2 “Tri-X Push Process”

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My Fujifilm X100F Kodak Ektar 100 Film Simulation Recipe

Posted on June 16, 2018 by Ritchie Roesch

Peach City Drive-In – Brigham City, UT – Fujifilm X100F “Ektar 100”

When Fuji X Weekly reader Jackie asked if I could make a film simulation recipe that mimics the look of Kodak Ektar 100 film, I thought that it would be a simple task. Classic Chrome is halfway there already, providing a Kodak-esque look right out of the bag. But, as it turns out, creating an Ektar look wasn’t easy for one reason: Classic Chrome isn’t vibrant enough, even with color set to +4. Velvia was my next choice, but I couldn’t make it work. It turns out Astia is the key.

Before I get ahead of myself too much, let’s roll things back a little. Ektar is a color negative film made by Kodak. It’s known for vibrant colors, high contrast and fine grain, and, even though it is a negative film, it is more like reversal (slide) film. I would say that, while the results aren’t 100% identical, there are a lot of similarities between Ektar 100 and Ektachrome 100VS. In fact, when Kodak discontinued Ektachrome 100VS, they recommended Ektar 100 as the closest film.

Ektar is ideal for vibrant landscapes or any situation where you want lots of contrast and saturated colors. It’s not usually one’s first choice for portrait photography because skin tones can be off. Some people use it extensively for portraits, but the general advice is to use Ektar for everything other than people pictures. I’ve shot a few rolls of it in the past, but it’s been probably seven or eight years.

Summer Boy – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X100F “Ektar 100”

I’m actually a little hesitant to call this film simulation recipe Kodak Ektar 100 because it’s not quite right. It’s close, but a little off. The color palette is slightly askew. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get it any closer to being right. I do feel that, if you like Ektar 100 film, you’ll like this film simulation recipe, even though it’s not an exact match.

One thing about this recipe that I’d like to mention is, while I have Dynamic Range set to Auto, almost always the camera selected DR100. If you don’t want to use DR-Auto, set it to DR100 instead and you’ll get the same results. Also, I did not use the faux grain effect for this recipe. I think you could use weak grain if the ISO is 800 or less, but once you get to ISO 1600 and higher the digital noise acts like a convincing weak grain, and adding more grain on top of it is too much. So I elected to set grain to off, but you might consider using weak grain, particularly at the lower ISOs.

Astia
Dynamic Range: DR-Auto
Highlight: +1
Shadow: +3
Color: +4
Noise Reduction: -3
Sharpening: +1
Grain Effect: Off
White Balance: Auto, +3 Red & -2 Blue
ISO: Auto up to ISO 6400
Exposure Compensation: 0 to +1/3 (typically)