Cooking with recipes
First of all I am not planning on turning this into a dedicated Fujifilm blog. However as it has happened I really enjoy being outside and using Fujifilm`s gear as it somehow reminds me of film cameras in several aspects. I tried to explain in my last blog post but I probably won`t let go of this topic for longer because I fell that there`s much to say. I have also received lots of advise throughout the years from lovely analog people about film, developing and scanning and I would really like to give something back to those guys who are evaluating a purchase of any Fujifilm camera be it from an analog background or different camera brand. It seems like a lot of YouTube videos do not go beyond the beauty of an X100V and all that mass influence may lead you to a misconception.
Every fujifilm comes with bunch of so called film simulations. Basically these are Jpeg settings that other camera manufacture have different names for. Canon for example calls them neutral, portrait or landscape. Fuji goes a different route and named them after they’re some of their most iconic film stocks, for example Astia, Provia, Velvia and Acros.
You can further tweak any of these simulations to customise them and create your own look. Besides that, there’s plenty of sources on the internet for those so called recipes with fujixweekly being the most comprehensive collection.
My suggestion is that you pick a few recipes depending on which kind of looks you prefer and play round with them to get a feel for the various film simulation. It took me some time to figure a handful of recipes that I use frequently and it’s a mixture of my own tweaks and published recipes.
I am not a nervous shooter and I usually decide beforehand which recipe I am going to use. For example Christmas 2022 I decided to go for a recipe called “zero hour” by captnlook. It is based on classic chrome film simulation with a fixed white balance and results in nice and not too experimental skin tones considering the light inside, which is especially important for me. I just imported the photos to my archive and that was it. No work done except for the fact that the recipe suggests grain to weak/small but I left it off.
My favourite go to recipe which is also an Allrounder sits on my number one slot (you can save up to seven recipes) and it’s also based on classic chrome. I think it all started with one of fujixweekly’s Kodachrome recipes but I tweaked the settings over the time until they exactly suited my needs aka pleased my kinks. I still like to play around with with the clarity though. The clarity function in every fuji camera that I know, slows it down. It takes a second to process the image until you can continue shooting. If you use any burst mode the clarity setting has zero effect on the Jpeg, its’ value is automatically set to 0. I wish some people would do the research before publishing their YouTube videos... Whatever.
Setting it to negative can result in a really dreamy look especially when combined with a diffusion filter. The example below were shot with a 1/4 tiffen black pro mist filter and I added a tad of vibrancy in post within the iPhones photo software. Technically this is neither #sooc (straight out of camera) nor professional but realistically I am not a pro and this sooc thing is literally no contest so I frankly don’t give a flying fart.
With several recipes I find that they sometimes come out a bit dull. Just adding a little S-curve and/or some clarity on the Jpeg in your favourite editing software will do magic at least to my tired eyes.
Last set of photos is a highly artistic, award winning composition. If you set your camera to save Raw and Jpeg you can use the build in raw converter and completely change the look eg use different recipes for the same photo. I used the raw converter to show you three different recipes. No external editing in this case. Pro Mist filter though.
In the images above you can clearly see what impact different recipes have on the results. Especially the Superia800 and 1600 recipes trigger a color memory that remind me of my childhood.
Don`t be afraid to play around with the recipes and get familiar with every parameter. I’m still on my way and learn everyday too. It is like cooking with recipes. If you think it needs more spice, than you heat it up, right? If you wanna replace the veggies with bacon, that’s absolutely fine, darling. Edit your jpeg if you feel like that’s necessary. The lords of #sooc won’t punish you, at least not in this life.
Does this look like film?
The question should be, does it really need to look like film? I recently watched the latest episode of the Mamiyamigos and Jason asked why there are so many videos on YouTube at the moment with something like “this camera will make you quit film” in their title. Same question here.
A Fuji camera can definitely add to your experience but if you’re a die hard film bro, you should not stop doing what you love. Analog photography is not like smoking crack. It won’t kill you. It’s more like cocaine. It makes you poor. But that’s your choice.