I was wondering if anyone has had success with a Jpeg recipe to try and get Classic Chrome to look more like Kodachrome? I know it can't be really emulated by anyone but I'm trying to take it for a little dance anyway. Seems like it was Kodak's middle finger to the digital world when they killed it.
The online recipes I've found must be from folks who either never shot Kodachrome or haven't checked out the images of the old Nat Geo boys. Classic Chrome to me looks flat, lifeless, slightly overexposed and too desaturated. That's not how my old Kidacheme slides look and it sure doesn't look like anything McCurry or Allard shot either. Kodachrome looked much more saturated and contrasty, If I boost color +1 or +2 and shadows to +1 it sort of helps...kinda. Oddly the base settings seem to replicate it better when indoors or in shade, .The colors appear more saturated but then get really flat in sunlight.
I find all of the film simulations to be "flat" and I usually add +3 saturation (for in-camera JPG). The problem with contrast is that Fujis stupid "shadow tone" and "highlight tone" don't seem to bend the curve, but instead just clip the shadows and highlights earlier. This makes them pretty worthless unless you like pitch black shadows or blown, white highlights.
If you're processing raw, just make a nice "S" curve that is steep in the middle but more flat towards the bottom and top. Looks more like film than the usual contrast curves.
Also, Fujis auto whitebalance is completely off, all the time. Waaaay too cold and green. I tweak it towards red and yellow quite a bit to get even usable JPG's.
You might want to check out VSCO's Kodachrome preset or Rice Nice Images (RNI), as they spent a lot of R&D on a faithful emulation of the film. I find Classic Chrome to be way more desaturated than Kodachrome, and quite a bit cooler as well. So perhaps you'll want to start with Classic Chrome, and up the contrast, saturation and temperature toward warm.
Need2Learn wrote:
I was wondering if anyone has had success with a Jpeg recipe to try and get Classic Chrome to look more like Kodachrome? I know it can't be really emulated by anyone but I'm trying to take it for a little dance anyway. Seems like it was Kodak's middle finger to the digital world when they killed it.
The online recipes I've found must be from folks who either never shot Kodachrome or haven't checked out the images of the old Nat Geo boys. Classic Chrome to me looks flat, lifeless, slightly overexposed and too desaturated. That's not how my old Kidacheme slides look and it sure doesn't look like anything McCurry or Allard shot either. Kodachrome looked much more saturated and contrasty, If I boost color +1 or +2 and shadows to +1 it sort of helps...kinda. Oddly the base settings seem to replicate it better when indoors or in shade, .The colors appear more saturated but then get really flat in sunlight.
Your mistake is believing that Classic Chrome has anything to do with Kodachrome. It does not. For one thing, as you say, it is quite desaturated. The Classic Chrome name is confusing to those of us (including me) who immediately think of Kodachrome, but it is NOT an emulation of Kodachrome, and is not intended to be. There are several old posts from Fujifilm making it clear that the two are unrelated.
phtp25 wrote:
Those film simulations from Fuji do imitate a certain look. What is classic chrome supposed to imitate?
"Unlike previous Film Simulation modes, Fujifilm’s newly developed CLASSIC CHROME is not designed to reproduce an existing film but instead aims to reproduce the ambience found in documentary-style photographs and magazines. The name ‘CLASSIC CHROME’ reflects a mode reminiscent of the images each individual carries in their mind and the physical prints of such images."
