Favorite color film simulation
RoamingScott
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p.3 #1Favorite color film simulation
Winsome Dove wrote:
This isn't exactly how I understand it.
I am FAR more buried into the recipe community than anyone else on FM. It's very rare that I say with carte blanche "trust me, I'm right", but I'm executing that privilege here
This isn't exactly how I understand it.
I am FAR more buried into the recipe community than anyone else on FM. It's very rare that I say with carte blanche "trust me, I'm right", but I'm executing that privilege here
Sep 18, 2026 at 01:05 PM
p.3 #2Favorite color film simulation
Re: OP:
I like to shoot raw then apply any Fuji film sims via "Camera Matching" profiles in LR, with any other tweaks as needed.
My top 3 are Classic Neg, Classic Chrome, and Reala Ace
I like to shoot raw then apply any Fuji film sims via "Camera Matching" profiles in LR, with any other tweaks as needed.
My top 3 are Classic Neg, Classic Chrome, and Reala Ace
Sep 18, 2026 at 01:14 PM
p.3 #3Favorite color film simulation
RoamingScott wrote:
I am FAR more buried into the recipe community than anyone else on FM. It's very rare that I say with carte blanche "trust me, I'm right", but I'm executing that privilege here
I have never tried to create a recipe. Do you start with one of the Fuji film simulations and change it to suit you or do you start from scratch on your simulation? Do you have yours posted somewhere or are they strictly private?
Winsome Dove wrote
This isn't exactly how I understand it.I have never tried to create a recipe. Do you start with one of the Fuji film simulations and change it to suit you or do you start from scratch on your simulation? Do you have yours posted somewhere or are they strictly private?
Sep 18, 2026 at 02:24 PM
p.3 #4Favorite color film simulation
gaopa wrote:
I am FAR more buried into the recipe community than anyone else on FM. It's very rare that I say with carte blanche "trust me, I'm right", but I'm executing that privilege here I have never tried to create a recipe. Do you start with one of the Fuji film simulations and change it to suit you or do you start from scratch on your simulation? Do you have yours posted somewhere or are they strictly private?
You basically have to start with one of the existing film simulations. If I were into doing a lot of R&D myself creating my own to use, I'd sit down with a few RAF files, and play around a lot with all of Fuji's X-RAW Studio software settings.
Otherwise, just follow the recipes posted at sites like below, but make sure you're in the right area for your camera model/generation.
FUJIxWEEKLY RECIPES
RoamingScott wrote
Winsome Dove wrote
This isn't exactly how I understand it.You basically have to start with one of the existing film simulations. If I were into doing a lot of R&D myself creating my own to use, I'd sit down with a few RAF files, and play around a lot with all of Fuji's X-RAW Studio software settings.
Otherwise, just follow the recipes posted at sites like below, but make sure you're in the right area for your camera model/generation.
FUJIxWEEKLY RECIPES
Sep 18, 2026 at 02:35 PM
p.3 #5Favorite color film simulation
Winsome Dove wrote:
I am FAR more buried into the recipe community than anyone else on FM. It's very rare that I say with carte blanche "trust me, I'm right", but I'm executing that privilege here I have never tried to create a recipe. Do you start with one of the Fuji film simulations and change it to suit you or do you start from scratch on your simulation? Do you have yours posted somewhere or are they strictly private?You basically have to start with one of the existing film simulations. If I were into doing a lot of R&D myself creating my own to use, I'd sit down with a few RAF files, and play around a lot with all of Fuji's X-RAW Studio software settings.
Otherwise, just follow the recipes posted at sites like below, but make sure you're in the right area for your camera model/generation.
FUJIxWEEKLY RECIPES
I second this recommendation. You can find hundreds of recipes there with samples to give you an idea of how they look. https://fujixweekly.com/
gaopa wrote
RoamingScott wrote
Winsome Dove wrote
This isn't exactly how I understand it.Otherwise, just follow the recipes posted at sites like below, but make sure you're in the right area for your camera model/generation.
FUJIxWEEKLY RECIPES
I second this recommendation. You can find hundreds of recipes there with samples to give you an idea of how they look. https://fujixweekly.com/
Sep 18, 2026 at 03:15 PM
p.3 #6Favorite color film simulation
RoamingScott wrote:
I am FAR more buried into the recipe community than anyone else on FM. It's very rare that I say with carte blanche "trust me, I'm right", but I'm executing that privilege hereThough you are correct in your definitions here, I'm not sure bragging that you're "more buried into the recipe community than anyone else" is the slam-dunk you think it is, considering how toxic that crowd has been for many years and how much misinformation they spread in the name of putting themselves over and other people down.
As someone who actually writes original colour matrices from scratch, and loves the Japanese SOOC crowd and dipped in and out of their homebrew efforts going all the way back to about 2007 or so, I find the western 'recipe community' interesting to watch from afar, but keep a safe distance. If I were you I'd rather pretend I had nothing to do with 'em...
gaopa wrote:
I have never tried to create a recipe. Do you start with one of the Fuji film simulations and change it to suit you or do you start from scratch on your simulation?
Fuji recipes are no different from making something like a Lightroom preset; if anything they're a lot simpler, because there are many fewer options. It's just a matter of opening the menu and moving a control until it looks the way you like it. If you can press the 'Q' button on your camera, you've got all the tools.
Pick a film sim as your base look; consider what is already closest to the final result you want. (i.e. Don't pick Velvia if you want something low-saturation!) Now pick a white balance, or white balance tint/shift. Then turn the highlight tone, shadow tone, colour saturation, and clarity controls up/down to taste. Decide if you want to turn colour chrome and/or grain effects on or not. That's it, you're done; you've made a 'recipe'. The whole thing will probably take you under a minute if you know what look you want; maybe take three minutes if you're just trying random combinations until you land on something you like. There simply aren't enough options for it to take any longer than that.
There's a lot of fluff about how to nail the look of a particular film stock, making recipes seem more scientific to develop, but as I already mentioned in a previous post, the settings in Fuji are far too limited to actually do that, and if you compare the claimed results vs real film, you quickly see they rarely share even the most passing resemblance. Even when making actual colour matrices, which takes weeks of programming (sometimes months) and offers literally total freedom, it's still essentially impossible to actually replicate any given film because of how a sensor reacts to light vs film layers.
In-camera settings are fun and it's great that Fuji supply more options than most. (In fact by my reckoning, they offer the most strictly in-camera options of any manufacturer, though Canon has them beat if you count the ability to upload custom matrices to the camera from a desktop.) In-camera presets or recipes are great and everyone should mess with their settings at least a little bit, because if you can find a combination you like, being able to use those in-camera JPGs will save you a lot of time over relying on post-processing. Nobody should dismiss camera JPGs, and nobody should overlook the variety of styles you can get out of Fuji. Everyone should try every film sim, both with default settings and with alterations. But don't over-think it. The complexity and uniqueness of 'recipes' is horribly exaggerated, so don't be intimidated. Literally just open the Q menu and turn some things up or down. In the time it's taken you to read this, you could have made several...
I am FAR more buried into the recipe community than anyone else on FM. It's very rare that I say with carte blanche "trust me, I'm right", but I'm executing that privilege here
Though you are correct in your definitions here, I'm not sure bragging that you're "more buried into the recipe community than anyone else" is the slam-dunk you think it is, considering how toxic that crowd has been for many years and how much misinformation they spread in the name of putting themselves over and other people down.As someone who actually writes original colour matrices from scratch, and loves the Japanese SOOC crowd and dipped in and out of their homebrew efforts going all the way back to about 2007 or so, I find the western 'recipe community' interesting to watch from afar, but keep a safe distance. If I were you I'd rather pretend I had nothing to do with 'em...
gaopa wrote:
I have never tried to create a recipe. Do you start with one of the Fuji film simulations and change it to suit you or do you start from scratch on your simulation?
Fuji recipes are no different from making something like a Lightroom preset; if anything they're a lot simpler, because there are many fewer options. It's just a matter of opening the menu and moving a control until it looks the way you like it. If you can press the 'Q' button on your camera, you've got all the tools.
Pick a film sim as your base look; consider what is already closest to the final result you want. (i.e. Don't pick Velvia if you want something low-saturation!) Now pick a white balance, or white balance tint/shift. Then turn the highlight tone, shadow tone, colour saturation, and clarity controls up/down to taste. Decide if you want to turn colour chrome and/or grain effects on or not. That's it, you're done; you've made a 'recipe'. The whole thing will probably take you under a minute if you know what look you want; maybe take three minutes if you're just trying random combinations until you land on something you like. There simply aren't enough options for it to take any longer than that.
There's a lot of fluff about how to nail the look of a particular film stock, making recipes seem more scientific to develop, but as I already mentioned in a previous post, the settings in Fuji are far too limited to actually do that, and if you compare the claimed results vs real film, you quickly see they rarely share even the most passing resemblance. Even when making actual colour matrices, which takes weeks of programming (sometimes months) and offers literally total freedom, it's still essentially impossible to actually replicate any given film because of how a sensor reacts to light vs film layers.
In-camera settings are fun and it's great that Fuji supply more options than most. (In fact by my reckoning, they offer the most strictly in-camera options of any manufacturer, though Canon has them beat if you count the ability to upload custom matrices to the camera from a desktop.) In-camera presets or recipes are great and everyone should mess with their settings at least a little bit, because if you can find a combination you like, being able to use those in-camera JPGs will save you a lot of time over relying on post-processing. Nobody should dismiss camera JPGs, and nobody should overlook the variety of styles you can get out of Fuji. Everyone should try every film sim, both with default settings and with alterations. But don't over-think it. The complexity and uniqueness of 'recipes' is horribly exaggerated, so don't be intimidated. Literally just open the Q menu and turn some things up or down. In the time it's taken you to read this, you could have made several...
Sep 19, 2026 at 01:00 PM
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p.3 #7Favorite color film simulation
Thanks, pressedbunny! I appreciate your taking the time to outline a way to proceed with making my own film simulation!
Sep 19, 2026 at 01:49 PM
p.3 #8Favorite color film simulation
gaopa wrote:
I have never tried to create a recipe. Do you start with one of the Fuji film simulations and change it to suit you or do you start from scratch on your simulation?
Fuji recipes are no different from making something like a Lightroom preset; if anything they're a lot simpler, because there are many fewer options. It's just a matter of opening the menu and moving a control until it looks the way you like it. If you can press the 'Q' button on your camera, you've got all the tools.
Pick a film sim as your base look; consider what is already closest to the final result you want. (i.e. Don't pick Velvia if you want something low-saturation!) Now pick a white balance, or white balance tint/shift. Then turn the highlight tone, shadow tone, colour saturation, and clarity controls up/down to taste. Decide if you want to turn colour chrome and/or grain effects on or not. That's it, you're done; you've made a 'recipe'. The whole thing will probably take you under a minute if you know what look you want; maybe take three minutes if you're just trying random combinations until you land on something you like. There simply aren't enough options for it to take any longer than that.
..
Are you suggesting here to do this with just the camera in-hand, and therefore evaluating what you've got for a recipe by just looking at the relatively small LCD screen on the camera to evaluate the end result?
Sep 19, 2026 at 02:42 PM
RoamingScott
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p.3 #9Favorite color film simulation
Generally you'd want to develop your recipes in X RAW Studio on a calibrated monitor.
Sep 19, 2026 at 02:44 PM
p.3 #10Favorite color film simulation
AZ Photo wrote:
Semantics are important here - and I'm not sure everyone means the same thing when they talk about film simulations, recipes and custom settings - in a FujiFilm context they are all different and specific.
I agree with you that the semantics are important for a discussion such as this so we are all on the same page. My comment was directed to actually using the simulations and creating recipes in practice. I choose Velvia from the menu, I adjust contrast, saturation, etc., save it, and use it. The nomenclature never crosses my mind. But you're right, in a debate or discussion of methodology it is important to define the terms.
TENOG wrote
I think we're just arguing semantics here. Everyone understands what they're doing when they choose a simulation and then choose to either modify it or leave it alone. Naming it doesn't change what we're doing.I agree with you that the semantics are important for a discussion such as this so we are all on the same page. My comment was directed to actually using the simulations and creating recipes in practice. I choose Velvia from the menu, I adjust contrast, saturation, etc., save it, and use it. The nomenclature never crosses my mind. But you're right, in a debate or discussion of methodology it is important to define the terms.
Sep 19, 2026 at 07:14 PM
p.3 #11Favorite color film simulation
Winsome Dove wrote:
Are you suggesting here to do this with just the camera in-hand, and therefore evaluating what you've got for a recipe by just looking at the relatively small LCD screen on the camera to evaluate the end result?
If you are out and about, and looking at a scene, then what was state is what you would do, use the screen not he camera. Unless you are the type to stroll around with an iPad or a laptop with X Raw on it to take an image, look at it not he laptop with X Raw, adjust the recipe, reshoot, check again.
Or you have to get images of the things you are interested in, load them up in X Raw and tweak and massage until you think you have a recipe, then put that on the camera, and then go out and shoot. You want to use a calibrated monitor, do it.
But if you have a history of 95% of your images go to LR of C1 from a RAW file, and you massage, the recipe idea is kind of a moot point as it will really only help you in the appearance while taking the image.
Are you suggesting here to do this with just the camera in-hand, and therefore evaluating what you've got for a recipe by just looking at the relatively small LCD screen on the camera to evaluate the end result?
If you are out and about, and looking at a scene, then what was state is what you would do, use the screen not he camera. Unless you are the type to stroll around with an iPad or a laptop with X Raw on it to take an image, look at it not he laptop with X Raw, adjust the recipe, reshoot, check again.
Or you have to get images of the things you are interested in, load them up in X Raw and tweak and massage until you think you have a recipe, then put that on the camera, and then go out and shoot. You want to use a calibrated monitor, do it.
But if you have a history of 95% of your images go to LR of C1 from a RAW file, and you massage, the recipe idea is kind of a moot point as it will really only help you in the appearance while taking the image.
Sep 20, 2026 at 08:36 AM