Last weekend we made the most of the Sunday by trekking up to Bath and using our National Trust membership to visit NT Dyrham. Neither me nor my wife had visited before, despite the fact we both went to university in Bath (where we met).
With the kids in-tow, I try not to take too much camera gear – bending over to tie a shoelace can result in a camera in my daughter’s face if I’m lugging the Z8 around. So, I simply took the Fujifilm X100Vi, my most portable setup.
Now, I did have the idea to programme in just one ‘film simulation’ which I’d use for all of the day’s shots – I did do this, but when I got home I realised that the shots were far too warm and over-dramatic, it wasn’t my style at all. This is where the Fuji X RAW Studio software is useful; I was able to take all the photos from the day and re-process them in the software to have another crack at a suitable film simulation. This actually gave me the idea of doing this twice, and sharing the results of two different looks.
The two recipes I decided to use were both found on the film.recipes website (http://www.film.recipes) which I have got good results from lately. Everyone who uses a Fuji knows about the Fuji X Weekly website & app, but I find the results are often a bit too warm & yellow for my liking. Ritchie Rorschach, (the owner of Fuji X Weekly), has done amazing work; but he’s located in Arizona I believe, and therefore his shooting conditions are often very different to here in sunny (!) Wiltshire!
So the recipes I decided on were Kodak Portra 400 and Tomas Derner’s Classic Neg. It’s worth mentioning that Tomas Derner’s recipes are also on his own website which also has his amazing photography on, so it’s worth visiting: https://www.tdernux.com/
The Recipes
If you’re keen to know the settings asap, here are the settings:
Kodak Portra 400 Film Recipe
Simulation: Eterna/Cinema
Grain Effect: Weak, Small
Colour Chrome Effect: Weak
Colour Chrome Blue: Strong (IV) / Weak (V)
White Balance: Fluorescent 1
WB Shift: -2 Red, -4 Blue
Dynamic Range: DR200
Highlights: +0.5, or 0 on X100V
Shadows: +0.5, or +1.0 on X100V
Color: +2
Sharpness: -2
ISO Noise Reduction: -4
Clarity: -2
EV compensation: +1/3
Tomas Derner’s Classic Negative
Simulation: Classic Negative
Grain Effect: Strong, Large
Colour Chrome Effect: Strong
Colour Chrome Blue: Weak (IV), Off (V)
White Balance: 4460K
WB Shift: +4 Red, -4 Blue
Dynamic Range: DR100
Highlights: 0.0
Shadows: +1.0
Color: -2
Sharpness: +1
ISO Noise Reduction: -4
Clarity: 0
EV compensation: 0 or +1/3
The two film simulations, (note: I dislike this term, they don’t always replicate a specific film look; they’re simply presets/profiles), give very different looks – the Portra styled recipe is slightly warmer and gives a lighter, more ethereal look, (and is similar to the film stock to be fair); whereas Tomas Derner’s recipe is slightly less saturated and less contrasty.
Here’s a direct comparison:
I’ll share both galleries and let you decide which you prefer…
Kodak Portra 400
Tomas Derner’s Classic Negative
Which do I Prefer?
That’s the question isn’t it? In all honesty, I like both! A cop-out I know, but they both have a very different feeling to them. I think the Portra ones are closer to what the day was actually like, but the Classic Neg ones definitely have an allure to them.
Ultimately, I am looking for that do-it-all recipe that reduces the post-processing time. I really enjoy editing my photos in Lightroom, but when you come back from a day out with the family, editing 200 photos can take the fun out of it.
Do you have a recipe that is your go-to? If so, I’d love to know what it is…