How to Customize the Fuji Film Simulations for Added Creativity

Published: Fri, 04/20/18

Hi ,

Here's a creative idea you can practice this weekend.

As you know, all the X Series Cameras feature a collection of Film Simulations, which are defined color palettes modeled after some of Fuji's most classic film stocks, like PROVIA, Velvia, ASTIA and the black and white sims. (And, of course, a Kodak-style sim - CLASSIC CHROME.)

These film sims give you a diverse set of color and tonal choices you can use to explore and represent your subject matter.

The idea behind the film sims is that you choose a look that you feel best suits your subject matter and your creative ideas in the moment, just as if you were choosing a specific type of film.

Since the Fuji JPEGS are so good right out of camera, many Fuji photographers, including myself, rely on the Film Simulations so much that we actually save ourselves endless hours of processing time. After all, why not trust the experts who have an 84-year history with film and color?

Customizing the Film Sims for Added Creativity

Do you also know that the X Series cameras give you an addition set of tools that allow youth customize t Film Simulations? With these tools, you can use the Film Sims as a starting point and take your creative vision even further.

Tucked inside the Q Menu, you'll find the following settings. H-TONE, S-TONE, COLOR & SHAPRNESS. Using these four controls, you can vary the look of your imagery by increasing or decreasing the highlight, shadows, saturation levels and overall "crispness" or softness of your photo.

What if you want to make your Velvia image pop even more, or desaturate a PRO Neg. image, or even do a couple things, like create a muted, yet high contrast version of CLASSIC CHROME? The choices are endless.

Check out this recent blog post to see more examples of how I use this technique in my photography, and get some ideas you can use with your own subject matter. I encourage you to play around with this and see what kinds of fun looks you can come up with!

Luminar Jupiter Update

Just a reminder that the Luminar Jupiter Update is now available.

The latest version offers a huge bump in speed and performance, and much better image quality, especially when viewing and processing RAW image files from Fuji X-Trans sensor cameras.

It also adds new features to the Windows version.

If you already use Luminar 2018, your update is free.

If you use an older version of Luminar, you can update for only $39 with my special coupon code. New users can get the program for only $59 with my coupon code. You'll also get a selection of bonus eBooks, overlays and photography tutorials.

That's all for now, have a great weekend!

Dan Bailey

dan@danbaileyphoto.com