Photographer Ritchie Roesch has developed a reputation among Fuji X camera owners for his JPEG film simulation recipes. Even Fujifilm have noticed. Ritchie has spent hours analysing film prints, negatives and slides to create film simulation recipes that mimic the look of various 35mm film stocks such as Kodachrome and Fuji Velvia.
Ritchie has documented all of these film simulations on his web site, organising them by sensor type. There are recipes for almost every model of Fuji X camera.
Yesterday, photographer Ritchie Roesch, released his brand new Fuji X Weekly Film Recipes app for iPhone that seeks to make those recipes easily accessible from your pocket camera.
Fuji X Weekly — Film Recipes is a free app that gives you access to over 100 Film Simulation Recipes for Fujifilm X cameras! These JPEG settings allow you to get various looks straight out of the camera, many based on film stocks, such as Kodachrome, Portra, Tri-X, Superia, Vista, and many more! If you have a Fujifilm X camera, there are Film Simulation Recipes in this app that are compatible with your gear—it's a great resource for Fujifilm X photographers!
Film Recipes App Filter
As a fellow photographer, Ritchie Roesch has put a lot of work and thought into his iPhone app. Becoming a Patron unlocks additional features of the Film Recipes app including the ability to filter recipes by Camera or Sensor and well as create a list of favourites.
Film Recipes App Settings
If this is your first time using film recipes on a Fuji X cameras, on the settings page for the app, Ritchie has provided a link to one of his articles to help get you started.
One thing that I really like about the app is that I can filter the recipes by the camera, by the sensor, by base simulation, or colour or black and white. The app is intuitive, and I quickly tagged my favourites; Ilford HP5 Plus, Portra 160, and Agfa Optima 200. Each recipe list all the settings needed to achieve that "look" and provide a text box at the end for personal notes.
Film Recipes Kodak Tri-X 400 Recipe
As I mentioned before, the app is free to use, but becoming a patron unlocks additional features. The app is available for iOS only, but Ritchie promises to release an Android OS in the future.
Submitted for the 100DaysToOffload project.
1 Comment
Khürt Williams
7th May 2022 at 11:05 AMLong time readers will know that I favour the film simulation recipes created by tireless photographer Ritchie Roesch. Ritchie churns out new recipes almost as often as it snows in Utah. I had become so used to using recipes that I was starting to forget how to use Adobe Lightroom’s Develop module. I would import the SOOC JPEG and RAW images, and after a few quick crop adjustments, the images were uploaded to my blog. Ritchie’s app, which he released last year, helped push this workflow along. The retro 35mm SLR design of the X-T3 cements the feeling that I am using a 35mm film camera.
However, I realised that film simulation recipes are not much different from the software presets that I used several years ago before I put effort into really learning Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. They are an easy dopamine hit, but eventually, I started to feel that this type of editing was too limiting. It is affecting my creativity and my ability to express myself.
Blooms at Belle Mead | Saturday 20 June, 2020 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF27mmF2.8 | ISO 800 | Fujicolor Superia 800 Film Simulation
The film simulation recipes are helpful and practical for quick photographs; the kind of photographs I might make while doing my best to look like a street photographer when walking around a large city like Philadelphia or New York City, or when drinking American craft ale at a local brewery, or attending a family event. But for intentional photography, the kind of project where I plan out the where, when, and the how ahead of time, I want to be more in control of the final result. I want to focus (no pun intended) on composition and lighting with the intent to change the image in a certain way.
I don’t want to give up on film simulation recipes. I want to be more intentional about how I use them. Ritchie’s website offers so many recipes I am frequently overwhelmed with choices. He has so many recipes he built a mobile app to help patrons filter and arrange them. With only seven slots available on my X-T3, I would stress over which recipes to program into my XT-3. Then once I am on location, I would stress over whether the scene or subject would look better with Porta 160 or with Nostalgic Negative or the standard Provia. I would sometimes realise that a particular scene or subject could not be captured correctly in-camera using a film simulation recipe; some focused editing in Adobe Lightroom or advanced editing technique in Photoshop would be needed. I did not want to limit my photography to what could be accomplished with film simulation recipes.
24 April, 2022 | FujiFilm X-T3 | XF27mmF2.8 R WR | ISO 80 | Kodachrome 64 Film Simulation
If I need to make snapshots for the spring and summer, I intend to use just two film simulation recipes; Portra 160 and Kodachrome 64. Ritchie provides a suggested ISO range for each recipe, but I intend to use the film simulation recipes at “box speed”. If I’m going to pretend that I am shooting 35mm film, I may as well go all the way. The lowest ISO on my X-T3 is 80, so the Kodakchrome 64 recipe will be used at that ISO. The native ISO of the X-T3 is 160 and is a perfect match for Portra 160 recipe. If I need to use a higher ISO or attempt more intentional photography, I will probably switch to the Provia or Eterna film simulations. The SOOC JPEG from the film simulation recipes will still be cropped as needed but will otherwise remain untouched in Adobe Lightroom.
I have already set my camera to record RAW only.
Here’s a list of websites with excellent film simulation recipes.
Website
Fuji X Weekly
Life Unintended
Ivan Cheam
Jamie Chance Travels