… I accidentally discovered a vintage Kodachrome recipe for my Fujifilm X100F, based on Classic Chrome. By “accidentally” I mean that I had no intentions of creating a Kodachrome look. I captured a RAW image and played around with it in the camera’s built-in RAW editor. I was trying to see what crazy looks I could get if I really messed around with the settings. One of the versions that I created reminded me of vintage Kodachrome.
Ritchie's happy accident allowed me to capture these in-camera JPEG images. I have never photographed with any Kodachrome film stock so I don't know how accurate Ritchie's recipe is to the original film. However, I do like the results.
If it were possible to add an S-curve in-camera, I would add a slight fade to give an old photographic print look.
For the seventh episode of the Film Simulation Challenge, I chose Ritchie's Fujicolor Pro 400H Film Simulation Recipe. The goal of the challenge is to use the same settings for 24 or 36 exposures, similar to shooting a roll of film. This particular film simulation recipe is intended to imitate the look of Fujicolor Pro 400H film. I “loaded” this “film” into my Fujifilm X-T2, and exposed 36 frames at the Ironbound Farm in Asbury, Hunterdon County. Not all the frames are shown.
This was my first visit to the farm and also the first time using my newly acquired Fujinon XF27mmF2.8 lens which coincidentally was delivered from KEH as we were leaving the house. I'll write more about that lens in another post. According to Ritchie, Fujicolor Pro 400H is a popular portrait photography film. I've never used this film, so I'll let Ritchie give you his overview of Fujicolor Pro 400H film.
Fujifilm Pro 400H is a color negative film that was first introduced in 2002 (originally named NPH400). It’s a popular print film that has survived the digital era, as Fujifilm continues to manufacture Pro 400H to this very day, while many other films have seen the chopping block. It’s a fine-grain (for ISO 400), natural-color, versatile film that’s especially good for weddings and portraits.
The first part of the "roll" was shot with the lens at f/8 and ISO400. While that worked well for the outdoors once we entered the farm building, I realised that my shutter speed had dropped down under 1/25s. I switched to auto-ISO but after a few shots realised that while my shutter speed was better, the ISO had jumped to ISO 12,800. I then switched the lens to full auto-mode. The images captured on the inside of the building all have a very shallow depth-of-file.
The later part of the "roll" was exposed in the beautiful outdoor space. Despite blue skies and near midday sun, the sky was full of fluffy clouds. Most of the scenes were covered in soft light with weak shadows. I don't think the lighting conditions indoors gave me a true sense of this film simulation, but I like how the outdoor shots were rendered.
I need to experiment more with this particular film simulation and perhaps try an actual roll of Fujifilm Pro 400H when my Pentax ES II returns from being repaired.
Ritchie offered some advice that I might have paid attention to had I not been so gung ho to start taking images.
The X-Trans III sensor has a lot of dynamic range, but it cannot hold up to a three-stop overexposure. I found that DR200 is a good setting in many circumstances, but in high-contrast scenes, DR400 might be a better option.
The photographs are all straight-out-of-camera JPEGs captured using my Fujifilm X-T2, Fujinon XF27mmF2.8 and Ritchie's Fujicolor Pro 400H Film Simulation recipe. I think the Fujicolor Pro 400H Film Simulation recipe produces a convincing analogue film look, delivering pleasing results. If you want to see my RAW edits, I have another blog post detailing my trip.
UPDATE: After messing around with Color Efx Pro 4from DxO's Nik Collection 3, I think my criticism and reaction to the SOOC JPEGs from my Fujifilm Film Simulation Challenge Roll 5: Kodak Portra 400 test was "user error". I think the exposure compensation dial may have moved during my photo walk. That would certainly explain the washed-out look of the SOOC image. As a test, I used Fuji X RAW Studio to reprocess the images with Ritchie's Kodak Portra 400 recipe and adjusted exposure compensation settings, and the results are much better. I think the photos were over-exposed by between EV +1/3 to +1. In the interest of transparency, I left the original blog post but included reprocessed images at the bottom of the post.
This blog entry is my fifth installment for Ritchie Roesch's Fujifilm-inspired Film Simulation Challenge. For this challenge, I chose Ritchie's Kodak Portra 400 recipe for X-Trans III sensors and went for an early morning walk around downtown Princeton. This recipe attempts to simulate the look of the Kodak Portra 400 Professional ISO 400 film. I've never used the actual Kodak Portra 400 Professional ISO 400 film, but I like the SOOC JPEG images on Ritchie's web page and decided to give it a try.
I walked north on Nassau Street toward Hogie Haven. I shot using Kodak Portra 400 until I got to Shouse, then switched to Kodak Portra 160. I shot RAW + JPEG and EV +2/3. The challenge is all about film simulation recipes and SOOC JPEGs, so I've included the best of the roll of 36. Many of the SOOC images have been cropped and edited for perspective correction only. Despite my best efforts with the built-in level of the Fujifilm X-T2, I tend to tilt.
What I learned from this experience is that Kodak Portra 400 was most likely designed and tweaked for Western wedding portraiture. It seems to work best with a white and grey and a generally muted colour palette. This film would not be my choice for colourful Asian weddings and events. While I like how some of these images were rendered, I had this feeling that the photographers singing the praises of Kodak Portra 400 must hate the colour.
If your predominant market is light-skinned/Caucasian people, you can easily use any of the Portra packs or the Fujicolor packs.
If you're shooting mostly people of color or Asian skin tones, we recommend sticking with the Fujicolor packs and films.
I found Mastin Labs' article by searching for "best film for dark skin tones". Most of the results from Google were links to forums where photographers were asking the question. That's a good thing. Those photographers realise that not all skin tones are the same. But when I see any film described as "... delivers spectacular skin tones plus exceptional color saturation" I get this sick feeling inside that the writer meant white skin tones. When did white skin become the default?
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