> 6 minute read

The Perfect Custom FUJIFILM Film Simulation

Fujifilm’s Film Simulations offer creatives beautiful in-camera looks, but many photographers cater to their own tastes with custom changes. After testing the FUJIFILM X-S20, street photographer Mike Chudley shares what he believes to be the perfect suite of look adjustments

Long before the creation of the mirrorless X Series and GFX System cameras, we spent decades refining and producing analogue film. This colour science research still forms the basis of our digital sensors, and is honoured in our Film Simulations, which emulate classic film stocks.

Our Film Simulations suit a wide variety of subjects and tastes, but we’ve also provided the potential to push looks further with adjustments to colour, grain, dynamic range and much more. Through the years, we’ve proudly watched our community create, debate and share personalised Film Simulations – considered down to the smallest tweaks.

Recently, talented street photographer and YouTube educator Mike Chudley has done just that. With the FUJIFILM X-S20 in hand, he has created what he believes to be the perfect custom Film Simulation.

Please note, some of the settings below cannot be accessed in automatic modes. Before continuing, switch your camera to one of the PASM options. Discover more about Mike’s personal preferences at the bottom of this article.

Base Film Simulation

As the foundation of his customisations, Mike has chosen Nostalgic Neg. – or CLASSIC CHROME where not available. The two are comparable, with the warmer highlights of the former and harder tonal gradation of the latter serving as key distinguishing factors. Both are ideally suited to street and documentary photography, but also gorgeous choices to depict everyday life.

To set either Film Simulation, press MENU OK, navigate to the IMAGE QUALITY SETTING menu, select FILM SIMULATION, then scroll through the options. Hovering over your preferred option, press MENU OK.

Film Simulations are not applied to Raw files, so if you’re creating your own look like Mike, you’ll need to ensure you’re shooting in JPEG. Once again, in the IMAGE QUALITY SETTING menu, find IMAGE QUALITY and choose any option except RAW.

Enabling Natural Live View also allows you to see the effects of your Film Simulation and look adjustments – exactly as they’ll appear in the image – on the LCD or through the viewfinder. Find the setting in the SET UP menu, under SCREEN SET-UP.

Adding Grain

Fujifilm’s JPEGs are admired for their somewhat analogue quality, which is accentuated with a little grain. Unlike digital noise at extreme ISO settings, digital grain is dispersed throughout the image in an aesthetically pleasing way. It adds texture and subtly smooths contrasting areas.

Mike has chosen to keep grain minimal in his perfect Film Simulation. To follow his lead, open the IMAGE QUALITY SETTING menu, scroll to GRAIN EFFECT, then set ROUGHNESS to WEAK and SIZE to SMALL.

Boosting Colour

While pastel palettes are certainly appealing, Mike has built this look around punchy colours. Though saturation is not excessive, vibrance does come through, creating an image that’s a little bolder than life. There are four settings to consider.

White Balance

Automatic white balance in X Series and GFX System is designed to document an accurate depiction of a scene – but custom Film Simulations aren’t grounded in accuracy. Mike has shifted his look towards a warmer hue, avoiding magenta tones, with a +2 Red, -3 Blue balance.

In the IMAGE QUALITY SETTING menu, find WHITE BALANCE, choose AUTO, then input Mike’s chosen values. Remember to return your white balance setting to a neutral point when photographing outside your custom Film Simulation, or apply these changes to a CUSTOM slot instead.

The COLOR setting

This option, found in the IMAGE QUALITY SETTING menu, is the most direct way to make an overall colour shift. With values from +4 to -4 available, Mike has selected a middling increase at +2. Based on the low saturation of the base Film Simulations, this series of adjustments is not as drastic as you might imagine.

COLOR CHROME EFFECT

Fujifilm’s COLOR CHROME EFFECT cleverly boosts the effect of colours and tonal range by reproducing high contrast without oversaturating the hues themselves. In bright conditions, it’s easy for colours to become washed out, but the COLOR CHROME EFFECT produces excellent results in all situations.

COLOR CHROME FX BLUE is a comparable setting, but naturally targets blue areas of the frame. A clear sky, for example, will become much bolder with this setting switched on. Consider it a digital polarising filter.

Both modes live in the IMAGE QUALITY SETTING menu, and share OFF, WEAK and STRONG settings. To achieve Mike’s Film Simulation look, set both to STRONG.

Highlights, Midtones and Shadows

The final area of Mike’s look adjustments is the presentation of light. Perhaps even more so than colour, light impacts viewers in a significant way – though a custom Film Simulation may be better viewed as the sum of equally balanced parts.

Dynamic Range

More dynamic range simply means greater extremes of light and dark are retained within a photo – and while this can be a huge benefit in some cases, it’s not always preferential. Many image makers, like Mike, believe slightly reduced dynamic range offers a more natural look to a photo. And truthfully, many great images contain areas of significant over or underexposure.

So, Mike has opted for only a slight boost for this Film Simulation. By default, Fujifilm cameras are set to DR100, 100%. An AUTO mode is available, which will provide extra range when the scene demands, but to get Mike’s look, choose DR200. This is found under DYNAMIC RANGE, within the IMAGE QUALITY SETTING menu.

Tone Curve

Highlights and shadows can be controlled individually via the Q Menu, but Mike has opted to make a slight adjustment to shadows via the tone curve tool. In the world of street photography, there’s no telling when a perfect subject may be half hidden in darkness. So, by lifting the shadows slightly, fewer opportunities are missed.

Once again, enter the IMAGE QUALITY SETTING menu, then navigate to TONE CURVE. Follow Mike’s lead and set SHADOWS to -2. Remember, you’re taking away from a negative, so a minus value within shadows means more light. An increased shadow value only makes the darkest points in your frame darker. Adjustments will be displayed helpfully on a graph.

Mike Chudley’s Custom Film Simulation

• FILM SIMULATION: NOSTALGIC Neg. or CLASSIC CHROME
• GRAIN EFFECT: WEAK, SMALL
• COLOR CHROME EFFECT: STRONG
• COLOR CHROME FX BLUE: STRONG
• COLOR: +2
• WHITE BALANCE: R2, B-3
• DYNAMIC RANGE: DR200
• TONE CURVE: SHADOWS -2

We hope Mike’s insight leads you to some incredible results. More importantly, we hope he has opened a door into customisations of your own. Observe the photos you love and consider why they look that way. After some experimentation, virtually any look is achievable with X Series and GFX System.

Watch Mike on YouTube to learn about the settings he chooses when working with his custom Film Simulation. He covers exposure, focusing, metering and more. Plus, he reveals his thoughts on the FUJIFILM X-S20.

Learn more about the FUJIFILM X-S20 and read full specifications here.