Pastel Vibes Film Recipe, by Willow Rotter

X100V Classic Negative film recipe for beautiful blues and whites

Pastel Vibes

The beautiful Greek island of Santorini is a photography paradise, with its characteristic white and blue buildings and far reaching ocean views. This colour palette has been masterfully captured by Willow Rotter on his X100V using his film recipe, Pastel Vibes.

Willow’s photographic style is towards ‘high key’ with images typically overexposed by +1. In this recipe, a ‑2 setting for highlights helps to preserve detail and give a wonderfully bright and airy image.

He also notes that if you want the highlights to be a little red, use R: 0 rather than R: ‑1. Some of the photos were taken with R: 0 and some with R: ‑1.

Photo credits: Willow Rotter.

Pastel Vibes Film Recipe Settings

Film Simulation	Classic Negative
Grain Effect	Off
Colour Chrome Effect	Weak
Colour Chrome Blue	Off
White Balance	Auto, ‑1 Red
Dynamic Range	DR400
Highlights	‑2
Shadows	‑1
Colour	+3
Sharpness	+1
ISO Noise Reduction	‑4
Clarity	+2
EV Compensation	+1

Pastel Vibes Film Recipe: Sample Photos

Comments

10 responses to “Pastel Vibes Film Recipe, by Willow Rotter”

August 21, 2022

TheCameraEatsFirst

Tell him/her climbing and standing on roofs for pretentious photo shoots are one of the reasons Santorinians hate tourists! It’s disrespectful and irksome. Signs everywhere demanding not to climb on roofs and respect for locals.

I was there last year. Beauty at every turn, but this beauty is now ruined by tourists. It’s so insanely crowded there until late October. The photos only show you the nice parts, of course. https://i.imgur.com/S9sOxZi.jpg , https://i.imgur.com/omik108.jpg , https://i.imgur.com/Mflzudc.jpg , https://i.imgur.com/vNIpuhG.jpg , https://i.imgur.com/ygzyqbw.jpg , https://i.imgur.com/GLUAlkC.jpg , https://i.imgur.com/qoLy8cq.jpg , https://i.imgur.com/vQ8PKWM.jpg . Photos taken with a very old X30 and XF16mm/f1.4

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1. August 21, 2022
  
  justingould
  
  Thanks for sharing those images. It seems such a photogenic place, I can certainly imagine that it’s overwhelmed by tourists most of the year and the locals might rather it wasn’t. I lived in a tourist hotspot once, and in the summer, it was just easier not to go into town.
  As for the climbing, I’m not aware of the circumstances, but I have edited the post so those images aren’t used so as not to encourage others.
  
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August 24, 2022

Tony Cook

You must have been asked this before, but ….. Is there a way to adapt this beautiful recipe for X Trans III? Thanks!

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1. August 24, 2022
  
  justingould
  
  Hi Tony. The issue with adapting recipes comes in two parts, do you have the simulation, and do you have the adjusted setting options. The issue with this one, is that it uses Classic Negative as the simulation, which you’d have to swap for another giving a different look. You could try using Pro Neg Hi, Astia, or even Provia. For other settings, the concerning ones are Color Chrome Blue and Clarity. This recipe only uses Clarity, which you will have to skip, or estimate by increasing the Sharpness from 1 to 2. Don’t lose hope though, because this recipe is also strongly defined by the overexposure, so if you adapt the recipe as mentioned and overexpose, you’ll get a similar feel, even if it does look different when viewed side by side.
  
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March 22, 2024

Cleth

Hi,

Thank you for the recipes!

Just one thing bother me: when you set « clarity: +2 »

the camera (x100vi) takes a lot of time to process each picture.

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1. March 22, 2024
  
  justingould
  
  That’s right. Our cameras do a lot of work when using Clarity, but it is of course optional, and you can adjust the recipe as you prefer.
  
  Personally, I love the Clarity effect and have got used to it now so I don’t notice the processing pause so much
  
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May 20, 2024

Emma

Beautiful, thanks for sharing! So as a relatively new Fuji user, I’m thrilled to find these film recipes making miracles on the looks. The only thing of course in between, is how to adapt them: I have X-T5. Any suggestions on this Pastel Vibes, since it was made with X100v that must make quite a different base..

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1. May 26, 2024
  
  justingould
  
  Thanks for the comment, Emma. Your remarks inspired me to complete the admin task of updating ALL of the recipe pages on the site with appropriate settings for X-Trans IV and V cameras.
  
  In general, there are only subtle differences between the look of base simulations from camera to camera. I feel that my X-S20 is slightly different to my X-S10, but it’s hard to put my finger on how. However, I do notice a more obvious difference in the Color Chrome Blue setting, which is stronger on X-Trans V series cameras. For that reason, the recipes are much the same, with just the CC Blue having a different setting.
  
  For Pastel Vibes, Willow comments that the CC Blue setting should be adjusted more to taste and when blue skies or ocean are in frame. For this reason, the recipe is actually unchanged, but with the advice to use perhaps CC Blue on Weak with blue skies and seas.
  
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December 29, 2024

Evan

Any thoughts about adapting this to Sony? 😅

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1. December 29, 2024
  
  justingould
  
  Ha! I wouldn’t know where to start! I think step 1 would be to buy a Fuji 😜
  
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