Film Recipes for Fujifilm Cameras

Nostalgic, soft tone and vintage film recipes using Fujifilm film simulations

Blue Monday, Experimental Blue Tones

Classic Negative film simulation recipe with a strong blue tone colour shift and cool colour balance

When designing film simulation recipes, my processes are sometime inspired by images I see, or a mood I wish to capture. Other times, I play idly in X RAW Studio, testing different settings on RAW files I have taken on recent outings. This was how I came upon the wild and crazy blue tones of this recipe.

I was testing different colour temperatures on the image of the cows in the frosty field you see below. Most film recipes with a natural or warm look have a temperature of 5500K or higher, but my experimentation led me deep into the blue zone and I settled at 4000K. Curiously, the image still had a soft of reality about it, although the grass was now very blue.

I started testing it on other images, and adjusting the other settings. The second magic power I discovered, was that this recipe was a sort of Golden Hour undo, allowing you to capture a scene in the soft hazy light of the time near sunrise or sunset, but strip away the golden tones, like it was the middle of a clear blue sky day.

I’m filing this film recipe under Extreme Styles and Recipes for Blue Tones, and although it is a novelty discoverd by idle experimentation, I quite like it, especially in bright golden light, such as with the shots below of sunlit leaves, or sunrise teasels. I hope you’ll give it a try, perhaps when you’re also feeling experiemental and want something completely different to explore.