Nightwalker, Street Film Recipe for Night Lights

Fujifilm film simulation recipe for night street photography and city lights with a cyber teal tone

With earlier dark nights in Winter, I’ve been experimenting with more street photography under the streetlights and lights from passing traffic. In the UK, it’s dark by around 5pm around now, meaning that there’s no need to go out late. And, with a few rainy evenings recently, I was able to try out some new film recipes ideas for street with the extra bonus of wet surfaces and reflections.

The addition of recent rain to night photos is transformational, adding lots of bounceback lighting and refections to all sorts of surfaces. In particular floors, streets and pavements become mirrors, doubling up the number of light points for the images. It’s also a fun time to try accessories such as mirrors and lensballs, adding again to the number of light points for more creative images.

For this film recipe, I wanted to pull out lots of the light volume and colour, so the base here is Velvia with some optional overexposure. This helps bring colour into more of the image in the darker conditions, but the choice of exposure is very much a personal one.

The other big element in this recipe is the colour balance shifting which leans hard into teal and blue. This adds something of a Cyber / Bladerunner vibe, adding atmosphere to artificial lights, and giving a striking turquoise look if using with any residual daylight.

So, here we go with the recipe details, and samples taken over two recent evenings.

Explore colour on the streets at night with the vivid Nightwalker Film Recipe

Nightwalker Film Recipe

  • Simulation: Velvia/Vivid
  • Grain Effect: Strong, Large
  • Colour Chrome Effect: Weak
  • Colour Chrome Blue: Strong (IV) / Weak (V)
  • White Balance: Auto
  • WB Shift: -7 Red, -3 Blue
  • Dynamic Range: DR200
  • Highlights: -2.0
  • Shadows: +2.0
  • Color: +4
  • Sharpness: -2
  • ISO Noise Reduction: -4
  • Clarity: 0
  • EV compensation: up to +2/3

There’s more in the app …

The film.recipes app contains over 750 film recipes, including these similar to Nightwalker …

The app is available for iOS and Android, and your purchase supports this project and the creation of more film recipes for you to try.

Working with colour and refelcted lights, using the night themed Nightwalker Film Recipe
Teal tones in the murky gloom. Misty conditions are given a new look with the Nightwalker Film Recipe
Nature in the night city, taken with the vivid colour shifting Nightwalker Film Recipe
Panning shots are more difficult than I had expected! Nightwalker Film Recipe
This bus appears to be entering warp speed. Nightwalker Film Recipe
Deep blue green tones in winter conditions, using the Nightwalker Film Recipe
Green lights lead the way, using the Velvia based Nightwalker Film Recipe
Embrace the gloom for a new mood in your photos. Daylight tests with the Nightwalker Film Recipe
But it is the night streets that are the new playground with the Nightwalker Film Recipe

To see more photos taken with film recipes, and to share your photos with others, why not join our Film Recipes Facebook Group 📷

FILM.RECIPES is now on YOUTUBE. Let’s try out some film recipes!

Mistery Machine Film Recipe Video
(Foggy day photography)
Turqish Film Recipe Video
(Go crazy with colour)
Venus Mars Film Recipe Video
(Sunset over the ocean)

4 responses to “Nightwalker, Street Film Recipe for Night Lights”

    • Hi Sergei. I wasn’t using a filter or the clarity function. The night was rainy, and on some shots you can tell that I had water on the lens, but this is a goodf question for the other shots. My lens was the 27mm f2.8 pancake, which is not usually one with a lot of bloom, but I think maybe that I shoot towards the lights and overexpose a bit make the effect stronger? Also, the bloom lights are in the out of focus area of the images when I was shooting a f4, so that will probably be part of it as well.

      Like

Leave a comment