Nostalgic monochrome film simulation recipe for a washed out soft look
Mono 42
I think black and white photography is hard. There’s an art to it, that I just can’t quite master. I think it comes from a different way of seeing things, and having trained my eye to hunt down colour shots, I don’t feel in tune with mono.
So, when it comes to making mono film recipes, I tend to look at ways to use a mono setting with the style of photography I am comfortable with. These are mono recipes for the rest of us!
In Mono 42, the look is a soft and faded one, with compressed tone and a gentle retro colour wash. It has a nostalgic feel, and with the lifted shadows, it feels like printed images from books and magazines, rather than the strong contrast B&W you’d find in a gallery.
Eterna Bleach Bypass, tuned for shooting impactful landscape photos
Cereal Killer
I grew up in a small village in a rural area and I always enjoyed the way that farmland changed through the seasons. There was the season of baby animals, starting with the lambs, and working through pigs and cows.
As the spring turned into summer, crops would be bursting into flower and become heavy with seed. My favourites were the wheat, barley and oat fields with their change from green to gold, followed by the hot and hard work of the harvest.
I still enjoy a visit to a farm, and will often wander along field edges to photograph crops in the morning or evening light. You’ll maybe have seen images on this site from some of those walks.
For the creamy tones of summer crops and a bright blue sky with fluffy clouds, the Eterna Bleach Bypass simulation is a great choice for impactful images with a muted colour tone. This is the starting point for the Cereal Killer recipe, which is tuned to suit photography outdoors, landscapes and rural and small town scenes.
Soft tones Fujicolor Superia look made with Classic Negative on X-Trans IV
Superia Loco
My very first film recipe creation was a Classic Negative film simulation recipe called Soft Negative, which has remained a favourite of mine ever since. It has a softness and warmth that suits my photography style, and the retro elements of the Classic Negative simulation.
In all the film recipes that I’ve produced since, I’ve not quite eclipsed this early one as a favourite. There have been some close seconds, like Kojak Gold, my 200th recipe, and Childhood Vacation with a washed out look that’s great fun to use.
However, I think at last, I might have a new favourite film recipe. It’s made with Classic Negative again and packed full of the character and style that I love. May I present to you, Superia Loco, a low contrast Fujifilm Superia look. It’s my new no. 1 and I really hope that you enjoy it too.
Warm and hazy film simulation recipe with Eterna and negative clarity
Hazy Dayz
I originally developed this recipe in the early Summer, when warm weather made the air feel heavy with humidity and a hazy look seems to magnify the mood. I’m not entirely sure why I never published the recipe back then, but I have since rediscovered it and given it a new test in other conditions.
The recipe takes the mellow tones of Eterna film simulation with a strongly nostalgic colourshift. To this I have added further softness with a misty fuzz from -4 clarity. This acts like a mist filter, so if you wish, you can use one of those instead, but this recipe is intended to be seen with the softness of negative clarity.
This recipe certainly is a mood magnifier, and is especially useful when the sun is low and the weather warm. For dreamy Summer afternoons it is perfect, and it is especially effective in the golden hour. I also suggest one or two stops of over-exposure which will bring some highlight burn into the overall look.
Eteran film simulation recipe for capturing summer scenes with character
In the strong light of summer, a relaxed film recipe that can tame the harsh light is a useful partner. In these conditions, I like to capture the warm and leisurely mood of the summer months, but I also want to be able to shoot throughout the day, rather than necessarily have to wait until the golden hour.
This film recipe, designed for August and the summer, uses that most tolerant of film simulations, Eterna Cinema. This does the hard work of taming the contrast, and to this base, I’ve added a characterful warmth, from a 1, -6 shift from the auto colour balance. To magnify this, colour is uplifted to the maximum, which for Eterna, is still soft and not distracting.
So here it the result, a welcoming and characterful summer film recipe, that makes an excellent travel companion and top choice for lazy warm afternoons and evenings.
Mellow images in the harshest of morning sun, with the Augustine film recipe
Augustine Film Recipe
Simulation: Eterna/Cinema
Grain Effect: Weak, Small
Colour Chrome Effect: Weak
Colour Chrome Blue: Weak (IV) / Off (V)
White Balance: Auto
WB Shift: +1 Red, -6 Blue
Dynamic Range: DR200
Highlights: -2.0
Shadows: +2.0
Color: +4
Sharpness: -2
ISO Noise Reduction: -4
Clarity: -4
EV compensation: 0
Whilst this was designed on X-Trans IV, the settings are easily adapted to other cameras in the Fujifillm X series range. If you have such a camera, give it a try, and why not share your results in our Film Recipes Facebook Group?
4pm and the beach is empty! Augustine film recipe
Summer showers in Charmouth, UK. Augustine film recipe
Butterfuly spotting on a warm afternoon, using the Augustine film recipeBringing the boats in after a leisurely sail. Augustine film recipeGolden hour photo snapping withthe little boats, Augustine film recipe
These Summer fruits are not for eating! Augustine film recipeWarm summer mood, captured with the Augustine film recipeThat evening glow in Golden Hour, with Augustine film recipe
A pebble beach in Devon, explored with Augustine film recipeIn the deer park at Petworth, Augustine film recipe
Spying on the deer with my 70-300 lens, and Augustine film recipeA clear blue sky day, using Augustine film recipeGet those three point shots, with the Augustine film recipe
Eterna for the Summer
The Eterna film simulation is so useful in the bright conditions of summer. I’ve enjoyed making a number of recipes with it. There are similarities between these recipes, but each has its own character. Take a look …
Eterna Bleach Bypass film recipe with deep inky shadows and a striking muted look
Inky Depths
It’s no secret that I love the Eterna Bleach Bypass film simulation and have great fun making recipes with it. I have, by happy accident, built up just about the largest selection of Bleach Bypass film recipes online.
This is my latest creation, which pulls together ideas from two other recipes, Wildwood Deep and Squid Ink, but is a look that’s all its own. It’s particularly exciting in the golden hour and bright conditions, making a wonderfully luxurious look with deep dark tones and highlight details.
One point to note in this recipe is the underexposure recommendation. To achieve the style, you do need to either expose for highlights, or underexpose at around -2/3 on standard metering. Embrace the dark side, and enjoy the Inky Depths.
Creamy and nostalgic Eterna film recipe for warm vacation memories
Holiday Romance
In the film recipe community, there are a number of stand out creators that develop and share recipes in their own style. One such creator is Captn Look, who favours extreme settings, warm colour tones, and on occasion, the use of an FLD filter. I find his work inspiring, but for my personal photography, I often prefer to tone down the settings, keeping the spirit of his recipes, in a softer version.
For this summer vacation themed film recipe, I was inspired by Street Romance, a retro toned street photography recipe. I love the look on his site, but it just wasn’t quite working for me. So using his recipe as a base, I adjusted and softened the extremes, but kept the Eterna simulation and the colour balance choice.
So, from Street Romance we now have Holiday Romance, a warm themed Eterna film recipe, with lots of suntan tone and nostalgic feel. It’s just right for adding lots of atmosphere to vacation photos, or for a creamy golden style in the first and last hours of light in the day.
X-Trans IV Pro Neg Standard film simulation recipe for a nostalgic film like tone
Vintage Film
One of the reasons I began work on this site and the collection of recipes was to share my nostalgic film recipe discoveries. I’ve enjoyed post-processing images into a variety of retro styles for many years, and with the advent of the Fujifilm X series cameras, I’ve skipped that last step and switched to shooting JPEG with film recipes.
The main thing to surprise me is just how many different looks I’ve been able to discover within the film simulations on my X-Trans IV camera. I’d expected to find maybe 20 or so looks, but here I am with over 200 hosted on the site and a whole bunch more in write up and on the to do list.
For this one, I’ve used the Pro Neg Standard film simulation, which I understand to be based upon Fujifilm’s Pro 400 film. I find that using this simulation for nature and landscape photos can give a wonderfully mellow and nostalgic look. I’ve explored this before with Retro Standard and Nostalgic Standard recipes.
For Vintage film, I focused not only on the mellow tone, but other elements to give a film like look. There’s some grain added, and the wonderful color chrome effects too. It’s a recipe to unlock the retro tones in our cameras, and the effect is relaxing and calm. I hope you’ll enjoy it.
Film simulation recipe for CineStill 400d on X100V, X-T4, X-E4 and X-S10 cameras
CineStill 400D
Always on trend (!) I’ve been enjoying Threads as a way to follow and engage with photographers. I follow a good spread of digital and film photographers, including several that shoot landscapes and urban nostalgia.
Today, I saw a simple set of images of a decaying family car by @douglasrhall parked on the lawn of what looks to me like an urban neighbourhood home typical of American industrial cities.
These shots were taken on CineStill 400D film, which has a wonderfully earthy and nostalgic tone. These two adjectives are also linked with Eterna Cinema simulation on our cameras, so that’s what I’ve used for this attempt to mimic the look.
In Doug’s images, the weather is cloudy, so I matched up the tones on some grey day and hazy sunlight samples. There’s a strongly cinematic mood in the resulting images. The look becomes different (and wonderful) in sunlight, and has a creamy softness in the golden hour. All in all, a success, and I had fun developing this recipe for CineStill 400D. I hope you’ll enjoy it too.
A cream tones Eterna Bleach Bypass film recipe for Fujifilm cameras
Ebb and Flow
In my experiments with film recipes, I keep returning to the enigmatic character of Eterna Bleach Bypass. It has a more striking base look than many of the other film simulations, and I have found it the most flexible in creating different recipes.
This recipe pulls the base sim apart, stretching and shifting it away from the standard look. It may even be so far from the usual appearance as to be almost unrecognisable as a bleach bypass at all.
The result is a soft toned, warm recipe with a cream tones look, which is wonderful in most types of sunlight. The golden hour works especially well, but most other bright or daytime conditions are well captured too. It’s closest cousin is my Soft Cinnamon recipe, but Ebb and Flow is a special look all its own.
