If you have not watched my previous two videos covering fujifilm film simulations,
I highly encourage you to take the time to watch those first as it will provide
a good foundation to start from. And if you find value in my tutorials, consider leaving a like,
some feedback in the comments section and subscribe for future videos, let’s go.
Fujifilm understands the value film simulations bring to the user,
Fujifilm also understands that experimentation is a big part of film simulations, so they have
provided us with up to 7 custom slots we can assign film simulation settings to. I
will be showing you 3 different ways to assign custom settings, and of course stick around to
see my personal custom settings, where I’ll briefly explain why and when I use them.
So the first method, and probably the method most people will use, is to adjust via the menu.
Open up the menu, in the IQ settings we can see the current assigned film simulation and below
that, all the extra settings we can adjust. If you already have a film simulation recipe in mind,
go ahead and make all the changes, for demonstration I will make some random adjustments
to these settings. Let’s work our way down until we have made all our necessary changes and scroll
down until we get to edit/save custom setting, press ok, and it will bring up the 7 custom slots,
using the joystick, select which slot we wish to save to and press ok again.
Select save current settings and press ok. A confirmation window will appear, select ok
Once we have confirmed it will take us back to the edit/save custom settings screen,
it would be a good time now to rename the custom slot we have just assigned
for ease of future reference. So with the slot selected press ok, select edit custom name,
press ok. Either using the joystick and menu/ok button or, on the x100v,
using the touch function, we can go ahead and create a name. If we make a mistake,
simply highlight the character we wish to delete using the back or
forward arrows, select DEL and press ok. If we wish to insert a character between
two existing characters, highlight the character that comes after the character we wish to place
and select the character we wish to add in. Once we are happy with the name, select SET
to finish renaming and it will take us back to the edit/save custom settings menu.
Press the disp.back button to go back to the IQ menu and choose “select custom setting”,
select the custom setting we have just created and press ok. The camera has now applied all the
settings we have assigned to that custom slot. So if we exit the menu, what we’ll see on the
LCD screen and the electronic viewfinder will be a representation of the settings we have applied.
The second method is how to edit and overwrite existing custom slots.
Heading back into the IQ settings, scroll down to edit/save custom setting, select the custom slot
we want to make changes to, press ok and select edit. This will take us to the editing screen.
On the top it will display the custom slot that is being edited. Here we can make changes to
the film simulation or any of the extra settings, let’s say for example, we want to change the film
simulation to eterna and we want the sharpness to +1. We will go ahead and make these changes.
Once we are happy, in order to save these changes,
press the disp.back button. A confirmation screen will appear, select ok. Now we have successfully
made changes to an existing custom slot. If we wish to make changes to other custom slots,
simply repeat the process and make sure to give the slot a custom name.
The third method is creation via the fujifilm X raw studio application on the computer. This will
require an existing photo in RAW format taken with the camera we wish to make custom profiles for,
on the computer. To understand how to use X raw studio please watch Part 2,
and use the timestamp to watch the section on how to use X raw studio.
So I have a RAW image I have edited here. To save the settings, at the top right of the window there
are two drop down menus called user profile and camera profile and a save button next to each tab
respectively. User profile will save the settings to the application, so we can convert any other
RAW images imported into the application from the same model camera. Camera profile will export the
settings to the camera’s custom slots, so go ahead and click save next to camera profile,
this will bring up a pop up where we can choose which custom slot to assign these settings to.
Select a slot and another pop up box will appear where we can give the profile a name.
Hit ok and we are done! Now if we disconnect the camera and head into IQ settings menu
and select custom settings, we can see the profile has been saved successfully!
X raw studio is a great way to create film simulation profiles,
as you can see the changes each setting makes to an image in real time.
So those were the three methods of creating custom settings for fujifilm cameras.
Now we will go over my current profiles and I explain why and when I use them.
The first profile is Black and white Highkey, it uses the Acros plus red filter
as the film simulation and I have boosted the highlights slightly and shadows significantly.
As you can imagine this creates a high contrast, dramatic and stylised look that
I really love using to accentuate lines, shapes and other forms of abstraction.
It is also good at isolating subjects and creating silhouettes in the right lighting conditions,
and that would be in harsh sunlight situations, where the light cast onto objects and subjects
create a distinct separation between the bright and dark areas. This isn’t the best profile if
you want to preserve tonal detail, nevertheless. I personally really like it and some of my favourite
photos were made using this profile. You can push it in camera even more by increasing or decreasing
the exposure compensation depending on how bright or dim the scene is.
The next profile I call Urban Mood. It uses the Classic Chrome simulation and this profile
is what I mainly use in urban environments. Dark shadows and slightly raised highlights
gives it a heavy look. For urban landscapes with very muted color palettes,
classic chrome works very well, but at the same time it can also render colour in a pleasing way.
I use this in any daytime light situation, in bright sunlight it creates a very contrasty image
similar to that of the Black and white highkey profile,
and in more overcast scenarios, it can still provide that dramatic mood with the extra
punch in the shadows. In general just a solid performing profile for most city environments.
The next profile is my go to simulation for that vintage film like look. I named it Faux-jifilm
because well.. It’s not real film. I don’t even know if there is a film stock out there that
renders images like this but I personally like the look and it makes me feel the nostalgia.
This profile is the one I currently use for when my urban mood profile is too much.
It uses the classic negative simulation. I have white balance set to 5500 kelvin
as that simulates vertical daylight, and I shifted the reds to +2 and blues to -4.
Due to this reason, this profile is only really used during the daytime with moderate to ample
sunlight. I also tend to dial the exposure compensation from +⅓ up to 1 full stop
when using this profile. The only real downside is sometimes highlights can get blown out.
So either set dynamic range to 400% and shoot above iso 640 or dynamic range at auto and bring
back some highlight detail in post processing, but you would need to shoot in RAW format to do this.
The next two profiles are highly situational and cannot be used outside these situations. First up
is a profile I like to call Light film. It’s a profile I created that is loosely based on film
stocks when overexposed to give that flat pastel looking effect. I use classic chrome simulation
as the base as it has a slightly muted look with a slight punch in contrast. From there, it’s just
a matter of lowering the highlights and shadows to make it more flat. I would always try to shoot
this profile with dynamic range set to 400% and exposure compensation between +1 and +2 to get
that pastel look. But of course depending on the lighting situation, I would want to bring back
highlight detail in post processing if I really want it to look more like film. This profile does
not work well with human subjects, as the skin will look too washed out, but for photographing
landmarks and landscapes during the day, it works really well to create that pastel aesthetic.
A lot of my simulations cater to daytime scenarios because I rarely photograph at night,
however I created a profile, aptly named Night, for when the occasion calls for it.
I used classic negative as the simulation but classic chrome, or pro negative hi works as well.
I have custom Kelvin value set to 4500K to balance most cool or neutral white fluorescent lights
which are very common at night. I also shifted the reds to -4 and blue to +1 as an aesthetic choice.
It makes things look a bit more natural at night both indoors and outdoors.
And lastly, I have a profile called flat. It’s fairly self explanatory. I used pro
negative standard as the simulation and I went ahead and lowered the highlights, shadows,
color and sharpness to their lowest values. This creates a super flat, close to what a RAW
file would look like. This is the profile I use if I want to play around with editing on my phone.
Basically I would take a photo with this profile and using the fujifilm app, transfer
the jpeg to my phone where I can then proceed to edit using the Snapseed app.
I have presets I made on that app which I can instantly apply to these
flat jpegs to quickly bring out a look I can’t otherwise get straight out of camera.
So there you have it, I hope this has been of help to those who are just getting into the wonderful
world of film simulations and customisation on their fujifilm cameras. Don’t forget to share
this video with anyone you know who are new to the fujifilm system. Thanks, and until next time.