Jpeg-only week one with Velvia Film simulation

It's my first week of shooting in Jpeg-only with custom film simulations on my Fujifilm X-E2, and I've already completely rearranged my recipes!

Cobden Lagoon, early evening. X-E2 with 16-50mm XC. f/8 @ 1/20th, ISO 3200. Velvia recipe

In my last post I explained how I've set up the seven custom slots to allow for white balance adjustments for each film recipe. This relies on heavy use of similar film stocks that use the same WB channel adjustments. Mostly, this meant using Kodak film recipes. But when I took a series of test images (again, see last post), I came away feeling that there wasn't enough variance in the final results. All the images looked a bit too similar. 

So, I decided to start from scratch, and have now programmed in a whole new set of recipes that are hopefully going to give me a bit more variance between 'looks'. I've kept the first two film simulations from my previous set (Kodak Ektachrome 100SW and Fuji Acros), and have added Agfa Optima 200, Agfa Scala, Fuji Velvia, Ilford HP5 and Kodak Gold 200. I feel a lot better about this set of recipes - it feels a bit more 'democratic'. Two Kodak, two Fuji, two Agfa and one Ilford. Sounds pretty good to me.

I've been itching to get out and start shooting (always a good sign), and got my wish this week after work. We've been having some lovely sunsets here recently (it's mid winter), and driving home from work I could see that the sky was starting to colour up nicely.

However, the sun also sets pretty quickly this time of year, so you need to be at the right place at the right time or you'll miss the light. 

There is a lagoon walk not far from where we live, so my wife and I headed off from home towards the lagoon, hoping that the light would last - and colour up enough to get some decent images. 

I took my Fujifilm X-E2 with Fujinon 16-50mm XC lens, the 50-230mm XC and a spare battery. I don't carry a tripod when we go out walking in the evening. My wife is happy for me to wander around with the camera, but if I started setting the tripod up every 5 minutes I think that her good nature would be sorely tested. So I grab anything I can hand-held, and don't mind cranking the ISO up if I have to.

In fact, all of my film recipes use 'Auto' ISO - with the colour stocks topping out at 3200, while the B&W simulations get cranked up to 6400 if necessary. If it's a toss-up between camera shake at low ISO's, or getting the shot with some 'noise' (grain) at high ISO's, I'll get the shot with noise every time.

Most of the photos I took while on the walk were captured at ISO 3200. And while there certainly is some 'noise' if you zoom into the image, I certainly don't find it objectionable. I understand that noise is a subjective thing. Some want as clean an image as possible at ISO 250,000 - whereas others (like me) don't mind a bit of noise in an image.

Cobden Lagoon blush. X-E2 with 16-50mm XC. f/8 @ 1/20th, ISO 3200. Velvia recipe

If I was blowing the images up super-large for printing then it might be a different case. In that scenario I would use a tripod and lower my ISO as much as possible. But these are just 'test' images to start to get a feel for the particular film recipes, so they were only going to be for the web or social media anyway.

With the sky starting to 'pink-up', I knew I wanted to shoot with a recipe that gave me the richest possible colour. So I set my custom slot to C5 - Fuji Velvia. Colours don't get more punchy than on Fuji's Velvia slide film, and as can be seen from the images accompanying this post, it was certainly the right choice!

Purple Haze. f/8 @ 1/60th, ISO 1600. Fuji Velvia film simulation

 

Initially I thought that I had lost the light and had left it too late. But when I held the camera up to my eye, the evf exploded with colour! The above image certainly didn't look like this to my naked eye. But with the Velvia recipe, the light was intense, and incredible. I snapped some images, showed my wife the back of the screen, and she couldn't believe the colour I was getting.

Full disclosure - all of the recipes I'm using are taken off of the internet - and more specifically, from Richie Roech's excellent Fuji X Weekly blog. I have, however, had to modify them slightly, since most of his custom film recipes are designed for the X-Trans III sensor (and the X-E2 uses the earlier X-Trans II sensor).

Cobden Lagoon Sunset colours. f/8 @ 1/60th, ISO 1600

Now, the keen observers among you (of which I'm sure there are many) will no doubt be saying - "Hang on a minute. Don't Fujifilm cameras come with a pre-exisitng Velvia film stock already programmed in"? What do you need a 'Velvia' custom recipe for"? Excellent question, and point well taken.

All Fujifilm digital cameras do indeed come with the Velvia film stock included (as well as Astia, Provia, Monochrome etc). And while the Velvia film recipe I'm using starts with the Velvia stock as a base (obviously), it 'tweaks' it to produce even more Velvia film-like goodness!

My Fuji Velvia recipe for the X-Trans II sensor looks like this:

Fuji Velvia

Film base: Velvia

DR:200

Colour: +2

Sharpness: +1

Highlight Tone: -1

Shadow Tone: 0

Noise Reduction: -2

White Balance: 'Auto' (+1R, -1B)

ISO: Auto up to 3200

Cobden Lagoon Sunset. Fuji X-E2 with 16-50mm. f/8 @ 1/60th, ISO 1600. Velvia recipe

Am I pleased with the results? You betcha! The vibrancy it produced from the small amount of colour that could be seen by the naked eye is incredible. And yet, the first few images I took on the walk (seen above) are 'fairly' realistic to what I saw at the time. So yes, it's punchy and colourful - but not so over-the-top so as to look fake and unuseable. Not great for portraits, but amazing for landscapes - exactly like the actual Velvia film stock. 

Of course I will need to try it out at other locations, under other lighting conditions. But if this night at the lagoon was anything to go by, I think I may have found my go-to landscape film recipe!?