> 9 minute read

Empower Your Photography with FUJIFILM Film Simulations

Explore how Film Simulations can be used in different styles of photography

Nobody knows film like we do. The Fujifilm company was established to produce photographic film back in 1934, and all those decades of researching and developing our colour science have gone into developing custom Film Simulation modes, which are built into X Series and GFX System cameras.

These simulations adjust the colouring, saturation and contrast of your pictures, so you can achieve the evocative and timeless aesthetic of film photography while making images with all the modern conveniences of a mirrorless camera.

1.   Portrait

A broad genre, portrait photography encompasses a multitude of moods and styles. When selecting a Film Simulation for portraiture, the most important element is realistic depiction of skin tones. Unless a highly stylised aesthetic is your intention, overly saturated colours are best avoided, though it’s important not to go too far the other way and run the risk of a lifeless-looking subject.

The ASTIA Film Simulation is a good option for making portraits, offering authentic skin colours with a fairly soft overall contrast. This is an ideal profile for photographing subjects outdoors and under natural lighting.

PRO Neg. Hi is specifically designed for portrait photography. It offers enhanced contrast to accentuate shadows, helping to create a bold, low-key aesthetic even under fairly flat lighting. This makes it excellent for generating a sense of drama in your photographs.

Meanwhile, PRO Neg. Std is better suited for creating portraits while using controlled lighting, so is ideal for studio sessions. It offers fantastic skin tones and soft contrast, while the tonal output tends towards neutrality, offering improved flexibility in post-processing.

For monochrome portraiture, ACROS simulates the classic NEOPAN 100 ACROS film stock, accentuating shadow detail for an intensely sharp look. It leverages the grain effect that creeps into film photography at high ISOs to create an embedded print-like texture, perfect for stylised black & white portraits. To accentuate darker skin tones or exaggerate the contrast of freckles, try using ACROS in the green colour-filter mode.

Photo 2024 © Nordica Photography | FUJIFILM X-T50 and FUJINON XF23mmF1.4 R LM WR, 1/340 sec at F1.4, ISO 200, ASTIA

Photo 2021 © Justine Milton Photography | FUJIFILM GFX50S II and FUJINON GF45mmF2.8 R WR, 1/160 sec at F2.8, ISO 1250, Pro Neg. Hi

Photo 2024 © Louise Burton | FUJIFILM X-T50 and FUJINON XF16-50mmF2.8-4.8 R LM WR, 1/500 sec at F4, ISO 3200, ACROS

Photo 2024 © Michele Hamparian | FUJIFILM X-T50 and FUJINON XF16-50mmF2.8-4.8 R LM WR, 1/1000 sec at F5.6, ISO 200, Pro Neg. Std

2.   Landscape

Landscape photography benefits from additional tonal gradation in greens and blues, helping to depict the range of colours that naturally occur in foliage, bodies of water and the sky.

In images made during golden hour (the final hour of the day as the sun sets), the wide variety of hues on show can be accentuated by a Film Simulation featuring additional vibrancy, such as Velvia. This profile is modelled on the iconic FUJICHROME Velvia film stock – beloved by landscape photographers for its dynamic contrasts and ultra-vivid colours.

ASTIA also offers rich blues and luscious greens, but has gentler contrast than Velvia. Its overall colour profile is also less saturated, making it a perfect choice for creating a more subtle image.

Depending on which aspect of your composition you want to accentuate, the ACROS colour-filter simulations can be used to pick out various elements of a landscape photo when creating monochrome images.

Using the yellow filter will slightly darken blues, which can help highlight the shape of clouds in the sky or add contrast to a seascape. The red filter creates a much more striking effect, turning blue skies almost black and creating dramatic contrast between bright flowers and dark green foliage. Alternatively, the green filter reproduces foliage colours in lighter shades – ideal for adding detail and tonal gradation to landscapes with a broad range of green tones.

Photo 2022 © Reiko Hagihara | FUJIFILM X-T5 and FUJINON XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR, 30 sec at F11, ISO 125, Velvia

Photo 2024 © Bryan Minear | FUJIFILM GFX100S II and FUJINON GF500mmF5.6 R LM OIS WR, 1/35 sec at F16, ISO 200, ASTIA

Photo 2024 © Luke Davis | FUJIFILM X-T5 and FUJINON XF23mmF1.4 R LM WR, 1/1900 sec at F4, ISO 500, ACROS

3.   Street and Documentary

Visual storytelling is the name of the game when it comes to street and documentary photography. While street photography has the artistic licence to move into more surreal colour spaces, it tends to remain centred around the grittiness and realism of urban settings. Similarly, documentary image making calls for a grounded style and fairly conservative colour palette, so the two genres can employ a similar selection of Film Simulations.

CLASSIC CHROME is designed to evoke the essence of 20th-century documentary magazines. Hard shadows and low saturation create realism, making this simulation the perfect pick for immersive, retro-style photography.

For slightly more saturation and even deeper shadows, try CLASSIC Neg. It also offers a vintage look with high-contrast tonal gradation, and colours that exude depth and definition.

NOSTALGIC Neg. features slightly amber-tinted highlights, for a characterful printed-photograph look evocative of the imagery found in old photo albums. With rich shadow tones and somewhat faded colours, it’s ideal for adding subtle analogue warmth to your images.

The boldness of the monochromatic Film Simulations is fantastic for creating sharp contrast – a useful tool when it comes to communicating a narrative with a single frame. For the urban settings of street photography, try ACROS with the red colour filter to lighten red brick tones and create contrast between your background and foreground subjects.

Photo 2024 © Josh Edgoose | FUJIFILM X100VI, 1/1000 sec at F5.6, ISO 250, CLASSIC Chrome

Photo 2024 © Josh Edgoose | FUJIFILM X100VI, 1/250 sec at F2, ISO 1000, Classic Neg.

Photo 2024 © Josh Edgoose | FUJIFILM X100VI, 1/1000 sec at F4, ISO 1600, NOSTALGIC Neg.

Photo 2024 © Josh Edgoose | FUJIFILM X100VI, 1/1000 sec at F2, ISO 320, ACROS

4.   Macro

Since there are an endless assortment of potential subjects, suggesting a catch-all Film Simulation that will enhance all macro photography is reductive. However, with some of the most popular muses for this style being flowers and insects, photographers often want to highlight the rich spectrum of colours that emerge when taking a closer look at such things.

Velvia is an obvious choice for this, with its enhanced saturation giving emphasis to bold colours. However, using this Film Simulation in high-contrast scenarios runs the risk of oversaturating certain colours, resulting in an artificial-looking image that lacks tonal gradation.

To combat this, you can make use of the Color Chrome effect, which helps to display a broader gamut. Available in STRONG and WEAK settings, this effect showcases subtle differences in tone, allowing use of punchy, saturated Film Simulations like Velvia without a loss of information in the more vivid areas of the image.

5.   Filmmaking

All FUJIFILM Film Simulations can be used for both stills photography and filmmaking, but two settings have been specifically created for video. These both provide classic filmic aesthetics thanks to their extended dynamic range and understated colours.

ETERNA tempers the saturation of footage in order to create a cohesive colour palette. It produces a delicately soft tonal gradation, preserving a cinematic allure and taming harsh shadows.

Further desaturate your footage and boost its contrast with the ETERNA Bleach Bypass simulation. This replicates an analogue film processing method that strips out some colour and enhances contrast for a stylised look that highlights textural details.

6.   Travel and Everyday

When it comes to recording memories, for the most part you will want to avoid anything too stylised. Instead, select Film Simulations that offer true-to-life colour reproduction and natural rendering. Travel photography also benefits from realistic colour profiles, serving to place you in a moment and evoke the essence of a specific time and location.

PROVIA is Fujifilm’s default Film Simulation, inspired by the renowned professional reversal film, FUJICHROME PROVIA. It’s an all-purpose setting, granting moderate contrast and sharpness, and is ideal for making images of a wide variety of subjects – empowering your creativity in every photograph.

For similarly even renderings with a slightly vintage feel, CLASSIC Neg. features well-defined, mildly desaturated colours. It offers a partially faded aesthetic, with deeper shadows and improved textural definition.

REALA ACE also provides an analogue edge, with a harder tonality than PROVIA but a less desaturated colour profile than CLASSIC Neg. It’s excellent for creating images with vintage warmth that retain a more natural palette.

Photo 2024 © Luke Davis | FUJIFILM X-T5 and FUJINON XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR, 1/480 sec at F6.4, ISO 160, PROVIA

Photo 2024 © Luke Davis | FUJIFILM X-T5 and FUJINON XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR, 1/950 sec at F5.6, ISO 500, CLASSIC Neg.

Photo 2024 © Luke Davis | FUJIFILM X-T5 and FUJINON XF33mmF1.4 R LM WR, 1/350 sec at F8, ISO 500, REALA ACE

Find Inspiration Everywhere with FUJIFILM UK

While FUJIFILM Film Simulations can help create a vast selection of moods and styles, it’s important to remember that – if you want them to be – they are only a starting point. If you would like to delve deeper into the world of Film Simulations, it’s possible to customise any setting to create your own ideal look in-camera.

Learn more photography tips by exploring other Learning Centre articles, and get your creative juices flowing by following FUJIFILM UK on Instagram.

Discover more about FUJIFILM X Series cameras and lenses, and shop the range today.