Taking a closer look at Fujifilm's presets

As the name suggests, Fujifilm found fame creating legendary film stocks, including Astia, Provia, Velvia, and Eterna. Recently, the 85-year-old company has drawn upon this expertise to recreate film simulations for their mirrorless cameras.

Other camera manufacturers added presets so photographers could ‘monitor’ while shooting. Fujifilm, on the other hand, simplified this. You have viable options to use as finished images should you want to, straight out of the camera. As this might not be for everyone, Fujifilm also offers RAW images to process later. Adobe Lightroom mirrors these presets, so you have the option to choose between them.

In the same way, people would pick a film stock based on their preferences, Fujifilm has allowed photographers to quickly select the look they’re after. Or at least give them a starting point. After all, some people simply don’t want to spend too much time editing.

Thinking of buying a Fujifilm camera, or simply interested in learning more about the legendary colors and beautiful skin tones? Keep reading to find out about what these presets can give you in terms of color, tonality and overall rendering. All images were taken on a Fujifilm X-T3 using a Fujifilm XF 23mm f/2 R WR.

Fujifilm, simulating film 

The black-and-white Acros is based on the recently revived ACROS Neopan 100 film stock. By Fujifilm’s own admission, this preset was very hard to get right. Due to the processing power needed to apply the preset, it wasn’t added to older Fujifilm cameras on firmware updates.

Their color presets, however, are what many photographers will use most. Some are named exactly after their extensive back catalog of film stocks - Astia, Provia, Velvia and Eterna. The others, like Classic Chrome, are probably amalgamations of different film stocks. It’s likely ProNeg Hi and ProNeg Std are versions of Fujifilm 400H and possibly C200.

The magnificent seven: seeing the simulations by the seaside

To kick things off, we have this coastal scene. Note the color, overall dynamic range and gradation.

For us, the presets that really stand out are Eterna and Velvia. Both are radically different from each other. Eterna gives you a ‘flat look’, true to form with its roots in cinema, low in contrast and with a slight green bias. Velvia, on the other hand, considerably raises contrast and saturation. Landscape film photographers would relish Velvia’s lushness of color, which Fujifilm has lovingly recreated in their simulations.

This second example is similar, with Eterna displaying a greenish bias to its blues, and Velvia standing out and saturating the scene. Classic Chrome adds more contrast compared to Eterna, but also shares the greenish tinge in its blues. Pro Neg Hi, Pro Neg Std and Provia tend to be more neutral in their renditions. Provia brings out a bit of yellow, warming the scene. Here, Provia and Astia seem to be the most accurate in terms of color and rendering contrast, without the extremes of Eterna and Velvia.

Insider knowledge 

Moving indoors, we can see the huge effect Eterna has on the shadows and flattening a scene - bringing the shadows closer in line to the highlights. The color is also more muted, giving a slightly washed-out look. Velvia’s saturation also becomes more apparent in the underexposed sections of the image.

Unsurprisingly, Eterna presents the highest dynamic range, albeit at the expense of contrast. Pro Neg Std and Classic Chrome seem to find a balance somewhere in the middle. Of the three slide film simulations, Velvia seems to be the most accurate in acting like a true slide film. It adds a lot of contrast to the scene, exhibiting reduced dynamic range. It seems that Fujifilm has attempted to take aspects of these film stocks while making them more usable for everyday scenes - and more in line with more modern tastes.

Much like with our experience of Fujifilm stocks such as Superia and Pro H, greens and blues have always been Fujifilm’s strong points. They’re pleasingly rendered, regardless of what your chosen simulation might be. 

Of course, no Fujfilm camera test would be complete without a portrait to see just how well they render skin tones.

Presenting portraits with presets

Where Velvia was perhaps slightly too saturated indoors, the preset really shines here.

Although you can leave these presets as they are, straight from the camera, tweaks are always possible. You can make changes to each preset, so if you like the base look of any one of them, you can add or subtract from contrast, sharpness, saturation or tone. This can be done in camera, or afterwards in Lightroom.

Although the presets really show their traits when shown side by side, in isolation, the differences are less marked.

Fujifilm presets: helping to create useful limitations for yourself 

Photographers are often spoilt by the capabilities of RAW editing. When you’re building a look, it’s a challenge to know where to start. Sure, you may have spent a while perfecting your film preset, but no single preset will necessarily work for every image. Editing is fun, but not everyone wants to spend ages in front of their monitor individually editing every image.

Creativity can flourish when you work within restrictions. Back in the film days, you’d select a film stock and be bound - to a degree - by its look and chemistry. Fujifilm has attempted to recreate this process, but with the added flexibility of having more than one preset as well as the option to do some heavier editing with RAW.

Fujifilm’s ethos is to give shooters as many options as possible in terms of how they shoot. Unlike Leica, they don’t dictate by removing features altogether. Fujifilm offers alternatives, which you can choose to adopt as part of your shooting process.

While shooting JPEG and selecting a preset might seem like amateur work, it could also be a liberating exercise in getting things right for seasoned shooters. The best thing about Fujifilm is that the options are there if you want to use them. Or not. It’s up to you.