Film simulations are, without doubt, the sole reason I moved over to the Fuji ecosystem. The ability to create an endless variety of different looks, in-camera, without touching an editing application or making any colour tweaks is what makes shooting with a Fuji such a fulfilling experience.
My current Fujifilm X-S10 makes provision for four different custom slots, where I can store tailor-made recipes with tweaks to various settings.
In my four slots, I've stored four different recipes, each with their own unique aesthetic qualities. In this series of articles, I'll explain each of these four recipes, show you some samples, and of course include the actual settings for the recipes themselves.
Daily Greens (Modified Astia)
I was actually on holiday when I first tried this recipe, and what a god-send it was. At the time, I hadn't given much thought to using Astia as base for a recipe, as I wasn't convinced about how over-saturated it looked. Then, doing some searching, I found a recipe from the Fujiflim community by a user who goes by the name Timo Kuerten. Full props to them, as I was immediately taken by this recipe the moment I'd finished setting it up. While the Astia base does give this a more saturated look, it's not overdone – at least it doesn't look like someone's cranked up the saturation slider.
Instead, it's a more subtle type of saturation; blues are very well-controlled, especially in the highlights on sunny days, and greens––thanks to the Astia base––have a distinct pop that very few other recipes can boast. This makes this recipe my go-to for shooting greenery and landscapes. The way this recipes renders these colours can lift even the dreariest landscape, without making it look comical. While I feel like the bulk of recipes out there tend to shy away from using film sims like Velvia and Astia, this recipe does it just right. I would gladly keep using this as a travel-only recipe, or for occasions where I need to lift the colours.
