Fujifilm Film Simulations; How Do They Graphically Compare?

This is about where Fujifilm film simulations fall when considering color saturation and contrast.
(click to enlarge)

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If you are a Fujifilm X-Trans camera user and you've wondered just what the basic differences are among the various color film simulations, here is a chart I made (from a similar one I saw online) that shows you in general where each stacks up in relation to the others.  This graph only shows differences in contrast and saturation.  For each film simulation, the hue of individual colors have also been shifted.

As you can see, Velvia is very contrasty and very saturated.  Greens are especially saturated.  

The new Eterna simulation, which I have only seen displayed on the Internet and on You Tube, is about equally unsaturated with very low contrast.  

Provia, whose colors are a pretty accurate hue, sits right in the middle as do most manufacturers' general purpose films.  

Astia has a bit lower contrast than Provia but has medium saturation.  Good for portraits while keeping those natural looking colors.  

Classic Chrome is a bit more contrasty than Provia but lower in saturation to mimic the films of the 1940s, 50s, and 60s.  Think old Kodachromes.  The blues really shift toward the cyan.  I really like the look of this simulation except for cyan skies.  I won't use it if skies are in my images.

In the past, when I shot JPEGs along with my RAW files, I usually set my film simulation for Pro Neg Std. as that has the lowest contrast and lowest saturation but keeps pretty accurate color rendition.  While editing in Lightroom, that film simulation gives me maximum highlight and shadow detail (I also set my highlight and shadow detail for -2 to give me even lower contrast) that could have been lost if the subject was overly contrasty. If my JPEGs were made with higher contrast film simulation settings, those details could have been lost forever as with an 8-bit JPEG you have less flexibility to recover highlight and shadow detail than with a 16-bit RAW file.  Also, because JPEGS bake in all of your settings, your options are reduced during editing.  You can't quite make any necessary major adjustments as you can with a RAW file.  You might start to see banding in the sky, etc.—i.e., places where there are large areas of a single color.  

In the future, if Fujifilm adds Eterna to the X-T2, I'll probably use that film simulation as the contrast is even lower.  The idea is to minimize contrast when taking the photo to maximize information in the image file so you don't artifically eliminate your options later during editing.

Pro Neg Hi has the same color rendition as Pro Neg Std. except for a bit more contrast.  This would make a nice portrait film simulation as well.

Everything I have shown and written is based upon the assumption that you have not modified the saturation and/or highlight/shadow settings in your camera for any of the film simulations.  One can significantly add or reduce highlight and/or shadow detail (contrast) as well as color saturation in-camera which then changes the default position in the graph of each of the simulations.  In other words, you have a lot of flexibility to tailor a film simulation to your taste.

For example, if you wanted to use the Velvia film simulation but don't want as much saturation or contrast, you can easily dial it down in-camera.  If you wanted to the accurate colors of a Provia but the shadow detail was often lost in the types of subjects you photograph, you can reduce the contrast while keeping the desired colors and saturation.

All in all, Fujifilm gives us X-Trans camera owners a very nice variety of choices right in camera to match whatever our needs, desires and wishes for image characteristics may be.

Just thought this might interest you.

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!

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