The site is: Fujixweekly.com and if you are a Fuji shooter it's like Christmas morning. I immediately started scrolling around to see if they had a profile for my favorite film of all time: Kodak's Tri-X. Yes. They do. It's right here: https://fujixweekly.com/2020/06/18/fujifilm-x100v-film-simulation-recipe-kodak-tri-x-400/
The recipe includes shadow, clarity, chrome, WB tweaks and much more. I won't lay it out here because you should reward Fujixweekly.com for their fine work by paying them the visit.
I sat down on the couch with my laptop open to the Tri-X page and dutifully changed all the parameters as suggested. There are about 12 steps so it's nothing cripplingly difficult. While there are many, many profiles to chose from they are divided into sensor types in the Fuji family. The reason is that Fuji keeps adding more and more controllable parameters with each new generation of sensor and processing.
The profiles I'm most interested in are the ones that are tweaked for the current 26 megapixel sensor cameras since that's what I'm shooting with right now. All the profiles can be used across the Fuji line but older cameras won't have things like color chrome effect available.
Some of you have questioned me about why I have both a chrome and a black X-100V camera. My rote answer is that one should never go on a trip or a job without a back-up camera, and I'd take that a step further and say no one should venture out without a back-up camera that operates in exactly the same way and which takes the same battery, the same filters and the same memory cards. Hence two copies of the X-100V, differentiated by color.
Now I have a new answer. The black camera is for Tri-X/Monochrome photography while the chrome body is dedicated to color. When the black one is in my hand I'll know I'm about to start shooting my new, digital Tri-X camera. When it's the chrome body I'll know I'm about to start shooting color slide film. Easy to remember and no struggle to juggle settings on the fly.
I might need to tweak a bit (or I might not...) but here are some of the test shots I took this morning while walking over to the state capitol building to see if anyone was there fomenting trouble and trying to tip our nation into facism and white nationalism. I am happy to report that there were only a few tourists on Segways in front of the fence, snapping pix. All clear downtown. Here are the pix:
I went to a photographer's studio during a studio tour in New Mexico a few years ago. Most of his pictures were monochrome, but two caught my eye. I said to the photographer "These look almost like Tri-X, how did you make them?". He answered "They *are* Tri-X".
ReplyDeleteSuch a distinctive look! I bought one of them.
Well, it’s grainy all right. What’s your evaluation as to fidelity to the real thing? Looks like the contrast in daylight exteriors is a bit over the top, but I’m a Plus-X kind of guy, so what would I know?
ReplyDeleteUsing two cameras with different colors was how we worked in the 70's.
ReplyDeleteOf course we were too cheap to pay the exorbitant upcharge of $15 for the black camera so we just used gaffer tape.
Hey, thanks for opening this door.
ReplyDeleteMy fave, btw, is the lobby, next to last.
Hi MM, one can tone down the grain, if desired. It looks pretty much like the grain we used to see in prints. Maybe there's a bit more noise in lifted blacks. As to the contrast in daylight... that used to depend on how well we developed the film and on which grade of paper we printed. Again, adjustable in the recipes. Fun to have but best of all the tonalities on flesh tone are pretty much right on. I have a couple of old prints here I am comparing to. Works for me. Next step is to print a few.
ReplyDeletedo you have the weather kit and if so is it too much extra?
ReplyDeleteHi Brad from Kansas City!
ReplyDeleteI hadn't heard it called a "weather kit" before but I'm guessing you are referring to a ring that fits onto the front of the lens and allows you to add a 49mm filter which makes the whole package water resistant.
The front of the X-100V lens has a cosmetic ring that you unscrew. Underneath is a reversed "filter ring" which I think is set up the opposite of how a filter ring is usually set up. The threads are on the outside instead of the inside. You have to buy an adapter that screws onto the external lens threads and then the 49mm filter screws into that to render the whole mess protected.
If you get the Fuji ring it's about $50 but there are tons of aftermarket rings priced around $20 and I think they do the same thing. Any filter will do to make the assemblage weather resistant. The Fuji filter is like one million dollars but you can obviously get the same kind of filter from a different source for far less.
I haven't bothered to go there yet because I bought several Hoage, square hoods for the X-100Vs and they do a great job of shielding the front element from the elements. I do think that for $1400 Fuji should include the needed accessory ring in the box. Oh, yeah! And a charger too.
Though I haven’t been printing my images for a few years now I can say with experience that that “grain”
ReplyDeleteWe add with the camera or software after exposure isn’t as obvuin the print as it is on screen. I’m
Guessing the “large/strong” setting would look very natural and not over the top in print.
I’ve got three B&W presets on my XPro3. Two based on Acros and one on B&W. The scales are quite different. Acros will always have more grain by design. It’s worth trying both. Have fun
So sorry about my typos. Big thumbs!
ReplyDeleteVery cool. I have to try something similar on my X100s. I'm sure they have something that'll work for that model.
ReplyDeleteI really dig the water glasses the most. I noticed on slide # 28 of the gridded panel that there is a lot of moiré. I wonder if that was caused by the Tri-X profile or the blogging software.