Calm Sea
Cool, bright and calm.
Colour
- White BalanceFluorescent 1, 0 Red, +1 Blue
- Color+3
- Color Chrome EffectStrong
- Color Chrome FX BlueWeak
Tone
- Dynamic RangeDR200
- Highlight+2
- Shadow0
Texture
- Grain EffectStrong, Small
- Clarity−4
- Sharpness−2
- High ISO NR−4
Exposure
- ISOAuto, max 6400
- Exposure Comp.−1/3 to 0
Why this recipe
Astia is the misread simulation. People call it soft and flat, and half of that is true: it has less midtone contrast than Provia, which is why it treats skin so well.
But it carries more saturation than most people expect, especially in blue and green. A skin friendly curve with clear colour. Nothing else in the menu combines the two.
Calm Sea uses that blue. A cool white balance keeps water and sky in their colour instead of drifting grey, the curve holds a bright horizon, and the surface stays quiet.
In one line: cool, bright and calm, with skin still intact in the frame.
It lives on the coast. Open water, bright overcast, wide horizons, the kind of light where most recipes go grey.
Every photo here is a JPEG straight out of my Fujifilm X-H2S. No editing, no Lightroom, no cropping. Shot in Lofoten, mainland Norway, on the Scottish coast and in the Austrian Alps.
Save it to one of the custom slots (C1 to C7). It takes about a minute to type in, and from then on the camera hands you a finished JPEG.
Shoot it in
Coast, open water, bright overcast and wide horizons. Scenes where water and sky should keep their blue, even with people in the frame.
Skip it in
Warm evening light and interiors, where the cool base drains the scene. For golden light, Summer Sauce is the better pick.
Straight out of camera
No edits. Just the JPEG.
What each setting does
Built from the bottom up.
A recipe is easier to trust when you know why every value is there.
Film Simulation
Astia has less midtone contrast than Provia, which is why it's called soft and why it treats skin so well.
What most people miss: it's not flat. It carries more saturation than you'd expect, particularly in blue and green. A skin friendly curve with clear colour, and that combination exists nowhere else in the menu.
White Balance
Fluorescent 1 sits cooler than Daylight as a base, and +1 Blue takes it one step further.
That's what keeps water and sky in their colour instead of drifting grey. It also means the recipe wants daylight: in warm evening light or indoors, the cool base drains the scene.
Dynamic Range, Highlight, Shadow
Highlight +2 keeps a bright horizon defined instead of letting it wash out, while Shadow 0 leaves the dark end open.
DR200 protects the brightest parts of the sky on top of that. It needs twice the base ISO, which means ISO 320 or higher on the X-H2S.
Color
Color +3 stops short of full saturation. Astia already brings strong blues and greens, so this is enough to make them clear without turning them loud.
Red boats and painted houses stay red, and the water stays the main colour.
Color Chrome Effect
Adds depth to the most saturated colours, so a turquoise lake or a green slope keeps its gradation instead of turning into one flat tone.
Color Chrome FX Blue
Only Weak here. The white balance already does most of the blue work, so FX Blue just adds a little depth to water and sky.
Any stronger and the sea starts to look heavy. Calm Sea should stay light.
Clarity, Sharpness, Grain, Noise
Fine grain with Clarity −4 keeps the surface quiet. Sharpness −2 takes the digital edge off, and High ISO NR −4 keeps fine detail from getting smeared.
The trade off: with Clarity on, the camera takes a moment longer to save each shot. For landscapes and travel you won't feel it.
Quick start
- Put it on a custom slot (C1 to C7) and set ISO to Auto with a max of 6400, so DR200 always has room.
- Start at −1/3 exposure comp. Go to 0 on grey days or when the scene is dark.
- Use it on the coast and under open skies. Switch to Summer Sauce when the light turns warm.
Works on
- All X-Trans V bodies
- X-Pro3
- X-T4
- X100V
- X-S10
- X-E4
- X-T30 II
X-T3 and X-T30 miss Clarity, grain size and FX Blue, so treat it as a direction there.
Calm Sea
Thanks for reading.
@danieljschwarzSave it · Tag me · Share it with a Fuji friend
If you try Calm Sea, I'd love to see what it does with your coast. Tag me on Instagram at @danieljschwarz, that's also where I post new recipes first.
Calm Sea is recipe 01 in My Fuji Cookbook. The full book with twelve recipes is in my shop.
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