Dreamy Color
Loud colour, soft edges.
Colour
- White BalanceAuto, +6 Red, −5 Blue
- Color+4
- Color Chrome EffectStrong
- Color Chrome FX BlueStrong
Tone
- Dynamic RangeDR200
- Highlight−1
- Shadow−1.5
Texture
- Grain EffectStrong, Small
- Clarity−4
- Sharpness−3
- High ISO NR0
Exposure
- ISOAuto
- Exposure Comp.0 to +1/3
Why this recipe
Velvia is the loudest simulation in the menu. The highest contrast, the highest saturation, strongest on dark green, dark blue and pure red.
It also has edges. Blue tips toward magenta instead of cyan, shadows crush early, highlights break early, and skin turns ruddy. Turning Color up on another simulation never gets you there, it only gets loud.
Dreamy Color holds Velvia back at both ends. The curve loses its hard edges, a warm shift pulls the blues out of magenta toward amber, and the surface goes soft. The colour stays.
In one line: Velvia's colour without Velvia's edges.
It wants colour to work with: autumn, flowers, painted houses, in decent light. The more colour in the scene, the more it has to say.
Every photo here is a JPEG straight out of my Fujifilm X-H2S. No editing, no Lightroom, no cropping. Shot in Scotland, Norway, Lofoten and the 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
Landscape, autumn, flowers and strong colour in decent light. The more colour in the frame, the better it gets.
Skip it in
Portraits and close skin. Even held back, the saturation works against you there, so pick a quieter recipe for people.
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
Velvia is the loudest simulation Fuji makes: the highest contrast and the highest saturation, strongest on dark green, dark blue and pure red.
No saturation slider on another simulation builds that, it only gets loud. Everything in this recipe is about keeping the colour and losing the edges.
White Balance shift
Auto, +6 Red, −5 Blue.
On its own, Velvia pushes blue toward magenta. The warm shift pulls the palette out of that magenta blue toward amber, which is where autumn lives.
Dynamic Range, Highlight, Shadow
Highlight −1 and Shadow −1.5 take the edge off Velvia's hard base curve, so shadows stop crushing and highlights stop breaking so early.
DR200 buys another stop at the top. It needs twice the base ISO, which means ISO 320 or higher on the X-H2S.
Color
Color stays at +4, because that is the point of Velvia.
With the curve softened, the saturation reads as rich instead of harsh.
Color Chrome Effect
Strong. Adds depth to the most saturated colours, so red leaves and orange heather keep their gradation instead of melting into one bright patch.
Color Chrome FX Blue
Also Strong. It deepens the blues, which keeps the sky from going pale next to all that warm colour.
Together with the warm shift it sets the two temperatures of the look: amber below, deep blue above.
Clarity, Sharpness, Grain, Noise
Sharpness −3 and Clarity −4 soften everything the contrast would otherwise make hard, and fine grain gives the frame a film surface. High ISO NR stays at 0.
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 leave ISO on Auto, so DR200 always works.
- Start at 0 exposure comp, go up to +1/3 for darker scenes.
- Use it when there's colour in the scene. For portraits, switch to a quieter recipe.
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.
Dreamy Color
Thanks for reading.
@danieljschwarzSave it · Tag me · Share it with a Fuji friend
If you try Dreamy Color, I'd love to see what it does with your autumn. Tag me on Instagram at @danieljschwarz, that's also where I post new recipes first.
Dreamy Color is recipe 03 in My Fuji Cookbook. The full book with twelve recipes is in my shop.
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