Recipe glossary
Every Fujifilm recipe is a list of in-camera settings. Here's what each one does and how it changes the picture — so you can read any recipe on this site and know exactly what you're dialling in. New to recipes entirely? Start with how to add a recipe to your camera.
Film Simulation
A film simulation is Fujifilm's in-camera emulation of a classic film stock or look — Provia, Velvia, Classic Chrome, Classic Negative, Acros and more. It sets the starting point for colour, contrast and tonality; every other setting in a recipe shapes that base. Which simulations your camera has depends on its sensor generation.
- Tip
- Always set the film simulation first when copying a recipe — the other values are tuned around it.
Dynamic Range (DR)
Dynamic Range controls how aggressively the camera protects highlights from clipping. DR100 applies no protection; DR200 and DR400 progressively underexpose the capture and lift the midtones back, recovering brighter highlights at the cost of needing a higher minimum ISO. It changes how much contrast a scene keeps before the brights blow out.
- Range
- DR100, DR200, DR400 (Auto on some bodies)
- Tip
- DR200 needs ISO 320+ and DR400 needs ISO 640+ to engage — below that the camera silently falls back to DR100.
D-Range Priority (DR-P)
D-Range Priority is a one-touch high-dynamic-range mode that combines Dynamic Range expansion with reduced highlight and shadow contrast to tame extreme light. When it's on (Weak/Strong/Auto), it overrides the manual Highlight, Shadow and DR settings, producing a flatter file with maximum retained detail.
- Range
- Off, Weak, Strong, Auto
- Tip
- If a recipe specifies tone-curve values, leave D-Range Priority off — it ignores them.
White Balance & WB Shift
White Balance sets the overall colour temperature — Auto, a Kelvin value, or a preset like Daylight. The WB Shift is a separate fine-tune on a Red–Cyan and Blue–Amber grid (often written as Red & Blue values). Recipes lean on the shift heavily: a warm look pushes Red and Amber, a cool look pushes Blue and Cyan.
- Range
- Auto / Kelvin / preset, plus a ±9 Red and ±9 Blue shift
- Tip
- Copy the WB type and the shift exactly — a recipe's warmth lives in the shift, not just the temperature.
Highlight (Tone)
Highlight tone adjusts the contrast of the upper portion of the tone curve. Negative values soften and lift highlights for a gentler, more filmic roll-off; positive values add punch and brightness to the highlights. It's one half of how a recipe shapes its overall contrast.
- Range
- −2 to +4 (in steps of 0.5 on newer bodies)
- Tip
- Negative highlight values are what give many recipes their soft, low-contrast film feel.
Shadow (Tone)
Shadow tone adjusts the contrast of the lower portion of the tone curve. Negative values open up and lift the shadows for a flatter, fade-like look; positive values deepen and crush the shadows for richer blacks. Together with Highlight, it defines the recipe's contrast character.
- Range
- −2 to +4 (in steps of 0.5 on newer bodies)
- Tip
- Lifted (negative) shadows plus high Dynamic Range is the classic recipe for a faded, matte look.
Color
The Color setting raises or lowers saturation across the whole image. Negative values mute the palette for a restrained, documentary feel; positive values intensify it. Black-and-white simulations ignore this control.
- Range
- −4 to +4
Noise Reduction (NR)
Noise Reduction smooths luminance noise in the JPEG. Most recipes pull it negative, because high NR also smears fine texture and can fight a recipe's intended grain. Lower NR keeps detail and lets added grain read naturally.
- Range
- −4 to +4
- Tip
- Pair low Noise Reduction with the Grain Effect for a convincing film texture.
Clarity
Clarity adjusts midtone local contrast — negative values give a dreamy, soft-glow rendering, positive values add bite and structure. Note that any non-zero Clarity makes the camera pause briefly to process each frame, so some shooters leave it at zero for fast shooting.
- Range
- −5 to +5
- Tip
- Negative Clarity is a quick route to a soft, romantic portrait look.
Grain Effect
Grain Effect overlays a film-like grain texture. Newer bodies split it into Strength (Weak/Strong) and Size (Small/Large). Strong + Large reads as obvious, classic film grain; Weak + Small is a subtle texture. It's central to making a digital JPEG feel like film.
- Range
- Off; Weak/Strong; Small/Large
- Tip
- Large grain looks best at lower resolutions and in B&W; it can look heavy on a 40MP file.
Color Chrome Effect
Color Chrome Effect deepens tones and recovers detail in highly saturated colours — vivid reds, deep blues, dense foliage — that would otherwise flatten out. Strong has more effect than Weak. It's most visible in richly coloured scenes and barely changes muted ones.
- Range
- Off, Weak, Strong
Color Chrome FX Blue
Color Chrome FX Blue applies the Color Chrome treatment to blue tones — deepening skies and blue subjects for more dimension. It's a separate control from the main Color Chrome Effect and is only available on X-Trans IV and newer sensors.
- Range
- Off, Weak, Strong
- Tip
- On older bodies that lack this control, a recipe will simply omit it — that's expected, not a mistake.
Smooth Skin Effect
Smooth Skin Effect is a portrait-oriented control that softens skin texture in-camera. It's a newer addition found on X-Trans V bodies and is used sparingly in recipes aimed at people photography.
- Range
- Off, Weak, Strong
ISO
ISO sets sensitivity to light. In recipes it matters twice: a higher base or Auto-ISO ceiling adds natural sensor noise that complements added grain, and certain Dynamic Range settings require a minimum ISO to work at all. Many film-look recipes intentionally allow a higher ISO.
- Tip
- Set the Auto-ISO ceiling a recipe suggests — it's part of the look, not just exposure.
Exposure Compensation
Exposure Compensation nudges the whole exposure brighter or darker. Recipes often suggest a small positive or negative bias (e.g. +1/3 to +2/3) because film looks frequently depend on slightly over- or under-exposing the JPEG relative to the meter.
- Tip
- Treat a recipe's exposure-comp suggestion as a starting point and adjust to the scene's light.
Custom Settings (C1–C7)
Fujifilm cameras let you save sets of image-quality settings into custom slots, labelled C1 through C7 (some bodies have fewer). Saving a recipe to a slot means you can switch the whole look instantly without re-entering every value. The number of available slots varies by body.
- Tip
- Name your slots after the recipe if your body supports custom slot names — it's far faster to recall in the field.
The film simulations
The film simulation is the base every recipe builds on. Browse all recipes for any of them from the film simulations page.
Balanced, true-to-life standard
Provia, labelled Standard in the menus, is Fujifilm's balanced default film simulation. It aims for true-to-life colour and moderate contrast, making it a versatile, neutral base for recipes that want realism rather than a strong stylistic push.
Punchy, saturated landscape colour
Velvia, labelled Vivid, emulates Fujifilm's legendary slide film. It delivers high saturation and contrast with deep, vibrant colour — built for landscapes, skies and any scene where you want the colour to really sing. It can be intense on skin tones, so recipes often pair it with white-balance and tone tweaks.
Soft contrast, flattering skin tones
Astia, labelled Soft, offers gentle contrast and restrained, flattering skin tones while keeping colour reasonably rich. It's a popular base for portraits and for recipes that want a softer, more forgiving rendering than Velvia or Classic Chrome.
Muted, documentary colour
Classic Chrome produces muted, understated colour with deeper shadows and a slightly desaturated, editorial feel inspired by classic reportage slide film. It's one of the most-used recipe bases — its restrained palette and rich shadows give photos a timeless, documentary look straight out of camera.
Colour-negative film character
Classic Negative is modelled on consumer colour-negative film (the Superia lineage). It separates tones in a distinctive way — characterful greens, warm reds and a subtle shift through the midtones — giving everyday scenes a nostalgic, photographic quality that's hard to replicate elsewhere.
Warm highlights, amber midtones
Nostalgic Neg., introduced on X-Trans 5, delivers warm highlights and rich, amber-leaning midtones reminiscent of 1970s American print film. It pairs high tonal richness with relatively soft contrast — ideal for warm, story-telling images and travel work.
Faithful colour, firm tonality
Reala Ace, introduced on X-Trans 5, balances faithful colour reproduction with hard tonality. It sits between the realism of Provia and the contrast of Classic Chrome, making it a flexible modern base for recipes that want accuracy without looking flat.
Muted, cinematic look
Eterna, labelled Cinema, mimics motion-picture film with low saturation and soft, rolled-off contrast. The result is a muted, cinematic palette that grades well and suits video, moody stills and understated colour recipes.
Desaturated, high-contrast
Eterna Bleach Bypass recreates the silver-retention darkroom process: very low saturation combined with high contrast. It produces a gritty, almost monochromatic colour look that's striking for street, industrial and dramatic scenes.
Premium black & white
Acros is Fujifilm's premium monochrome simulation, prized for its fine, organic grain structure and beautifully smooth tonal gradation. It renders black & white with more depth and texture than the standard Monochrome mode, and accepts colour filters (Yellow, Red, Green) for tonal control.
Classic black & white
Monochrome is Fujifilm's standard black & white film simulation. It produces clean, neutral greyscale images and, like Acros, supports Yellow, Red and Green filter effects to shape how colours map to tones.
Warm toned monochrome
Sepia renders images in a warm, single-toned monochrome for a vintage, aged-print feel. It's a niche but characterful base for nostalgic recipes.
Soft, natural skin tones
PRO Neg. Std offers soft contrast and natural, true-to-life skin tones, modelled on professional portrait negative film. It's a gentle, low-contrast base that's easy to grade and forgiving in mixed light — a favourite for portraiture and people photography.
Defined colour, more contrast
PRO Neg. Hi keeps the natural skin-tone rendering of PRO Neg. Std but adds contrast and more defined colour. It suits portraits in flatter light, or anyone who wants the professional-negative look with a bit more punch.