My Fujifilm JPEG Recipe for Summer

In a world where 1,000’s of Fujifilm JPEG recipes are on offer to choose from, I like to keep things simple when heading into warmer weather. This is my Fujifilm JPEG recipe for summer; for my family holidays, those post-10pm sunsets and general day to day life when things get hot!

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For those that are regular followers of my blog, you’ll know that I’ve been shooting exclusively with Fujifilm JPEG recipes since around 2018 towards the end of 10 months travelling Australia and South East Asia. There are 1,000’s of Fujifilm JPEG recipes available across the internet these days and I made the mistake in the early days of experimenting with so many different types of recipes that I took a while to develop ‘my style’. I used Classic Chrome for most of my photography until I upgraded to the Fujifilm X-T5 and Classic Negative entered my life.

The Fujifilm JPEG recipe for summer that I’m going to share today in this stand-alone post is one I’m afraid that you will have seen before, set out in my longer Fujifilm X-T5 JPEG Settings blog. However, I’ve had many questions and seen so many articles out there about the best JPEG settings to turn to when we head into warmer weather and so I thought I’d share the settings I use almost exclusively during summer (or any escape to warmer weather really). I’ll also be able to share a load of photos that have pretty much only been shared briefly on social media.

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MY FUJIFILM JPEG RECIPE FOR SUMMER

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As I mentioned earlier, there are so many Fujifilm JPEG recipes out there these days that it can be hard to settle upon the one that works for you. I don’t like having too many options on the go and prefer a consistent look or ‘vibe’ across an entire collection. I remember back in 2019 when I visited Crete flitting between different JPEG recipes and it just didn’t look right (apart from those I captured in Kodachrome II) as a whole.

I’m much different now and have settled upon this Classic Negative recipe for those summer shots (to be fair, a lot of colder weather shots too). I’m a little envious of the people out there who travel extensively and have plenty of attempts to create recipes, adjust and test them out over the course of various trips. My life is a lot more settled now, I have a family to care for and a mortgage to pay, and, in some ways, this correlates directly with my JPEG recipes. I need something that just works, each and every time, and, with a little one, I don’t have too much time to fiddle with settings.

For those of you out there that are like me, this Fujifilm JPEG recipe may well work for you too. Nothing complicated, nothing fancy. It just does what it needs to do; it captures those family summer holidays perfectly and all the fleeting little moments that come with them. With the family, I’ve used it in Portugal, Cyprus and Montenegro. Even when I’m travelling without the family, such as recent press trips to Madeira and Sicily, this recipe still fits really well for summer scenes.

There is a downside to this recipe and that is, due to the adjustments to the white balance, it can look a little too warm in certain environments; particularly when shooting in restaurants with artificial lighting. I think the answer lies in adjusting the AWB to AWB – White Priority (with the same white balance shift) but that’s something I’m yet to try.

Also, whilst I’m creative in terms of writing and photography, I’m not the best at coming up with quirky names so if you fancy coming up with a name for this recipe, let me know in the comments below or over on Instagram!

THE RECIPE

Film Simulation – Classic Neg
Grain – Off
Colour Chrome Effect – Off
Colour Chrome FX Blue – Off
White Balance – Auto +2 Red -4 Blue
Dynamic Range – DR200
Highlight – -1.5
Shadow – 0
Colour – +3
Sharpness – +2
Noise Reduction- -2
Clarity – Off
ISO – Auto, Minimum Shutter Speed 1/200, up to 12,800

I describe my full photography workflow in Lightroom here but, when I import any of my JPEG files into Lightroom, I have an import preset set up which adds+10 Contrast, +15 Clarity, a slight S-Curve and -5 Vignette to each photo. The only other adjustments I might make are in respect of exposure, normally brightening it all up, though I try to make sure I don’t over-expose too much in camera.

I’d love to know your thoughts on this recipe and whether you’ll be using it during summer this year or trips away where the weather is warmer!

I haven’t really been that good with providing general updates recently, perhaps I need to do that on the newsletter instead, but, in terms of what’s next, I’m looking forward to physically moving around again now that my Achilles is starting to recover and hopefully start working on a new Fujifilm JPEG recipe using the new Reala Ace film simulation. We haven’t really had any trips this year yet as a family but we have something booked for November which I cannot wait for!

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