Over the last few months, I’ve spent a lot of time testing Picture Styles – Canon’s version of Fujifilm’s in-camera film emulations.
I’m not typically a JPEG shooter. I prefer to grab my RAW files and edit them in Lightroom, but in a few cases, using film-like simulations was very efficient and convenient.
In this video, I show the results of those tests and try to explain the benefits of shooting with Picture Styles. It’s also a nice option for those Fuji users if they ever have to pick up a Canon camera and shoot film-like emulations. Picture Styles don’t have the legacy of Fuji making their own film, but it gets you pretty close.
You’d think shooting monochrome with only two “colors” – black and white – would be easy. But photographers’ opinions on black and white film and presets are almost as strong and varied as their opinions on camera companies.
I took a sunny, spring evening in downtown Jackson, Michigan, to try out this black and white emulation. Maybe it was the lighting, maybe it was the simulation, but this was good stuff.
For a contrast-y film simulation, this T-Max picture profile was a good walk-around monochrome standard. If you want to shoot JPGs and not worry about editing, this film emulation is reliable and consistent.
My one suggestion with this profile is to try cranking up the ISO setting on your digital Canon to get more of a filmic grain.
But the deep blacks and good microcontrast? It’s all here.
I’m aiming to try out the popular film simulations for Canon cameras – like the popular Fujifilm emulations on the X series cameras. While Canon cameras do not come with film emulations baked in, they are available via Canon’s Picture Style editor and camera profiles.
This Kodachrome-style film simulation comes from Cinescopophila: a giant pack of 150+ picture styles featuring a ton of favorites – almost too many to practically try out. But seeing Kodachrome in the list, I had to give it a spin on a recent trip with the family to Detroit.
Unlike the Fujifilm simulation from Thomas Fransson, these Kodak colors are more my vibe: warmer, much better skin tones, and a healthy amount of contrast.
And those reds? They POP. The greens are nice too. There’s none of that washed-out blandness from the Pro Neigh High series.
Overall, this is a reliable film simulation if you’re a JPG shooter or don’t want to worry about editing. Most of these came out correct as-is, with a little tinkering on a few images for exposure and contrast.
Do these photos mimic Kodachrome? Not really. But for my style of shooting, and even some video, these are a good film-like preset to get you started. With a bit of adjusting, you can get this slide film emulation looking just the way you want.
There are plenty of other Kodachrome versions to try, although many come at a cost. This picture style from Vision Wrangler comes with 150 more to try, with everything from wacky out-there stuff to tried-and-true black and white film emulations.
I’m back with another Thomas Fransson film emulation for Canon cameras. This time, it’s time for a Fuji film simulation.
Thomas released Pro Neigh High, a Fuji-inspired picture profile pack for Canon. I loaded Pro Neigh Standard, one of the options, into my Canon 5D Mark II and took a few laps around the yard on a cold winter morning to test it out.
And? It’s fine. Lots of strength in the blues, but otherwise, nothing remarkable.
Street Photography Test
Then I took a warm morning and drove up to Leslie, Michigan, to test Pro Neigh Standard, one of the other options in Thomas’s film pack. There, I was truly in my favored conditions: high contrast, lots of light:
And again, nothing remarkable except those bright, saturated blues. Especially against bright buildings and white/beige, the blues truly pop with this film simulation.
Fuji film – actual film – tends to highlight the cooler colors like green and blue. But with this emulation, it’s mainly all about the blues. Every other color takes a backseat.
One additional test I could do is in the summertime, with foliage and greenery, like I did in my Kodak test last summer.
Testing Skin Tones
Another test includes some people photos to test skin tones. I brought along Pro Neigh High to church with us to grab some images of the kids, both inside and outside. Here is where Pro Neigh High does not shine:
Skin tones are, frankly, not great. Everything has this beige undertone, not at all natural or pleasing. In fact, the Pro Neg emulation takes away everything I love about Canon colors. Instead, most everything is flat and unappealing.
After these tests, this pack won’t be one of my three custom Canon picture profiles on any of my cameras. But that’s no shade on Thomas – he does great work, and maybe there are Fujifilm lovers out there who think this film emulation is just what they need, especially for vide work.
Grab the profile on Thomas’s Gumroad page and test it out yourself. He also gives a quick run-down on how to install these film simulations on your camera on his YouTube channel.
A nifty option: real film border scans, courtesy of RW Boyer. He has some other options coming down the pipeline as well, from the sounds of it, so stay tuned.
Added a bit of faux grain in Photoshop and used a probably-too-sharp-for-film image off the Fuji X-E1. Note, also, that’s using Fuji’s in-camera B&W filter and shooting a JPG out. So more Fujifilm than Kodak. But oh well.
