Shooting JPEGS with the Ilford HP5 Plus 400 Simulation
On Saturday, I spent about an hour walking around downtown Halifax, capturing street photos as part of my HFX Street project. I primarily focused on Queen’s Marque, located at the Halifax Harbour. Queen’s Marque is a new public space that had its grand opening about a year ago. The $200 million investment includes a lovely waterfront walking area surrounded by new retail and commercial, restaurants, and a boutique hotel.
In Halifax, the waterfront itself has always been a popular place for residents and tourists, and this new addition has only increased traffic, especially in the summer months. The area includes some nice geometric shapes that create interesting shadows and perspectives, and the area also includes public art and the Queen’s Landing stairs that go directly into the harbour.
What Gear and Recipe Did I Use?
I used the Fujifilm X-E4 and the 35mm f/2, my go-to package, and a black-and-white film simulation for the images. You can shoot JPEG only or RAW + JPEG using a Fujifilm simulation. I have been shooting both JPEG and RAW to see the effects of the simulation by comparing them to the RAW photos. The recipe I was using was the Ilford HP5 Plus 400, a film simulation I found on Fuji X Weekly that creates soft highlights, dark shadows, and a nice grain. After reading the description and seeing the example photos, I was anxious to try this recipe.
Any Post-Processing?
Since these were JPEG images, the editing was kept to a minimum. There were a few photos where I did small edits to the highlights or shadows using slight adjustments to the sliders in Lightroom, and there was minor cropping on one or two of the photos. For the most part, I was happy with the results as is, which is good because that is the point of using a film recipe.
What is the Recipe?
This recipe is posted on Fuji X Weekly. Here are the settings:
Monochrome
Dynamic Range: DR400
Highlight: -1
Shadow: +1
Noise Reduction: -4
Sharpness: -2
Clarity: 0
Grain Effect: Strong, Large
Colour Chrome Effect: Off
Colour Chrome Effect Blue: Off
White Balance: Daylight, +1 Red & -8 Blue
ISO: Auto, up to ISO 6400
Exposure Compensation: -2/3 to +2/3 (typically)