You can shoot a Fujifilm recipe on an iPhone, but you can't import it, because a recipe is a list of in-camera settings. Start from a look close to the recipe's film simulation. Then copy the tone, colour, white balance, grain and exposure settings into the nearest controls of your camera app or RAW editor. Save the result as a look you can use again.
Below is what each Fujifilm setting does, the nearest iPhone control for it, and two recipes of my own to start from.
Most pages about Fuji recipes expect you to own the camera. Fuji X Weekly, Fuji Recipes and FujiStyle are good at that job. They store recipes and help you set them on an X-series body, or send them to the camera. They don't change a photo taken with the iPhone itself. This page is about iPhone photos.
What a Fujifilm recipe is
A Fujifilm camera makes its JPEGs with a film simulation, such as Provia, Classic Chrome or Classic Negative. Then it adds a set of adjustments on top. A recipe is one combination of those adjustments, written down so other people can set the same values. (For how simulations, presets and real film looks differ, see how to make iPhone photos look like film.)
On a current camera like the X100VI, the Image Quality Setting menu has these settings:
- Film Simulation: the base colour and tone.
- Grain Effect: Roughness Off, Weak or Strong, and Size Small or Large.
- Color Chrome Effect: Off, Weak or Strong. It makes very strong colours deeper in tone. They keep their smooth steps from light to dark and don't go flat.
- Color Chrome FX Blue: the same idea, but only for blues (Fujifilm's explainer).
- White Balance: a preset or a Kelvin value, plus a red/blue shift.
- Dynamic Range: 100%, 200% or 400%. The camera underexposes and then brightens the tones again. This protects the highlights.
- Tone Curve: Highlights and Shadows, each from −2 to +4. Higher values give harder tones.
- Color: −4 to +4. In practice, this is saturation.
- Sharpness and High ISO NR: −4 to +4 each.
- Clarity: −5 to +5. It sets the contrast of the midtones in small areas.
- Exposure compensation: most recipes suggest a range, often +1/3 to +1.
The film simulation does most of the work, and the other settings only change it a little. So two recipes on the same simulation can look like brother and sister.
Start from the film the simulation is named after
Many simulations carry the name of a Fuji film. Provia is one, and Fujifilm's cameras still use the Acros name for black and white. Fujifilm says Classic Neg. was modelled on Superia, its everyday negative film.
So the nearest start on an iPhone is a look based on that same film. Use a Provia-style slide look for Provia, and a Superia-style negative for Classic Neg. For Acros, use a fine-grain black and white. Fujifilm doesn't make a Classic Chrome filter for the iPhone. For Classic Chrome recipes, start from a look with muted colour, firm shadows and skies that lean cyan.
Fujifilm settings and their iPhone equivalents
You need an app whose look has the same layers as the camera. That means a base film, with tone, colour, white balance and grain on top. The table matches each Fujifilm setting with the nearest control in a typical RAW editor or film camera app. Some are close matches, and others only come near.
| Fujifilm setting | Nearest iPhone control | How close |
|---|---|---|
| Film Simulation | A base film or profile based on the same Fuji film | Close, but not the same. |
| Grain Effect | Grain: Amount and Size | Different scale. Weak/Small is about 100-speed grain. Strong/Large is about 400-speed or coarser. |
| Color Chrome Effect | Colour mixer: lower Luminance (and a little Saturation) on the red, orange, yellow and green bands | Approximate. Fujifilm's effect changes with how strong each pixel's colour is. A band slider works the same on every pixel in the band. |
| Color Chrome FX Blue | Colour mixer: blue band Luminance down, aqua a little | Approximate. |
| White Balance + shift | Camera white balance, then Temperature and Tint in the edit | Close in effect. Fuji's shift steps don't convert exactly to Kelvin. |
| Dynamic Range 200/400 | Highlights, a soft highlight curve, and shooting at −1/3 to −2/3 EV | Approximate. |
| Highlight tone | Highlights | Close. |
| Shadow tone | Shadows | Close, but the sign is the other way round. Fuji's +1 makes shadows deeper, so use a negative value. |
| Color | Saturation, or Vibrance for a gentler push | Close. |
| Clarity | Clarity, or a little local tone mapping | Approximate. |
| Sharpness | Sharpness | Close. |
| High ISO NR | Noise Reduction | Close. |
| Exposure compensation | Exposure compensation when you shoot, in third stops, or Exposure in the edit | Exact. |
| Smooth Skin Effect | None | No equivalent. |
Two of these need more explanation. Dynamic Range on a Fujifilm camera is an exposure trick for JPEGs. A RAW file already has the highlight data, so the curve you set decides how smoothly the picture turns to white.
Clarity can't be copied exactly on any phone, because Fujifilm's version is slow and works on small areas. The closest you get is a Clarity slider, a little local tone mapping, or Clarity painted into a mask on one photo.
Other Fujifilm-style apps for iPhone
- Pearla is a subscription camera app with film looks. These include profiles inspired by Classic Chrome and Classic Negative (PetaPixel).
- RitchieCam, from Ritchie Roesch of Fuji X Weekly, is a simple camera with fixed filters that you don't edit (PetaPixel).
- Dehancer and Lightroom work after the shot, with film profiles and presets.
- No app: Apple's Photographic Styles and the Photos editor can make a photo warmer, cooler or quieter in colour. They can't build a film simulation. Styles also work only on HEIF and don't work on RAW (see RAW vs HEIF).
To see the recipe apps side by side, read the comparison page.
In Chobial
Chobial is my iPhone camera app. It shoots RAW by default and shows the film live in the viewfinder. A recipe you build becomes a film. You can shoot through it, or use it later to develop any photo in the library. The app can't import a Fujifilm recipe. It imports its own film files, .cube LUTs and Lightroom presets, so you rebuild a recipe with the film editor's controls. That takes a few minutes.
The built-in films are my own. These are the ones written around Fuji stocks (see all films):
| Fuji film | Built-in film to start from |
|---|---|
| Provia | Standard (free) |
| Astia | Soft (free) |
| Velvia | Saturated; Landscape (modelled on Velvia 50) |
| Pro 160C, Pro 160S / 160NS | Portrait, Soft Portrait |
| Superia | Negative; Snapshot (modelled on Superia X-TRA 400, free) |
| Reala | Natural; Lifelike (modelled on Superia Reala) |
| Eterna | Cinema; Projection (modelled on Eterna 500) |
| Acros, Neopan | B&W, Mono |
For Classic Chrome recipes, start from Chrome. It's my take on documentary colour from the slide-film years, with muted colour, firm shadows and cyan skies. It's free.
The editor's names match the table above, with a few extras:
- Grain comes as stocks. Weak/Small is about the 35mm ISO 100 stock, and Strong/Large is about 35mm ISO 400 or above.
- Dynamic Range: use Tone › Highlight Rolloff.
- Clarity: use Tone › Clarity or Develop › Local Tone Mapping. On one photo, use the Film tool's Clarity or a mask's Clarity.
- Exposure: drag up or down on the camera's picture, or tap EV in the exposure line for its dial. You can also set Develop › Exposure in the film.
To build the film:
- Open Films (Controls › Film, then Manage Films) and tap + › New Film. Under Start From, pick the built-in film from the table.
- In Info, name it and give it a three-letter badge code.
- Go down the recipe: Develop, then Tone, then Color, then Effects. The preview is one of your own photos. Hold the preview to compare with the starting film.
- Tap the checkmark to save. The film shows up in the camera's row of films and in the editor's Film tool. Every photo keeps its original, so you can also develop older shots with it.
The two recipes below are mine. Neither is a copy of a published Fujifilm recipe. Like any recipe, they're starting points. The built-in films already have most of the look, so the changes are small.
Recipe: Harbour Light
A cool, quiet documentary look for grey-sky streets and water. Start from Chrome (Films › + › New Film › Start From). It saves free.
| Control | Setting |
|---|---|
| Develop › Temperature | +300K |
| Develop › Tint | +4 |
| Develop › Sharpness | 30% |
| Tone › Highlights | −0.15 |
| Tone › Shadows | −0.10 |
| Tone › Highlight Rolloff | 30% |
| Color › Saturation | −0.10 |
| Color Mixer › Blue › Luminance | −0.15 |
| Color Mixer › Red › Luminance | −0.10 |
| Effects › Grain | 35mm ISO 100 stock (22% / 0.75) |
| Effects › Vignette | +0.10 |
Shoot at 0 to +1/3 EV. The negative Shadows value does the job of a firm Shadow tone. The darker blues do the job of Color Chrome FX Blue.
Recipe: Kitchen Table
Warm, soft indoor colour for window light and people. Start from Nostalgia, my take on 1970s colour prints, with amber highlights. Nostalgia is a Pro film, so saving photos in a film made from it needs Pro.
| Control | Setting |
|---|---|
| Develop › Temperature | +200K |
| Develop › Noise Reduction | 20% |
| Tone › Contrast | −0.10 |
| Tone › Shadows | +0.10 |
| Tone › Highlight Rolloff | 40% |
| Tone › Fade | 8% |
| Color Mixer › Orange › Saturation | −0.10 |
| Color Mixer › Green › Saturation | −0.15 |
| Effects › Grain | 35mm ISO 400 stock, Amount lowered to 35% |
| Effects › Lens › Bloom | 10% |
Shoot at +1/3 to +2/3 EV. Lower orange saturation stops skin from going too red under warm light.
Share a recipe as a QR code
People share Fujifilm recipes as lists of settings, and each person types them in. A film is shared as the film itself. In Films, tap ••• on your film and choose Share Film. The card turns over to a QR code with the film's badge in the middle. Anyone with the app can scan it from your screen. They can also scan a screenshot with Scan from a Picture.
Tap Share Film again for more ways to send it:
- As a Picture makes an image card for posting.
- As a Link makes a chobial.app link that opens the film in the app.
- As a File sends a .chobial file through Messages, Mail or AirDrop.
A film built on an imported LUT is too big for a QR code or a link, so send it as a file.
Fujifilm, Classic Chrome, Classic Negative, Provia, Astia, Velvia, Superia, Reala, Eterna, Acros, Neopan and X100VI are trademarks of FUJIFILM Corporation. Chobial is not connected to Fujifilm.