Monochrome To Kodachrome?

 

Friends Shawn and Sheba, Half Moon Bay

While shooting on a recent photo walk with Shawn and Sheba, I was swapping back and forth between monochrome and color renderings settings. While exploring Fuji X-E1's exposure controls, I had found some adjustments allowed me to alter the intensity of my highlights and shadows, two things that I clearly understood. Through trial and error, I succeeded in simulating the high-contrast black and white images from my film years, and by accident, these same settings were retained when I shifted back to color.  More on the specific values later.

We eventually found ourselves at the Portuguese Cemetery in Half Moon Bay. While there I photographed a recently visited gravesite, anticipating a very clean rendition of the flag, as it was front lit on a cloudless day. I was pleased by how the image literally sparkled, but wasn't surprised, considering how well my monochrome exposure adjustments worked in color. For a brief moment, i thought the image reminded me of Kodachrome II, or at least the Kodachrome of my imagination, since I seldom used it when it was available.

Film Simulations: Fuji cameras started to get traction when photographers started experimenting the build in film simulations. These were not limited to the basics (Color, B&W, Sepia) but included three of Fuji's most popular transparency films (Provia, Velvia, Astia), but also filtered black and white simulations (black and white film with yellow, red, and green filters). All of these were presets, all easily accessed through the Film Simulation Menu. This was useful to know, but since I never used Fuji films in my 35mm cameras, I was content to state with the standard Provia setting. For proprietary reasons, Kodachrome was never an option for Fuji.

Kodachrome Quest: Ritchie Roesch's blog site Fuji X Weekly gave me the settings that could potentially give me a more true-to-purpose simulation of Kodachrome II on both my X-Pro 1 and X-E1, as they share the same sensor and image processor. The site suggests the following settings:

PRO Neg. Std

Dynamic Range: DR400

Highlight: +1 (Medium-High)

Shadow: +2 (High)

Color: -2 (Low)

Sharpness: +2 (Hard)

Noise Reduction: -2 (Low)

White Balance: Auto, +1 Red & -2 Blue

ISO: Auto, up to ISO 3200

Exposure Compensation: +1/3 to +2/3 (typically)

It turn out that three of the settings are identical. or nearly so, to those I selected for my enhanced monochrome preferences. The exposure compensation settings are the exact opposite, as Mr. Ritchie leans towards slight over-exposure, while I, true to traditional doctrine, favor underexposure. For the only time in my life I wish I had an X-E1 in chrome so I could easily identify it as the body with the Kodachrome presets. In he mean time, I shall enlist one of my black bodies to serve as my dedicated Kodachrome box, and I will see what happens if the sun ever comes out again.