Analogue Inspiration: Exploring Film Simulations with Luke Davis
Adventure and lifestyle photographer Luke Davis delves into Dubrovnik using FUJIFILM Film Simulations
“I’m a mellow, slow-pace-of-life kind of guy, and I appreciate that stillness and atmosphere in my images as well,” begins Luke Davis, a travel and lifestyle photographer hailing from Dorset, England. “The aim for my photography nowadays is to create a real sense of warmth and nostalgia – almost comfort – in my images. If I can invoke that feeling of timelessness, I’ve done my job.
“I’ve grown up in Dorset and lived here my whole life. It’s such an outdoorsy location – you’re spoilt for variety when it comes to seascapes and landscapes. That’s why I’ve always had an innate love for the outdoors, and where I take a lot of inspiration.”
Equipped with the FUJIFILM X-T5 and a bagful of lenses, Luke travelled to Dubrovnik, Croatia, setting out to explore the medieval city using Fujifilm’s 20 unique Film Simulation modes.
Straight-out-of-camera photography
As a professional image maker, Luke is intimately familiar with perfecting pictures in post-production. However, he’s forever trying to get closer to usable images at the moment of acquisition.
“There’s always a time and a place for editing from RAW, especially for more commercial work,” he remarks. “But I’ve enjoyed incorporating Film Simulations into my workflow.
“The older I get, the less time I like to spend sat behind a desk and the more I want to be out creating. So it’s great having baked-in options that provide what I’ve always looked for in an edit – and, more importantly, having them in the viewfinder as I’m working.
“I enjoy the end product, but I also enjoy seeing what the image will come out like in real time. I’m not doing any guesswork, and it means I can choose the look I want for each scene, as opposed to picking it after the fact.
“I like having Film Simulations I can load up, ready to go, and just flick through them: ‘oh, this is a seascape, I want to mute the blues here’ or ‘I want to emphasise the warmth in these parts of the architecture’.
“Having the ability to do it on the fly and see the end result right away is a big benefit to me, and cuts down so much post-processing time.”
Curating a look
Two schools of thought compete in travel photography: embracing the realism in a location, or trying to reveal its fantasy and build a sense of escapism.
“My work leans on the more idealised side,” Luke muses. “My ethos is simple – working with cleaner compositions and having fewer distractions is preferable. But in Dubrovnik, I leaned into the human aspect of the place for a few images, and made an effort to showcase the interactions people have with the environment.”
Between the hustle and bustle of the old town, the sun-soaked seaside and the city’s surrounding hilltops, the trip offered a bewitching combination of architectural, street and landscape photography.
“Harking back to my early days of photographing the Dorset coastline, I appreciate the Croatian seascapes,” enthuses Luke. “We also climbed Mount Srđ at sunrise, giving us a bird’s-eye view of the town and Lokrum island just off the coast. The colour of the water is incredible, it’s so clear, but my favourite images came from the seaside town element. There’s something to be said for the actual old town itself – being in the midst of the square and experiencing the early architecture. There was such variety to photograph.”
Film Simulations are helpful tools for those looking to create diverse images with a consistent aesthetic. Image makers who enjoy the process of post-production will find that the profiles provide a firm foundation on which to add extra touches, while those looking to reduce time spent editing will be met with polished photos straight out of camera.
“Honestly, I do barely any tweaks, if any. Once I’ve baked that Film Simulation in, there’s little I do besides cropping for social media,” Luke shares. “It’s so nice to have a look that’s 95% done at least – it’s huge for me.
“The look of the Film Simulations lend themselves to my work and style so well, I’ve found myself surprised at how close my edits have been to the default profiles. It’s made streamlining that part of my work a no-brainer. It’s such a handy tool – and something no other camera brands offer.”
Luke’s top Film Simulations
“I’ve always gravitated towards certain Film Simulations,” notes Luke. “Nostalgic Neg. is one of the newer profiles, and so close to how I’d edit anyway – it’s my go-to. A bit like how I choose a standard zoom lens for getting a feel for a new place first, Nostalgic Neg. is the profile I put on first. It’s warm, so it brought out the orange roofs of Dubrovnik and emphasised the lighting conditions – lots of hard sun.
“Photographing the coast, the water was so blue, and I chose to draw that out in certain moments. But sometimes it could do with being tamed to a degree. CLASSIC CHROME has a muted, slightly desaturated look and lends itself to what I was trying to accomplish there.
“I used REALA ACE a lot, too. It’s a fairly neutral profile that’s versatile and would handle anything I threw at it. It gives a faithful, accurate reproduction, but then I tend to tweak the profiles to draw some more colour and warmth out.”
For a personal touch, Luke will adjust various settings within certain Film Simulations, creating unique recipes that complement his visual style.
“Firstly, Fujifilm cameras have different dynamic range (DR) modes that allow you to squeeze more highlight and shadow information in,” he explains. “I’m always working in either DR 200% or DR 400% – that’s my first tweak.
“I like to bias my white balance slightly warmer and add grain. With the tone curve, I’ll tend to soften the highlights quite a bit as well. It’s all about leaning into that filmic, soft, dreamy look.
“I’m a big fan of the clarity slider in the camera – setting that to a negative value and emphasising the softness. With how detailed the sensors are nowadays, I don’t have to worry about sharpness, so I’m essentially taking off some bite.”
All mod cons
Thinking about how each scene would react to his custom profiles led Luke to a more considered style of photography.
“At the start of the trip, I had a bunch of Film Simulations with my tweaks loaded into the camera. For the first day or two, I was choosing between them when each scene demanded it,” he recalls.
“I love the process of slowing down and being conscious about which profile I’m choosing – trying to be deliberate. But so many opportunities arose towards the end of the trip, I barely had time to do that.”
In such an instance, the in-camera RAW CONVERSION function allows users to create new JPEG files, adjusting which Film Simulation is used alongside other image settings.
“There’s a huge benefit – and I don’t hear a lot of other people talk about this – to using the in-camera editor,” Luke points out. “I work in RAW and JPEG a lot, so having the ability to create another JPEG in the camera is handy.
“I did stick to Nostalgic Neg. towards the end of the trip, and then ended up essentially RAW processing in-camera after the fact. It’s great because, even for those days where I am more deliberate, I pick Film Simulations as the situation demands. If I then want to make an image black and white, or tweak the tone curve, I can do that.
Offloading to a phone is then a slick process thanks to the FUJIFILM XApp: “From turning the camera on to having photos ready to go on Instagram could be a minute,” remarks Luke. “It’s a streamlined process.
“I was using XApp a lot during the trip, for viewing images on my phone at the end of the day. It’s so nice not having to waste time with cables or SD card readers. I’ve always got my phone on me – as well as my camera – so I can get those images when I need to share them.”
Ultimately, the main draw of Film Simulations for Luke is creating with the classic look of analogue photography while using all the conveniences of modern digital camera technology.
“There is always a time and a place for film,” he notes. “For me, it’s the process – when I want to slow down and wait for the images, or when I want to be more romantic. For that, I’m absolutely still working with film.
“But you can get 90-95% of the look, with the kind of storage space where I can make thousands of photos – not just 36. So for convenience and versatility, Film Simulations are perfect – and that’s where 99% of my work will be done.”
