Shooting with a custom Fujifilm film simulation recipe: Liminality at Mabon

Film simulation recipes are one of the most creative tools Fujifilm offers. By shaping colour, contrast and texture directly in-camera, photographers can build looks that honour the moment without endless hours in post-production. It brings the fun back into shooting when so many of the parameters are set and you create within those. My career in photography started in the golden age of 35mm film and I developed photos at a newsagents as my Saturday job at school. I love how feel makes you feel, finding that one with the ISO that gives grain and tones that instantly transport us to another era.

I must admit, these were something I’d not explored extensively. So when Fujifilm asked me to create a custom recipe from the built in film simulations, I was really excited to dabble more seriously. Because there are so many to choose from. Each tweak you make has interesting results in different light settings and I was focused on creating a custom recipe that would work in lots of different settings.

As Fujikina (read more here) falls at a threshold point of Autumn Equinox, I was inspired by nature and created a custom film simulation recipe on my Fujifilm X-T5. One that celebrates liminality, the turning of the light, and the soft surrender of summer into Autumn.

Why create a custom film simulation recipe?

Fujifilm’s film simulations are designed to echo the tonality of classic film stocks. But the beauty lies in the ability to customise them. Adjusting white balance, colour chrome effects, shadows and more until they evoke the mood you want to hold. A recipe becomes more than a setting, it becomes a way of storytelling.

For me, this Fujifilm film simulation recipe, named L I M I N A L I T Y was born from the threshold of Mabon, the autumn equinox. It honours nature’s shifting palette: berries ripening, chalk cliffs glowing honeyed at golden hour, and wetland birds gathering on the salt marshes, guided by migratory rhythms triggered by the changing light.

How to create a custom recipe on the Fujifilm X-T5

Creating a custom recipe on the Fujifilm X-T5 is simple once you know the steps:

1. Open the IQ Menu – navigate to Film Simulation.
2. Choose a base sim – for this recipe, I started with Reala Ace for its faithful neutrality.
3. Adjust tone settings – highlights, shadows, colour, sharpness and noise reduction.
4. Set grain and colour chrome effects for texture and richness.
5. Customise white balance with red/blue shifts to shape the warmth or coolness.
6. Save the settings into one of the custom slots (C1–C7) so it’s ready in your Q Menu.

Shooting with L I M I N A L I T Y

Create your own unique look by loading this custom film simulation recipe straight into your Fujifilm camera. It dials in the tones and colours you love, ready to shoot SOOC with consistency. Perfect for capturing the wild edges with a signature style that’s all your own.

• Base simulation: Reala Ace
• Dynamic Range: DR400
• Grain Effect: Strong, Large
• Color Chrome Effect: Strong
• Color Chrome FX Blue: Strong
• White Balance: Custom (R+4, B–4)
• Highlight Tone: –2
• Shadow Tone: –1
• Color: +4
• Sharpness: –4
• High ISO NR: –3

Shooting with L I M I N A L I T Y

I headed out to one of my favourite parts of local coastline at Pegwell Bay near Ramsgate. I love it here. The mix of all of the foliage on the cliffs, the beach and saltmarsh below and the white cliffs that turn warmer as the golden hour paints its hues. There are lots of natural frames and textures to play with. As well as fleeting moments with birds and other wildlife passing through.

Image 1 – “Where the trees meet the tide”

This was one of the first images I shot with my Fujifilm film simulation Liminality recipe and it set the tone. The warmth in the white balance and golden hour light wrapped the scene in that honeyed hue I was seeking. I composed to let the foreground trees frame the saltmarsh horizon line, with the layered landscape creating natural depth. This simm softens the shadows without losing structure. Keeping contrast while letting the golden light invite the vivid autumnal hues in the landscape. Adding their soft colour pop image, as everything is bathed in the sun’s warmth.

Fujifilm X-T5
Fujinon 50-140mm f2.8 R LM OIS WR
f5 at 87.1mm
1/500
ISO200

Image 2 – “Edge of season, edge of tide”

Shot with a longer lens to compress the layers of the landscape. This image captures the moment the tide had just begun to turn. The migrating birds gathered across Pegwell Bay. A story of migration, triggered by the changing light signalling that it is time. The Liminality Fujifilm film simulation enhanced the contrast just enough to bring out the texture in the salt marsh and birds spotlit by the softening light that is rapidly surrendering to dusk.

Fujifilm X-T5
Fujinon 150-600mm f5.6-8 LM OIS WR
f7.1 at 316mm
1/1600
ISO2500

Image 3 – “Kindling light”

Photographed at f5 to isolate the seedheads and create some flaring from the sun as it clipped the horizon added to the warm tones. This shot was all about embracing impermanence. Muting the sharpness in the recipe, coupled with the strong grain stirs a sense of nostalgia. The Fujifilm film simulation’s warmer white balance and softened highlights wrapped in a halo of nature’s own light leak. It celebrates the way this moment felt rather than just how it looked. The haze, the hue, the threshold of the liminal golden hour.

Fujifilm X-T5
Fujinon 50-140mm f2.8 R LM OIS WR
f5 at 50mm
1/250
ISO320

Image 4 – “Gulls in the thermals”

In the distance, a familiar gathering of gulls dotted the sky. As they caught the last of the day’s lift from the thermals. The gentle pastel gradient in the sky was already magic, but the Fujifilm film Liminality simulation made it sing. By muting the sharpness and pulling the tones into a more cinematic combination, it enhanced the soft transition from warm to cool. Anchoring the birds in a sky that feels both timeless and alive.

Fujifilm X-T5
Fujinon 150-600mm f5.6-8 LM OIS WR
f7.1 at 274mm
1/1600
ISO2000

Image 5- “Fire in the sky”

Some of my favourite moments of a sunset are the fleeting moments after the sun has set and the clouds pick up the sunlight that is being refracted by earth, the reddest part of the spectrum of light. The Fujifilm Liminality film simulation gave the images even more atmosphere. The warmth in the white balance combined with enhanced colour settings made the sky pop. Just as it was appearing to the eye. I love that the large grain added that gentle cinematic texture. A moment of natural drama, for a brief moment and then the colour was gone!

Fujifilm X-T5
Fujinon XF27mm f2.8 R WR
f3.6 at 27mm
1/500
ISO400

Why this recipe matters

Liminality is for photographers who love to chase light at wild edges. For those who want to capture the soft surrender of summer into autumn. For storytellers who listen to nature’s quiet rhythms and want their images to carry the same wonder and awe that they felt in the moment.

Creating custom film simulation recipes on the Fujifilm X-T5 allows you to not just record a scene, but to shape the emotion of it in-camera. The Liminality recipe will live in my custom slots as a seasonal tool. Honouring autumn’s glow and the shifting threshold of light.

official fujifilm x-photographer 2026 – present