Recently, I’ve been shooting a lot of footage on the Fuji X-T2, and have been absolutely loving the film simulation modes. In particular, I really love the “Classic Chrome” film simulation that this camera (and others by Fuji) offer, and I certainly know I’m not alone.

Many Fuji DPs and photographers swear by the Classic Chrome look, and shoot much of their footage with it as a means to achieve the beautifully organic, muted tones that this simulation mode is known for.

While I have been thoroughly enjoying shooting with Classic Chrome on the X-T2, the majority of my projects are not shot on this camera, and as such when I work on other systems I don’t have any way to achieve this look… That was until I decided to create a LUT to solve that problem.

This week I spent some time shooting quite a lot of test footage with the X-T2 in Classic Chrome, as well as some footage using the more neutral Provia film simulation mode, which gave me a baseline to create a Classic Chrome style LUT from, which I’ve called CHROMATIC.

I’ve been applying this new LUT to footage shot on other cameras, including the Arri Alexa, Lumix GH4, Blackmagic URSA Mini 4.6K, and others, and have been quite happy with the results!

Take a look at the shots below.

The first is an image shot on the Fuji X-T2 in Provia (the more standard/neutral film simulation mode) –

Next is the same image shot in Classic Chrome –

And finally, here is the original version again, but with my new LUT (CHROMATIC) applied –

While there are some subtle differences between the true Classic Chrome profile and my LUT, the images are quite close… I’ve also been finding that this LUT works equally well on all sorts of different types of material, not just landscapes.

Here are some sample images of the LUT applied to footage with people in the frame –

Below, I have included a free download link for the CHROMATIC LUT, but there are couple of important things to note before putting it to use:

This is a stylistic LUT, much like those found in my Cinematic LUT Packs, and it is not a translation LUT.

This means, if you’ve shot in LOG you will need to first add contrast to your image (or use a translation LUT to convert to Rec. 709) before applying CHROMATIC. And even if your image wasn’t shot in Log, to get the best results you should first pre-grade it to make it as neutral as possible. In other words, you’ll want to tweak your contrast, white balance, saturation, and overall color balance slightly before applying this LUT if your image wasn’t well balanced in camera.

As you can see in my demo video for my Cinematic LUT – Genre Pack, a base grade is created before any of the LUTs are applied. This is always the workflow you want to use –

So without further ado, you can download my CHROMATIC LUT by clicking here!

If you’re never installed a LUT on your system before, it’s actually quite simple. Just download the .cube file above and copy it into the LUT folder for DaVinci Resolve (or whatever platform you are using). For Resolve, these are the file paths that you can follow:

MAC

/Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/LUT/

PC

ProgramData\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\LUT

This .cube file is also compatible with virtually any other color grading software, editing platform, or even cameras that allow you to load custom LUTs.

Some editing software, such as FCP X, will require that you to install a plugin to load your LUTs inside of the application, and there are plenty of free options out there for those of you looking to apply this look in FCP X. Premiere Pro users can load the LUT into their session by using the Lumetri color panel.

If you are interested in my full Cinematic LUT Packs, you can learn more about them here! They have been carefully designed for filmmakers and cinematographers looking to achieve bold color results, while minimizing time in post-production. They also come with a 4 page PDF guide that outlines how to install the LUTs on popular software, such as DaVinci Resolve, FCP X, Premiere Pro, and even Adobe Photoshop.

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