Which Fujifilm recipe settings carry into RAW?
All Fujifilm recipe settings are saved with the RAW, and almost all of them can be changed later in RAW conversion or X RAW STUDIO. The one exception is Dynamic Range, which is set when you take the picture.
By Abu Ashraf Masnun ·
This one comes up all the time on r/fujifilm. You find a recipe you love, then someone tells you to shoot RAW, and you wonder if the recipe still counts. It does.
Your recipe is saved with the RAW
A Fuji RAW keeps the settings you shot with: film simulation, white balance and its shift, Highlight and Shadow tone, Color, Color Chrome, grain, sharpness, clarity and the rest. Open it in the camera's RAW conversion menu or in X RAW STUDIO and it comes out looking like your JPEG did.
Almost all of it can be changed later
Every one of those settings is an instruction for how to develop the picture, not something burned into it. So you can shoot on Classic Chrome today and decide it should have been Classic Neg next week, add grain, warm it up, take the sharpening down. The RAW does not care.
The one exception
Dynamic Range. DR200 and DR400 change how the photo is exposed, so they are decided when you press the shutter. You can render a DR400 RAW at DR100, but not a DR100 RAW at DR400. I wrote about why in a separate post.
So what should you set when shooting RAW?
- DR, because it cannot be added later.
- Your favourite recipe anyway, so the preview on the screen looks like what you want.
- Everything else is free to change afterwards.
Questions people ask
Do Fujifilm recipes work when shooting RAW?
Yes. The RAW keeps your film simulation and every recipe setting, so it converts to the same look as the JPEG. You can also change any of them later, except Dynamic Range.
Which Fuji setting cannot be changed after shooting RAW?
Dynamic Range. DR200 and DR400 change the exposure itself, so a DR100 RAW cannot be turned into DR400 later.
Why I am testing all this
I'm doing this research while building two apps for Fuji shooters. RAF Film Lab edits Fuji RAW files on Mac, iPad and iPhone, in all 20 film simulations. Chobial is an iPhone film camera that always shoots RAW, so you can develop any photo again with any film. Everything I learn about how the camera renders goes into both. They're in beta now, and if you'd like to try them, join the RAF Film Lab beta or the Chobial beta.