ACROS in Fujifilm X70

Fujifilm has done a remarkable work with ACROS film simulation in its latest cameras. The result is so good that many photographers choose the camera jpegs over RAW.

ACROS film simulation uses extra noise reduction for the highlights and edges, and it leaves the grain untouched in the shadow areas. This graduated noise reduction/addition is performed inside the camera and cannot be replicated correctly in Lightroom.

As you may already know, ACROS is limited to the new X-Trans CMOS II processors, meaning that it is not available in X70’s SOOC jpegs. I tried a couple of Lightroom presets on X70 RAW files but the result did not satisfy me.

Nevertheless, developers have created their own ACROS film simulations. DxO film and Nik Collection are two among them. The latest has been acquired by Google and Silver Efex Pro 2 app that includes ACROS is now free, so I decided to give it a try.

For the images below, I used RAW files out of the X70 and the following work flow:

First I flattened each image in Lightroom -73 contrast, -25 highlights, +37 shadows, +13 blacks. Then I edited the files in Silver Efex Pro using the preset Push Process (N +3.0) before I applied film type ACROS 100 + RED color filter. Finally, I sent the files back in Lightroom, where I adjusted the whites and blacks for maximum contrast.

Silver Efex Pro 2 – ACROS film simulation – Fujifilm X70