How to apply a Fujifilm film simulation recipe to your RAW files

A Fujifilm X-T1 RAW of a marina palm avenue developed in Sablefilm

Fujifilm recipes are one of the best things about shooting Fuji. Dial in a film simulation, a tone curve, grain and colour chrome, and the JPEGs come out looking finished. Then you open the RAF on your computer and the look is gone.

Why the look disappears

A RAW file isn't a picture yet. It's the sensor data plus a set of notes about how the camera was set up. The camera uses those notes to make its JPEG, but most desktop editors ignore them and start from their own neutral rendering. That's why the RAF looks flat and nothing like the shot you saw on the back of the camera.

The usual workarounds

  • Shoot RAW + JPEG and use the JPEG when you like it. That works, but you lose RAW latitude the moment you want to recover a sky.
  • Apply a camera profile in your editor that imitates the film simulation, then rebuild the rest of the recipe (tone, grain, colour) by hand.
  • Re-process in camera using the camera's RAW conversion menu, one file at a time.

Using the recipe stored in the RAF

The settings you shot with are recorded in the RAF itself: the film simulation, highlight and shadow tone, and grain. Sablefilm reads those and applies them as the starting point when you open the file. You see roughly the look you shot, and the full RAW is still underneath, so you can:

  1. Open the folder of RAFs. They appear as a contact sheet with your recipe already applied.
  2. Fix what the JPEG couldn't: pull back a blown sky with a gradient mask, lift a face, recover shadows.
  3. Push the look further if you like: add halation around highlights or adjust the grain size.
  4. Export to JPEG, HEIC or TIFF. The original RAF is never changed; your edits sit in a small file beside it.

Tips for recipe shooters

  • Shoot the recipe you actually want. It becomes your starting point on the RAW, so it pays to set it carefully in camera.
  • Keep a couple of recipes on your custom settings and switch per scene; each RAF remembers which one you used.
  • If you also have Lightroom presets that imitate film stocks, import them too and compare.

Sablefilm is a RAW editor for Mac. £9.99 once, no subscription (introductory price until 30 November 2026). Get Sablefilm · More for Fujifilm shooters

Fujifilm and film simulation names are trademarks of FUJIFILM Corporation. Sablefilm is not affiliated with or endorsed by Fujifilm. How closely a recipe matches the camera's own JPEG can vary by camera and setting.