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We Challenge You to Identify the Fujifilm Negative Film vs Simulation

Chris Gampat
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08/09/2021
3 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer cesnored Fujifilm X Pro 3 review 1.41-90s160

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The sad truth is that film photography genuinely needs to evolve. Fujifilm and a few other brands have been trying to push that evolution over the years. But digital will always find a way to catch up. Right? Well, that might not be the case. The social media conversations around the film photography world is rife with lies. We’re going to explain this further after the jump. We invite you to check out what we have to say.

Film or Film Simulation?

As you look through these images, can you tell the difference between a Fujifilm film simulation and a film scan? Was the photo above shot on Superia? Was it Pro 400H? Was it Fujifilm Pro Neg Low Contrast? Can you figure it out? Well, take a look through these images.

Can You Tell the Difference?

Chances are that if you’re reading this, then you looked at the images pretty closely. Some of these photos are dead giveaways. So we made those easier for you. But a lot of them could fool most folks. All of this brings me to a point about film photography. What I’m about to say is something I’m bound to get slack for other blogs that really hate our authenticity, but it’s the hard facts.

Film needs to evolve. These days, anyone and everyone can edit an image with a preset based on film, then post the image on social media. Social media doesn’t have hashtag and content authentication the way Google search does. So anyone can post a photo with a hashtag that says #Portra400 when the truth is its a digital image with a Portra 400 preset applied. And folks don’t take responsibility for their actions; someone is bound to look at that image and think it’s really what film looks like.

The sad, frank truth is that we can’t fight the misinformation out there. Facebook and Instagram don’t care. And what’s worse is it seems like lots of the curators don’t care either. 

That’s just the preface to a bigger fact. Film needs to evolve into something that cannot easily be copied digitally. There are some creators like Louis Dazy and Kate Hook who get this. But loads of others don’t understand it. Fujifilm and Kodak aren’t addressing this fact. But CineStill, Lomography, and KONO! are some of the brands that are paying attention. Sure, there’s the experience of shooting film. But that’s something that needs to be experienced in person. You don’t know how wonderful prime rib is until it touches your tongue. You also don’t know the stark difference between English Lavender and French Lavender until you’ve smelled them. The sound from Sony’s excellent headphones are far better than Apple’s, but you don’t know until you’ve tried them. To that end, you don’t know the difference between the film experience and the digital one. Keira Knightly said it best a long time ago:

“I’ve noticed that the people who started on film still have the ability to see the person in front of them. Whereas for a lot of photographers who have only ever worked in digital, the relationship between the photographer and the person who they’re taking a picture of sort of doesn’t exist anymore. They’re looking at a computer screen as opposed to the person.”

However, none of this can be transmitted through the final image. And that’s why film needs to keep doing things that digital can’t.

authenticity Cameras film film photography fujifilm fujifilm film simulation hashtag lenses scan
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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