darktable preset inspired by FujifilmSuperia 800

What the style changes

The style sets five darktable modules. It aims at a saturated, firm Superia 800: lustrous greens, marked magentas, a slope with no shoulder and visible grain, as the datasheet and the few reviews describe on the Fujifilm Superia 800 film page. The datasheet is the one for Superia X-TRA 800 [CZ], the last version it describes. All figures below come from renders made with darktable-cli 5.6.0 at 1000 px, measured in CIELab.

• A firm tone curve. The curve has a short toe and no shoulder, following the datasheet’s three nearly parallel lines (slope about 0.6 to 0.65, our reading of the graph). Contrast rises a little (Lsd 14.3 → 16.4 on photo 0775, 30.7 → 32.8 on 1014). The darkest 5 % stay put (L5 2.6), while the whites open up (L95 87.9 → 90.9).
• Lustrous greens and vivid reds. rgb primaries turns green slightly toward cyan and raises green and red purity. The color equalizer boosts green, magenta and red saturation and tilts oranges a few degrees toward pink.
• Saturated blues and skin. Sky chroma rises from 27.5 to 31.4 and sea chroma from 22.2 to 25.7, with sky hue barely moving (273.6° → 275.7°). Skin chroma goes from 16.4 to 18.5 and its hue from 44.2° to 41.1°, a little pinker.
• Color casts. A color balance rgb instance named “film” puts a blue-green tint in the shadows, a faint magenta in the midtones and a little warmth in the highlights. The reviews disagree on the cast, yellow for one and magenta for another, so the style keeps both faint.
• Visible grain. Coarseness 1800 and strength 22 are set above the X-TRA 400 style (1400 / 16), because Fujifilm rates this film at RMS 5 against 4.

For comparison, the t3mujinpack Superia 800 style, rendered on the same files, desaturates sky and sea by 20 to 25 % and turns skin toward yellow. This style follows the reviews, which describe saturated colors.

What it leaves alone

• Your base development. The style contains no exposure, no sigmoid or filmic, no white balance and no LUT. Those settings stay as you made them.
• Your color balance rgb. The style’s color balance rgb is a separate instance named “film”: it is added next to yours, which stays untouched.
• But not your tone curve, rgb primaries, color equalizer or grain. When you apply a style from the lighttable or the darkroom, each of its modules replaces the instance of the same module with the same name, if the photo has one, and is added otherwise. The style’s tone curve, rgb primaries, color equalizer and grain carry no instance name, so they replace any settings you had already made in those modules. Your earlier settings remain in the history.
• Your pipeline order. The style file carries no module order list, so it does not impose one on your image.

Exporting with a style, or rendering with darktable-cli, works differently: every module of the style is added as a separate instance. Our measurements were made that way, on darktable’s default rendering. The details are in Install and apply darktable styles.

Limits

• Few sources, and they disagree. Only four reviews describe this film in detail, and two of them contradict each other on the cast (yellow or magenta). The style puts a light magenta in the midtones and warmth in the highlights.
• Greens not measured. The test photos have almost no vegetation, so the greens were not measured. Grain was judged by eye on the renders.
• Curve reading. The slope comes from reading the datasheet graph, which is approximate.
• Not simulated. Underexposure, strong sun on reflective subjects and artificial light are not simulated.
• Shadow tint. The blue-green tint in the shadows rests on weak clues.
• Strong on pinks. The pink T-shirt gains about 29 % chroma with a stable hue. It matches the reports of marked magentas, but it is a lot.

Tips

• Apply it early. If you plan to fine-tune the tone curve, rgb primaries, color equalizer or grain yourself, apply the style first: it would replace those settings if you made them before.
• Diffuse light suits the film. The reviews found the best color in shade, overcast or evening light, so the style is at its best on soft-light scenes.
• Everything stays editable. Each module the style sets is an ordinary module instance: you can lower the grain strength, or switch off the “film” color balance rgb if the magenta is too much.
• Installation: see Install and apply darktable styles.