Selenium: A Fujifilm X100V Film Recipe (In-Camera JPEG + Lightroom/RAW Guide)

Edward Leung
2 days ago
3 min read

Black-and-white poster of a tall clock tower in a city square with cloudy sky; text reads Selenium and Fujifilm recipe. — Black-and-white photography captures a timeless scene in Siena, styled with the Fujifilm X100V's "Selenium" recipe, echoing the rich tones of selenium-toned silver gelatin prints.

Split-screen before/after of Sacré-Cœur in Paris: color view left, black-and-white selenium-tinted view right, with text labels. — Comparison of Sacré-Cœur in Paris before and after applying a "Selenium" film recipe, showcasing vibrant colors versus a classic black-and-white transformation.

Before-and-after split of Pisa cathedral facade with ornate door; seated woman below, left in color, right in black and white. — Comparison of the Pisa Cathedral facade: the original colored version on the left highlights the intricate marble patterns and green door, while the selenium-toned black and white version on the right emphasizes the architectural details and textures.

Split before/after of Siena's Torre del Mangia and piazza, with Before and After labels; color left, black-and-white right, cloudy sky. — Before and after comparison of the Torre del Mangia in Siena, showcasing the transformation from a vivid color image to a dramatic selenium-toned black and white photograph.

The look is modeled on a selenium-toned silver gelatin print — a classic darkroom finishing technique where black-and-white prints get a brief selenium toner bath. It doesn't change the black-and-white tonality so much as shift the color cast within it: deep blacks pick up a cool purple-blue undertone, while the paper's warm-neutral base tone stays visible in the highlights. Paired with a yellow-filter-style contrast push (the classic move for dramatic skies and separated clouds) and a coarse, high-ISO-film grain structure, the result should read as a physical print rather than a digital monochrome conversion.

Fujifilm X100V In-Camera Recipe

ACROS is the base — Fujifilm's dedicated monochrome simulation, built for rich blacks and fine tonal separation, rather than converting one of the color simulations to grayscale.

Setting	Value	Notes
Film Simulation	ACROS	Fujifilm's dedicated monochrome simulation — deeper blacks and finer tonal separation than a desaturated color sim.
BW Adj. (Filter)	Ye (Yellow)	Darkens blue sky and lightens warm tones for dramatic cloud/architecture separation.
Dynamic Range	DR400	Keeps detail in bright sky and deep shadow at once.
Highlight Tone	+1	A firmer, print-like highlight roll-off.
Shadow Tone	+2	Rich, deep blacks without fully crushing shadow detail.
Color	N/A (monochrome)	Disabled in ACROS mode.
Sharpness	0	Neutral — ACROS's own micro-contrast does most of the work.
Noise Reduction	-3	Retains fine grain-like texture.
Grain Effect	Strong, Large	Coarse, visible grain — echoes a pushed high-ISO black-and-white film stock.
Color Chrome Effect	N/A	Disabled in monochrome modes.
Color Chrome FX Blue	N/A	Disabled in monochrome modes.
White Balance	Auto, R: 0, B: 0	Left neutral — any real toning is added in post via split toning.
ISO	Auto (200-6400)	Comfortable pushing higher — grain is a feature here, not a flaw.
Exposure Comp.	-1/3 to 0	Protects the yellow-filtered sky from blowing out.

Lightroom / RAW Preset

Built on Adobe's Monochrome profile with a full B&W Mixer pass to replicate the in-camera yellow-filter effect, plus split toning to add the selenium cast back in on top of the grayscale conversion.

Setting	Value	Notes
Profile	Adobe Monochrome	Purpose-built grayscale starting point.
Exposure	+0.05	Left essentially neutral.
Contrast	+18	Moderate punch — selenium prints read contrasty, not flat.
Highlights	-30	Protects the yellow-filtered sky and bright detail.
Shadows	+10	Keeps shadow detail readable — dense, not a black hole.
Whites	-12	Stops highlights from clipping to paper-white.
Blacks	-5	A touch of true black for anchor and punch.
Temperature / Tint	0 / 0	Irrelevant once fully converted to grayscale.
Clarity	+18	Adds texture/mid-tone bite.
Dehaze	+6	Slight extra separation in the sky.
Vignette	-15	A deliberate vignette echoing darkroom dodge/burn framing.

Tone Curve

A moderate S-curve — firmer than this archive's flatter recipes, since selenium prints read as contrasty rather than muted. Highlights and lights nudged down slightly, darks and shadows lifted moderately.

Black & White Mixer

The equivalent of the in-camera yellow filter, with full control: warm channels lightened, blue pulled down hard to darken sky and separate clouds.

Red: +15
Orange: +20
Yellow: +25 (the core of the "yellow filter" effect)
Green: 0
Aqua: -10
Blue: -25 (darkens sky for dramatic separation)
Purple: -10
Magenta: 0

Split Toning (the selenium cast)

Highlights Hue: 50, Saturation: 4 — a faint warm-neutral cast, echoing a warm-tone fiber paper base
Shadows Hue: 285, Saturation: 12 — a cool purple-blue cast in the blacks, selenium toner's signature shift
Balance: -15 — favors the shadow/blacks side, where selenium toner has the most visible effect on a real print

Detail

Sharpening — Amount: 45, Radius: 1.0, Detail: 30, Masking: 10. Noise Reduction — Luminance: 15, Detail: 55, Contrast: 10 (color noise reduction is irrelevant on a grayscale file).

Calibration

Red Primary Hue +5 / Saturation 0. Green Primary Hue -5 / Saturation 0. Blue Primary Hue 0 / Saturation 0.

White Balance is intentionally left out of the downloadable preset — it's a scene-relative "as shot" adjustment with negligible effect once fully converted to grayscale; all the color character here comes from the B&W Mixer and Split Toning panels above.