Sony JPEG Recipes using Creative Looks - Replicating Fuji's Base Simulations
- Veres Deni Alex
- Mar 26
- 6 min read
Updated: Apr 14
I’ve crafted a recipe for each Sony creative look to bring them closer to Fuji's base film simulations. This allows for a more familiar feel while still embracing Sony's unique color science. While these are more convenient and are great for beginners, you will get closer to Fuji's colors by using Sony's Picture Profile menu.
👉Check JPEGs of all 74 custom Picture Profile recipes!
Sony’s In-Camera Tools - What You Need to Know
Sony cameras give you two main ways to tweak your images right in-camera:
Creative Looks – These are built-in styles that adjust things like contrast, saturation, and sharpness. Quick and easy if you want to change the overall feel of your shot.
Picture Profiles – Originally made for video, but great for photos too. They let you go deeper, adjusting gamma curves, black levels, and color response. More control, more customization.
👉 Deep-dive - Sony Creative look vs Picture Profile for film recipes
Why Use In-Camera Film Recipes?
There’s a reason so many photographers love dialing in their look before they even press the shutter:
Instant Feedback – See your final look right away and tweak on the spot.
Faster Workflow – Spend less time editing, more time creating.
Consistent Results – Keep your colors and tones uniform across a whole shoot.
The Trick to Crafting Film Emulation Recipes
No matter how advanced digital photography gets, it will never fully replicate the organic nature of film. Post-processing can get us close, but not perfect, so nailing a true film look in-camera is much harder due to limited customization options.
Even Fuji cameras—famous for their film simulations—are missing key tools like HSL adjustments, which would be a game-changer. Sony, on the other hand, has a slight edge with its Picture Profile menu, offering more control over color. But even with these extra settings, in-camera tools are still restrictive. These limitations make accurate film emulation more difficult, not easier—at least if the goal is true fidelity to a specific film stock. If you're just after a general film-like vibe, precision might not matter as much.
Creating recipes that actually resemble film takes a deep understanding of color science and camera settings. Given the limits of in-camera adjustments, I’ve found one powerful technique to manipulate color: combining Kelvin white balance with the Color Filter. This gives far more precise control than Auto White Balance (AWB) with a Color Filter alone. By using this method, we can push in-camera film simulations further than most people think—getting much closer to the timeless look of classic film stocks. However, for the sake of convenience, I designed the following recipes using AWB.
Exposure disclaimer
Sony is usually much brighter than Fuji, even on APS-C sized sensors. So remember to underexpose Sony by 0.3-0.7 stops to get the same kind of image as Fuji (at least on newer cameras). That's all you need to know as a starter. Now let's check the Creative look JPG recipes!
8 Free Sony Creative Look JPEG Recipes That Replicate Fuji's Base Simulations
If you like the recipes, share them with your friends!
Provia film simulation for Sony - Standard Creative Look Recipe
Contrast 0
Highlights 0
Shadows -6
Fade 0
Saturation 0
Sharpness 0
Sharpness range 1
Clarity 0
Temperature AWB: White Priority
Color Filter B0.5-M1
DRO Auto
Velvia film simulation for Sony - Vivid Creative Look Recipe
Contrast +3
Highlights +2
Shadows -8
Fade 0
Saturation +3
Sharpness 0
Sharpness range 1
Clarity 0
Temperature AWB: White Priority
Color Filter A1
DRO Auto
Astia film simulation for Sony - Portrait Creative Look Recipe
Contrast +2
Highlights 0
Shadows -9
Fade 0
Saturation 0
Sharpness 0
Sharpness range 1
Clarity 0
Temperature AWB: White Priority
Color Filter B0.5-M0.5
DRO Auto
Classic Chrome film simulation for Sony - Neutral Creative Look Recipe
Contrast +2
Highlights -2
Shadows -9
Fade 0
Saturation -1
Sharpness 0
Sharpness range 1
Clarity 0
Temperature AWB: White Priority
Color Filter B0.5-M1
DRO Auto
Pro Neg Std. film simulation for Sony - Portrait Creative Look Recipe
Contrast +1
Highlights 0
Shadows -4
Fade +1
Saturation -4
Sharpness 0
Sharpness range 1
Clarity 0
Temperature AWB: White Priority
Color Filter B1-M2
DRO Auto
Classic Negative film simulation for Sony - FL Creative Look Recipe
Contrast -1
Highlights -2
Shadows -9
Fade +1
Saturation -2
Sharpness 0
Sharpness range 1
Clarity 0
Temperature AWB: White Priority
Color Filter A1-M2.5
DRO Auto
Nostalgic Neg film simulation for Sony - SH Creative Look Recipe
Contrast +5
Highlights +2
Shadows -7
Fade +1
Saturation 0
Sharpness 0
Sharpness range 1
Clarity 0
Temperature AWB: White Priority
Color Filter A1-M1
DRO Auto
Eterna film simulation for Sony - IN Creative Look Recipe
Contrast -7
Highlights 0
Shadows -9
Fade 0
Saturation -1
Sharpness 0
Sharpness range 1
Clarity 0
Temperature AWB: White Priority
Color Filter B0.5-M1
DRO Auto
The Drawbacks of Sony Creative Looks
JPEGs are not matching to the Sony camera screen
With Creative looks, the highlights don't match to the viewfinder or the rear screen.
Before taking a shot, the highlights look clean and pinkish, but after reviewing the image on the same screen, there appears to be a completely horrendous color clipping happening in the highlights.
Slight color shifts happen even in the picture profile menu, especially reds going towards yellow when the sensor input is maxed out, but it's quite subtle and nothing like this. I thought Sony fixed their color with the creative looks, but seem like the highlight roll off is still a huge problem for Sony.
Bad skin tones transitions
Same if you increase contrast or decrease highlights, you will notice color separation happening in the mid tones because of the increased contrast, and green to yellow hues because of suppressed highlights. This is quite bad news and disappointing for me, as I thought Sony fixed these kinds of issues with newer models. This will definitely show up in the skin in challenging lighting conditions, when slightly overexposed, or if you want to use a more creative look with high contrast and reduced highlights.
Although Creative Looks is a great start for beginners, coming from the Picture Profile menu, I still feel limited in the Creative Looks. And that is because with the picture profile menu you can fine tune your colors and get closer to the look you want to get.
It's true that the Creative Looks has some interesting color which can not be transferred to the Picture Profile menu, like the FL IN SH modes. But I would not trade it just for that, after all, Sony Picture Profiles offer much greater control even than Fuji cameras.
Less versatility
Even if the FL mode has a unique color science which cannot be replicated within the picture profile menu, I have 80 picture profiles which cannot be replicated in the creative looks. These profiles definitely won't have nasty highlight roll off, weird banding issues in the shadows, or color separation happening in the skin tones.
The Classic Negative is my favorite film simulation from Fuji, and honestly in my eyes, the only film simulations which actually looks like real film. That's why I wanted to share these settings for free, so everybody can enjoy the same look on their Sony camera.
Let us know what you think and thank you for reading!
You can try more expansive Sony film simulation like this one by following the link below:0
Want More Control? Picture Profiles Take It Further.
Creative Looks are a great starting point, but they have limits. Sony’s Picture Profiles give you much more flexibility, letting you dial in custom film simulations with deeper control over color and tone.
The Full Film Pack expands on this with 80+ Picture Profile recipes, inspired by some of the most-loved film stocks: 1950s Kodachrome, Kodak Gold, Fujifilm Fortia 50, Kodak Vision 200T, Phoenix Harman, Kodak Portra 400, Cinestill 800, and more.
You can support this project by grabbing the pack in the store. Thanks, and see you next time!
I am trying use these creative looks on my a7cR. Where do I find Temp/ColorFilter/DRO options for each of the creative look? I dont have them in my a7cR. Greatly appreciate your help.
That's an interesting way to improve the Creative looks and leave them like that in case you need them. In a way you can have your favorite Picture profiles recipes on Memory 1,2 and 3 plus additional recipes on your Creative looks.