Few films have a color palette as instantly recognizable as Fuji Velvia. Known for its incredibly rich greens, deep reds, saturated blues, strong contrast and crisp detail, Velvia helped define the look of color landscape and travel photography for decades.
But Velvia isn't only beautiful for sweeping landscapes. Its bold color can create an incredible look for travel photography, fashion, lifestyle photos, portraits, street photography, family photos and everyday images too.
In this guide, we're taking a closer look at Fuji Velvia 50 film, what makes its color so distinctive, its unusual history, and how you can begin recreating a Velvia-inspired look in Lightroom.
How to Get a Fuji Velvia Look in Lightroom
You don't need to shoot film to experiment with the general characteristics of Velvia. A Velvia-inspired digital edit starts with richer color, deeper shadows and stronger contrast, but there is a little more to it than simply increasing the Saturation slider.
Here is a quick Fuji Velvia-inspired Lightroom recipe you can use as a starting point:
Contrast: +15 to +20
Highlights: -10 to -15
Shadows: -10 to -15
Whites: +10
Blacks: -15 to -20
Vibrance: +20 to +25
Saturation: +5 to +10
Red Saturation: +10
Green Saturation: +10 to +20
Blue Saturation: +5 to +10
Tone Curve: Add a gentle S-curve
Grain: 10 to 20
Remember: these settings are only a starting point. Every photograph has different lighting, colors and exposure, so adjust them to suit your individual image.
We recommend relying more heavily on Vibrance and individual colors in Lightroom's HSL/Color Mixer rather than dramatically increasing global Saturation. Increasing every color equally can quickly make portraits and skin tones look unnatural.
Fuji Velvia Photo Examples
Here are a few examples of digital photographs edited with our Fuji Velvia Lightroom Presets.
We love using this collection across many different photography styles because the Velvia color palette can completely transform landscapes, portraits, travel photos, fashion images and everyday snapshots.
What Is Fuji Velvia Film?
Fujichrome Velvia is a professional daylight-balanced color reversal film from Fujifilm. The original Velvia was introduced in 1990 and quickly became known for something very different from the softer, more subdued colors associated with many other film stocks.
Velvia was designed to create bold, highly saturated color.
Fuji Velvia 50 is rated at ISO 50 and processed using E-6 chemistry. Fujifilm describes Velvia 50 as having extremely high color saturation and vibrancy along with fine grain, high resolving power and excellent shadow reproduction.
Those characteristics helped make Velvia particularly famous among landscape and nature photographers, but its distinctive color can work beautifully across many different styles of photography.
What Does Fuji Velvia Look Like?
While every photograph will respond differently depending on the light, subject, exposure and scanning or editing process, there are several characteristics that are strongly associated with the classic Velvia look.
Vibrant, Saturated Color
Velvia is not a subtle film stock. Its color is rich, bold and intentionally saturated.
Instead of the faded or muted colors often associated with modern film-inspired editing, Velvia creates photographs that feel vibrant and alive.
Rich Greens
Greens are one of the colors we most strongly associate with Velvia. Grass, foliage, trees and landscapes can take on an especially lush quality, making the film particularly beautiful for outdoor photography.
Deep Reds and Warm Colors
Reds, oranges and other warm tones can also become wonderfully rich. Flowers, clothing, architecture and warm details within an image can really stand out.
Saturated Blues
Blue skies and water can become deeper and more pronounced, helping create the dramatic color that made Velvia so popular for travel and landscape photography.
Strong Contrast and Deep Shadows
Velvia has considerably more contrast than many softer film stocks. Dark areas can feel deep and dimensional while highlights remain bright and colorful.
Fine Grain and Sharp Detail
One of the most interesting things about Velvia is that despite its unmistakably analog character, it is known for very fine grain and excellent resolving power.
Velvia is a great example of why a film look doesn't always have to mean faded colors, lifted blacks and heavy grain.
Was Fuji Velvia Discontinued?
The history of Fuji Velvia can be a little confusing because several different versions of Velvia have existed, and not all of them were discontinued for the same reason.
Why Was the Original Velvia Discontinued?
The original ISO 50 Velvia was discontinued in 2005 after important raw materials needed to manufacture the film became difficult to obtain.
Photographers loved the original film, though, and there was considerable demand for Fujifilm to bring it back.
Fujifilm developed substitute raw materials and new production technology that allowed the company to recreate the characteristics of the original emulsion. The reformulated Velvia 50 was introduced in 2007.
According to Fujifilm's technical information for Velvia 50, the newer film was designed to be nearly identical in performance to the original Velvia while using new production technologies and substitutes for raw materials that had become difficult to procure.
Why Was Fuji Velvia 100 Discontinued in the United States?
This is where the EPA story comes in.
In July 2021, Fujifilm announced that Velvia 100 would be discontinued in the United States.
The issue involved a chemical known as phenol, isopropylated phosphate (3:1), or PIP (3:1). Velvia 100 contained a very small amount of the substance within its film layers, and new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations restricted the processing and distribution of products containing it.
It is important to distinguish this from Velvia 50. The U.S. EPA-related discontinuation applied to Velvia 100, not Velvia 50.
Fuji Velvia 50 continues to be listed by Fujifilm in 35mm and 120 film formats.
Why a Velvia Film Look Is More Than Adding Saturation
If you've ever tried recreating film by simply increasing saturation and adding grain, you've probably noticed that it doesn't quite feel right.
The personality of a film stock comes from the way color and tone interact throughout the entire photograph.
When we created our Fuji Velvia Film Lightroom Presets, we used Lightroom's full range of color and tonal controls to build the look.
Calibration
Calibration can change the underlying relationship between red, green and blue within an image. This gives us much more control over the overall color response than simply increasing saturation.
HSL / Color Mixer
The HSL controls allow us to adjust individual colors independently. This is particularly important for a Velvia-inspired look because greens, reds, oranges and blues shouldn't all be treated exactly the same way.
Color Grading
Color Grading lets us influence the color within the shadows, midtones and highlights separately, creating more depth and helping different parts of the photograph work together.
Tone Curve
The Tone Curve allows much more precise control over contrast than Lightroom's basic Contrast slider alone. It can help create stronger shadows, brighter highlights and the more dimensional tonal character associated with slide film.
Red, Green and Blue Curves
Individual RGB curves allow even more precise control over color throughout different tonal areas of a photograph.
By combining these controls rather than relying on one or two sliders, we can create a much more dimensional film-inspired color palette.
Film Grain
Finally, grain adds physical-looking texture back into a digital photograph.
But because Velvia 50 is known for its fine grain and high detail, we don't believe every Velvia-inspired edit needs extremely heavy grain.
35mm vs. 120 Film Grain
We also created different film-grain options within our collection inspired by the visual character of different film formats.
35mm-Inspired Film Grain
A 35mm-inspired treatment gives the image a little more obvious texture. It can create that familiar analog snapshot feeling and works beautifully when you want the film character to be more visible.
120-Inspired Film Grain
A 120-inspired grain treatment is finer and smoother, giving you film texture while preserving a cleaner overall image.
This can be especially beautiful for landscapes, fashion photography and portraits where you want the color and tonal qualities of the film look to remain the main focus.
Our Fuji Velvia Film Lightroom Presets
If you want the complete look without building it manually, we created our Fuji Velvia Film Lightroom Preset Collection to bring the character of Velvia into your digital workflow.
The collection contains 10 Fuji Velvia-inspired Lightroom Presets designed around the characteristics we love most about the film:
- Rich, saturated color
- Vibrant greens
- Deep reds
- Bold blues
- Strong contrast
- Deep shadows
- Sharp, detailed finishes
- Film-inspired grain
- 35mm and 120-inspired grain options
- Different tonal and film-inspired variations
Our presets use a combination of Lightroom's Calibration, HSL/Color Mixer, Color Grading, Tone Curve, individual color curves, tonal controls and Film Grain to create a more complete film-inspired edit.
What Photography Works Best With Fuji Velvia?
Velvia became especially famous for nature and landscape photography, but we think its color palette is much more versatile than that.
Try the Velvia look for:
- Landscape photography — especially scenes with rich greens, flowers, mountains and dramatic skies.
- Travel photography — bring out the color in destinations, architecture and natural scenery.
- Nature photography — perfect for foliage, flowers and colorful outdoor scenes.
- Street photography — especially scenes filled with signs, clothing, architecture and bold colors.
- Fashion photography — create rich colors with a distinctive analog-inspired finish.
- Lifestyle photography — give everyday moments a colorful film look.
- Portrait photography — particularly when you want the environment and surrounding colors to feel vibrant.
- Family photography — great for outdoor sessions, travel photos and colorful everyday memories.
How to Use Our Fuji Velvia Lightroom Presets
Once your presets are installed, editing is simple.
- Apply your favorite Fuji Velvia preset.
- Adjust the preset Amount slider to increase or decrease the overall strength of the effect.
- Adjust Exposure if your original image is brighter or darker than the image the preset was designed around.
- Adjust White Balance if your photograph is too warm or too cool.
- Choose your preferred film-grain look depending on how noticeable you want the analog texture to feel.
Presets will look slightly different on every photograph because camera profiles, lenses, lighting, exposure and white balance all influence the starting image. Small adjustments after applying your preset are completely normal.
Fuji Velvia vs. Other Popular Film Looks
If you love film-inspired editing but aren't sure whether Velvia is the right look for your photographs, it can help to think about the overall color palette you want.
Choose Fuji Velvia Presets If You Love:
- Rich color
- Vibrant greens
- Deep reds
- Bold landscapes
- Strong contrast
- Crisp detail
Choose Kodak Portra 400 Presets If You Love:
- Softer colors
- Warm neutral tones
- Beautiful skin tones
- A softer portrait-film aesthetic
Choose Fuji 400H Presets If You Love:
- Soft greens
- Pastel color
- Brighter, airier edits
- A softer overall film look
Choose Kodak Gold Presets If You Love:
- Warm golden color
- Everyday snapshot nostalgia
- Rich yellows and warm tones
- A classic consumer-film aesthetic
Not sure which film look is right for you? Explore our entire Film Lightroom Preset Collection to compare different film-inspired styles.
Get the Fuji Velvia Look in Lightroom
There's a reason Fuji Velvia has remained such an influential film look for decades.
Its rich greens, deep reds, saturated color, dramatic contrast and incredible detail create photographs that feel completely different from the softer and more faded film looks we often see today.
Whether you're editing landscapes, travel photos, portraits, fashion images or everyday photographs, Velvia-inspired color can give your images a bold analog character while still preserving beautiful detail.
