Sun Bleached

An original creative design, not a film emulation. Settings in the notes; movie mode in the notes.

The look, and the trap it is avoiding

Cyan sky and water over warm skin and earth, bright and slightly washed. This is the complementary split that trade sources call the most widely used cinematic look in commercial video, and, in the same breath, the one most likely to date a piece of work: "heavy teal-and-orange and extreme purple shadows date a video to 2018."

Both things are true, which is the interesting problem. The split is genuinely pleasing; the cliché comes from where it is applied and how hard. Sun Bleached puts it in the highlights and mid-tones and keeps the shadows open. Crushed teal shadows are the tell, and this recipe does not have them.

Why Classic Chrome

Counter-intuitive for a look that wants a blue sky, and that is exactly why it works.

Fujifilm's own design statements say Classic Chrome "removed the magenta component" from skies, where conventional colour design adds it, and that the mode "controls the saturation and hue of reds and greens." Consequences that suit this grade precisely:

• Skies land pale and airy rather than poster-blue. The teal is then added back by one notch of Color Chrome FX Blue, a controlled amount, on top of a base that will not run away with it.
• Warm tones read terracotta rather than orange. The base's red-hue shift keeps skin and earth from turning into the orange half of the cliché.

It is the least likely base in the camera to tip into parody. A Velvia or Provia version of this look is far harder to keep tasteful.

The opposition that is the grade

WB —/— pulls the whole frame warm. CCFXB Weak pulls saturated blues cool. They are fighting on purpose, and the result is a frame that is warm where the light falls and cool where the sky is.

That is also why one notch of CCFXB and no more: Strong overrides the magenta-suppression that makes the sky look expensive in the first place, and the grade collapses into ordinary teal-orange.

(Because CCFXB is the load-bearing control, this recipe is X-Trans V native, a IV-era port would need the one-notch rule applied in reverse, and the finding that blue is where IV and V differ most applies directly here.)

Why the shadows stay open

Highlight —and Shadow —. Open at both ends. Bleached light is bright and low-contrast; it is not moody. Every dated version of this look crushes the shadows to teal. Holding Shadow at —is the single choice that keeps it current, and it is the first thing to check if the result looks like a 2018 trailer.

Honest limits

• Original design, not an emulation: the "Original design" tier. Its validation is your eyes and your test-shots/.
• It needs sun, and it needs two subjects. The split acts on the opposition between sky and skin; a frame with only one of them gets a plain warm recipe.
• ⚠The video version loses its defining control. Movie mode has no Color Chrome FX Blue, and nothing substitutes for it, see the notes, which says so plainly and recommends F-Log2 plus a graded secondary when the cool sky matters.
• Underexposure kills it. Shoot +2/3 to +1.

Last updated: 2026-07-27