Black and white · 2011

Monochrome+R (red filter)

The hardest black and white Fujifilm will give you.

Short answer

Monochrome+R combines Fujifilm’s harder black and white curve with a digital red filter. Blue skies go black, clouds blaze white and haze disappears. It is the most extreme monochrome combination on the camera.

Based on: Black and white with a red filter
Type: Black and white
Introduced: 2011
Cameras with this simulation: 50

Take the contrastier of the two black and white simulations and add the strongest of the three filters. The result is not subtle, and that is the entire point: some subjects need the volume turned up.

What it changes

Blue collapses toward black, and because Monochrome already holds less shadow detail than ACROS, a clear sky can go to pure black in the corners. Warm subjects brighten sharply, so stone, brick and sand glow.

Distant haze vanishes, which makes mountain ranges and city skylines look far sharper than they did to your eye.

When to use it, and when not

Use it for dramatic landscape, mountain ridges, desert, and hard architecture under a blue sky. It is superb for prints where you want the sky to be a black shape rather than a tone.

Do not use it for people, for overcast weather, or for anything you want to look gentle. It has one register and it is loud.