Ricoh GR III Positive Film Simulation Setup

The Ricoh GR III's Positive Film simulation is one of the most celebrated JPEG colour profiles in the compact camera world. It emulates the look of Fuji Superia film cross-processed through a warm lab: lifted blacks, warm highlights, and a distinct cyan-to-green shift in the shadows. This post covers how to dial in the Positive Film profile for consistent, shareable JPEGs straight out of camera.

Understanding the Positive Film Default

The factory Positive Film profile produces warm, contrasty images with a specific colour palette. The default parameters are:

• Saturation: +1 (slightly boosted)
• Hue: 0 (neutral hue)
• High/Low Key Adjustment: 0 (centre)
• Contrast (Highlight): +2 (noticeably compressed highlights)
• Contrast (Shadow): -2 (lifted, slightly faded shadows)
• Sharpness: 0 (neutral)
• Shading: 0 (no corner shading)
• Clarity: 0 (neutral)

To check your current profile: Menu -> Shooting Settings -> Image Control -> scroll to Positive Film. Press the ADJ (right) button to access detailed parameters.

The lifted shadows and compressed highlights give Positive Film its characteristic "faded" look. The elevated saturation makes colours pop without appearing cartoonish. This profile works well for street scenes, candids, and everyday documentation. It works less well for portraiture, where the shadow lifting can wash out skin tones.

Calibrating for Direct Sunlight

In harsh midday sun, the default Positive Film settings clip highlights in white walls, skies, and reflective surfaces. Adjust as follows:

• Highlight: +1 (reduced from +2)
• Shadow: -1 (less lifted than default -2)
• Saturation: 0 (one step down from +1)

Go to Image Control -> Positive Film -> detailed settings. Set Highlight to +1, Shadow to -1, and Saturation to 0. This reduces the contrast range and prevents highlight clipping.

Also set exposure compensation to -0.3 or -0.7 (press the EV button on the top plate and rotate the front dial). The Positive Film profile looks best when you expose for the highlights and let the shadows fall where they may. This is the opposite of the "expose to the right" strategy used for RAW files.

Calibrating for Overcast and Flat Light

Overcast days remove the risk of highlight clipping but introduce flat, low-contrast images. Adjust Positive Film for overcast conditions:

• Highlight: +2 (maximises contrast in the upper range)
• Shadow: +1 (less lifted, retains shadow density)
• Saturation: +1 (compensates for desaturated natural light)

This configuration adds punch to images that would otherwise look muddy under grey skies. The increased highlight contrast separates tones in clouds and textiles. The reduced shadow lift keeps dark areas from turning into featureless grey blocks.

Calibrating for Golden Hour

Warm sunset or sunrise light does not need the Positive Film's default warmth boost, which can push skin tones towards orange. Use this adjustment:

• Highlight: +1
• Shadow: -2 (keep the default lift to maintain atmosphere)
• Saturation: -1 (reduce to avoid orange-skinned subjects)

The key insight is that the Positive Film profile already adds warmth. In golden hour, you need less colour saturation, not more. The lifted shadows at -2 maintain the atmospheric feel of backlit scenes without creating muddy shadows.

Shadow Correction and Dynamic Range

The GR III offers Shadow Correction, which applies additional tone curve adjustments to recover shadow detail. This can conflict with the Positive Film's intentional shadow lifting.

Go to Menu -> Shooting Settings -> Shadow Correction. Set it to Off or Weak. Setting it to Strong or Auto lifts shadows further, creating a flat, low-contrast image that eliminates the Positive Film character. The profile's built-in Shadow setting at -2 is already doing this work intentionally.

Highlight Correction Settings

Similarly, Highlight Correction applies a tone curve to recover blown highlights. Go to Menu -> Shooting Settings -> Highlight Correction. Set to Off.

The Positive Film's Highlight setting at +2 (or +1 in my midday calibration) applies a specific look to the highlight rolloff. Adding the camera's Highlight Correction on top of this creates an inconsistent tone curve that changes behaviour depending on the scene brightness. Keep it off for predictable results.

White Balance Adjustment

Positive Film defaults to Auto White Balance (AWB), which is generally effective but can shift neutrals towards yellow or green. For more consistent results across a series of images:

• Sunny daylight: Daylight (approximately 5500K)
• Overcast: Shade (approximately 7000K) or Cloudy (6000K)
• Indoor warm light: Manual WB at 4500K to 5000K

Press the WB button on the back of the camera and rotate the front dial to select the preset. For fine adjustment, press the OK button after selecting a preset, then use the four-way controller to shift the white balance along the amber-blue and green-magenta axes.

For street photography, I shift the Daylight preset by G+0.25 and A+0.25 (one click towards green and one click towards amber). This compensates for the GR III's slight tendency towards magenta in the Positive Film profile and produces more natural greens and skin tones.

Saving Your Custom Profile

Once you have dialled in the parameters, save them to a My Settings slot so you can recall them instantly:

1. Menu -> Shooting Settings -> My Settings
2. Select an empty slot (M1, M2, or M3)
3. Press the OK button and confirm "Save Current Settings"
4. Label it (for example, "Positive Film - Street")

Now, when you need to switch between profiles, turn the mode dial to My Settings and select the appropriate slot. This is faster than reconfiguring the Image Control parameters from scratch.

When to Shoot RAW Instead

Positive Film JPEGs are excellent, but they are an interpretation. Shoot RAW+JPEG (Menu -> Shooting Settings -> File Format -> RAW+JPEG) when:

• The lighting is mixed (multiple colour temperatures in one frame)
• You are shooting for a client or publication
• The scene has an unusually wide dynamic range (sun through a doorway into a dark room)
• You want to apply a different film simulation or colour grade later

The JPEG gives you a usable image immediately. The RAW file gives you a safety net. The GR III's DNG RAW files process well in Lightroom and Capture One.

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