Roger Deakins shot Blade Runner 2049 almost entirely with practicals and atmospheric haze, creating a world where light itself feels like a dying resource. The palette splits between the steel-blue cold of Los Angeles in perpetual rain and the searing orange of the irradiated Las Vegas wasteland. Deakins avoided digital color grading tricks in favor of in-camera choices — colored practicals, sodium vapor fixtures, smoke machines filling entire soundstages. For Fujifilm shooters, the challenge is recreating that weight: highlights blooming through haze, shadows swallowing detail, color existing in narrow intense bands.
Recipes
Las Vegas Wasteland
K walks through the irradiated orange haze of abandoned Las Vegas
Film SimulationClassic Chrome
GrainWeak/Large
Color ChromeStrong
CC FX BlueWeak
White BalanceShade
WB ShiftR+5 / B-4
Dynamic RangeDR200
Highlight-1
Shadow+2
Color+2
Sharpness-1
Noise Reduction-3
Clarity-2
ISOISO 800-1600
Sea Wall
The cold grey-teal exterior of the LAPD and sea wall sequences
Film SimulationEterna/Cinema
GrainWeak/Small
Color ChromeWeak
CC FX BlueStrong
White BalanceDaylight
WB ShiftR-2 / B+3
Dynamic RangeDR200
Highlight+0
Shadow+1
Color-1
Sharpness+0
Noise Reduction-2
Clarity+0
ISOISO 400-800
Wallace Corporation
Warm amber interior light filtering through water reflections