Show Fuji Film Simulation in LrC
The Problem
When I imported my first Fuji RAW+JPEG images into Lightroom Classic (LrC) two things became apparent.
Firstly, only the RAW images were displayed by default. I’d taken a number of images with Fuji’s much loved film simulations applied (e.g. Classic Chrome, Reala Ace, Velvia Vivid etc.). However, these simulations are only applied to the JPEG images and hence I was unable to see their effect on the image. Thankfully, this was quickly resolved by selecting a checkbox, ‘Treat JPEG files next to raw files as separate photos’, in Lightroom’s Preferences. Now RAW and JPEG images appeared separately, side-by-side in the Library Module.
Secondly, there was no way to display the film simulation applied to each JPEG or filter images by film simulation.
Method
After a little investigation it turned out that the film simulation is baked into the JPEG and stored in Fujufilm’s private maker-note tags. However, LrC does not surface that maker-note field. You can see it with ExifTool (exiftool -FilmMode *.jpg), but inside LrC there is no “Film Simulation” column and no way to filter or build Smart Collections by it.
Result
Were applicable, JPEG images now show the film simulation name above each thumbnail in Grid view. In addition, the images can be grouped and filtered by film simulation.