The Cinestill 50D recipe in Italy | Earthy Tones & Velvet Blues

If you’ve always been drawn to that clean, sunlit look of Cinestill 50D, you’re in luck – I built a Cinestill 50D film simulation for Sony cameras that brings a bit of the film’s daylight magic to your JPEGs. 

In this post, I’ll walk you through what makes Cinestill 50D special, and share a few straight out of camera samples using this recipe. If you’re into earthy tones, and slight magenta looks  – this one’s for you. 

P.S. – This is a free Sony film simulation – take it for a spin and share your JPEGs on Instagram or Reddit!

Cinestill 50D – A Film With Many Faces

CineStill 50D is known for its unique color harmony, centered around rich amber tones and a soft velvet blue cast. It often features warm red shadows and cool cyan highlights, giving the film a layered, cinematic feel.

While it's impossible to fully replicate that complexity in-camera due to technical limitations, I’ve designed this film simulation to capture the essence: earthy amber skin tones paired with a subtle blue velvet overlay to evoke the same mood. This is as close as you can get straight out of camera—the rest of the nuance can be achieved using the RAW film presets available in my store.

But if you’ve shot a few rolls (or browsed enough sample scans online) of Cinestill 50D, you’ll know the results can vary a lot depending on how it’s exposed, developed, scanned, and lit. For this simulation, I referred to samples from The Darkroom.

The Cinestill 50D Film Simulation 

The Cinestill 50d film simulation is warm, but has a slight blue-magenta tint that cools it down just enough to keep things balanced and to bring that touch of nostalgia that makes the original film stock so iconic.

Skintones stay amber, soft and natural. And reds? They’re deep and lean towards amber. That makes everything feel a bit more grounded, a bit more earthy. All the while, greens are muted – which fits well with Cinestill’s palette.

What makes Cinestill 50D so special is that distinct halation effect that we get due to the removal of the remjet layer. While we cannot replicate this in-camera, I’ve got a tutorial to help you get the film halation effect in your preferred editing software!

Pro tip – for that extra punch, use a diffusion filter!

Where does it shine? 

It’s a daylight balanced recipe, and just like the film stock – this one shines best on Sunny days. 

But it's also best for:

• Perfect for street and travel photography. 

• Shooting colorful scenes with lots of blues or pastels. 

• If you want a balanced, yet nostalgic look. 

• Portraits.

Sample JPEGs with the Sony 46700

For more samples of this recipe, check out this article!

Capture Every Beat of The Season With Cinestill 50D

This is a deep, yet balanced look - perfect for portraits. With Cinestil 50D, warmth and coolness live side by side, and that's what makes it so special.

Try it for free! 

And let me know how you like it!