Ricoh GR III Kodak Ektachrome E100 Film Recipe: Vivid Slide Film Colors

Kodak Ektachrome E100 is the slide film that refuses to fade away. While most color reversal stocks were discontinued years ago, Kodak brought Ektachrome back in 2018 to a chorus of relieved photographers -- and for good reason. E100 delivers clean, neutral-to-cool color with punchy but believable saturation, razor-sharp grain, and that unmistakable slide-film "pop" that negative films can never quite match.

The good news for Ricoh GR III owners: you can get remarkably close to the Ektachrome E100 look straight out of camera, no film budget or lab fees required. This recipe dials in the GR III's image control settings to mimic E100's signature rendering, and I'll walk you through exactly when and how to shoot it.

What Makes Ektachrome E100 Look Like Ektachrome E100

Before we touch the menus, it helps to understand what we're actually chasing. Ektachrome E100 has a few defining characteristics:

• Clean, slightly cool color balance -- E100 leans neutral, with a subtle cool bias in shadows rather than the warm cast of Kodak's negative films like Portra or Gold
• High but controlled saturation -- blues and greens are especially vivid, which is why landscape and travel shooters love it
• Deep, contrasty shadows -- slide film has a narrower dynamic range than negative film, so blacks stay rich and highlights roll off quickly
• Fine grain and high acutance -- the image looks crisp and detailed, not soft
• Accurate, saturated blue skies -- one of E100's most recognizable traits

The Ricoh GR III is a fantastic match for this look. Its APS-C sensor, sharp 18.3mm f/2.8 lens, and excellent Positive Film image control give you the clean color and biting sharpness that slide film is famous for.

The Ricoh GR III Ektachrome E100 Recipe

Head to MENU > Image Control and set up a custom recipe with these values. I recommend saving it to one of your User Modes (U1-U3) so you can jump straight to it.

• Image Control: Positive Film
• Saturation: +2
• Hue: 0
• High/Low Key Adjustment: -1
• Contrast: +2
• Contrast (Highlight): +1
• Contrast (Shadow): +2
• Sharpness: +2
• Shading: +1
• Clarity: +1
• White Balance: Daylight
• WB Compensation: B1, 0 (one step toward blue)
• ISO: 100-400 (keep it low for that clean slide-film base)

The Positive Film image control is the foundation here -- it's the GR III's closest native analog to a reversal-film response curve, with the punchy contrast and rich color that slide film demands. The +2 saturation pushes blues and greens without tipping into cartoonish territory, and the B1 white balance shift adds the subtle cool bias that separates Ektachrome from Kodak's warmer negative stocks.

Pro Tip: Expose for the Highlights

This is the single most important habit for a convincing slide-film look. Real Ektachrome has almost no highlight recovery -- blow them out and they're gone forever. To mimic that discipline on the GR III, dial in -0.3 to -0.7 exposure compensation and let your shadows fall dark. Slide film protects highlights and lets shadows go deep, which is exactly the opposite of how most people shoot digital. Embrace it. Rich, contrasty shadows are a feature of this look, not a flaw.

When to Shoot the Ektachrome Recipe

E100 is a daylight film, and this recipe sings under the same conditions:

• Bright, sunny days with strong blue skies -- this is E100's home turf, and the +2 saturation makes those skies glow
• Travel and landscape photography where you want vivid, postcard-worthy color
• Golden hour for warm light against cool shadows, creating the color contrast slide film handles so beautifully
• Architecture and urban scenes with bold, colorful subjects -- think painted walls, storefronts, and street murals

Where it struggles -- just like the real film -- is in flat, overcast light or deep shade. Slide film needs contrast and clean light to shine. On a gray day, you're better off reaching for a negative-film recipe instead.

How This Compares to Other Slide Recipes

If you already shoot our Kodak Slide preset, you'll find the Ektachrome recipe cooler and more contrasty, with that distinctive blue-forward rendering. It also pairs naturally with Classic Chrome for street work -- shoot Classic Chrome for muted, documentary scenes and switch to this Ektachrome recipe when the light gets bright and the colors get loud.

The key difference from negative-film looks is restraint in the wrong places and boldness in the right ones: slide film is simultaneously more saturated and less forgiving. That tension is exactly what gives Ektachrome its character.

Composition Tips for the Slide-Film Look

The recipe gets you 80% of the way there. The rest is how you shoot:

• Seek out color contrast -- a red door against green foliage, a yellow taxi on gray asphalt. Ektachrome rewards bold, complementary colors
• Include sky when you can -- E100's blues are its signature, so let them fill part of the frame
• Keep your compositions clean -- slide film's punchy contrast can turn busy scenes into visual clutter. Simplify
• Shoot at f/5.6 to f/8 for the edge-to-edge sharpness that makes slide film scans look so crisp

Editing (If You Want To)

This recipe is built to be a finished JPEG straight from the GR III, but if you shoot RAW alongside it, a light touch in post keeps the slide-film feel intact:

• Add a gentle S-curve to deepen shadows and brighten highlights
• Boost blue and green saturation selectively rather than pushing global saturation
• Cool the shadows slightly with a split-tone adjustment for that authentic reversal-film shadow tint
• Resist the urge to lift shadows -- keeping them dark is what makes it read as slide film

Final Thoughts

Kodak Ektachrome E100 is a special film, and the Ricoh GR III does a genuinely convincing impression of it. Set up the recipe once, save it to a User Mode, and you'll have vivid, contrasty, blue-forward slide-film color ready at the flick of a dial -- perfect for your next sunny-day walk or travel trip.

The GR III's Positive Film image control was practically made for this kind of look, and once you get used to exposing for the highlights, you'll find yourself reaching for this recipe every time the sun comes out.

Want more film-inspired looks for your GR III? Browse our full collection of Ricoh GR III preset recipes -- from vibrant slide films to muted street looks and classic black and white, each one is tuned to get the most out of your camera straight out of the box.