Kodak Portra 400 35m 36exp Film Professional 5 Pack

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Here’s what the film looks like as the sun is starting to sort of set in Brooklyn, NY, and the clouds are rolling in. The colors are still nice and muted. But see how the sun gives a really nice rim light to Rory’s hair? Kodak Portra is fairly simple to use and, in my personal opinion, is the single most forgiving negative film on the market. If you’ve got it at ISO 200 instead of 400, you’ll still be able to get a fantastic photo. For that reason, I also genuinely recommend it as a great beginner’s film once you’ve got a better understanding of exposures and how they work in a scene. Spot metering knowledge is also important here. Finally for this section, there’s a Portra 400 datasheet right here that gives you more information than I care to parrot, although I will relay some impressive-sounding highlights.

All that said though, does it really matter? It’s a point worth mentioning because it’s a real phenomenon and I couldn’t write this review without bringing it up. It’s not something worth preaching about though. You can shoot what you want. Thanks for an interesting article and some nice photos Simon. I don’t believe that “correct” exposure is an absolute value for any scene that contains a range of light values. If you use an incident light meter and stand in the spot you want to “correctly” expose you will get fairly close. Or you could use a grey card with a reflected light meter the same way. But a reflected light reading from the camera position ( with say a Weston reflected meter or through the lens) will never give an absolutely correct exposure. One stop increase from 400 Asa to 800 Asa is not much difference for a colour negative film ( not pushed in processing) that might have 4 stops useful latitude. Then there is the question whether you equipment is correctly calibrated. Your combination of camera shutter, lens and meter calibration could easily be one stop different from another combination. Push processing usually increases contrast. Choose Kodak Portra Films for natural skin tones, ideal colour, and finer grain in every situation. Day or night, studio or location, candid or posed, KODAK PROFESSIONAL PORTRA Films deliver- As the old NC and VC versions were consolidated in 2010 due to the increase in digital processing going on, improving the scanning performance for the new version as Kodak did was a natural step forward too. It’s not about being lazy, it’s about the personal process between you and a subject. No chimping, nothing. It’s a beautiful and interpersonal experience.

The most popular film today for a very good reason, this versatile color negative film produces beautiful results

Notice how you’re still getting muted tones here but they could be better if there was just more light? I probably should have overexposed it but for this session. I was using a Mamiya RB67 Pro S. Years and years ago, Kodak announced something that would endure for quite a while: Kodak Portra 400. Available in the 120, 35mm, and large formats, the film was and still is incredibly popular with photographers who like shooting portraits. It’s highly valued for its muted tones–which tends to go against much of what digital photography seems to offer straight out of the camera. However, Portra is in use for much more than just this. Lots of photographers use it as their every day film because they just like it. But this tends to be more the thought process of those that shoot 35mm. At 120, you’re getting far less shots per roll and often work to get the best photos you can in one single shot due to higher stakes–even more so than with 35mm. If you’re uncertain of how your subject should be exposed the sky can be a good reference point in this sort of light. On Portra I feel that the sky, whether partly cloudy or clear blue, looks best when exposed with that extra ⅔ stop of compensation. This reduces some of the saturation in the sky, which often leans towards an unattractive cyan on Portra. If your entire scene is in daylight, chances are that metering the sky and adding this extra exposure will result in a good exposure for your image on Portra, no matter what the subject is. Other films might push a certain attribute as their thing, like high contrast monochrome or excelling after dark, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Portra shines though by not turning anything up past around an eight, never mind all the way to eleven.

Have you just got hold of a film camera and not sure where to start. We have lots of films to choose from, but you might be wondering which is the best one for you? Then read our guide Choose Your Film. It will give you a good starting point and a clear idea of what the different films do. Best-in-class underexposure latitude no other colour film gives you so much latitude (-2 to +3 stops) so you can shoot with confidence even under challenging lighting conditions. Kodak Portra 400 is the most popular color film on the market today, so popular that it’s become near synonymous with modern color film photography – and for good reason. It’s a highly versatile, professional-grade film with wide exposure latitude, modern grain structure, and warm pleasing tones. But, it’s no secret that shooting color film, especially professional-grade Kodak color film, like Portra, has become significantly more expensive over the past couple of years. After shooting your Portra, it’s developed using the standard C-41 process. It’s also designed to be a great film for scanning, which makes a lot of sense considering its history.

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With a wide range of exposures from bright light to low-light situations, you can create photos that are precisely how you want them. Portra 400 is an iconic 35mm film that captures the honesty of life's moments with beautiful results every time! Features: Even more importantly though, Kodak Portra 400 also has a very specific look to it that digital cameras have tried to mimic but can’t totally do. On top of that, the idea of working with film to begin with is that you sit at your computer less and you pay more attention to getting it all right in the camera in the first place. Indoors with a flashNow this set was done with a Canon 580 EX II attached to a Canon 1V and using Zeiss and Sigma lenses. Sigma’s older 85mm f1.4 (non-art) did a great job here when blending the ambient light and the daylight output of the flash being bounced off of a ceiling. The same streamlining happened with the ISO 160 Portra a year later, while the ISO 800 Portra was only ever available in a single version anyway. If I wanted to give one of my point ‘n’ shoot cameras to a friend who doesn’t shoot film to try and see how they liked it, Portra would also be a likely choice. I think it’d give them results that’d make them want to shoot more film.