Portra Uses

External Since: Jun 23, 2003 Posts: 8

I am interested in trying out Portra Film, and I was wondering if it was useful
for anything but portrait work. I do a lot of "all around" work(some portraits,
some travel, etc), nothing professional, and it would be nice to have a line of
film in different speeds with the same look, but different strengths. I
currently use a lot of HD 400, but it seems to give awfully reddish skin tones,
and I am not fond of some of the very over-saturated colors (some colors can
"block up?", ex, a red flower looses detail because of the saturation). I am
more after a natural look, which Reala is good for, but it can too loose detail
in already high saturation areas.

Thanks again.

Matt

External Since: Nov 05, 2004 Posts: 311

MF06D wrote:
> I am interested in trying out Portra Film, and I was wondering if it was useful
> for anything but portrait work. I do a lot of "all around" work(some portraits,
> some travel, etc), nothing professional, and it would be nice to have a line of
> film in different speeds with the same look, but different strengths. I
> currently use a lot of HD 400, but it seems to give awfully reddish skin tones,
> and I am not fond of some of the very over-saturated colors (some colors can
> "block up?", ex, a red flower looses detail because of the saturation). I am
> more after a natural look, which Reala is good for, but it can too loose detail
> in already high saturation areas.
>
> Thanks again.
>
> Matt

Portra 160 is a fine grained film that is "portrait" oriented but of
course can be used for any topic. The NC has a pretty neutral look,
exposed 2/3 over, it is great on color/detail. I suspect you won't get
the "blocking" up if you expose this way. The VC version will give you
more saturated colors.

Alan.