Unlike other professional stocks, Portra 800 consistently rendered images that required little to no editing. With that said, in my testing, Portra 800 produced lovely images with sharp contrast, warm colors and well-controlled color casts. CineStill 800T sells for between $13 and $16 a roll, but If you’re looking for a budget option, and you don’t need the consistency and dynamic range of a professional stock, Lomography Color Negative 800 can be had for about $9 a roll or about $28 for a three pack. Portra 800 is a high-speed, professional film that can be had in 36-exposure 35mm canisters or 120 rolls for about $10-$13, depending on format.Īs portrait stocks go, it isn’t cheap, but compared to other 800-speed color-negative films, it is a relative bargain. Edits: Cropped and straightened, Temperature +5, Shadows +30. Portra is a good choice in trickly or changing lighting conditions. Edits: Cropped and straightened, Exposure -1/4 stop, Blacks -35 Portra 800 has surprisingly vivid colors and solid contrast for a portrait stock. Edits: Cropped and straightened, Exposure +1/6 stop While Portra 800 can be shot in bright lighting conditions with success, it isn't where the film shines. Getting to know Portra 800 Portra 800 excels in low light portraiture. Any corrections made to the images have been noted in the caption. You can learn more about how and why I edit my scans here. The film was developed and scanned by The Darkroom in California, and additional corrections to exposure, color temperature and composition were made in Adobe Lightroom. I did not shoot much under artificial light, as I don’t own a camera with a flash. The images were captured in a wide variety of natural lighting conditions including broad daylight, open shade, golden hour, blue hour, and of course window light. My processįor this month’s review, I put three 36-exposure rolls of Kodak Portra 800 through my Canon EOS-1 over the course of about about a month. It's easily one of my favorite professional film stocks that I've had the pleasure of testing to date.Īnd while Portra 400 and 160 are certainly more versatle, I think Portra 800 is too often overlooked. But when you nail the exposure, the results are simply stunning. It definately pays to have a more modern camera with a decent light meter. Getting the best results from Portra 800 does require a decent understanding of exposure, especially when shooting in high contrast lighting. That grain, of course, is the result of the film's relatively high ISO performance, which at 800, is arguably one of the film's biggest strengths and weaknesses. This is unfortunate as Portra 800 has a truly unique look compared to its slower siblings, producing images with warm, vivid colors and strong contrast at the expense of a little extra grain. Today, the film is somewhat unique in that it's one of the last remaining 800-speed color film stocks on the market.īut despite being a member of Kodak's legendary Portra family, the 800-speed variety often gets overlooked in favor of Portra 400 and 160, which are arguably more versatile, and critically, less expensive. If underexposed, it will lean towards those muddy colors and grain I mentioned early.First introduced in 1998, Portra 800 is a fast, professional film stock that's ideal for low light portraiture and even sports and action shooting. It’s difficult for a film with more vibrant, saturated colors to maintain skin tones, but Portra 800 walks that line perfectly! It’s also a wonderful stock for skin tones. It’s more similar to the vibrant colors of Kodak Ektar 100. Kodak Portra 800 will give you more saturated colors than either Portra 400 or Portra 160. After some fine tuning and learning to rate it between 200 and 400 ISO, I now love the results! Bright, punchy, beautiful colors! What To Expect From Portra 800 It’s a film that has a bit of a learning curve. I tried Kodak Portra 800 pretty early on, and, to be honest, I hated the results. There are just so many different options! In my first few months of shooting film, I shot and shot and shot, experimenting with various film stocks looking for my favorites. Kodak Portra 800 Film Review by Jessica Loveįor me, choosing a film stock is like when you first get a digital camera and the POSSIBILITIES of HOW TO EDIT your photos hits you like crazy.
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