Color Film Color Renditions

Adrian Bacon · Mar 22, 2020

I thought I'd post this as a reference. This is not meant to be a "This film vs. that film", but more of an entry point into any discussion that anybody may wish to have. With that, a few things:

1. This is not complete by any means.
2. This is not perfect.
3. I've eliminated as many variables as I realistically could.
4. What you see may not follow what you are used to seeing with respects to a given film.
5. This takes *a lot* of time to do.

So the baseline:

1. The image is a physical print of hue patches spaced 22.5 degrees apart from 0 to 359 degrees.
2. In the HSV cylindrical color model, each patch is printed so that it's 50% saturation and 50% value.
3. Each film shot the same set of patches (the outer ring, ignore the inner ring).
4. Each film used the same camera and lens.
5. Each film used the same light (5600K studio strobe).
6. Each film used the same metering technique.
7. Each film used the same scanner setup.
8. Each image was white balanced so that a correctly exposed 18% grey card is grey with no color cast, the highlights and shadows will fall where they will. No effort was made to correct the highlights or shadows in terms of color cast.

As I get other emulsions, I'll post them.

First up, Kodak's Professional line of film:

Kodak Ektar 100

Kodak Portra 160

Kodak Portra 400

Kodak Portra 800

Next up, Kodak Consumer Films

Kodak ProImage 100

Kodak ColorPlus 200

Kodak Gold 200

Kodak Ultramax 400

Next Up, Fuji Films

Fuji Fujicolor 200

Fuji Superia Xtra 400

Fuji Pro 400H

More will come soon.

mohmad khatab · Mar 23, 2020

Adrian Bacon said:
I thought I'd post this as a reference. This is not meant to be a "This film vs. that film", but more of an entry point into any discussion that anybody may wish to have. With that, a few things:

1. This is not complete by any means.
2. This is not perfect.
3. I've eliminated as many variables as I realistically could.
4. What you see may not follow what you are used to seeing with respects to a given film.
5. This takes *a lot* of time to do.

So the baseline:

1. The image is a physical print of hue patches spaced 22.5 degrees apart from 0 to 359 degrees.
2. In the HSV cylindrical color model, each patch is printed so that it's 50% saturation and 50% value.
3. Each film shot the same set of patches (the outer ring, ignore the inner ring).
4. Each film used the same camera and lens.
5. Each film used the same light (5600K studio strobe).
6. Each film used the same metering technique.
7. Each film used the same scanner setup.
8. Each image was white balanced so that a correctly exposed 18% grey card is grey with no color cast, the highlights and shadows will fall where they will. No effort was made to correct the highlights or shadows in terms of color cast.

As I get other emulsions, I'll post them.

First up, Kodak's Professional line of film:

Kodak Ektar 100
View attachment 242515

Kodak Portra 160
View attachment 242516

Kodak Portra 400
View attachment 242517

Kodak Portra 800
View attachment 242595

Next up, Kodak Consumer Films

Kodak ProImage 100
View attachment 242518

Kodak ColorPlus 200
View attachment 242519

Kodak Gold 200
View attachment 242520

Kodak Ultramax 400
View attachment 242521

Next Up, Fuji Films

Fuji Fujicolor 200
View attachment 242522

Fuji Superia Xtra 400
View attachment 242523

Fuji Pro 400H
View attachment 242524

More will come soon.

God bless you
Very cool, dear.
This is an excellent and great research study.
Nothing in this world can reach the stage of absolute perfection, but it is very close.
Thank you for your great efforts, may God bless you.

- I invite you to have a cup of Turkish coffee in Cairo with the super genius Cleopatra Cigarette. You will forget the way back to your home.

BradS · Mar 24, 2020

Thank you Adrian. I am a bit perplexed by some of these. The arrangement of the colors seems so radically different for some of these, I wonder if the same target was used for each film?
For example, looking only at the second column (or fourth row) for each film, it almost looks like two different targets were used???

Adrian Bacon · Mar 24, 2020

BradS said:
Thank you Adrian. I am a bit perplexed by some of these. The arrangement of the colors seems so radically different for some of these, I wonder if the same target was used for each film?
For example, looking only at the second column (or fourth row) for each film, it almost looks like two different targets were used???

ignore the inner ring (see baseline point 3 on original post). The patches running along the outer portion starting at red at the top middle and going clock wise are 22.5 hue degrees apart and 50% saturation, and 50% value on the physical print for all the images. I originally had the inner ring the same thing, but then switched it to 0 to 70 degrees in 10 degree increments so that I could map the skin tone hues with a bit more granularity. I didn’t get all the films with the newer target, but enough that I was able to get a sense for what was generally going on there. For the purposes of comparison though, the outer ring of hues is what you want to pay attention to.

BradS · Mar 24, 2020

Adrian Bacon said:
ignore the inner ring (see baseline point 3 on original post). The patches running along the outer portion starting at red at the top middle and going clock wise are 22.5 hue degrees apart and 50% saturation, and 50% value on the physical print for all the images. I originally had the inner ring the same thing, but then switched it to 0 to 70 degrees in 10 degree increments so that I could map the skin tone hues with a bit more granularity. I didn’t get all the films with the newer target, but enough that I was able to get a sense for what was generally going on there. For the purposes of comparison though, the outer ring of hues is what you want to pay attention to.

Ah. Ok thanks. Now I understand....and thanks again for doing this experiment and for sharing the results.

mohmad khatab · Mar 24, 2020

Adrian Bacon said:
ignore the inner ring (see baseline point 3 on original post). The patches running along the outer portion starting at red at the top middle and going clock wise are 22.5 hue degrees apart and 50% saturation, and 50% value on the physical print for all the images. I originally had the inner ring the same thing, but then switched it to 0 to 70 degrees in 10 degree increments so that I could map the skin tone hues with a bit more granularity. I didn’t get all the films with the newer target, but enough that I was able to get a sense for what was generally going on there. For the purposes of comparison though, the outer ring of hues is what you want to pay attention to.

+1

Adrian Bacon · Mar 25, 2020

BradS said:
Ah. Ok thanks. Now I understand....and thanks again for doing this experiment and for sharing the results.

next up will be E-6 films, then I think Lomo CN-100, 400, and 800. I have the 100 and 400, working to get the 800.

that should cover the normally available films here in the U.S. if anybody wants to see anything else, speak up and I’ll see what I can do.

PhilBurton · Mar 25, 2020

Adrian Bacon said:
next up will be E-6 films, then I think Lomo CN-100, 400, and 800. I have the 100 and 400, working to get the 800.

that should cover the normally available films here in the U.S. if anybody wants to see anything else, speak up and I’ll see what I can do.

Kodachrome 64? and

Adrian Bacon · Mar 25, 2020

PhilBurton said:
Kodachrome 64? and

that would be so awesome. I wish I could.

PhilBurton · Mar 25, 2020

Adrian Bacon said:
that would be so awesome. I wish I could.

I wish.

Color Film Color Renditions

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