IS there a good professional film for landscape???

game · Feb 20, 2006

Hi everyone,
I have been looking all over the internet for a good professional color negative film for landscape, but I can't find it.
I have been using Kodak's portra vc in 35mm version, and just shot a 120 roll of portra Nc with my new 6x7.

I shoot artpictures, always landscapes/cityscapes. I don't need my photo's to be extremely colorish. I just want them to be corresponding to what I see.

Portra obviousy is made for portraits. At my artschool everyone is using portra.... But portrait is not what I am shooting.
Anyone any ideas for a film? evything is welcome, also any other comments on portra.

Best regards Sam

avandesande · Feb 20, 2006

What don't you like about portra for landscapes?

Dave Parker · Feb 20, 2006

Reala works good for landscape, I have always used one of the various portra films for my landscapes, but I know alot of people who swear by Reala, I have also used Agfa optima, but that is now a moot point, unless you can find some on ebay or in a store somewhere, it is hard to judge what your eyes see in color..My favorite was the Portra VC, but I have not shot color print for a couple of years...

Dave

David A. Goldfarb · Feb 20, 2006

Portra is a nice film for many purposes, if you need a negative film. There aren't too many options out there in medium format, so why not invest in a roll of Portra 160 NC, VC, UC, Fuji NPS, NPC, and any other relevant options, run some tests with a color chart and grey card and with the subjects you like to shoot, and make some contact sheets to compare them? Don't make comparisons based on machine prints, which will "correct" the images and make differences between films less apparent.

game · Feb 20, 2006

Thanks so far for te post. Always helpfull. I will check out reala (is that a profilm?)

To furder explain where I am standing. I like portra. I used to shoot kodak gold and all those really rubbish, excuse me, film. Since I loaded my camera with professional film I'll never go back.
I have an extended period of night shooting behind me, and used 35mm portra VC. I shot extreme lighting situations, and portra VC gave me saturated results. BUT portra still is a portrait film, for use with people.
I now did a series of foggy morning fiels of grass, I do like the results, but they are very silky. No sign of a dark tone.
I do like it, but feel that there must be a film made for landscape. And I like to know what film that is.

(the pictures also have warm shade, but I think that caused by my old lens...)

I like cold colours and not the yellow ones.

Is there more besides Reala??

Thanks again, Sam

roteague · Feb 20, 2006

I would suggest Fuji Provia 100F; most landscape professionals use transparency films.

DeanC · Feb 20, 2006

game said:
To furder explain where I am standing. I like portra. I used to shoot kodak gold and all those really rubbish, excuse me, film. Since I loaded my camera with professional film I'll never go back.
I have an extended period of night shooting behind me, and used 35mm portra VC. I shot extreme lighting situations, and portra VC gave me saturated results. BUT portra still is a portrait film, for use with people.
I now did a series of foggy morning fiels of grass, I do like the results, but they are very silky. No sign of a dark tone.
I do like it, but feel that there must be a film made for landscape. And I like to know what film that is.

Are you saying that Portra is too low contrast for your tastes for landscape?

Dean

David A. Goldfarb · Feb 20, 2006

A lot of color landscape shooters use transparency films like Provia 100F and Velvia (of various flavors) or their Ektachrome counterparts, like E100 or E100SW, etc. That means printing Ilfochrome or digitally in general (or with an interneg, but that usually means losing the saturation of transparency film).

But of course there are exceptions, like Joel Meyerowitz, who I am fairly sure shoots neg film, and it's really a matter of taste. The film doesn't have to be called "Landsca" to be a landscape film.

game · Feb 20, 2006

hmm thanks everyone for the comments!

I think I should not be to offended by the term portrait indeed.
My taste is not general. It depends on the situation and what I like to tell with my pictures.
I in fact really like to slikyness of NC.
BUT i want the possibility of chossing for something hard and contrasty if I feel like it, and don;t know what film to use for that.

I indeed did slides before using portra and have made a photo or two that were great in my book. I remember a snow lanscape with one red three.
ektachrome 50iso, did a tremendous job on that one.

But I became crazy of slides when shooting at night. I exposed for 15 minutes and still I got nothing. So I made the switch, and with negatives I can estimate all light situations at night way better with it.

One other thing is printing. There is NO lab within 150 miles that is capable of making nice ilfochromes/cibachrome from a slide.
And contact sheets is impossible too.
Thats soo freakin unpractical. It is undoable.

Well, let the tread continue, Hope for more responses.
for slides I know I like ektachrome.
For negatives, I like portra NC/VC, but am wondering about alternatives...

Names that come to mind right now are:

fuji 160s / 160c, fuji reala, kodak supra

Thanks Sam

pentaxuser · Feb 20, 2006

If you are looking for a film that's slightly more muted then Konica might suit you. I found it to be less warm than Fuji Superia. Agfa is similar but alas both will soon be things of the pastalthough some stocks of both should still be available.

Having said that, I was going to refer you to shots that Huggyviking posted in one of the galleries. It was Fuji Superia but there were the most desatured shots I had seen from a Fuji film. I liked the effect but I cannot find them again in the galleries. I think I asked how he's achieved the effect. Maybe if he reads this he will respond

Pentaxuser

Dave Parker · Feb 20, 2006

I have been shooting in one form or another for a living for over 20 years now, and have never let the name of the film sway me for what I use it for, most of the time I use Velvia and Provia for landscape shooting, but never worried about Portra being a portrait film, the people who look at the images, not often do they question what film it was shot on, I have also used NPC for landscape stuff, in fact one of my biggest sellers on print film was taken in Glacier National Park at about 6 Am in the morning with mist on the lake, it was shot on NPS, and has a very muted smoky look to it with the mountains in the background..don't ever let "What" a film was marketed as, stop you from shooting it for other stuff, also, I use to shoot gold 100 for alot of things and it worked out quite well, and the Ultra films seem to be pretty good as well for a wide variety of things.

Good luck on your search, eventually we all find that special film that works perfect for what we are doing.

Dave

roteague · Feb 20, 2006

game said:
One other thing is printing. There is NO lab within 150 miles that is capable of making nice ilfochromes/cibachrome from a slide.
And contact sheets is impossible too.
Thats soo freakin unpractical. It is undoable.

There is no lab within 2500+ miles of where I live that can do these. There are plenty of reputable labs that can do this work for you.

Helen B · Feb 20, 2006

I use Kodak Ultra 100 and now Fuji Pro 160S for small landscapes - the Pro 160S is available in 220 and 4x5. Follow the link below to 'Garden Notebooks' for examples of both, but mostly 100 UC, some NPH and some Ultra 400.

Best,
Helen

game · Feb 20, 2006

roteague said:
There is no lab within 2500+ miles of where I live that can do these. There are plenty of reputable labs that can do this work for you.

sorry, but that makes no sence to me. I am sure I am missing the point because I don;t speak english to well.... but there are not enough labs that can do that for me...

Dave Parker · Feb 20, 2006

game said:
sorry, but that makes no sence to me. I am sure I am missing the point because I don;t speak english to well.... but there are not enough labs that can do that for me...

Game,

Where do you live? Robert lives in Hawaii, so he has to mail everything to the US mainland to get his work done..

Dave

game · Feb 20, 2006

thanks for that link, interesting.
I'll be checking some more film types out these days.

Think I'll end up selecting a silky film with low contrast when I feel the need to shoot that way.
and one with more saturation and contrast.

Right now its down to:

kodak nc160 and fuji nps for silky low contrast.
kodak uc100 and fuji reala for more saturation.

game · Feb 20, 2006

ah, he means that it's very hard for him so for me it shouldn't be that difficult. He's right. I live in the netherlands. There are labs in my country, and since i's a small country it's never more than a 3 hour drive....

BUT, i am a student, don;t have a car, can;t afford to wait so long before havin results. Can't pay what they charge. It's simply not possible to get decent prints from slides here in a normal way.

I mean, with negatives I go to my lab, and pick up a contact sheet within a hour, done.

Am I right or not?
Best regards Sam

roteague · Feb 20, 2006

game said:
ah, he means that it's very hard for him so for me it shouldn't be that difficult. He's right. I live in the netherlands. There are labs in my country, and since i's a small country it's never more than a 3 hour drive....

BUT, i am a student, don;t have a car, can;t afford to wait so long before havin results. Can't pay what they charge. It's simply not possible to get decent prints from slides here in a normal way.

I mean, with negatives I go to my lab, and pick up a contact sheet within a hour, done.

Am I right or not?
Best regards Sam

One of the reasons that it is a good idea to put down your location in your profile, it makes it easier for people to help you. There are several members here from the Netherlands, that could probably recommend a good lab.

noseoil · Feb 20, 2006

Most of the work done with slides here in the states is done with a scanner and then printed "wet" in a lab. It is a hybrid process which uses the dreaded "d" word, so I can't bring myself to say it. Slides are very nice for landscape color and there is a great variety of films available. tim

Ray Heath · Feb 20, 2006

hey game
why are you looking on the net
try looking at your own neg files
ie try different films for yourself, there are plenty to choose from

game · Feb 21, 2006

you are right, I will do some tests this week.
kodak uc100 & kodak portra vc & fuji reala....
Will posts my thought on the results.
Best regards SAM

game · Feb 22, 2006

uc100, is that a new film? No one here in the betherlands, invluding dutch postorder companies have it...
Do you guys know a good website to order film, that will deliver to europe and is rather fast?

Thanks Sam

mark · Feb 22, 2006

"professional" film, in my opinion is a marketing ploy. The pro part comes from the person using the film. I shoot both neg and transparency films but am in no way a professional. I shoot what I do because I like the look of the film. I have no doubt that there are folks on this forum who could pick up some consumer film and the images they get from it would kick the crap out of anything I can shoot with professional film.

game · Feb 22, 2006

I don't agree about the marketing trick...

And even if you're right, hypotethically(sp?), then consumer film is not so concistent as proffesional ones....
A good photograher does not need to be a pro. A pro is just someone that earnes a living out of it. But a good photographer relies on what he knows and learned about a film. If he gets a complete different film. he
will experience trouble....

Sam

langedp · Feb 22, 2006

Game:

I shoot mostly landscapes in 4x5 and 8x10 and use Portra VC for color work. I print on Kodak Ultra Endura in my own darkroom. This combination works well for me and produces results far better than I ever got with transparencies. Printing your own makes a big difference.

IS there a good professional film for landscape???

game

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IS there a good professional film for landscape???

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