Most saturated color negative film?

ChrisBCS · Aug 10, 2017

So since I can't make analog prints from ciba/velvia (easily) anymore, should I be looking for a saturated negative film alternative? Any recommendations for the punchiest colors possible? I've never shot any negative film that I've developed myself, only Velvia...

ME Super · Aug 10, 2017

Kodak Ektar 100 is pretty punchy, but is largely without the sunburned skin look for people.

bvy · Aug 10, 2017

"Punchiest colors possible" -- consider cross-processing Provia or Ektachrome (expired or forthcoming) since you're coming from a background with slide film anyway. This is an RA4 print from a cross-processed negative (Ektachrome).

Minoltafan2904 · Aug 10, 2017

Kodak's Ektar and Pro Image ISO 100 C-41 films look good in that department.

trendland · Aug 10, 2017

Little lower E.I. will help - and a little Push Developement.
I would not try more than Push 1 ( 1 stop ) and then you have a little more contrasty szene and a little more saturation but also more grain.

with regards

trendland · Aug 10, 2017

Higher E.I. of course sorry. E.I. ISO 160 to Iso 100 box speed for example.

with regards

chassis · Aug 10, 2017

Chris what is your final delivery mechanism? Hard copy (c-print or digital print) or digital (web)? Just curious.

I suggest Ektar and Portra 160. This was done with Portra 160:

trendland · Aug 10, 2017

chassis said:
Chris what is your final delivery mechanism? Hard copy (c-print or digital print) or digital (web)? Just curious.

I suggest Ektar and Portra 160. This was done with Portra 160:

I wonder sometimes about people who want to have more saturation....

Excellent color composing !!!!!!

with regards

chassis · Aug 10, 2017

trendland said:
I wonder sometimes about people who want to have more saturation....

Excellent color composing !!!!!!

with regards

Thank you trendland!

Sirius Glass · Aug 10, 2017

Discontinued and hard to find: Kodak Vivid Color and Kodak Ultra Color.
Readily available: Ektar

Minoltafan2904 · Aug 10, 2017

Portra 160 gives very nice warm colors and the grain is not bad, the 400 still has good grain for a 400 ISO film, much much more fine that Tri-X 400 for example.

bvy · Aug 10, 2017

Minoltafan2904 said:
Kodak's Ektar and Pro Image ISO 100 C-41 films look good in that department.

If Pro Image is the same as ProFoto XL then I agree.

Minoltafan2904 · Aug 10, 2017

bvy said:
If Pro Image is the same as ProFoto XL then I agree.

Pro Image is i think basically a professional grade version of Kodak Gold that has been made since 1997.
For some reason it seems to be only sold in Asia.
Profoto is what Pro Image is called in some markets like i think Turkey?

Theo Sulphate · Aug 10, 2017

My favorite color film now is Ektar 100 - though I think I'm living in sin because I know the colors are saturated beyond normal. I don't want to produce Rockwellian imagery.

Two23 · Aug 11, 2017

Probably the all time most saturated was Agfa Ultra.

Kent in SD

ChrisBCS · Aug 11, 2017

bvy said:
"Punchiest colors possible" -- consider cross-processing Provia or Ektachrome (expired or forthcoming) since you're coming from a background with slide film anyway. This is an RA4 print from a cross-processed negative (Ektachrome).

View attachment 184160

Whoa! I've never seen cross processing like that. The results of most cross processing I've seen come out very strangely colored...

ChrisBCS · Aug 11, 2017

chassis said:
Chris what is your final delivery mechanism? Hard copy (c-print or digital print) or digital (web)? Just curious.

I suggest Ektar and Portra 160. This was done with Portra 160:

Beautiful! Final will be dichro enlarger wet print.

locutus · Aug 11, 2017

i find Ektar as saturated as i would ever want.

RPC · Aug 11, 2017

I find it Ektar superior in overall quality to what I got with Ciba/Ilfochrome.

Pioneer · Aug 11, 2017

I have not used a lot of different color films but Kodak Ektar is the one I choose for color saturation in negative film.

I personally prefer Portra 160 or 400 as the colors seem a bit more natural.

Of course as you already know, Fuji Velvia 50 is the hands down saturation champion.

Berri · Aug 11, 2017

You have to look at the paper as well. Fuji dpII and fujiflex are really saturated and contrasty

ChrisBCS said:
Whoa! I've never seen cross processing like that. The results of most cross processing I've seen come out very strangely colored...

Cross processed film may produce Color shifts that won't balance when printing. Sometimes it works good sometimes it doesn't.

jim10219 · Aug 11, 2017

Another vote for Ektar. It's starting to become my favorite color film. I love the ultra saturated look of Velvia for landscapes, but it lacks the dynamic range of a good negative film, which can be a problem with landscapes. I love the skin tones and forgiveness of Portra, but it lacks the punch of slide film and leaves landscapes kind of meh. Ektar seems to do well with both landscapes and portraits, and pretty much anything else I throw at it. It's over saturated, yet still renders skin tones well. It's somewhat forgiving, and really fine grained. It does leave a trademark cast on the sky though. But I like that. Sure, it's got it's quirks and I still use other films often, but I always keep some Ektar on me because it seems to fit squarely between Velvia and Portra in uses and never disappoints.

Minoltafan2904 · Aug 11, 2017

Portra definetly produces some very good skin tones and very accurate color representation.
I have yet to try Ektar 100 because it's twice as expensive as other C-41 35mm films, but it sure looks very good in terms of saturation and has very vivid colors.

Cholentpot · Aug 11, 2017

I have a few frozen rolls of Ektar 25. I'm going to break one out this week and see what it can do.

Prof_Pixel · Aug 11, 2017

The subject line “saturated color negative film’ makes me think back to the early 1980’s at Kodak. Kodak had always prided themselves on accurate color reproduction, and Fuji shook things up with a new series of high color saturation color negative films. It turned out that consumers wanted the colors they remembered and not the colors that were actually there - things like green grass and bright blue sky and not yellow-brown grass and muddy skies. I was in a new technology lab and we used a new digital imaging technique to create different color reproduction images for customer preference testing. (The technique involved ‘unbuilding’ an image into it’s scene log luminance data and then ‘building’ new images with new color reproduction data. This made it possible to create a series of images that were exactly the same except for changes in color reproduction. No closed eyes, etc differences between images to confuse things.) The technique worked great!

Most saturated color negative film?

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