Northern Spain and Southern France in January

Hello,

Taking a family trip in January to Spain and France. The driving itinerary is below. I'll be taking my Nikon F100. Will be photographing scenery, architecture, family, and the like. Would like advice on which one of the following Kodak films to bring: Tri-X 400, TMax 400, Ektar 100. Thanks!

Start: Barcelona, Spain
Andorra in the Pyrennes Mtns
Carcassone, France
Lourdes, France
San Sebastian, Spain
Pamplona, Spain
End: Barcelona, Spain

Well, obviously, if you want color, Ektar.
If you want B&W, either of the other two - my personal choice would be TMAX400, but that's a personal thing.
Short January days and anticipated weather conditions (not necessarily sunny, especially not in the mountains) would shift the balance in favor of a 400-speed film IMO.

Kind of an odd question, btw. Isn't this kind of thing as personal as deciding what you'll wear, what kind of food you enjoy etc.? What is the reasoning behind asking people if you should shoot color or B&W, for instance? Why limit yourself to these three films and not include e.g. Portra 400?

Anyway, good luck - I'm sure this thread will involve a lively debate, regardless.

Btw, that general area is really nice; I've mostly traveled the French side of your itinerary, although it's been way too long since I last ventured out there, and I never went there in January. Granted, I never found Andorra particularly interesting or different from its immediate surroundings. January might be the most reasonable month to visit Barcelona, because it will be slightly less annoyingly overrun by tourists (sure, I've been part of the problem at some points). Lourdes is a fascinating curiosity to have witnessed once - but nothing more than that, IMO. Carcassonne is cute and by all means do visit if you're in the area anyway. It's kind of a 'living museum' in a way, but nice, especially if you bring kids. But - the general scenery of the Pyrenées is absolutely worth it. If you can, take a slow route through the mountains between Lourdes and San Sebastian - avoid the more boring highway route over Pau and then along the coast. It'll take you at least twice as long, but it'll be ten times as interesting.

Wow....... that is a geographically, beautiful, trip you have there.
Sounds like the setting for a 1930s Romantic Comedy with Grant & Hepburn

I am from the two starting areas and generally agree with koracs opinion.
During winter I visit for Christmas holidays and sunlight is about 8-17. On the Mediterranean coast and under daylight conditions ISO 100 is quite doable and specially with 35mm and a high aperture lens. Once you go into the mountains, there is also changing light conditions and shadow so higher ISO might be good. In some valleys of the Pyrenées (I am from one) after 3PM the sun might be well behind mountains. Due to climate change, it might be relatively dry and sunny.

Tri-X vs T-Max probably you can find long discussion threads around. A technical advantage of TMX-TMY is that it has an adjusted blue sensitivity so you don't require yellow filtering for the skies to render naturally darker.

I have plenty of hours running around Barcelona. ISO 400 is great for winter shooting there, as the streets and alleyways of some districts are dark. I'm from the Southern regions, recommending you to visit Tarragona, Sitges (and Girona) in the north if possible; thus my bias towards coastal sunny.

@koraks

Thanks for your reply. Great information.

Yes, it is an odd question as the matter is personal. However I was thinking along the lines of whether the scenery and/or weather I will encounter might tend toward color or B&W.

You mention Portra 400. Would you choose that over TMAX 400 for the trip? By the way, I limit myself to one film on travels because I maintain photo albums of our family travels and like a consistent look for each trip.

By the way, I particularly like the idea of Lourdes to San Sebastian through the Pyrennes.

@Prest_400

Thanks for the information. I didn't know about the adjusted blue sensitivity of TMax 400. Based on the replies so far I'll likely go with that ... unless I can be convinced about Portra 400?

CMoore said:

Wow....... that is a geographically, beautiful, trip you have there.
Sounds like the setting for a 1930s Romantic Comedy with Grant & Hepburn

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Naples said:

You mention Portra 400. Would you choose that over TMAX 400 for the trip?

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Personally - probably yes, because I really like to print color. But that's...personal

Have fun; it's really beautiful out there. Regardless what kind of film you end up using, there'll be some really nice photo ops no doubt.

Naples said:

@Prest_400

Thanks for the information. I didn't know about the adjusted blue sensitivity of TMax 400. Based on the replies so far I'll likely go with that ... unless I can be convinced about Portra 400?

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I would also take Portra! Actually I am a bit drawing into the cliché pastel look that has become popular, as the Mediterranean light and sceneries are well suited to it. Even Ektar can be it with the proper (lab) workflow and light. A very important factor separating B&W to Color is that the former I can do wholly myself back in the darkroom, so I have a much more print-facing workflow with it whereas color is hybrid.
While at it, why not throw in a second light body (Nikon N60-65-75-80) so you can combine both color & BW simultaneously?

About TMX, TMY, this is under one of the graphs in the TechPub:

* The blue sensitivity of KODAK PROFESSIONAL T-MAX Films is slightly less than that of other Kodak panchromatic black-and-white films. This enables the response of these films to be closer to the response of the human eye. Therefore, blues may be recorded as slightly darker tones with these films—a more natural rendition.

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I use Portra exclusively for everything photographed in color including travel.

Prest_400 said:

Actually I am a bit drawing into the cliché pastel look that has become popular, as the Mediterranean light and sceneries are well suited to it. Even Ektar can be it with the proper (lab) workflow and light.

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Unless you print RA4 in your own darkroom, whatever colors you get from negative film are mostly determined by digital post processing. If you want Ektar to look pastel or Portra to look punchy and super saturated, there's no problem at all making it so!

OK, thanks all. Seems like Portra 400 is the fave. I think I'll go with it! The last time I shot color on a family trip was Ektar 100 in the summer.

If you are considering having your film developed before leaving, and/or you have a develop and scan workflow, you may wish to consider Ilford XP2 as your black and white option. Pair that with Portra 400, and you would have lots of flexibility.