Samples of Portra 800 in 35mm and 120?

[braxus]

Im starting a part time photography business, doing outdoor portraits in daytime light. Right now its pretty much winter season and light is less strong than usual. I'll admit Im a fine grain film user, which gives to me photos which are prefered. But Im going with 800 film for latitude, to use higher shutter speeds, and to give more noticable grain for those clients which want the film look. Also Im told Portra 800 has slightly more saturation than the slower variants.

Can someone show me some sample scans off of this film in both 35mm and 120, so I can get an idea of what to expect with this film? Prefer people pictures or portraits. I also notice this film is Kodaks most expensive C41 film. I understand Portra 800 has grain about the same as Gold 200. I use that in 120 a lot.

 

[koraks]

This is to get you started: https://pbase.com/cameras/kodak/portra_800
There are some gotchas regarding the link above; in particular I'm not sure how often this film has changed over the years and some of the stuff on PBase may reflect older versions of this film. And there's the usual issue of people scanning and editing in totally different ways.

 

[chriscrawfordphoto]

Here are some example shots on Portra 800 and 400:

Portra 800. Leica M3 and 50mm f2.4 Summarit-M lens.

100% crop showing grain. Scanned with a Noritsu HS-1800 scanner as a 16 bit TIFF with no sharpening applied.

Another Portra 800 shot. This was a 1/15 sec exposure at f8; this film does look great in low light! Leica M3 and 50mm f2.4 Summarit-M lens.

100% crop showing grain. Scanned with a Noritsu HS-1800 scanner as a 16 bit TIFF with no sharpening applied.


Now, lets look at Portra 400:

Portra 400. Leica M4-2 and 90mm f2.5 Summarit-M lens

100% crop showing grain. Scanned with a Noritsu HS-1800 scanner as a 16 bit TIFF with no sharpening applied.

 

[lamerko]

The cat is wonderful

 

[chriscrawfordphoto]

The cat is wonderful

Thanks. She's one of the two cats that live at Hyde Brothers Books, a locally-owned used book store in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I have bought a lot of books there over the last 35 years and they have always had at least one cat in residence.

 

[bdial]

This is Portra 800 on 120

 

[dokko]

Portra 800 is my favorite color film for medium format.
Lovely grain texture and fantastic colors. I prefer it over Portra 400 even if I have enough light.

Here are some example shots on Portra 800 and 400:

[...]

100% crop showing grain. Scanned with a Noritsu HS-1800 scanner as a 16 bit TIFF with no sharpening applied.

nice pictures, but the 100% crops unfortunately in no way show the grain structure of the two Portra films, but rather the Noritsu scanner noise.

I'll see that I can post some examples tomorrow.

 

[chriscrawfordphoto]

Portra 800 is my favorite color film for medium format.
Lovely grain texture and fantastic colors. I prefer it over Portra 400 even if I have enough light.



nice pictures, but the 100% crops unfortunately in no way show the grain structure of the two Portra films, but rather the Noritsu scanner noise.

I'll see that I can post some examples tomorrow.

That's not scanner noise. High end scanners like that don't have any; and scans of slower films look much less grainy, which would not be the case if the scanner was that noisy. Scanners can show grain aliasing, which can make some films look grainier than they really are; but that's not noise.

How can you post an example that would be better? Your scanner, if you are right, would also show noise in the image; and you HAVE to scan the photo to post it here.

 

[Peter Schrager]

This is Portra 800 on 120

View attachment 356458

beautiful Barry
I just shot Portra 800; ultramax 400 and color 200 in 35mm and they are all nice
the Portra is very saturated but the other 2 are still amazing!!

 

[dokko]

here's a quick scan at of Portra 400... overview:

and a 100% crop of the 4000ppi file, no sharpening applied:

I'll see if I can scan it at 11'000ppi. could take a while though since I'm a bit overloaded with work atm.

 

[Steven Lee]

@dokko Do you mind sharing a few high-res Portra 800 scans? Would be interesting to compare them to @chriscrawfordphoto 's cat above. Thanks.

 

[BrianShaw]

Nice picture. Can’t help but notice that the model needs a fill. Apparently I zoomed in too much. LOL