Saturated film with pleasing skin tones (unlike Ektar)

Haigstagram · Jan 16, 2018

Hello all, first post on this forum (and glad it exists!)
As the subject line suggests, I'm looking for a saturated film which yields pleasing skin tones, generally for street photography shot through a rangefinder. I love how Ektar looks with it's ultra fine grain and punchy colours except on white/fair skinned people. It makes them look red/pink. My usual go-to film is Portra160.
Any options out there? Cinestill?

pukalo · Jan 16, 2018

Try some provia 100f, it has good skin tones and punchy color. If E100D (the cine version of E100VS) were still available I would say go with that. They used it for music videos and other people centric things.

pukalo · Jan 16, 2018

But beware, you may fall in love with slide film.

pukalo · Jan 16, 2018

And pick up a Tetenal E6 home developing kit. It's easy and the results are great. You will also need a styrofoam cooler, a digital cooking thermometer, timer, and 4 water bottles to get started.

pukalo · Jan 16, 2018

https://flic.kr/p/9VGusn

pukalo · Jan 16, 2018

I've developed more than a hundred rolls since then, using only those simple tools, with great results. Oh yes, you also need a Paterson hand developing tank. You can also use it for c41 negative film developing which is also easy.

RattyMouse · Jan 16, 2018

Haigstagram said:
Hello all, first post on this forum (and glad it exists!)
As the subject line suggests, I'm looking for a saturated film which yields pleasing skin tones, generally for street photography shot through a rangefinder. I love how Ektar looks with it's ultra fine grain and punchy colours except on white/fair skinned people. It makes them look red/pink. My usual go-to film is Portra160.
Any options out there? Cinestill?

Fuji's 200 and 400 speed 35mm film has nice saturation. I really like Fuji's C200 film (Agfa Vista 200) and just bought 20 rolls for this coming year. Great skin tones and overall nice color. A plus is that it is much cheaper than Provia.

WilmarcoImaging · Jan 16, 2018

Try Portra 400 exposed and processed at EI 800 (1 stop push). I like it. Portra 400 for me has saturation, not overly so. I prefer Portra 400 at 800 to Portra 800. Portra 400 at EI800 seems to have less grain than Portra 800, and is more pleasing. Personal taste only. 800 ISO is nice for street.

Saturation can also be managed in the part of your workflow involving the device which uses electrons.

Lachlan Young · Jan 16, 2018

Haigstagram said:
Hello all, first post on this forum (and glad it exists!)
As the subject line suggests, I'm looking for a saturated film which yields pleasing skin tones, generally for street photography shot through a rangefinder. I love how Ektar looks with it's ultra fine grain and punchy colours except on white/fair skinned people. It makes them look red/pink. My usual go-to film is Portra160.
Any options out there? Cinestill?

If you are scanning, the problems you are encountering may be down to the nature of the scan/ inversion, rather than the film. Ektar is generally very (sometimes painfully) neutral but saturated - Portra 160 is actually a little higher resolving, neutral but less intensely saturated. Good skin tones & good saturation are easily achieved with 160, but like all things, it's dependent on your colour correction abilities & the quality of the source material, be it a scan or a negative in the enlarger.

Portra 400 is a fraction more saturated & warmer than 160, 800 seems to me to be the least saturated generally (relatively speaking) of the current set of Portras and again relatively neutral.

For what it's worth, the average minilab scanner (Noritsu/ Frontier etc) seems to really struggle with Ektar, which is a pity.

iandvaag · Jan 16, 2018

Agree with those above who suggested Provia 100F.

Haigstagram · Jan 16, 2018

Wow, many thanks to all of you for the valuable input and insight. I will give the Provia a try and see how slippery that slope is! Will also give the Portra 400 a try at 800 which I have never shot before; only a bunch of 160 over exposed 1 stop. I'm glad I opened an account here, cheers!

Sirius Glass · Jan 16, 2018

If you can find it Kodak Portra VividColor 160 and 400 in 135 and 120 or Kodak Portra VividColor 160 in 4"x5".

TenSpeed · Jan 17, 2018

looking forward to using ektachrome this year

Ste_S · Jan 17, 2018

Lachlan Young said:
If you are scanning, the problems you are encountering may be down to the nature of the scan/ inversion, rather than the film. Ektar is generally very (sometimes painfully) neutral but saturated - Portra 160 is actually a little higher resolving, neutral but less intensely saturated. Good skin tones & good saturation are easily achieved with 160, but like all things, it's dependent on your colour correction abilities & the quality of the source material, be it a scan or a negative in the enlarger.

Portra 400 is a fraction more saturated & warmer than 160, 800 seems to me to be the least saturated generally (relatively speaking) of the current set of Portras and again relatively neutral.

For what it's worth, the average minilab scanner (Noritsu/ Frontier etc) seems to really struggle with Ektar, which is a pity.

Speaking of scanners, I'm fairly happy with Portra 400 scanned on a Frontier machine. Seems to give more saturation and contrast which I prefer. You can always nudge the sliders along in Lightroom too if using a hybrid workflow.

Haigstagram · Jan 17, 2018

Sirius Glass said:
If you can find it Kodak Portra VividColor 160 and 400 in 135 and 120 or Kodak Portra VividColor 160 in 4"x5".

Right now I only have 135 equipment and I'm not sure if I can find PortraVC locally but I can likely get some online, I'll check at my lab which I'm happy to say are quite well stocked with film.

Haigstagram · Jan 17, 2018

TenSpeed said:
looking forward to using ektachrome this year

Is there a release date?

RattyMouse · Jan 17, 2018

Haigstagram said:
Is there a release date?

Sometime in 2018. Nothing more specific than that.

BrianShaw · Jan 17, 2018

Haigstagram said:
Right now I only have 135 equipment and I'm not sure if I can find PortraVC locally but I can likely get some online, I'll check at my lab which I'm happy to say are quite well stocked with film.

Didn't Portra VC (and NC) go out quite some time ago... when they changed the formula to just-plain Portra?

Try Kodak Gold 200. You may find that it meets your desires.

Haigstagram · Jan 17, 2018

BrianShaw said:
Didn't Portra VC (and NC) go out quite some time ago... when they changed the formula to just-plain Portra?

Try Kodak Gold 200. You may find that it meets your desires.

I have no idea! I've only been shooting film for 2 years now and have kept with the same film stocks and camera in order to keep variables down to a minimum and better myself in evaluating light. I'm now comfortable enough to go out and shoot meter-less in the street using sunny-16 and compensating around it as the light changes even though the meter in my Canonet does actually work. ( used a few Wein cells in the beginning but found it annoying as they are super unreliable ). I know shooting slide film will call on using a light meter. This whole film thing is more costly than digital but a lot more rewarding, I'm loving it.

BrianShaw · Jan 17, 2018

Haigstagram said:
I have no idea! I've only been shooting film for 2 years now and have kept with the same film stocks and camera in order to keep variables down to a minimum and better myself in evaluating light. I'm now comfortable enough to go out and shoot meter-less in the street using sunny-16 and compensating around it as the light changes even though the meter in my Canonet does actually work. ( used a few Wein cells in the beginning but found it annoying as they are super unreliable ). I know shooting slide film will call on using a light meter. This whole film thing is more costly than digital but a lot more rewarding, I'm loving it.

It was 2010 or 2011 when the VC/NC was dropped.

Try some Kodak 200... for what you are doing it is just the color film for you! Do not accept "ColorPlus" as a substitute; it is quite different.

BTW, what little "street shooting" I did was with a Canonet and Gold200, but I used the meter via a silver-cell adapter. The whole package worked well for me even though the Canonet wasn't my favorite camera to use. I'd much rather us a Kodak Retina or Nikon SLR. For all kinds of shooting, except perhaps formal portraiture, I use Kodak Gold 200 as my standard color neg film.

http://imaging.kodakalaris.com/sites/prod/files/files/resources/E7022_Gold_200.pdf

And as exxamples (although I've seen better; you can google up some more on your own)
http://vickylamburn.com/the-beauty-of-kodak-gold-film/

... and this, which may be more appropriate exxamples to your style and situation...
https://carlosgrphoto.com/2017/03/27/kodak-gold-200/

benjiboy · Jan 17, 2018

Try to get hold of some Fuji Reala 100 it's discontinued but you can still buy it on eBay..

Sirius Glass · Jan 17, 2018

Sirius Glass said:
If you can find it Kodak Portra VividColor 160 and 400 in 135 and 120 or Kodak Portra VividColor 160 in 4"x5".

BrianShaw said:
Didn't Portra VC (and NC) go out quite some time ago... when they changed the formula to just-plain Portra?

Try Kodak Gold 200. You may find that it meets your desires.

Yes, that is why I said it is hard to find. I keep my stash in the freezer with the Portra UltraColor, but occasionally I see it come up for sale.

NortheastPhotographic · Jan 17, 2018

Some people have pushed Ektar to 200, or 400 and have reported more pleasing skin tones. Check out Jon Canlas's instagram for more information on that.

Minoltafan2904 · Jan 17, 2018

+1 on Provia 100F, keep in mind it is an E-6 film though so you'll need to find a place to take it ot mail it.
If you can find Agfa CT Precisa cheaper ( if you shoot 35mm ), buy it, because it's Provia 100F.
If you like fine grain you'll love it, because it has none! and even in 35mm format resolves intricate details very well, far better than Ektar.
An 81A filter would be a good idea in cool light as Provia has a bias towards blues in certain lighting conditions.
Beware though the dangers of trying slide film, you might like it a lot like i did, and E-6 is not cheap

Minoltafan2904 · Jan 17, 2018

NortheastPhotographic said:
Some people have pushed Ektar to 200, or 400 and have reported more pleasing skin tones. Check out Jon Canlas's instagram for more information on that.

I've seen Ektar 100 pushed to 800 and it held up very very well,

Saturated film with pleasing skin tones (unlike Ektar)

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency