Your thoughts on Portra 160nc

Great film. Outstanding film. I love it.

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NB23 said:
Great film. Outstanding film. I love it.

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This is NC? WoW that doesn't look dull at all! The balance and the skin tones ane wonderful. I would like to know what you rated this film.
 
gb hill, I don't know why I bought VC. I really don't like over saturated images. Here is one that I did with Fuji Superia Xtra 400, I did zero post processing. And look how it looks like a travel photo:

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I love Portra 160NC, and agree w/ those who recommend shooting it at 100. For landscapes, I gravitate toward 400UC for a little extra pop, but for people pix 160NC is hard to beat. I've posted this pix before, but it gives an example of what folks are talking about vis-a-vis skin tones, etc:

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gb hill said:
This is NC? WoW that doesn't look dull at all! The balance and the skin tones ane wonderful. I would like to know what you rated this film.
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It would be almost stupid to rate the film at iso 100. As I understand it, Kodak with all its expertise rated/created the film at iso 160 and then some people overexpose the film and start recomending it? No thanks!

I shoot the film as intended, at iso 160. I used the Nikon F5, which has an extremely accurate shutter and meter. This helps tremendously.

At last, the whole secret with color print film is not really the exposure, anyway! If the people that develop the film don't have the right coding for each film, they'll start to play with RGB settings and they'll create approximate colors and ruin your shots.

Make sure your lab has the coding for the specific print films you are handing them. You'll be getting the most out of Portra 160 this way only.

P.S.: I used the NC version.
 
NB23 said:
It would be almost stupid to rate the film at iso 100. As I understand it, Kodak with all its expertise rated/created the film at iso 160 and then some people overexpose the film and start recomending it? No thanks!
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Whatever works for you! Vade in pace... :)
 
I can only speak about NC and only for the cameras and lenses I have used it on.

For colour I now shoot mostly Portra NC 160 and 400. I love the stuff and its a perfect film for the contrasty lenses of my Mamiya 6's. Regardless of what people say here I always set the exposure compensation to one stop over and has worked for me anyway. I can get away with shooting at box speed if necessary, but shadows are often undefined and noisy, and colour is less saturated and poppy. I am not sure if this has anything to do with the way the Mamiya 6 meters, but I noticed that with slide I can and have to shoot it at box speed so maybe not?

I just bought a hassy of Mike L and noticed Portra NC behaves a lot differently on these lenses. Less saturated and contrasty but very beautifull, delicate and creamy tones, great for skin and portraits. I think VC might be nice on the hassy too but have yet to try it.

I'll post a few examples of Portra NC in different situations on the Mamiya 6, I love this combo.


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Porta Power

Porta Power

I've dropped using Fuji NPH negative films since discovering Porta. I see very little difference between VC and NC other than grain. I never over expose. I did that Fuji as necessity with Fuji to get something out of the shadows. Fuji tends to over saturate to the point of looking almost digital.

Porta scans better than any negative film I've ever used. I get far less noise in the shadows.

However, my main reason for loving it for all applications, not just portraiture, is that it has opened up a whole new world when using older lenses. A Summitar and VC looks almost like Kodachrome. It makes older lenses breathtaking and gives giant leeway in Photoshop manipulations especially with regards to contrast.

Although it cuts the blue cast in the new Zeiss lenses far better than NPH it is not as remarkable with the super high contrast lenses of today, but it's grain is still superlative. I think it is the micro contrast king of negative films.
 
Some excellent shots, Jaffa! I particularly like the second one, where the muted colors complement the subject well.
 
Since most people scan color, or at least I do, it's easy to boost up saturation and contrast of NC in Photoshop. NC is finer grained and lower contrast, so colors don't block up as easily. For a hybrid system, I'd go with NC.
 
I love all you guys prints. I don't see it flat at all, but a well balanced color film. Thanks especially to NB23. I loved his photo so much I had to know the details so I pm'd him. I think i'll shoot this at the box speed to get a feel for it and experiment later if the results aren't up to par for me.

John Carter.... I like Superia Extra and use it. It's one of my favorites. I just wanted to try this Portra film because I was so impressed on what I say on the Kodak website.

Bingly.... That shot I assume is with the natural lighting comming in from the window. Fantastic & well done. The shadows aren't overly harsh and blend in quite well.
 
Shoot a roll at 100 and another at 160 all under similar conditions and see what you like. Only you will know what the right look is that works for you. Experiment.
 
I find the film looks much better when taken with medium format cameras. It's top notch there. The colour has a unique signature. It's a nice film in general, I've been using fujifilm NPS (now just called S) and it is very similar in effect with a slant towards more neutral grays. Portra has an attractive brownish cast, to my eyes.

I like Portra VC on rainy overcast days. It does lovely things to the colour, really amazing. On sunny days it looks a little day-glow to my eyes.
 
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