Colour film for gloomy winter light?

[mcgrattan]

Hi,

I'm looking for advice on film for shooting over the winter.

I've mostly been shooting black and white film and using digital for colour for a while, but am taking a trip to Paris soon and want to shoot some colour film while away.

So, what I want is something easy to scan. I'm not a gigantic fan of incredibly saturated colour [or, rather, I sometimes like it in other people's photos but don't seem to have any luck with it personally] and I don't want really unnatural skin tones.

I was thinking maybe one of the Fuji or Kodak 160 speed films? Either the neutral colour versions [pro169s, portra160nc] or maybe a similar 400 ASA film?

I'm not opposed to shooting slides [the price is about the same for me]. So maybe Astia? Sensia?

Matt

 

[philipb]

I'm very happy with Astia generally, but here's a recent early morning frosty shot:

It appears to handle extreme exposure well, like here:

The close-up detail is superb.

 

[philipb]

I'm using Astia now because E100GX has disappeared from the UK market. I liked it a lot.

 

[dmr]

The film I really liked for the nuances of a photogenic but otherwise yucky-sucky winter day was the now-obsolete Walgreens/Agfa 200 (rebranded Vista?) which unfortunately is no longer available.

Both of these on W/A 200 with the Mamiya SD.

I've done some similar shots on Fuji 200 and 400, but this particular film just seemed to be the right one to use. Too bad you can't get it anymore. 🙁

I do agree that Astia may be a good choice for this kind of stuff.

 

[mcgrattan]

I like the colours in those last two shots a lot. Very nice.

 

[dmr]

I like the colours in those last two shots a lot. Very nice.

Thanks. 🙂 It's too bad that film is no longer available. It was closed out at something like US$0.77 per roll about two years ago, IIRC. I bought a lot of it when I could but that's all gone now.

I liked the way it rendered things like urban scenes, brick and stone buildings, autumn colors, and the hazy shade of winter. It showed you the colors the way they were, not the way somebody wanted them to be. Some of the people here described it as "Ektachrome-ish", but I always thought of Ektachrome as more saturated. If I were to describe its look and feel, I would use the term "earthy", for lack of a better one. 🙂

I really haven't found anything else that has that kind of color rendition for those subjects.