Bullet proof Portra 400 – Pictures from Thailand

You have some good shots here, my favourite is the last one in Chiang Mai. It's 21 years since I was there. It looks like nothing much has changed.

Thanks for the heads up on ioulex. I really like their work. It seems they are sometimes shooting through glass, sometimes with long exposures + strobes + camera movement and may even be using deliberately damaged/dirty lenses. Probably some post processing to bring colours up, but a lot of it could be in camera. Very creative and inspiring work anyway.
 
I like your stuff, i've shot some portra 400 also, but I am still learning how to get the scans where I want them to be. Hence I don't have much to share and i don't think its edgier than yours but shows some Japanese Halloween...

One thing to note about your stuff thats its higher contrast than what most ppl apply to their Portra scans, prevailing fashion seems to be overexpose with weak contrast.

Portra 400 October -15028 by Tonkatsudog, on Flickr
 
Like the colour and contrast. Lovely. Favourite is #10, the background colour settles the picture. Well done.

Not loving ioulex but I realise to get coherent or integral effects (not obviously forced add-ons) requires creativity and hard work. Hats off for that. The double portrait looks like a late 60s album cover. Ultimately I seek more rooted balance with a dash of discord in a photo, and your #10 hits the spot.
 
Tonkatsu-Dog/viggi - Thanks for the kind words.

On the color and contrast: it's a matter of how one feels about what one sees. On a bright day in the tropics the shade is very deep and the light has high contrast, and I seem to have a dark vision these days. I've also been affected by the latest color work I saw by Moriyama last year at the large retrospective at the Cartier Foundation in Paris. Unlike earlier color film work, his latest digital color photos have the high contrast of his B&W work. Tontaksu-Dog's comment, though, made me look at a couple of Portra flickr groups. I found one Japanese photographer, Tadahiko Hirome who uses that lighter Portra contrast and followed her to LensCulture where she has her project called A Japanese Image. I like some of the shots; she photographs herself in the scene.

I briefly tried in Lightroom to reduce the contrast on some of my images and it can work quite well on some of them. The thing about using a hybrid workflow is that digital post-processing allows you to have a wider range of what you can do with film, without losing the film look. With films like Portra 400 and digital post-processing one could call this the golden age of film. My feeling is the that beauty and intensity of dye transfer prints need not be missed, for it can be reproduced by a hybrid or digital workflow.

viggi - I understand what you say about ioulex. I'm so struck by the range, diversity and gutsiness of their commercial work. Maybe it's easier for a "duo" rather than a lone photographer to carry that off.

Tontasu-Dog - I see that you live in 目黒; I lived in 目白. Black of the eye/White of the eye.

_______________
Alone in Bangkok essay on BURN Magazine
 
Thanks for your thoughts on the film look and the links. Hirome's light look has been quite prominent (I think, although my exposure to these things is limited; I regularly read BJP) and is more contemplative. The looks lends itself to such work, so this gets reinforced. I really like that lighter, less contrast, even washed out work. However, the portra work you have just showed us is very convincing. It has impact which helps with street photography. The combination of the beautiful portrait colours, the darker contrast and film look has a certain gravitas and grittiness. Frankly, you've inspired me.
 
Tonkatsu-Dog said:
I like your stuff, i've shot some portra 400 also, but I am still learning how to get the scans where I want them to be. Hence I don't have much to share and i don't think its edgier than yours but shows some Japanese Halloween...

One thing to note about your stuff thats its higher contrast than what most ppl apply to their Portra scans, prevailing fashion seems to be overexpose with weak contrast.

Portra 400 October -15028 by Tonkatsudog, on Flickr
Click to expand...

Nowhereman said:
On the color and contrast: it's a matter of how one feels about what one sees. On a bright day in the tropics the shade is very deep and the light has high contrast, and I seem to have a dark vision these days. I've also been affected by the latest color work I saw by Moriyama last year at the large retrospective at the Cartier Foundation in Paris. Unlike earlier color film work, his latest digital color photos have the high contrast of his B&W work. Tontaksu-Dog's comment, though, made me look at a couple of Portra flickr groups. I found one Japanese photographer, Tadahiko Hirome who uses that lighter Portra contrast and followed her to LensCulture where she has her project called A Japanese Image. I like some of the shots; she photographs herself in the scene.
Click to expand...
Portra 400 has heaps of flexibility and malleability in post with a basis of its stock look.
Kodak's own site for the film, now gone, had some examples. One of them struck as stark: a motorist with a reflective vest on an open shade scene but with a very E6 look to it, unusual for Portra. Forgot the photographer's complete name, Lawrence who used an RB67.

Light and airy--higher key tends to be the tendency, specially among wedding and their labs. Initially I disliked it, as many colors wash out, and I used to default towards a darker look.
Nowadays my sent-out Fuji Frontier 35mm tends to be such because it suits the Mediterranean. Home scan 120 in my V550, it is hard to pull an airier look because of its hardware limitations but I tend not to overprocess and it stays medium brightness and low contrast (stock's default look mostly).

BTW, and following Tontaksu-Dog insight, many Japanese photographers (Instagram specially) have a greenish low contrast and low saturation look, from subtle to sickly.

I've noticed that the orange-browns look very subly rich. The monk's robes, kids' shirts and the ship wood-metal. Really like the second set with that late light that is so fantastic.
*

For long I thought about a trip to SE asia, having relatives in the Philippines with an idea to hop around Thailand, Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Philippines. Parents are currently there so I have lots of retrospective thoughts about the place.
Last time I went, mostly shot Chrome film (Kodachrome among them!), and yes, heaps of contrast with the harsh daylight. Location limitations sometimes make it hard to stay around good scenes during the best light.

Perhaps out of daring myself, but I thought that next time I'd take Medium format, Fuji 6x9. Not fast paced street, but rather more contemplative scenaric approach to photograping. Portra 400 is a nice film for general use around all formats IMO.
 
Nowhereman said:
@vigil - thanks, your saying that you've been inspired is most rewarding. Usually, hundreds of people look at posts like mine but less than a handful comment. A digression: Steve Gandy's decision not to have a "thanks" button is, I think, misguided: he equates that with Facebook "likes", but he's as misguided in this as insisting on calling the "M240" the "M10".

@Portra 400 - thanks commenting and am glad that you like some of these pictures.

It's also rewarding shooting Portra 400 film, particularly in a hybrid workflow I think. Below are some shots with Portra 400 exposed at ISO 1600 and pushed 2 stop in development by the lab. The first three are taken in a dark food court in the basement of a department store and the fourth in a dark, indoor food market. Both these place are unusually dark with pools of intense light. The fifth picture is taken in bright sun: I shot several frames when I stepped out of the market into bright sunlight to see how Portra 400 pushed 2 stops would look — I ike the resulting color of this shot, which shows how versatile this film is.

I also like the feeling of death created by the lighting and colors created by the light in the first shots, which was shot from a dark area in the foreground. Overall pushing 2 stops, of course increases contrast, and I like this look.
_______________
Alone in Bangkok essay on BURN Magazine
Click to expand...
The likes thing I don't know. I am on Instagram which is mainly a likes platform and I dislike the devaluation of work (my case), after just trying out posting. Still, I keep contact with a couple of photographers and have constructive discussion in the comments. Part of the reason I don't share and publish is gathering up the work and then the feeling of leaving it out for the air to carry into nowhere (feedback or lack thereof).

Nice pushed results, and has an homogeneity with the other box speed shots. Back when it came out I recall seeing a few people testing it out, and even 3200 shots that were amazing, Matt Marrash' shot at Times square (plenty lighting may helped a lot hough).

I still haven't found myself on the need of pushing Portra 400. I am trying out Ektar in 35mm because of prolific "good light" shooting on this season and the want of a cleaner look. I have received way too electrified and amped results with it, and seen that people (Jon Canlas) are pushing it just because. Having a flatbed and the non-proficiency at it, I don't want to overcomplicate hings with pushing.
 
Nowhereman said:
I found one Japanese photographer, Tadahiko Hirome who uses that lighter Portra contrast and followed her to LensCulture where she has her project called A Japanese Image. I like some of the shots; she photographs herself in the scene.
Click to expand...

FWIW Tadahiko is a he, not a she, so that's not him in any of those photos. Of course he could just be very good at 女装, but since he was born in 1969 (according to his website) I doubt he would scrub up to be as photogenic as the young female models in his photographs 😉
 
Funny, reading "bullet proof" in the title of this thread, an over exposed and overdeveloped negative came into my mind. 🙂

Wonderful photos!
 
@ Prest 400 - in the segment of my post that you quote, "death" should read "depth" — computer autocorrection strikes again. I've corrected it in my earlier post.

@jonmanjiro - sorry I don't know how the name "Tadahiko Hirome" crept in: as shown in the LensCulture link, the name should be "Tadahiko Hisatomi". A web search for that name came with this page, which states that "Occasionally she’s also using herself as the subject of her photography"— so it's definitely a not a question of being a crossdresser. 😀

@Nikos72 - thanks for the kind words.

_______________
Alone in Bangkok essay on BURN Magazine
 
Nowhereman said:
@jonmanjiro - sorry I don't know how the name "Tadahiko Hirome" crept in: as shown in the LensCulture link, the name should be "Tadahiko Hisatomi". A web search for that name came with, which states that "Occasionally she’s also using herself as the subject of her photography"— so it's definitely a not a question of being a crossdresser. 😀
Click to expand...

I saw the name shown at the LensCulture link is "Tadahiko Hisatomi" and assumed you just transferred the name here incorrectly.

Your web search dug up a page with incorrect information by someone who doesn't know the difference between female and male Japanese names. Tadahiko Hisatomi is definitely a he. Tadahiko is a male first name (kanji is 忠彦) and Hisatomi is his family name (kanji is 久富). The kanji is shown in the header of his website here.

Also, at the LensCulture website you linked in your first post about him, he states he was born in 1969 (link). So he is definitely not that pretty young woman shown on this this page 😉

No biggie, was just pointing out that Tadahiko is not cleverly inserting himself into his images stylishly dressed as a pretty young woman.
 
I've shot Portra 400 in Bangkok myself, and I agree with everything you've said. It's a marvellous film and on the rare occasions I shoot colour, that's my hands-down favorite to do so.
For me I love how it renders colour, it just 'looks like' what life looks like. It's the closest thing I've seen and felt to Kodachrome.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BN10SIFDKmb/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BN0H5GQjDOJ/
 
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