Color film recommendations for church baptism?

[DerekF]

My niece's baptism is coming up this weekend and I've (been) volunteered to take some pics of the ceremony. Although I'm planning to pack lots of Tri-X, I was wondering what others might recommend for color film? I have some limited experience with Kodak Portra 160 NC and quite liked the neutral colour rendition of the two or three rolls I shot, but I suspect that a 160 film will be too slow for a relatively dark church interior. I don't know how the 400 variants of Portra or Fuji NPH fare and I'm reluctant to consider the 800 versions of these films. Are there other portrait films I should be considering?

 

[DerekF]

BTW, I forgot to mention this in my previous posting, but my pics will all be shot in available light. I'm planning to bring my 35/2 and 75/2 Summicrons to keep my gear to a minimum.

Thanks!

 

[kaiyen]

Available light only?

Well, I'd bring along Fuji 400H as your 400 speed. I don't like the grain/noise of the higher speed stuff, but if you gotta go faster then bring some 800 along, I guess. If you can find any Konica 1600 that was my preferred stock for that speed.

The 400H is a nice film.

allan

 

[BrianShaw]

Go with Allan's suggestion!

 

[clarence]

160 will not get you any shots in interiors, in my experience. But maybe my churches have all been a bit dark.

If it's a modern church they might have plenty of artificial lighting, but these will cause colour casts on your film. If you used a filter to correct the colour, you would have even less speed to work with.

I would suggest bringing some 400, but mostly 800 and 1600 film.

If you can bring a tripod or monopod, however, you can afford to use the relatively slower films.

At the last baptism I attended, there were flashes going off everywhere; mostly from digital point and shoots that everyone and her sister was carrying, but there were two parishioners who were armed with Metz hammerhead flashes. If the same thing is going to happen at your church, you won't have to worry about being the only one disrupting the service with any artificial light.

(What was I shooting with, then? A half-frame camera with Neopan 400 rated at 1600, no flash.)

Clarence

 

[DerekF]

Available light only?

Well, I'd bring along Fuji 400H as your 400 speed. I don't like the grain/noise of the higher speed stuff, but if you gotta go faster then bring some 800 along, I guess. If you can find any Konica 1600 that was my preferred stock for that speed.

The 400H is a nice film.

allan

Thanks for the tip, Allan! I've never used that film before, but I would certainly be willing to buy a couple of rolls to supplement the load of Tri-X I'll be bringing with me.

I've read some comments that this film is better exposed at 320. what are your thoughts on that? I'd rather not lose the extra stop if the difference will be negligible... how well can I expect this film to fare with mixed lighting sources? (candlelight, natural light, tungsten, etc.)

 

[kaiyen]

I've only used 400H one time before, but preferred it very much to the 400NC and 400VC options from Kodak. And the film it replaced - NPS or NPC or whatever it was - was also very nice.

You can expose at 400 and it'll be okay. If you can get away with 320 that's better, but noise is not noticeable at 400 at all.

The fuji films claim to be better with mixed lighting because of their special "4th layer" technology. It seems to do okay, but you can't turn a daylight film into a tungsten film with an extra layer.

allan

 

[willie_901]

If you go with Fuji 800 color, expose it at ISO 640. This greatly improves the shadow grain.

willie

 

[Fedzilla_Bob]

Kodak Portra 800 might be a good bet. It was designed for events like weddings.