italy74
Well-known
Here I am, guys
and this time I can talk a bit more. I can also show you some untouched scans but I warn you, don't look at them for the quality (the lab did in 1500x1000 which is nuts) rather for the comment I'm going to provide in a minute.
Prints are indeed beautiful and generally colours are pleasing and nicely saturated while maintaining a good fidelity for skin tones. Also flash and indoor light affected few or nothing skin with its usual yellowish cast. Maybe a tad more than the NC but MUCH LESS than the VC - at least to my eye and for what I'm used to see printed here. Scans looks a bit more yellowish than prints, actually, especially on the picture about Sara (see below)
Imho, it works great for reds, purple, pinks, blues (yes, it may be used also as a sky film) and greens. Where I was surprised to have apparently some issues were whites and a certain tonality of dark (copper) reds, or dark brown typical of hair and some eyes.
First whites, the strangest thing I had ever seen. In an evenly lit place under a cloudy sky (go figure!) I was shooting with a F6 (! - metering should not be an issue LOL) and a 200 mm and had the necessity to underexpose half stop to get a decent DOF. There were lots of colours in the image; what I didn't expect in such a context where whites which "exploded" as if they were strongly overexposed (again, the frame was UNDEREXPOSED half stop, thus I would have expected a darker white at most) - I had a bunch of flowers whose details just vanished in a white blot, period. Also the edges of some hats and flags were barely visible.
Second, copper reds. A few evenings ago, I went to visit a colleague of mine who just had a baby and took a few snapshot of them: both my wife, his wife and his older daughter have copper red / brown hair and eyes. Well, again F6, Metz 48 AF1 - 1/60s F/5.6, bounced flash. Everything was fine except hair (Betta's and Sara's were two darkish blot on prints) and eyes (Sara's eyes were even scaring, you know those dark holes you see in certain horror movies? You couldn't distinguish the iris from the pupil). Also here I was surprised of such "strange" underexposure (by much) while the rest of the picture was lit more or less evenly.
To make it short, and to let you look at the images, gladly scans retained those details who went lost in prints thus I just have to warn the lab about this, but at first I was surprised that a new film would have failed so badly for two colours (whites and dark reds) which aren't that rare in images, especially of people.
Here are the links to the 4 pictures with comments - they are in Italian since I had to show to the Kodak man asking for my opinion, but you already know the story, thus is not a problem. Again, as usual, prints are MUCH better than what you see on screen, except the missing details you may see ONLY on screen. Other pictures have been affected on prints but this is just a sample.
By the way the event I stumbled upon by chance was a ceremony for the soldiers and the men fallen in all wars.
WHITES /1: look at flowers ( 1/250s - F/8 - -0.5 EV)
WHITES /2: look at hats (1/180s - F/8 - -0.5 EV)
REDS /1: Look at Betta's hair
REDS /2: Look at Sara's hair and eyes
Here's the link at the whole gallery, still hidden.
http://italy74.smugmug.com/All-the-rest-2/Other/Portra-400-nuova/14598816_rqZGP
and this time I can talk a bit more. I can also show you some untouched scans but I warn you, don't look at them for the quality (the lab did in 1500x1000 which is nuts) rather for the comment I'm going to provide in a minute.
Prints are indeed beautiful and generally colours are pleasing and nicely saturated while maintaining a good fidelity for skin tones. Also flash and indoor light affected few or nothing skin with its usual yellowish cast. Maybe a tad more than the NC but MUCH LESS than the VC - at least to my eye and for what I'm used to see printed here. Scans looks a bit more yellowish than prints, actually, especially on the picture about Sara (see below)
Imho, it works great for reds, purple, pinks, blues (yes, it may be used also as a sky film) and greens. Where I was surprised to have apparently some issues were whites and a certain tonality of dark (copper) reds, or dark brown typical of hair and some eyes.
First whites, the strangest thing I had ever seen. In an evenly lit place under a cloudy sky (go figure!) I was shooting with a F6 (! - metering should not be an issue LOL) and a 200 mm and had the necessity to underexpose half stop to get a decent DOF. There were lots of colours in the image; what I didn't expect in such a context where whites which "exploded" as if they were strongly overexposed (again, the frame was UNDEREXPOSED half stop, thus I would have expected a darker white at most) - I had a bunch of flowers whose details just vanished in a white blot, period. Also the edges of some hats and flags were barely visible.
Second, copper reds. A few evenings ago, I went to visit a colleague of mine who just had a baby and took a few snapshot of them: both my wife, his wife and his older daughter have copper red / brown hair and eyes. Well, again F6, Metz 48 AF1 - 1/60s F/5.6, bounced flash. Everything was fine except hair (Betta's and Sara's were two darkish blot on prints) and eyes (Sara's eyes were even scaring, you know those dark holes you see in certain horror movies? You couldn't distinguish the iris from the pupil). Also here I was surprised of such "strange" underexposure (by much) while the rest of the picture was lit more or less evenly.
To make it short, and to let you look at the images, gladly scans retained those details who went lost in prints thus I just have to warn the lab about this, but at first I was surprised that a new film would have failed so badly for two colours (whites and dark reds) which aren't that rare in images, especially of people.
Here are the links to the 4 pictures with comments - they are in Italian since I had to show to the Kodak man asking for my opinion, but you already know the story, thus is not a problem. Again, as usual, prints are MUCH better than what you see on screen, except the missing details you may see ONLY on screen. Other pictures have been affected on prints but this is just a sample.
By the way the event I stumbled upon by chance was a ceremony for the soldiers and the men fallen in all wars.
WHITES /1: look at flowers ( 1/250s - F/8 - -0.5 EV)
WHITES /2: look at hats (1/180s - F/8 - -0.5 EV)
REDS /1: Look at Betta's hair
REDS /2: Look at Sara's hair and eyes
Here's the link at the whole gallery, still hidden.
http://italy74.smugmug.com/All-the-rest-2/Other/Portra-400-nuova/14598816_rqZGP
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