Portra vs VSCO - can someone give me a hand?

[helvetica]

I normally have the stance that film is for B&W, and digital color - but I had always wanted to try Portra. I used a 1d MK3 as a "meter" for my M645, and processed the digital files a few days before the film per taste, not trying to emulate Portra. Now I'm curious... if the CR2 file was processed via VSCO to look like Portra, how close would they look?

 

[Stuart John]

Trouble is who knows what Portra is really supposed to look like. I assume the bottom image is Portra due to the dust. In my opinion the bottom image is way too cold. If I had a print turn out like that I would reprint it somewhat warmer.

I would guess the best way would be to take some shots using portra with a grey card in the picture. Then I would make the print so the grey card would appear neutral grey. That might then allow one get an idea how portra really looks and how the skin tones and other colors look in relation to each other.

 

[Archiver]

Another issue of many is the white balance of the camera vs the intended Kelvin level of Portra. To have a more accurate go at emulating Portra, you would need to shoot test shots in Portra's intended colour temperature level along with colour checker charts, so you can see the individual colour response.

As Stuart mentioned, the lower image looks a bit cold, but then, what did the lab do to the image after scanning? Is this an accurate representation of Portra? I prefer the colours and tones of your Canon image, so that doesn't say much for wanting to emulate Portra if the lower image is anything to go by.

As for whether VSCO would be closer to Portra, I'm getting away from that kind of thinking and moving towards 'how do I consistently get a certain kind of look that I like?'

 

[35photo]

I use VSCO all the time I tend to just the Fuji Velvia 100 preset and tweak it to my liking...So it all about what you look you are looking to achieve.. The bottom image is certainly more blue than the top...That's obvious..I used to be against the whole make it look make digital look like film thing..that was years back where it was nowhere as near as good as it is today... You have so much more flexibility and the cameras are way better to making you own look at feel and tweaking to your hearts content..Its pretty hard to tell the two apart these days VSCO makes it even harder..There presets are that good.