Push color 400 or go to 800asa

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I'm looking up some info about fast color films for evening/night shots on city streets lit-up by street lights and whatever lignt comes out of stores, bars/clubs and such.
I was thinking about Portra 400VC for evening and pushing it to 800 at night, or going straight to Portra 800. I don't know about 800 though (as far as grain/contrast is concerned). Of course, 800 is higher in price as well.

Has anyone tried pushing Portra 400VC and do you have samples of the way it looks at night?

Maybe there are fuji films to consider. I just like the way Portra looks.

Thanks!
 
I've never pushed either of the Portra 400s. I prefer 400NC though. I also like 800. I'd just use 800. You get a real speed boost out of it, and it looks great, and Kodak might keep making it because people are buying it.

I think Portra 800 is a fantastic film.
 
Portra is designed for controlled lighting. Kodak's amateur film would probably work better with the varoety of lighting on a city street. Color neg film doesn't push very well.
 
From what I've read, as Al said above, you don't pull- or push-process color film, mostly because it's pretty tolerant to over- and underexposure. In short, you simply over- or underexpose it, and then have it developed without any further instructions. Now, if you need color negative film ISO 800, or even 1600, just use that type of film (and, if you want, overexpose it by half-stop).

You can only push- or pull-process black-and-white and transparency film.
 
Thanks guys!
Does anyone have anything to say about Fujicolor Press 800 vs Portra 800 vs anything else 800 for my requirements?
The price difference is pretty big, but what about the results?

Should I consider fast slide film as well? The only thing is that I like to shoot on short notice, so my exposures will not be perfect at least half of the time.

I'll be shooting with a 35mm RF camera.
 
Oh yeah, I forgot to ask if I should use an incandescent or some other filter for the street/bar/club lighting or just shoot the film as is.
 
Portra 800 is wonderful. It was designed for pushing it. As every color print film, it needs a lot of light. For normal C41 I rate it at 400 handheld. For low light I rate it at 1200 with a push2.

Regards,

Juan
 
I've found the Fuji films to handle mixed lighting better than the Kodak, though I've not tested the latest Kodak versions as I'm very happy with my Fuji 400H & 800Z.
 
Hi Juan, do you have any samples of your pushed photos that I can check out? I haven't dealt with color films of this speed before.
I'll send you a private message with my email address.
Thanks!
 
Generally speaking the pro films like Portra are designed for contolled lighting such as electronic flash/daylight, which is in the range of 6500 degrees Kelvin (6500K) while amateur films are designed for dumb amateurs who think that light is light. If you don't want to play around with filters use an amateur "drugstore" film. They also work better for mixed lighting situations, like windowlight together with tungsten, or flourescent mixed with tungsten.

Remember that household light bulbs are in the 2,800 degrees Kelvin range (quite red) while professional studio lights are 3,200K, which is why household light bulbs don't burn out so quickly. You'll need an 80B blue filter for 3,200K bulbs. It doesn't completely correct for household bulbs but it gets you in the ball park. There must be a jillion different flourescent bulb types and they are all green to some extent or another. Part of the problem is that they have a discontiuous spectrum. Some wave lengths of light just aren't there. An FL-D filter is designed to give you acceptable pleasing color with daylight color films, which doesn't mean accurate.

For best results use the filters recomended for color transparency films in various lighting situations, even with color negative films. If you're using fill flash inside a room with tunsten light put a filter on the flash to correct it to tungsten. Vivitar makes such filters that fit a lot of their flash units.

Sepiareverb is right about Fuji films handling mixed lighting better than Kodak.
 
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i tried pushing portra 400vc to 800 once...only once.

colours and contrast came out horrible. i won't be trying it again.

the following examples were the best i could get off the roll, the rest were just too funky (or too boring)



 
I've never used Portra 800 but I have used Fuji Pro 800Z. It is a great film for low light street type work. I generally shoot at f/1.4 at 1/60 and the results are gorgeous. I have a few samples on the front page of my flickr stream.
 
Akiva, it would be a pleasure... I just don't know how to post images here, but I can send them to you if you send me your e-mail... Or if you teach me how to post here... (I'm using a Linux laptop...)

Cheers,

Juan

By the way, I love Hendrix and I love and have each and every one of his records, and I love Castles made of sand (from Cry of love, if I remember well...)
 
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