Question re: MF color print films, Portra?

Warren T.

Warren T.

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Hi Folks,

I have an opportunity to shoot an indoor family portrait at the home of a friend. There will be 10 people in the picture. I plan to use electronic flash of some sort (I have not decided the exact configuration yet).

I am thinking of dragging out my medium format gear for this session, but I have not kept up with the latest developments on MF color print films.

I was wondering which film you would suggest for this purpose. I was thinking of using Kodak 160NC. What do you think?

Is there a noticeable difference in grain or anything else between 400NC and 160NC?

I will, of course, try it out beforehand, but I wanted to get some input from folks who have shot these films recently for some ideas :).

Thanks!

Warren
 
Can't help with the Kodak films, but I use Fuji Reala (ISO100) and NP400H. Both are excellent films, Reala being a great landscape film. NP400H is a great multi-purpose film, with little visible grain.

The 400 speed films would give you a little more flexibility with lighting, although if your flash sync is slow (1/30 or slower), you may be better served by the slower speed film.

I don't think you can go too far wrong with any of the MF print films, they are all pretty good. In the end it will be pure personal preference & availability.
 
The killer if you're shooting MF will be the depth of field. How many people are you shooting and in how many rows? What type of flash? If you have a couple of rows of people and are shooting with battery flash guns you'll have to use a fast film -maybe fuji 800 print film to get f11 or f16 which will give you half a chance of getting everyone sharp in frame. I don't have any experience with portra being something of a monochrome or slide user, but to be honest I don't think there's a bad film in fuji or kodak's pro film line up these days.
 
An indoor portrait would suggest to me the 400NC - which I meter at 250. It's a nice film - grain is very tight, especially since you're starting with a big neg.
 
Warren T. said:
Hi Folks,

I have an opportunity to shoot an indoor family portrait at the home of a friend. There will be 10 people in the picture. I plan to use electronic flash of some sort (I have not decided the exact configuration yet).

I am thinking of dragging out my medium format gear for this session, but I have not kept up with the latest developments on MF color print films.


If I were going into the unknown like that with my Mamiya RB Pro S, I would probably be bringing some tri-x. If its good enough for Annie Leibovitz and her Mamiya, its certainly good enough for me.

You can always carry more film for a security blanket.

She does most of her work with that camera if I recall. l
Click to expand...
 
I too would vote for 400 speed. With a large negative, grain (and the Portra 400 is very fine-grained) is not an issue.

For flash, I hope you're using some sort of diffusion, e.g. bounce, umbrealla, etc. Direct flash for a group portrait is ugly, IMO. My preferred method is to bounce off ceilings and walls, but that presumes those surfaces are a neutral colour. Most ceilings are white, so it's usually easy enough. This presumes you have enough flash power, or more than one unit, stands, etc. I have a couple of Rollei E36-RE units. At 400, bouncing one of those off a ceiling is quite sufficient unless the ceiling is very high.
 
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