A Side by Side Film Test: Portra 400 vs Portra 800
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 มิ.ย. 2024
- Today FIND team member Austin conducts some side by side tests of two Kodak film stocks. Portra 400 and Portra 800. Tune in as we explore how these films handle various lighting situations including low light. Did one perform better than the other? The results may surprise you.
Which film won? What should be next? You Decide! Leave a comment telling us what you would like to see.
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It's probably hard to imagine today the pressure for manufacturers to 'bump" the stated film speed of a film back in the day when film was all there was - no digital, no phones, etc. If you look at their guides that get packed with the film it can be seen that Portra 800 is really closer to a true 400 speed film and Portra 400 is more like 250 or 200, thus why everyone "rates at" those speeds instead of box. It's not really so much a hack as simply acknowledging what the speed of the film actually is. Very nice demo!
Nice video, as a newwer film shooter it was really helpful seeing seeing all the stops over/under and how well the film performs.
Very insightful and well-produced!
Good job Austin! This was awesome!
Very interesting and well done video. Thank you !
This is fantastic, I love how methodical you guys were with the comparison; it's super useful to have such a clean analysis of the 400 and 800 Portra options!
As film comparisons go, the procedures here are far more technically accomplished than any I have previously seen on YT. Congrats. What I find a bit surprising is that that the 800 overall held up better to pushing and pulling. On the other hand, all you have to do is watch the grey scale tones on the color charts to see that these films color shift noticeably with even minor over or under exposure, contrary to the massive amounts of mythology which is pushed on YT to the contrary. In fairness, I suspect that you'd see the same shifts in other similar films. Why folks shoot expensive, high speed color films like these in open sunlight or daylight remains unexplained, but I attribute it to the copy-culture herd instinct which is so common on YT. One negative comment: He is not using his incident light meter properly, so that may be effecting the results a little. You do not recess the incident dome in open daylight, as that defeats its reason to exist, and you point the meter from the subject to the camera, not up at the sky or down at the ground (as specifically suggested). However, as long as he makes the same errors consistently, the results should be valid overall. The technically correct metering procedure would be to use a reflection meter, measuring just the 18% grey patch of the grey scale card.
They didn't push or pull anything in this video. They just overexposed and underexposed.
Thank you for a very professional set of experiments and review.
Great video y’all! And the comment about taking into account different skin tones (which companies never really did) shows that you guys are educated and smart 👍🏼
Thank you for making this
This was an incredible example and loved how in depth this went. You have the chapter markers for viewers who want to skip around too. Really love this educational format. Thank you for taking the time to put this together.
One thing that would be helpful is knowing what scan settings you used for these images based off your scanning form on the website. An in depth video on how to get the best out of scanning from your team and what notes to add etc... could be a highly valueable video. I see some blog posts about this but I'd love a more in depth video similiar to this about how to achive certain looks.
For example you went over the scan settings briefly in this video and you said everything was scanned on the Noritsu and scanned at netural. Based on your scanning form I added the questions below just to get clarification.
These were standard scans with minor exposure/color adjustments in lightroom? or is that a premium scan?
What size were they scanned at, Regular, Large, Ultra?
Color, Exposure, and Contrast Preferences were all Neutral?
In the notes section - were these scanned for Highlights, Midtones, or Shadows?
What a refreshingly welcome opening statement about folks with melanin! Instant subscription!
Nice work! 😎👍🏻
Quite insightful
I saw the first shot of the mountains and knew it was in Utah! Awesome video
Interesting content, thanks!
perfect video thank you
This is awesome
Were these scanned with the photometry function and then matched for density? If not, then Noritsu did auto color adjustments frame by frame so it’s hard to know if any color discrepancies is due to the Noritsu or inherent to the film.
Just off the hand gestures you can tell this a knowledgeable guy
its the glove my man
“As a photographer its really important to know how to shoot everybody”😂😂
All jokes aside I love that you guys are taking into account different skin tones and equipping folks with the info they need to get the shots they want! Ive never seen anyone else make the same comparison!
Conclusion: Don’t underexpose film !! Ever !! Great video. Thank you…
awesome thank you!
You're welcome!
Good haircut Taylor!
FRESH FADEAWAY IN PLEASANT GROVE UT!!!!
shoutout taylor bruh cus whenever i see a photo of my face mad under exposed with no detail i die a little 😂
Great test. What confused me is the way you reversed terminology and for half of the video I was wounding what was up.
When you said -2 for example I thought you were pulling but but you meant -2 exposure and in developing terms that a push, or +2. You might want to clarify whether your terms are in camera or using standard developing terminology for future vids. I finally figured it out when I saw your settings.
Thanks for this.
I got a pentax 645 for 301 USD shipped from ebay based on you all recommending it in your other video!!
Congrats! That's a great camera!
ha, well, It made me search for videos about Portra because a LOT of my photos were coming back dark! I had no idea what I was doing wrong especially if I meter all the time. So I had to learn the hard (expensive) way that the best way to get good results is to overexpose thia film.
Question though: when you shoot something - a person, a landscpae - do you take few shots with different settings to make sure one of them will be actually okay ?
Our general advice at the lab (for color negative film) is to rate film one stop slower than the box speed. So Portra 400 would end up at 200 ISO. This will expose the film a little brighter right off the bat.
From there we'll expose for the shadow area of our image. Which is why we're metering bulb in and tilting the light meter down when we meter.
But if you are ever wondering about a scene taking a few photos at different settings is a great idea. It will defiantly help you get a shot that is exposed well. And seeing the multiple shots at different exposures is wonderful for gaining a greater understanding of how film renders.
Sickkkk
do you guys always shoot with flash on?
We will shoot with flash if we are indoors, need extra light, or are going for a specific look. The images in this video were all shot with natural light!
If you pay for the rolls and processing I'd be glad to make tests.
Wait, "box" for an ISO 800 film in hazy sun is 1/125 @ f/16? So much for the Sunny 16 Rule...
its sidelit
Also, the "SIDELIT" x3 where he was saying it was direct sun should clarify...
From experience, the sunny 16 is a rough guide, you've got to watch the shadows to really determine the subjective nature of the light and even at that, my judgments are not always right.. Can't go wrong with a light meter..
Was really exited to hear you having two different subjects and doing such a good exposure range but then you didn’t meter correctly, so thanks for that. Also you scanned them on the Noritsu which doesn’t handle exposure errors as well as the Frontier which would have shown how far out you can actually still get usable shots.
It would have also been good to have gotten some street light and tungsten light shots to see how these films Handel artificial light.
Hey, you know what, you should put 20+ hours and >$50 into doing all this! I think that's a great idea!
@@Noah-lj2sg I actually shot tests after seeing this video from six stops over to five stops under. And it didn’t take me 20h+. Wouldn’t have if I had shot it in four different lighting conditions. Two of which aren’t that useful anyway since the contrast ratio more or less stays the same. You know it doesn’t do anything putting money and time into something like this if you’re not doing it right.
@@VariTimo but they shared their result and that was actually kind of them and we can't complain one little bit. Other than you, who's benefited from your test?
@@joshmcdzz6925 I made my tests for myself. They’re a lab. And I think it’s pretty sad that a lab doesn’t have a more rigorous testing methodology than some dude who does this as a hobby. But don’t worry at some point I’ll share my tests. You’ll notice because they’ll become definitive, because I’m gonna do it properly.
+ 1 ?
This test was counterintuitive. I would expect a "400" film to perform better in bright light, and and "800" film to perform better in the shade but it seems the opposite was true. The colors of 800 just didnt hold up as well underexposed in the shade.
RIGHT?! One thing to note is this "counterintuitiveness" came from shooting in DAYLIGHT. Do this test indoors or under tungsten lighting and P400 will win EVERYTIME.