portra 400 for autumn

[jesse1996]

Hey all, I'm down to only a couple sheets of ektar and provia but i have six sheets of portraits 400. I wanted to know if there's a way to really make this film pop color wise? Underexposure? pushing/pulling? I dont want the film to go to waste since this autumn in new york was kinda crummy because of the temperature swings and i'm hoping it may be a bit better down south.

[Pere Casals]

Hey all, I'm down to only a couple sheets of ektar and provia but i have six sheets of portraits 400. I wanted to know if there's a way to really make this film pop color wise? Underexposure? pushing/pulling? I dont want the film to go to waste since this autumn in new york was kinda crummy because of the temperature swings and i'm hoping it may be a bit better down south.

Portra may be fine for landscapes depending on what you want, if you want stronger colors then you may use a Polarizer to increase saturation and/or an (Hoya) intensifier filter.

https://photoframd.com/2010/10/15/enhance-fall-colors-with-an-intensifier-filter/
https://web.archive.org/web/20160326161007/https://photoframd.com/2010/10/15/enhance-fall-colors-with-an-intensifier-filter/

An "intensifier" filter blocks certain band to help tonal separation:

197519

[jp]

Saturation is only a slider in PS. It' easier to bump it up than tame it. Go forth and shoot.

[Pere Casals]

Yes... But selective saturation and tonal differentiation is what another thing...

[jesse1996]

sounds like I have a non-issue on my hands!

[Pere Casals]

If you are to scan then better editing the image than playing with push-pull, IMHO. Anyway the right light filtration in the taking may make a difference, some filters provide effects in the image that later can be difficult to emulate by editing a digital image.

[Drew Wiley]

I'm not thrilled with it. Liked its predecessor, 160VS, better for this kind of thing. Bagging loud colors is easy. Or just nuke em in PS like every monkey out there does. Making them "pop" in conjunction with adjacent neutrals, instead of just slathering more and more honey and jam atop of sugar cubes, takes a better eye as well as a more neutral film. Portra 400 is just a tad too artificially warm in the neutrals to do that. And I specifically say neutrals to differentiate this from just warming a shot overall, which is easy. I'd rather go either side of this film - either Portra 160 lower contrast, or Ektar 100 higher, depending. But the only way to know if it suits you better or not is to try it. It's an excellent film in its own right, but not ideal in my opinion for color landscape work. There are a lot of subtle hues it struggles to differentiate, and without those, all you get is sheer cranked-up volume, noise. Intensity sings best in proximity to calm areas, and how colors modulate one another.