Portra 160 film

[Mike Lopez]

I have never done any large format color work, and I want to try it for a series of indoor still-life pictures which I'll use a pair of "torch" lamps to light. Torch lamps are those ones that are about six feet tall and usually stand in the corners of people's living rooms. Anyway, my other restriction is that I think I'm limited to film available in Kodak Readyloads. (Unless someone can tell me with certainty that Fuji Quickload films can be used in a Readyload holder). I'm thinking about using Portra 160 for this project. The description on Kodak's web site leads me to believe it may be ok to use this film under my lighting conditions. Can anybody provide any further information, warnings, confirmations, etc? Thanks in advance.

[Frank Petronio]

Probably the best choice - except the Readyload version is the Vivid Color (VC) variety, so the harsh lighting I'd expect you to create with the room lights might be, well, harsh.

Fuji Quickloads and Kodak Readyloads are interchangeable, at least at f/16 ;-)

[Mike Lopez]

Thanks, Frank. So, if I somehow make the light not-so-harsh, do you think I'd be okay as far as color balance is concerned? Reciprocity shouldn't be an issue. Thanks again.

[Scott Rosenberg]

hey mike..

see this thread for your color balance issue. you may need an 80a filter to bring the temp of the torches up to ~5200K.

good luck!

[Bruce Watson]

If the lighting is what I think it is, you are basically bouncing light off the ceiling, yes? If so, one of the major components in the color of light reaching your subject is going to be the color of the paint it is bouncing off of.

In other words, if your torch is using plain old tungsten bulbs, bouncing off an "eggshell" (off-white, warm-white, whatever) ceiling, you might get quite a yellow cast. Halogen lighting will bring up the color temperture some, but probably not out of the "tungsten" realm (up from 2500K(?) to maybe 3200K(?)), especially after the bounce.

Also, beware light bouncing off the wall color, which can add some" interesting" casts to the negative. What makes this difficult is the human visual system is so adept at doing automatic on-the-fly color corrections for us that it is difficult to see what is really there - like the film does.

[Ralph Barker]

Mike - there has been considerable discussion about the interchangeability of Quickloads and Readyloads. A search of the archives here should turn up numerous threads.

Although I understand the very latest Kodak holders have been modified to allow the use of both types of film, experience with earlier models was quite mixed, with a lot of ruined film. Both films will work, however, in a Polaroid 545i/545pro holder.

[CXC]

I use PortraVC in ReadyLoads, and am happy with it. Including indoors under incandescent light, as well as candlelight. Another alternative, if you can deal with slides, would be Ektachrome 64T, balanced for tungsten, though I have never used it.

[Frank Petronio]

Lots of people shoot all kinds of mixed lighting on negative film, and I often shoot ~3200K lighting on daylight and vice versa. If you have a digital workflow and some skills in Photoshop you can make it all work - traditional printing will often give you a cross curve on daylight film used with long exposures and tungsten lighting (but NOT the other way around).

[Mike Lopez]

Thanks for all the input. I think I'll run a roll of 35mm through my wife's camera first. Hogarth, your assumption is correct--the light would be reflected off the ceiling.