Today, we’re keeping the Kodak train moving – this time with Portra 800.
The Portra Elephant in the Room
I know that for a lot of people Kodak Portra 400 is the absolute go-to. The pinnacle of film stocks. As far as social media is concerned, Portra 400 is the film look.
And it’s obvious why, right? It renders skin-tones well for those super candid candids, it has a tasteful touch of grain for that #film look and 400 ISO makes it a flexible, do-it-all film stock.
So, if Portra 400 is a an analog-god’s gift to mankind, what’s the deal with it’s faster, grainier sibling, Portra 800? Let’s find out.
Objective
As the name implies, Portra film stocks are known for how well they capture skin tones. The Portra look emphasizes warmth with exceptional detail in the different red, orange, yellow and brown hues.
My objective was to use this aspect of Portra 800 to bring out the best of the fall colors in NYC.
Portra 800 Results
Daylight
This first shot out a coffee shop window does just that. Half the trees are a beautiful shade of tan while the other half are a lively green with leaves barely tinting yellow. I think Portra 800 does an excellent job capturing that detail.
I’d also like to note that the shot on the right is one stop brighter than shot on the left, getting me significantly more detail in the shadows.
Moving forward, here’s a classic shot I take of Central Park on pretty much every roll:
The sky is rendered a de-saturated blue while the grass is a spry lemon-lime. If you take a closer look at the treeline, you’ll see plenty of diversity in the oranges, browns and reds.
This is one of my favorite shots on the roll with two different edits.
The left has a much more mild edit that is intuitive to my style. When I tried to recreate some of the photos that I like on Instagram, I essentially just boosted the highlights and shadows to make a brighter photo.
Again, this photo shows why I wanted to use this film stock at this time of year. Beautiful, lively greens with true-to-life browns.
But any film stock can look fabulous in full outdoor light, so what does that 800 ISO really get us?
Indoors
Now these Thanksgiving Day shots have quite a bit of soft window light, but these were shot at 1/250 f/2.8. To get this look on a 100 ISO film stock, I’d have to shoot at 1/30 which is far more prone to blurry photos from shaky hands. If you need to rock some faster shutter speeds, 800 ISO is definitely a real difference.
Quick side note: I’ve only noticed it on these two photos, but there are some halations from the plates! A lot of people look to film stocks like CineStill 800T for this specific effect, so it’s worth noting that it can happen here.
Night
I only took a handful of shots on Portra 800 at night, but when you get the settings right the results are jaw-dropping.
For me, these photos kinda have it all. Solid subject matter, striking colors, deep contrast and lots of visible details. I don’t usually like to use the word cinematic, but these do have a cinematic feel to me.
Portra 800 Wrap Up
As I review this roll of Portra 800, I think it mostly went according to plan with a couple surprises mixed in. My hypothesis was correct; Portra 800 does render the autumn colors of Central Park in an incredible way. I’ll include a few less interesting shots below so you can get some more examples of the foliage, but I’m happy to say the indoor and nighttime shots look good too.
While I was happy to experiment with this roll, I think next time I shoot Portra 800 I’ll be doing actual portraits. If you wanna see more reviews like this, check out my previous post on Kodak Ektar 100 or check out a video recap over on YouTube!
