I shot both Portra 160 against Fuji 160 with my wonderful Bronica Zenza ETRS 6by45 camera. I shot with the 75mm f2.8 lens on location in Central London.
Making comparisons with this camera is relatively straightforward because it has an interchangeable back. All you have to do is pop the dark slide back in, unhook it from the camera and voila you can transfer your other back and shoot away to your heart's content. This gave me the ability to make as close to a fair comparison as possible between the film stocks.
Portra 160 is one of the most, if not, the most popular portrait and fashion film stock. With its very fine grain, high saturation and low contrast it captures life like images of subjects, models, family whoever they may be - especially in medium format.
Fujicolor Pro was a line of professional color negative films from the Japanese company Fujifilm introduced in 2004 for weddings, portraits, fashion and commercial photography. It originally comprised four emulsions: Pro 160S, Pro 160C, Pro 400H and Pro 800Z. Pro 160C, Pro 400H and Pro800 Z have all been discontinued. Its main competitor was Kodak Portra.
I am comparing these film stocks to see the differences in colour, saturation. In terms of pricing in the UK both film stocks retail from about £14-15 a roll upwards so not much happening on that front but this may help you when considering your next colour negative film shoot!
From my experience with both 400 film stocks, I know that the Fuji Colour films tend to be more saturated in colour whereas Portra tends to have a cooler palette. The differences between the film stock arose due to the geography of their respective countries. The original film stocks were developed with the local population in mind and as such this has affected how skintones from different countries are rendered.
Every shot was taken on the same shutter speed, aperture and I even tried to keep framing and posing as identical and humanly possible throughout the shoot. Perhaps you could argue changing light between shots but the time taken to swap film backs was negligible. I was really trying to get the most consistent results possible.
As you can see from the shots generally the colors are different and as mentioned the Fuji generally has greater saturation and what appears to be a warmer tone. However this is not always the case. Take this shot of Charlotte standing, the warmer tones were from the Portra and the Fuji gave much cooler saturation. Both film stocks have fine film grain and unless you are really zooming in far you’re not going to see the grain.
Make sure that when you are shooting with it you use a dedicated light meter. Two main reasons, one you have paid £15 a roll for it and you better get your money's worth and secondly you need to be careful particularly in lower light conditions and carefully meter for the shadows. This will have an impact on the rendition of your image and particularly when shooting with film you need to make sure that the shadows are carefully highlighted so if you need to you can bring that back in post!
My favourite shot from the film stocks was the one with Charlotte looking just slightly over her shoulder in the direction of the camera while slightly perched on the wall. Also the image of her learning into the camera was pretty cool. The other shots were great too, like the one with her messy across her face as well the power stance near the end.
This was a fun afternoon out shooting with Portra 160 and Fuji 160 on medium format. Have you shot with the Bronica Zenza ETRS or similar 6by45 camera?
Thank you for watching all my videos, do go ahead and comment below. I would love to hear your thoughts on this shoot, the images, how you have shot with either of these film stocks? which are your likes and dislikes about them? What do you recommend I shoot next with it?
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