I mostly shoot wildlife but I've been asked to do some portraits. I usually use transparency film, provia or ektachrome, but is that the best choice when multiple prints might be requested. I'd prefer not to go to interneg for printing.

Mike Kitei

-- Michael Kitei (mkitei@intotheglades.com), June 28, 2001

Answers

Portra works very well, since it's designed for nice skin tones and restrained colors. (Try XP2 for b/w.) However, if you output digitally, you can use anything you want.

-- John Kantor (jkantor@mindspring.com), June 28, 2001.

I like Portra too, but there aren't as many labs in the D.C./Boston areas (where I live/go to school) that print on Portra paper, which to me is an important part of the equation in getting the most out of this film for portraits. Fuji NPH prints very well on Fuji or Agfa Prestige papers when shot at 320, and while I do prefer Portra, I end up using NPH more often for ease of getting good prints. If you find a Portra lab, though, PortraNC would be my choice.

-- Eamonn Aiken (eamonn@emulsionz.com), June 28, 2001.

Portra does scan very nicely too.

-- John Kantor (jkantor@mindspring.com), June 28, 2001.

If you can find a compentent digital printer the choice of slide or negative film is almost irrelvant, which give you the freedom to pick the colour reproduction you like best. I like the ease of proofing with transparencies (I used to use a lot of Astia), but the flexibility and long tonal range of negative films gives me more options.

I am a Portra fan too, and use the NC versions as my general carry-around films, as well as for posed portraits. I like Fuji's NPH, but I dislike the other speed offerings from Fuji, and for me, one of the best things about the Portra series is that it gives me a range of emulsion speeds with a matched look. The Portra dyes are nominally more stable in the long term, if that matters to you.

When Portra first appeared I had terrible trouble finding labs that could print it well. Something about the dyes brings out the worst in cheap RA4 papers - and low-end scanners too. These days it's much easier to get good looking prints and proofs, and when I print myself I'm happy with the results on Kodak and Agfa portrait papers (Fuji papers are invisible on the Swedish market, for home darkrooms, so I haven't tried them).

A lot of people say Kodak flims don't print well on the Fuji Frontier machines, but some of the very best prints I have had done came from a Frontier. As always, it's the operator that counts. If you have a trusted local lab, ask them, not us.

-- Struan Gray (struan.gray@sljus.lu.se), June 29, 2001.

For portraits, I use Fuji NPH rated at EI 250. As other have noted, no matter which film you choose, you'll need to find a lab that does a good job of printing it. You'll probably have the best luck with labs that specialize in portrait/wedding processing/printing.

-- Mike Dixon (mike@mikedixonphotography.com), June 29, 2001.