Best natural light pro color wedding film w/ Leica M's?

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Dare I ask? What is your favorite color pro film for shooting weddings? I'm leaning toward using Fuji NPS/160 and NPH/ 400. Fuji also makes a similar 800 ISO film for this use.

Anyone with experience using these in late afternoon, outside shooting? Opinions? Other recommendations? Thanks--!

-- Patrick (pg@patrickgarner.com), February 20, 2002

Answers

Far and away my current preference for a wedding film is Kodak Portra 400NC. The results are very pleasing, a good compromise between color saturation and medium contrast. Make sure you have your processing done at a pro lab that has a Portra channel on their machine processor, it makes all the difference in the world.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), February 20, 2002.

Far and away my current preference for a people film in natural light is Kodak Portra 400NC. The skin-tones are incredible, as is the overall color balance. NPS/H is good film too, but with people, it's all about skin-tone, and the Portra is the winner in that department.

;-),

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), February 20, 2002.


Fuji NPS is a poor choice because it is actually slightly more grainy and less sharp than NPH, even though more than a stop slower. Whenever there is sufficient light, either natural or flash, nothing can touch Fuji Reala. It will make 16x20s that look like medium format.

NPH is okay for outdoor work or indoors with flash, but is not fast enough for available light inside. It also lacks the fourth color layer that makes other Fuji films so effective in mixed light. NPH is a great film, but it's seriously overdue for an update.

For available light, Fuji Press 800 is surprisingly good. I recently completed a project for the Public Education Foundation which involved photographing children in school fly-on-the-wall style, by available light and entirely unposed. The 11x14 prints I delivered were gorgeous, with grain just barely visible at normal viewing distance.

I used to carry Reala, NPH, and NHG-II to weddings. Now I take only Reala and Press 800.

-- Dave Jenkins (djphoto@vol.com), February 20, 2002.


The only film I shoot for weddings is Reala, in two cameras: M6 and 35/1.4-M ASPH and Minolta Hi-Matic 9 (45/1.7 Rokkor, syncs to 1/500). I use diffused/bounced, slow-synced flash indoors or in the dark, Sunpak Auto 383 with Omnibounce. Reala holds its beauty even when blown up to 20x30 inches, and handles mixed lighting extremely well.

-- Anon Terry (anonht@yahoo.com), February 20, 2002.

Contrasty light: Portra NC. Flat boring light: Portra VC.

When I say flat and boring I mean FLAT. Most lighting situations work better with the NC.

-- John Collier (jbcollier@powersurfr.com), February 21, 2002.



My favorite is Portra 400 VC (vivid color). Great color saturation!

-- Rob Schopke (schopke@attbi.com), February 21, 2002.

Ditto the above for Kodak Portra NC. For outdoors in good light I would recommend 160NC. However, for church / reception 400NC works great.

Good Luck :-)

-- Alan Purves (lpurves@mnsi.net), February 21, 2002.


Patrick,

I really prefer the Kodak Portra range myself. 160VC, 400NC and the 800 are all superb. However I do not like the 160NC and the 400VC films. The only downside is lab/operator dependency.

I use to shoot Fuji NPH and NHGII but switched after I found a lab that worked well with the Kodak. Fuji films are generally less of a problem for labs technicians it seems.

I have heard good reports on Fuji's NPZ800 film. Supposed to be excellent grainwise.

If you want to go a little lighter on the hip pocket then try out the Agfa Vista range. I like the 200 and the 800.

Happy snaps.

-- Simon Wong (drsimonwong@hotmail.com), February 21, 2002.


Thanks to all for the thoughtful responses. Exactly the feedback I was seeking. Great forum! See my newest question for what lens to use in the same shot--!

-- Patrick (pg@patrickgarner.com), February 21, 2002.

i had realla in my m6, and portra 160 nc (normal) not vc (very) in my hassy swc. the portra is amazing; enlargement to 8x10 and using a 4x loupe i don't see much grain, great film.

-- chris chen (chrischen@msn.com), February 21, 2002.


I don't think there is a 35mm system that can come close to an M6 with 35mm 1.4 aspherical loaded with Reala. They should post a warning with this combination, WARNING You are not halucinating this print actually came from a 35mm print. For photo's of people out doors it's the best.

-- Chris Lopez (slamgoody@hotmail.com), May 03, 2002.

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