My go-to film stock is Kodak Portra 400. I like that it has a fairly neutral look without losing saturation, and that it’s not as finicky as other film stocks. It’s also the color film stock I’d recommend most for those just starting out with film. Cheaper film stocks like Kodak Gold can yield great results in open sunlight, but Portra 400 has more latitude to handle shade and overcast light, which I think ensures better results your first couple times shooting. If you’re new to shooting film, here are three tips for getting the best results out of Portra 400.
1. Shoot Portra 400 at 200 ISO instead of 400 ISO
I very rarely shoot color film at its recommended box speed. A good rule of thumb is to cut your box speed in half. So if the box speed is 400, shoot it at 200 ISO. This overexposes your film, which sounds risky if you come from a digital background, but it’s actually a lot easier to underexpose film than it is to overexpose it. I’ve tried Portra 400 at 200, 320, and 400 ISO, and 200 ISO is the sweet spot for getting clean color.
2. Push Portra 400 after shooting in overcast light
This photo in Olympic National Park was taken after it had rained, and the sun was blocked by storm clouds. I shot my Portra 400 like I would normally, at 200 ISO. Then I asked my lab to push my film one stop in development. Pushing is when either the temperature of the developer is increased, or the film is left developing for longer, and it makes the blacks in your image deeper and the whites in your image brighter. This is especially helpful in overcast situations, because your film would normally come back looking pretty flat and dull without sun to add contrast.
3. Download a light meter app
This tip really applies to any film stock. Some camera internal meters aren’t very reliable, so downloading a free smartphone light meter app is an easy way to avoid metering mistakes when starting out. I use Lux with my camera that doesn’t have a working meter: I set my ISO in the app (200 for Portra 400 film), choose my aperture, then tap my phone screen so that the yellow box highlights the most important shadow in my scene. Then I adjust my camera settings to match the app readings. Just make sure your shutter speed is 1/60 or faster (anything slower than 1/60 while hand-holding a camera can cause blurry images). If you need to, you can adjust your aperture in the app so that it gives you a faster shutter speed.
Your camera equipment, the way you meter, the environment you’re shooting in, and your level of experience can all influence your results. Practice is the key to getting good at shooting film. As you shoot more, you start to develop a stronger intuition about how to handle different lighting scenarios. This doesn’t mean you’ll never make mistakes, it just means they’ll be less frequent and you’ll be happier with your results over time!