A Slower Portra

For several years, Kodak's Ektar 100 was my favorite color film. It is forgiving of exposure errors and renders satisfying, saturated colors. I shot Kodak's Portra 400 only occasionally, thinking that it was better suited, as its name implies, to portraits of people rather than still life or landscapes. Then one day, I mistakenly set my camera to ASA 200 when it was loaded with 400 speed Portra and headed out to do some photography. Overexposing Portra 400 gave me the colors I had been looking for all along. I always shoot my Portra 400 now at half the box speed and am quite pleased with my images.

Recently, I picked up a ProPack of Portra 160. My thought was to use it to shoot the nice Fall colors in the abundant sunshine of October and November in Wine Country. The first roll shooting any new film is an adventure. You never know what you're going to get. I mounted a 55mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikko to my Nikon FM2N, set my camera to ASA 100, grabbed a coat and went out for a walk.

All in all, I am fairly pleased with my first roll of Portra 160. I think I might dial the meter back to half the box speed on this film as well. There are enough rolls left in the ProPack and enough nice Fall days left to experiment some more.