Kodak Portra 800 pushed one stop: extreme grain?

Hello, I would appreciate your answers and suggestions.

 

I used Kodak Portra 800 color negative film for the first time at a

birthday party last week, and I pushed the film one stop. I went for

this set up since I do not have a flash with my manual Minolta

system. The results: unaccetable! I have never seen this much grain

before. And, I regularly push Provia 400F two stops...

 

I shot the second half of the film on a sunny day outdoors. Same

results, except for three frames under really bright, direct light on

the subject.

 

I can rule out my camera, lenses and processing lab right away as

possible causes. I bought the film from a relatively good photo store

in Toronto who know their Kodak films - and they had the film in

their fridge. But I forgot to check the expiration date on the box.

 

What do you think is the reason for the extremely grainy photos? Is

it that Portra 800 gives such bad results when pushed even one stop?

Or did I buy an expired roll?

 

Finally which fast color negative film would you suggest for exposing

at ISO 800 - 1600 for use with no-flash set ups? Is Portra 800 no

good?

 

Thank You very much

2nd half shot on a sunny day outdoors? 800 should have been ok on a sunny day! What where the f-stop and shutter speed? Maybe the lab pulled it a stop instead of pushing? You say you can rule out the camera and lens. I assume you have shot another roll of something else and it was ok. If it wasn't out of date by more than a year, and had never been cooked in a car trunk or dashbox for a month, I doubt it was the film. Tell us more.

Did the lab actually give push processing or did you mean that you exposed the film at 1600 and processed normally? Color negative films don't react well to underexposure. They look grainy as hell! They actually give better fine grain results when overexposed about a stop.

Hi there and thanks

 

Frank;

 

Yes, I did shoot a roll of Royal GOld 200 after the Portra, processed by the same lab - I could not be happier with the results. The birthday party shots were all f2.8 (wide open) 1/45 and 1/60 sec. with 24mm and 28mm primes. I can hand-hold O.K. at those speeds. But daylight shots were mostly f/5.6-8 and fast speeds (with polarizer).

 

Al;

 

I rated the film at 1600, and the lab push processed one stop.

 

So, was it a combination of low tungsten light (the required correction for both prints and scanning - that would explain the only three good shots under direct sunlight with less grain) with bad push processing charecteristic of PORTRA 800 rather than the possibility of expiration?

I reckon the film and the lab are fine.

 

To get good results from Portra 800 under tungsten light (without filtration) I would

recommend rating it at 400ASA - AND pushing it one stop. If you need more speed

try Fuijpress 800 (or Fuji Superia Xtra 800 - it's the same thing) rated at 800ASA and

pushed one stop.