Kodak Portra 800 or Fuji NPZ 800?

I'm shooting a wedding this weekend (last minute job) and for the

first time I will be shooting inside a church where the light is going

to be quite low. The church is also lit with small tungsten lights

(ugh!). I've visited the church and measured the ambient light with a

meter and it's about 8th sec at f5.6, ISO 800 (same time of day as the

wedding). So I'm likely going to use flash as my lenses are not

terribly fast either. Anyway, what would you recommend I use: Portra

800 or Fuji NPZ? Are these nice portrait films? Do either of these

work well with flash? Or is it better for me to just go with a slower

film eg. Fuji NPH (which I have always used), and just use flash the

whole time? Equipment: Metz 45CL-4, Canon EOS30 28-200mm. Thanks

for your

input.

I can't answer your precise question (I have no experience whatsoever in this domain). What I'm thinking is that there's enough light to shoot ISO 800 hand-held at 28mm/2.8 or 50mm/2 (or even 85/1.4) (and to correct the colors later when priting), and this could be interesting if you could get your hands on such a fast lens (I know that I can rent a Nikon 28/1.4 for $40 a week-end and that it'll perform wonderfully wide-open, and maybe a rental would be an option for you as well).

Hi Jean-Baptiste,

Will the lab correct the colours automatically or will I need to let them know? I will have to rent a faster lens I think if I want to do that, I'll check it out.

NPZ is better. I use it for concerts in very challenging light situations. Are you sure you measured things right at 1/8 sec? You can comfortably hand hold a 28-70 2.8 at 1/30, so you're not far off. And you can rate the NPZ at 1600 if necessary. No wedding experience I'm afraid, but I'd check those readings again - take someone to the church at the same time of day as the wedding and take some facial tone meter readings at 800 - I'm SURE you'll get better shutter speeds than 1/8.

The NPZ is indeed excellent stuff. If you find you do need to push

it to 1600, make sure you ask the lab for a two-stop push in

developing, and not just a one-stop push. That is some really

good advice I read by someone here on photo.net (wish I could

remember whom) that will give your negatives a little more

density to work with.

Many people routinely "overexpose" one stop indoors. The dynamic human vision compensates for the low light (a mild version of night vision), whereas the camera always assumes daylight. If I had rated the film as 800, I would have told the lab to process it like 1600. And like 3200 if rated as 1600. (And as normal 800 when rated at 400.)

Sorry, I was thinking of photographing WITHOUT a flash.

Well, I don't think you can go too far wrong with either film, and it may depend more on whether your lab likes Kodak or Fuji. I have used NPH, but not NPZ. But I have used lots of Portra NC and VC, and it's very flexible film. You can push or pull it a couple of stops with no problem. The last wedding I did (no, scratch that - it was the one before), I used 400VC and pushed it to 800. Pictures came out great.

Best,

Barry

I was almost going to buy Portra 800 but now I think I feel better going with the NPZ. I will be using a combination of flash and non-flash shots. For example, when the bridal party arrives I will use flash, during the ceremony I won't use flash, and then use flash again at the end, during the signing and the pronouncement and the walk back down the aisle. So I think I will have to stick to one ISO setting: 800. I'm just a little confused as to what instructions to give my lab - process it as if it was 1600? As I've never used this film before, and don't have time to experiment, is it safer for me to just have the lab process it normal? I use a very a good professional lab.

I'd almost say you should see if it's possible to rent an alternate back and have it loaded with a slower film for the flash work, and maybe some outdoor shots if you can get them. That way the pictures where you have control of the light aren't limited by grain, but you don't have to shoot the slow film all at the beginning or end. Personally my limited experience with 800 speed films has been horrid, on the other hand that was Supra 800 and some Fuji Press 800, and I'm probably just picky.

Id use NPH or NC400 and flash!Available light indoors often looks like crap.

Well, the wedding is finished. I ended up using NPZ and Neopan 1600 - about 11 rolls in all. The church was really dim. I shot with and without flash, I guess I'm happy with the results considering I didn't have such a fast lens, I used a tripod the whole time. (I couldn't rent a faster lens in time). I was also required at the reception and shot everything with flash on the TTL setting. I think maybe I should have just used NPH? I did "drag" the shutter to get more of the background. I was using between 45th - 60th/sec... it worked... in some instances I could have gone slower to 20th secs perhaps. There were also some pictures with annoying shadows in the background. I must remind myself to ask my subjects to not stand with their back against a wall... I keep forgetting. I pulled the Neopan 1600 to 800 as well as I had to use flash anyway... it was just too dark plus I needed the fast shutter speed. I haven't printed the black and white images yet. I don't have a scanner but I am getting one soon and will post some images when I get a chance. thanks for all your input. It was a really tiring job I had to move really fast... with the two camera bodies, a tripod and a bag of films and no assistant it was a little stressful. Will I do another wedding again? Well yes, I'm still booked in for 4 more in the coming months. I probably won't take on any new jobs though...