What color and b&w film should I consider using?

[elmar001]

Hello,

 

Since I started back into photography, I have been using Ilford Super XP-2

black and white film. I can have it processed locally in an hour, and it seems

to produce good negatives. But now I would like to get into color as well. I am

wondering what you would recommend both for b&w pictures and color prints. I

live in BC, and I notice quite a variety of films available. I hope someone can

help.

 

Lawrence

[nealcurrie]

Where in BC? Slide or print film? If you are using a 35mm camera, you might be better off with a digital for colour work.

Portraits, landscapes, still lifes?

[elmar001]

Vancouver BC

 

No digitals thanks.

 

35mm for general photography. All of the above.

 

We do have a lot of gloomy wet weather here, so I like the higher ISO of the XP-2. Would a color film be lower ISO or maybe just the same?

 

Thanks.

[tim_huggins]

Try Kodak VS for landscape slides. It is warm, has an even, natural color palette and is much better at bringing out shadow detail than Velvia. For prints try Fuji Reala 100. Great color, fine grain, and sharp detail. It still has a bit of that cold Fuji cast, but not as bad as their slide films. Kodak Ultra Color 100 and 400 have gotten good reviews here. I've got 5 boxes of 100 in the fridge, but haven't had a chance to shoot it yet.

 

If you are shooting portraits, Kodak G has soft, pastel colors. Folks like Fuji Sensia/Astia for portraits, but its color is cold, like all Fuji films. I always thought the colors looked washed out. Provia is OK. Both of these really benefit from a warming filter. Kodak Gold would be a good portrait film. Very soft details. Don't use it for landscapes, the color and sharpness aren't made for that.

[benny_spinoza]

How do you wish to view your images? If projected on a large screen...then obviously you want slide film. Suggested slide film is given above. Do you want prints? Then color negative film is your best choice. How will the prints be made? In a darkroom? Scanning? And on what paper? The general folklore is that Kodak negatives do best on Kodak paper, and Fuji negatives do best on Fuji paper. I'm not sure how true that is, and whether it applies to darkroom wet prints or prints from digital files.

 

This is what I do....I shoot Kodak Portra, scan, upload to a printer (e.g., adoramapix), and print on Kodak metallic. Portra is great for scanning. I almost never shoot slide film. Color negatives record much more scene information than slide film, and the beauty of scanning and digital image processing is that one can finally get out all that information! Kodak Ultra is also good. And I don't wish to knock Fuji. It is also among the best. It's just that my experience is with Kodak products. So load up some Kodak 400ASA Portra VC. You can't go wrong!

[rustys pics]

Kodak 400UC and 100UC are excellent color films.

For black and white, consider Kodak Tri-X and Ilford HP-5+

Also Ilford Pan F and Kodak Plus-X if you like fine grain black and white.

[russ_konrad]

As mentioned in another thread in this forum - Kodak is discontinuing it's Portra line as well as many other films. You can see the list here:

<p>

<a href=http://www.photo.net/bboard/big-image?bboard_upload_id=40357784>Kodak Discontinued List</a>