I've been doing some color work lately, still trying to figure out my relationship to color. Focusing on color as subject seems to be what I'm most interested in and produces the type of color images that please me most.
I spent years shooting transparency film mainly because it was always the sharpest color film available and at the time it was the standard for color reproduction in the publishing world. Today I'm more concerned with making images that satisfy only me, and that has led me to experiment with various color films, both transparency and negative.
After shooting both Fuji and Kodak films from ISO 100 to 800, I settled on Fujichrome Astia 100F. But wanting to keep expenses down I recently started looking at color neg film again and I may have found the right film for my current approach to color imagery.
Kodak Portra 160VC is looking really good right now. It produces vivid color without losing its neutral base and it's incredibly sharp. I prefer it over Kodak's Ektar 100 and even Fuji's Astia100F. The 160VC has a good exposure latitude and a great tonal range giving it the ability to handle subtle hues and vibrant colors, and it scans really well.
I'm looking forward to working with it more and I'd be interested in hearing from other photographers who have experience using this film.
More to come.
Photos: ©2010 David W. Sumner
(Both images made with 35mm Kodak Portra 160VC)
