Film for Portraits

Hi All,

I have a Mamiya 645AFD medium format and want to start taking people portraits. Would it be best to use color negative or transparency film? I would have a lab process and scan the film so I could import the images into editing software.


Thanks for your advice.

I, as well as many really like Kodaks Portra line - 160, 400 and 800ISO versions. Fuji Pro 400H is also decent, though I'm not a huge fan of the colors compared to Portra. You can find groups on Flickr with many examples.

Thanks Dane!

I’d stay away from slide type films unless you can find a lab that will scan the images directly from the film strip. I have found that image quality often suffers once the image gets into the mount. A flat film carrier is better.

If you can find it Fuji Velvia 50 and 100 were once considered great portrait films. They were discontinued from what I’ve read sometime in late 2018. Having said that I saw some in a Madrid Spain camera shop about 10 days ago.

Portra 400 is a good film for portraits. For slide film, Kodak Ekta chrome E100 is really good. You can't buy it in 120 format yet, but supposedly Kodak started testing it in July so it's something to keep in mind.

Just curious... haven't shot film in a long time, but why 400 and 800 for portraits?

Croasdail wrote in post #18925675
Just curious... haven't shot film in a long time, but why 400 and 800 for portraits?

The aversion to higher ASA (or ISO) is normally grain. But medium format images result in images sized at 6×4.5cm, 6x6cm or 6x7cm not the 36mm x 24mm of traditional 35mm film. Thus, there is a much larger area for the captured images when shooting medium format.

John from PA wrote in post #18925710
The aversion to higher ASA (or ISO) is normally grain. But medium format images result in images sized at 6×4.5cm, 6x6cm or 6x7cm not the 36mm x 24mm of traditional 35mm film. Thus, there is a much larger area for the captured images when shooting medium format.

Huh.... I never shot high ISO for a 'fine art" project... ever.... regardless of format. I've shot 6x4.5.... then again I was almost always shooting B & W, and used Ilford or Rollei had some awesome slow speed films. Not even sure I know 800 was an option. If I was at 400 I would use Tri-x or HP-5... and if color 400 H from Fuji. Works stuff was usually Kodak. Personal was Ilford.

Good to know.

BTW.... just looked it up... BH has FUJI 50 and 100 still.....

Fuji still makes Velvia 50, Velvia 100 and Provia 100.
I shot this on my GA645i (with the flash on) a month ago.
It's Velvia 100.

I would be surprised if lab could still process e-6 film.
Most remaining labs are c-41.

Use iso 200/400 c-41 film. You could still hand hold it with fast enough shutter speeds.
MF is all nice on film, fast or slow.

There are lots of boutique labs these days that will develop most things out there. I use the most known one, thedarkroom.com, and they still do 110, 126 and APS. Large format too, I believe. But I keep finding out about more and more of them. It's becoming more popular, the price of cameras is increasing, and film stocks are being reintroduced. Fuji is bringing Acros 100 back this fall. Kodak reintroduced Tmax 3200 and Ektachrome 100 in the last year or so.