Film choices.

[Jayst84]

Just a quick question, being a complete film newbie I don't know much about what film's for what. Now I've been asked to do some portraits for a young family (I think the baby's about a couple of months old). This will be outdoors in a park or similar.

I'll be going digital for most of it, but I thought it'd be nice to do a bit on film too. Are Fuji Velvia and and the like too saturated for portraits? Especially with a baby in there, I obviously don't want bright red faces and harsh colours.

Any favourite portrait films (35mm) amongst the 'old school' togs out there?

Thanks,

Jamie.

PS. Any handy tips for outdoors portraits would be gratefully received too.

[joxby]

Fuji Provia is quite nice for skin tones, but I'm sure there are others as good if not better, velvia is rich and saturated, not the greatest for accurate portraiture.
You could also try some b/w, Fuji neopans are really smooth and ilford FP4+ 125....depends what the light is like, need good light for the iso 100's.

[Jayst84]

Thanks very much for that, looks like I've got some experimenting to do then :) Light shouldn't be a problem down here, I'm more worried about it being too bright if anything.

[Chappers]

Here am I struggling to get some decent shots in dull weather and you've got to much light, It's just no fair.:thumbs:

Seriously though, you may want to take along a reflector to help fill in those shadows. Shooting film means you can't easily post process the image. Might want to think about it for the digital stuff as well

[Dave Scanlon]

Hi
this is the stuff I use mainly, I get some cracking results from it

http://www.fujifilm.co.uk/film/films/fujicolor_pro160s.html

[Dfhaii]

As above, either Fuji's Pro 160S if you want negative film or Fuji's Astia if you want to use slide film. Kodak Portra 160 NC is also a superb portrait film.

If you want black and white any of the traditional emulsions are hard to go wrong with (Ilford's fp4+, hp5+ etc, or kodak tri-x).

[Jayst84]

Excellent, thanks guys, much appreciated. I'm in the market for some reflectors, but I don't really know where to start. I want stuff I can use outdoors, and in the studio (at uni) AND that I can use on my own, ie no assistant to boss around. I guess that's a question for another thread though :)

[Chappers]

Try these.

http://www.lastolite.com/originalreflectors.php

Don't get to big a reflector, c'os you've got to fold it up again.

http://www.lastolite.com/originalreflectors.php. It's for the Chromakeys bit the same applies.

[sakura]

For gigs I really like Fuji Pro 800Z and Fuji 1600 Superia. I preferred the 800Z to the X-tra 800. These are all colour neg film.

Reminds me I still have 4 rolls to be developed Oh the cost!