Whats the best colour & bw film

P

pestonick

Messages
5
Name
nick
Edit My Images
No
i'm off to do a bit of traveling around south east asia and taken my digital slr but also i am thinking of taking my old cannon av1 which takes 35mm

my favorite photographers are william eggleston, martin parr and stephen shore, and looking to capture some colour photographs inspired by them. Does anyone know any good colour 35mm films to use and replicate some of there photographs? or to show alot of good colour in my photographs?

Also i am going to take some bw photographs, so looking for a bw film to go with me aswel

comments and advice would be much appreciated

thanks

nick
 
I haven't used it myself, but I've heard many people recommending Kodak Ektar print film. It's only iso 100, so that might be an issue for you.

http://www.ag-photographic.co.uk/kodak-ektar-100-114-c.asp

As far as b&w goes, that will depend on how long you are away for and how you will process the film. If you are gone for several weeks,it might be better to go for a C41 (colour) process film as any minilab would be able to process it for you. Ilford XP2 is useful at iso 400, but Kodak and Fuji make them as well.

http://www.ag-photographic.co.uk/xp2-400asa-27-c.asp
 
Can you give some more information please? I.e what sort of speed, what your gong to be shooting etc

For colour negative, I would definitely recommend Kodak Ektar 100 for landscape and travel pictures as its very fine grained and saturated, but it also does skin tones well.
For something a little faster, I would try the new Kodak Portra 400, which has just been released and is an amazing film with tons of lattitude and gives gorgeous fine grain negatives for its speed. Although optomised for portraits and people shots, I've found it does most things pretty well.
The new Portra 160 may also interest you, its similar to the 400 version but even more fine grained as its slower.

For black and white, you'll probably want a variety of speeds, so some Ilford FP-4+ would be good for bright conditions as its ISO 125. For interior or low light shots then Ilford HP-5+ or Kodak Tri-X are good. Their just general purpose films that suit many different shooting styles.

Processing wise, as long as you keep the film in a cool, dry place then it should be fine until you come back. Like said above though, you can always get it done where you are if your going to be away for an extended length of time. There is always the option of sending it back home though if your don't want to take the exposed film around with you.
 
Last edited:
For all round colour Portra 400. Ektar tends to render skin tines a bit too red.
B+W, TRI-X or FP4+ depending on how bright the light will be.
 
"For colour negative, I would definitely recommend Kodak Ektar 100 for landscape and travel pictures as its very fine grained and saturated, but it also does skin tones well."

Couldn't agree more, have a look about 2/3 of the way down page 154 of the 'show us your film shots then' thread at a roll I shot last week. Both landscape and portrait work very well.

Andy
 
Last edited:
He used to use amateur film stock and slightly underexpose.
He's now using a 5d mk2 with a Gary Fong flash attachment.
 
I always travel with a mixture of PanF, Delta 100 and HP5 or Tri-X.

PanF is by far my fave film but only any use outside or on a tripod. If I need speed I'll push the HP5 to 800 or use my Epson.

ped
 
Last edited:
seconded for pro 160, lovely film. I don't like Ektar, looks like old technicolor movies.
 
brilliant, thank you im looking into the those films now, i have an old print paper back to keep them in to stop some exposure to them
 
thanks alot for all your help,

after looking into the many films you have mentioned i think i am going to go for the porta 400, and for black and white the tri - x

thank you beautiful people
 
I used Ilford 400 Delta for As Level Photography, I loved it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top