Pushing Portra 400 to 1600

Portra 400 - everybody’s favourite colour film (me included). I’m sure we’ve all read and seen online the rave reviews, the under/over exposure camparisons, and seen the gorgeous tones it renders. What I found out recently though that I hadn’t heard about, was it’s ability to be pushed to 1600 or even 3200 (see Jonathan Canlas)!

I stumbled upon a blog post that claimed Portra 400 pushed one stop (to 800) gives more satisfying results than Portra 800 shot at box speed (800)! What?! Check out that blog post here. Obviously “better” all depends on what look you are after, so I set out to see for myself. Full disclosure: this isn’t a comparison as I haven’t tried pushing Portra 800 - just a test to see what Portra 400 looks like pushed.

My Setup/What is “pushing”?

I loaded up a roll in my Olympus XA. Normally if I’m pushing Tri-X or HP5+ to 1600 I set my meter to 800, so I did the same here. The XA shoots in aperture-priority (meaning you can basically forget about metering) with manual rangefinder focus for the sharp little 35mm f/2.8 lens. It’s nice being able to just focus, frame and shoot. Another benefit of the rangefinder camera is you can shoot slower shutter speeds than you would on an SLR (no mirror = no mirror slap/camera shake)!

So what is “pushing” film? The Darkroom Lab have a very clear guide to this on their blog, if you’re interested in pushing film you should go give it a read here, then come back! It would be a waste of time to repeat it all here but basically, you underexpose the film when you shoot it and you develop longer to compensate for that. When you push film, make sure that you tell your lab how many stops to push it in processing, and that it is marked super clearly on the roll/s! In this case it’s a 400 ISO film pushing to 1600 ISO which is 2 stops, marked as “+2”.

Results

When pushing film you will see added grain and contrast. I really like the way the colours came out! You still have gorgeous Portra tones but with more contrast (a side affect of the push processing) - really nice blacks with little/no weird colours in the shadows. Being able to shoot with smaller aperture or higher shutter speed indoors or in low light is really handy, so I may just have to do this again!

Click an image below to scroll through the gallery and see the results for yourself. Leave me a comment if you have any questions.

-Sam

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Dev+scan by The Black and White Box

Ahiaruhe House

I’ve driven/ridden past this house so many times over the years, but never taken the time to get up close. I did take one photo recently while on a motorbike ride with my Dad. This is without a doubt the most photographed house in the Wairarapa - wanting to avoid a cliche shot I got down in the grass:

Shot on Ilford HP5+ pushed two stops / Minolta XE-7 / 50mm 1.4

Some friends (and fellow film shooters) came to the Wairarapa and were keen to check the place out, so we headed out one overcast morning. I was shooting two rolls of film I’d never shot before:

• 35mm Delta 400 in my Minolta XE-1

• 120 Ilford FP4 (expired) in my Hasselblad

Shout out to Zach and Xin for the good company! You can check them out on Instagram: @zachetc / @___xin.__ . They just completed a big roadtrip of the North Island and are currently sharing some of their images.

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Shooting Thoughts

I don’t often shoot one subject with two cameras (I’m usually carrying one camera with me for the day) but this was a chance to finish off both of these rolls I had loaded so I took both cameras along. My lenses were 50mm on the Minolta and 80mm on the Hasselblad, both ‘normal’ focal lengths for their negative size, so it was relatively easy to switch between the two.

One thing I’ve been struggling with lately is the 50mm lens, especially after using my inherited Olympus XA with it’s nifty 35mm lens. The 50mm lens was a great lens to learn on, lending itself to simpler compositions and subject isolation. I still love it for portraits (and I’ve taken heaps of my favourite photos with it) but I find that over the last year or so I’ve been increasingly looking for a wider field of view - for portraits that capture more of the environment, more dynamic lines/angles that a wider lens can capture. That would have been especially handy in this situation i.e. inside the house. The missing staircase had some interesting light coming in from upstairs and broken stairs in the foreground, however due to the positioning of the walls I just couldn’t get it all in.

Interestingly I don’t have the same feeling with the 80mm lens on the Hasselblad - perhaps this is because the square format lends itself to different compositions, so I’m not looking for the same dynamics in a shot as I would be when shooting on 35mm film with a 2:3 aspect ratio. Any photographers relate?

It was also nice to shoot a still subject - usually I’m trying to capture kids playing or people interacting so this was a nice change of pace. I really “got in the zone” of shooting as I was able to take as much time as I liked to think about/frame a shot. Maybe I’ll find some time to do more landscape-type photography.

Take a look through the photos and let me know what you think!

-Sam

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Dev+scan by The Black and White Box.

Waharoa Unveiling

Recently I was invited along to an unveiling of the new waharoa (gateway) to Masterton Intermediate School, and I decided to take my camera along, just in case. I pre-loaded it with Tri-X400 black and white film and decided I would only start shooting if it felt appropriate at the time. I made my way in and found a seat, but as soon as the covers started to come off I had to get up start shooting. Karakia (prayers) were chanted/spoken over the waharoa while the covers were removed, verbal expression of the community’s intention for this waharoa. This was a moving moment that made my hair stand on end - not only because the carving and karakia were beautiful but also because it was awesome to see a symbol of Maori culture positioned proudly in front of the school. We heard from one of the master carvers, Carl Rongonui, about what the various parts of the carving represented, followed by a haka from the school and a symbolic ‘first walk’ through the waharoa (and of course, a mean breakfast).

I’m not able to do the meaning of this justice, but I can say that the two figures on the vertical pillars represent our two local iwi (tribes), also featured are kaitiaki (guardians), and students reading and painting. The waharoa acts not just as a beautiful entry point to the school but also as a representation of the stewardship of the children and learning that takes place on the school grounds.

Our Maori culture is something all Kiwis should be proud of. To see the school putting it literally front and centre was really special to witness, especially after having recently had my eyes opened to some of the extent of our country’s tainted history (see Huia Come Home).

See my photos from that beautiful morning below, and if you get down a bit further you’ll find some photos I shot at the workshop where this was carved, as well as some colour photos of the waharoa itself.

B&W photos shot on Minolta XE // 50mm f/1.4 MC lens // Kodak Tri-X 400 pushed to 800

dev+scan by The Black and White Box

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te Patukituki o Wairarapa

Centre for Maori culture in the Wairarapa, and workshop of master carvers Wayne Pitau & Carl Rongonui.

Ma Tatou Ka Ora Ai Tatou

Our Togetherness Keeps Us Well

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Shot on Hasselblad 500C/M // Kodak Portra 400

First Rolls: Hasselblad 500CM

I recently sold my Mamiya RB67 and purchased a Hasselblad 500CM from a fellow NZ film shooter, Michael Neale (you should go check out his awesome work). I’m only a few rolls into it but I thought I’d share some of my photos and experience so far.

Kodak Portra 400 // dev+scan by The Black and White Box

Roll #1

On this roll I was shooting down to a shutter speed of 1/60 as I had been doing the same on my RB67, so I didn’t think much of it. Once getting the scans back I realised many of the shots either had motion blur or I had missed the focus! I’ve been using split screen viewfinders until now, so the Hasselblad focusing screen is taking a bit of getting used to. There were still a few I was pretty happy with though - I’ve included some below. You can click on a photo to view the full res version. The one of the ship is a good example of motion blur, as I was stopping down the aperture for as much depth of field as possible.

Roll #2

With this roll I only shot down to a shutter speed of 1/125 and took more care with focusing. I was much happier with the results across the roll. The photo of Judah and Ash on the swing was kindly featured on KEH Camera’s instagram feed.

Roll #3

Roll #4

thoughts (Camera Geekery)

Out of all the medium format cameras I’ve owned this is definitely the most portable - on the strap it hangs nicely against the body when not in use and isn’t too heavy. As expected of the legendary Carl Zeiss glass, the lens performs amazingly. Even at the widest aperture of 2.8 there is no noticeable vignetting, distortion, or loss of sharpness at the edges of the frame. The fact it is all-mechanical appeals to me and means I never have to worry about batteries. Despite the minimum focus distance being a slight limitation for close-ups, I get the feeling this is going to be a a great camera for portraits and landscapes, which is what I find myself gravitating towards when using the camera. There are only 12 shots on each roll, and to make the most of this larger negative size you need to really nail the focus and make sure you don’t get any camera shake from lower shutter speeds like I mentioned above.

The Hasselblad’s limitations inspire a more thoughtful, calculated approach and it rewards the extra work by producing stunning images. I don’t think medium format will ever replace 35mm for candid/documentary style photography for me but I find myself reaching for this camera more and more when I head out to shoot.

Hit me up with any questions in the comments below.

-Sam

"Flowercam" Photos and Video

I went to a stag do on Labour Weekend, and I really wanted to take a light camera that I could keep in my pocket all day and wouldn’t require too much thought. I was taking the stag himself over to Wellington via motorbike to kick the weekend off, and while I was prepping my backpack the night before, I was hit with a lightning bolt. Buried in the bottom of a stack of old suitcases was the perfect camera…

I picked up this little gem (flower) many months ago at an op shop, after fiddling with it enough to realise it appeared to actually work. A stag do and accompanying antics seemed like the perfect occasion to give it it’s first outing. I used one roll of Kodak Tri-X 400 over the course of the weekend, pushed to 1600 in processing as I had only rough guesses about what the fixed settings might be.

I had many doubts about the quality of the results and whether I would actually get any photos from it, though I’m glad to say I was pleasantly surprised! I found it a refreshing challenge having no settings to change and focusing purely on framing or even just whipping it out to snap something in a split second with no thought at all. The goal was to document the weekend and it did this perfectly!

My favourite shots are the ones I spent a little more time framing, like the wharf jump and my accomodation in the morning. The cheap construction of the lens is partially disguised by the added grain from pushing the film 2 stops, resulting in an overall softness that is not out of place. It goes to show that you don’t need expensive equipment to make good photos! All it took here was a bit of creative vision and an understanding of my limitations.

We made a video of the whole thing over at Cam & Sam - check the video and photos from the day below.

-Sam

Kodak Tri-X 400 // Dev+scan by The Black and White Box