Kodak Portra 800

I wanted to test Portra 800. I’ve heard that it’s a low grain, high speed color film. I haven’t heard much about the color, so I was curious to try it myself.

The equipment included my OM-2, 28mm f3.5 with a circular polarizer. Portra 800 film, naturally.

Here’s some of the images. The first set are in downtown Austin, around the lake. The second set is walking north, away from the water, into an area with some older homes (most converted to offices), that I thought might be a good test, but I actually like the colors in the water, sky and buildings better. I’m also very pleased with the dynamic range of both the 800 and the 400 versions of Portra film. The photos I’ve taken under the bridges display better shadow detail than I expected. A very nice surprise.

Here’s the photos of homes/offices. I wasn’t so impressed, although the colors are still nice. And, by the way, I think the grain is very good for ISO 800.

They’re nice, but the water and sky (blues/greens) seem extremely rich and I like them. I would say that Portra 800 is very strong in it’s rendering of blues and greens.