Getting the best out of the Kodak Portra 160

Nikon f5 + nikkor 135mm f3.5 Ais lens

The Portra film series are considered the best films for portraiture available on the market. While the ISO 400 variant enjoys a huge reputation for its ease of use and versatility, the Portra 160 is a bit more complex to use, but mastering this film will reward you with finer grain and higher resolution. While both films are quite expensive, let's make sure you are getting the best out of the Kodak Portra 160 film.

Jardin de la Compagnie, Port Louis Mauritius

The first thing to understand with the Kodak Portra 160 is that the dynamic range is not the same as the Portra 400, so make sure the scene is not too contrasty. Avoid harsh highlights and search for soft light. Portra 160 is a soft, fine-grain film, so use it accordingly.

Shooting portrait in the shade to get the best result.

That doesn't mean you cannot use it in bright sunlight. I use this film quite often at the beach in bright daylight, but be mindful of its limitations. I favour morning or afternoon shots with this film.

Bright morning light, portra 160 is still a very good performer despite the lower dynamic range

Kodak Portra 160 is, first and foremost, a portrait film. It is quite soft but has high resolution. It also has an extremely beautiful bokeh (out-of-focus background) that works really well with floral backgrounds. Whenever there is a garden, flowers, or some lovely nature setting involved in your background, use it without any hesitation, provided, of course, there is enough light.

Open the aperture fully for soft skin tone and beautiful bokeh - Nikkor 135mm f3,5 Ais

Do not be afraid to open your aperture. Most of the pictures here are shot wide open in optimum lighting scenarios. You want to create a beautiful bokeh when using this film, so open your aperture and keep your subject as far as possible from the background to increase the blur effect.

Keep a good distance between the background and your subject, alternatively use a long focal length wide open, or a combination of both.

When you are shooting with Kodak Portra 160, be mindful of your exposure. Contrary to Kodak 400, the 160 version doesn't like to be overexposed. Shooting at box speed is recommended. The maximum overexposure I would recommend is one stop only.

The best results are at box speed, do not overexpose on darker skin tone.

if your subject has darker skin tone, do not overexpose, this is the only weakness of this film overexposing darker skin will result in red overtone in your subject skin, shooting at box speed has absolutely no issue with any skin tone and will give you a faithful and beautiful reproduction of your subject.

Nikon f5 and nikkor 135mm f3.5 Ais

A last word about scanning: my lab has two options, the famous Frontier vs. Noritsu scan. In my experience, Portra 160 looks better with the Noritsu scanner and, if shot correctly, requires absolutely no retouching. All images posted here are direct scans from my lab, "Cape Film Supply" in South Africa.

All pictures are scanned on a Noritsu scanner, no retouch or edit was required.

That's it, Portra 160 is a very beautiful film to use, slightly less expensive than the 400, with less contrast but higher resolution. I find it a better environmental portraiture film than the 400, that is, when the lighting conditions are perfect.