So I have had Gina for nearly a year at the time of writing. And I have kept it relatively simple with how I like to see my photos come out.
I hit the choices of film simulations, pick Velvia if I’m grabbing a landscape. Acros when I want to go mono, and the others dependent on the situation.
But in my quest to keep things fresh for myself, I started watching some Fuji-centric videos and something that soon came up was the term ‘recipes’.
For those uneducated, one major advantage modern cameras have over vintage film cameras are the ability to manipulate the look of any given shot.
White balance, film grain, sharpness, noise reduction. Just a few categories to play with.
So I started to dive into the world of ‘recipes’ and came across a site with a metric ton of ‘recipes’. I’ll shout them in a sec but let us say hello to the first recipe: Kodak Portra 160.
What is Kodak Portra 160?
As you can imagine, there’s a lot of Kodak-created recipes. So it seemed like a no-brainer to start there. You know who Kodak are, but what on Earth is “Portra 160”?
According to the homies @ Fuji X Weekly:
Portra is a line of films that Kodak introduced in 1998. As the name implies, it was designed for portrait photography, although it has been used for many different genres, as it’s good for more than just portraits. Kodak made Portra in three different ISOs: 160, 400 and 800. The ISO 160 and 400 versions originally had two options: Neutral Color (NC) and Vivid Color (VC). In 2011 Kodak redesigned Portra, and they did away with the Neutral and Vivid versions, making instead only one option in each ISO. Portra has been a popular film since its introduction.
Easy to get lost in photography jargon but put simply, Kodak made a film for portrait photography but ended up being good for everything and we have the 160 version on deck.
I technically have two posts using KP160, (hit up my "Cross The Tracks" post.) but the first set of shots for this one were taken @ The Sanctuary (Peep "The City Or The Sanctuary?" for elaboration.) with the dog.
The overriding thought I have for this set is the way greens come out, especially when there’s a clear contrast between the greens in sunlight vs the greens that aren’t.
For the 2nd batch, I went down to what is properly called “Old Leigh”, basically cobbled streets and many people either drinking or eating ice cream.
Overall, I love this recipe. I especially love how it plays with the blues and greens. It just gives the photos a vintage look. Consider this recipe a lock in my setup.
Charlie Taylor
chillicharlie.taylor@gmail.com
Born in Camden, North London.
Bred in Leigh-On-Sea, Essex.
Screenwriter/Podcaster/Photographer/
Hip-Hop Student.