Still Photography Stock Suggestions?

[Max Field]

I'm color shooting a cover for something but would like it to come off about 15-20 years old.

 

My initial thought is getting something a little grainy like Kodak Ultramax 400, but then I entertained buying some expired stock from the era itself off eBay. However I'm not quite sure how the aging will come out.

 

Then I thought to get Fujifilm Superia 400 for the best of both worlds - nice color but still a bit of grain.

 

Would anyone here have some still stock suggestions or leads?

 

Thank you!

[Jarin Blaschke]

Well perhaps this isn't the place for this (Maybe Photrio forums is more like it), but yes, buying expired film on eBay will do it. To me, buying a mid-speed film that expired in the 1st half of the 90s might be the best balance between seeing a noticeable difference and not too dangerous. I've shot and processed 126 film that expired in the 80s and there was definitely a lot of speed loss. Very thin negatives. The older the film, the slower you need to rate the film. This is the wild card method, as you don't know how the film was stored all these years and the results are completely unpredictable. High speed film goes off faster of course and is more risky. However, grain structure of vintage films is much different than those of today and can't be replicated. Just make sure that it's still a C41 film and not made for some earlier process.

 

You could go thew harris Savides route, take a contemporary film and bake it at a low temperature, but you'd have to test it a bit to find the working ISO speed and baking time/temperature that gives you the look you want.

 

Another technique might be to slightly underexpose a fast film while shooting through a colored filter. When printed back to normal, it will induce color crossover. For example, If you want red shadows and cyan highlights, shoot through a somewhat strong cyan filter. If the shadows are thin, they will exhibit red when you correct back halfway.

 

Alternatively, Adox makes a film called Color Implosion that is designed to look "old" or "vintage" with, according to them, color layers that are "collapsed." Do a search on this film. It may be too "70s" for you, or it may be perfect.

 

J

[Phil Soheili]

15-20 yrs is not as far away as one might guess.
When I used to be the assitant of a fashion photographer (back in 1991) we used the newest emulsion at that moment: Fuji Velvia 50 slide film for catalog work and for editorial purposes (when a little more creativity was allowed) we sometimes cross processed Kodak Gold 100 negative film. (I think "Gold" was a european denomination and in the US it had another name). When b&w was requested we used Ilford xp2 for its great sensitivy and tolerance of over and underexposure.

 

Fuji's Velvia 50 is still available today (as might be Kodak "reversable" negative films) and if handeled properly produces great result that has nothing to envy of digital capture.

 

Cheers,

Phil

[Max Field]

Thanks so far for your inputs.

 

Perhaps I could get the question more specific in this line; Let's say it's a red carpet event in 1999, what stock are people shooting if they still shoot film?

 

That Fuji Velvia is also looking pretty good.

[Jarin Blaschke]

Thanks so far for your inputs.

 

Perhaps I could get the question more specific in this line; Let's say it's a red carpet event in 1999, what stock are people shooting if they still shoot film?

 

That Fuji Velvia is also looking pretty good.

 

 

A classic, much loved slide film that commercial photographers kept alive until the mid 2000s was EPP. EPN was an even older film that stuck around. The colors of both are much more natural/accurate and the look less slick than Velvia or Provia. Kodak and Fuji had 400 speed slide film, too. EPJ was a 320-speed tungsten stock.

 

PRN was a great Kodak negative stock. It was the latest until the Portra films arrived.

 

J

[Alexandros Angelopoulos Apostolos]

Fuji Velvia 50 for fashion photography? How interesting. :) I don't think I've ever came across that use.

 

Whenever I'm in the mood to soak in the warm and vibrant photography made with Velvia, I drop by Ken Rockwell's page on the stock

 

http://www.kenrockwell.com/fuji/velvia-50.htm

 

He really adores it. (And yes, I know: Ken is a controversial figure in the photography world, to put it like that.)

 

I wish VSCO made that emulation as a preset in their app for VSCO X subscribers. I'm hoping it will happen soon. Too many of their filters are too desaturated, joyless, and cold. I need something sparkly and colourful.