Kodak Portra 400 VC – tim dobbs photography

Sunny day for a change … Shooting Kodak Portra 400VC …

As to be expected here in Wales the weather has been pretty up and down … mainly down but a week ago we had a fleeting glimpse of the sun, so as I had not shot any colour film stock this year I grabbed a roll of Portra 400VC from the fridge and loaded up the trusty Yashicamat 124G and went out to make the most of the light.

I only went for a short walk as I bumped into artist Kevin Sinnott outside his gallery and popped in for a chat as I had not seen him for a while.

To make the most of the light I managed to take his portrait outside before I left for the rest of my walk.

Even though the film had pretty long expired I rated it at 200 iso and was not disappointed with how the images came out.

As I don’t have any C41 chemistry here I sent the film off to the trusty Filmdev who did a great job as usual.

So here are the images …

Comments most welcome …

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek

Also still have a handful of zines over on my etsy store … https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/timdobbsphoto

Autumn colours .. Mamiya 645 on Kodak Portra 400vc …. the whole roll

As usual here in the South Wales valleys the weather is pretty up and down at the minute but on one of the days that the sun burst through between gale force winds and rain I went out with the Mamiya 645 with the 80mm f2.8 and 45mm f2.8 ( last 3 frames .. so damn sharp ) loaded with some expired Kodak Portra 400vc and tried to capture the lovely Autumn colours here.

I processed the roll using the excellent Tetenal C41 kit which I have managed to stretch to 26 rolls so far with no problems.

I love using the Mamiya as I can get 15 frames and to be honest I find it easier to compose the 645 format compared to square and since getting the Mamiya RB67 I felt I was neglecting its smaller/lighter little brother.

The images came out just as I wanted with plenty of lovely warm Autumn colours and as usual the Mamiya glass didn’t disappoint rendering lovely sharp images even wide open.

So here is the whole roll .. comments most welcome

Click on an image to view larger

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek

Sunny day walk with my Daughter & some Kodak Portra 400VC …

I have been working all the way through this pandemic lockdown which is a blessing as I think I would have gone nuts if I had to stay home so on the weekends I make the most of it by going on a long walk here in our lovely Garw Valley.

Most weekends if she isn’t working too I have been joined by my daughter who has been eager to explore the many different walks we have here in our vicinity.

I bought quite a few rolls of Portra 400VC from Mr Cad ages ago so I thought it was about time that I shot some of it so I loaded my trusty Mamiya 645 and went out on a hot Saturday morning to do a 8 mile trek around our valley.

After developing the roll I had some issues namely strange light leaks in different places and of different intensities so I immediately thought the camera was at fault even though I have never had a problem like this on any other rolls.

After posting on Twitter asking if anyone had any idea what it could be most people suggested the camera which would have been the obvious choice so I loaded up a roll of ilford SFX and shot that the following day under the same sunny conditions only to find they were all perfect … no leaks so on this occasion I think the problem was with the film itself.

I bought about 20 rolls and have shot 7 or 8 previously and all were fine except this one.

As most of the leaks occurred on the edges I managed to salvage quite a few frames with a little cropping which was pretty easy as it was a 6 x 4.5 frame.

See this original scan sample here

Anyway here are the final images … please click to view larger ….

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek 🙂

Snow day …… part two

Following on …

As I said in the previous blog post we managed to get another downpour of snow in the space of 3 weeks so this time I decided on some colour film namely Kodak Portra 400VC expired using my Nikon F100 and both the 50mm f1.4 and my old Nikkor 35-70 which isn’t the sharpest but its versatile.

Anyway here are the images ….

I have shot a couple of rolls of this film previously and it was great but I don’t know if it was the cold weather along with slightly exhausted c41 chemistry but half of the frames seemed to have a colour cast which I didn’t bother correcting as I liked the look 🙂

Anyway thanks for looking ….

Click on an image to view larger

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek 🙂

Spring has Sprung ? ……

I seem to have a slight backlog of films to post at the moment what with the Tmax Party and Expired film day.

I shot this roll of Portra 400vc back at the end of February on a quite bright but overcast afternoon.I have noticed that this film when shot in these lighting conditions give a nice subtle muted colour palette.Next time I shoot this film I will try it in poor conditions to see how it performs then. These were shot on the Mamiya 645 with the 45mm f2.8 and home processed/scanned.

Thanks for looking ….

Click on an image to view larger

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek 🙂

1st roll of Kodak Portra 400VC in 35mm format …

A few weeks back I managed to get hold of quite a bit of expired Kodak film from MrCad here in the UK, most of it was in 120 format but I did also get a few rolls of Portra 400vc in 35mm to try.I was a pretty nice day last weekend so I thought I would give a roll a go in the Nikon F100.

When I shot some of the 120 when I got it the sun was blazing here and the images really popped, I loved the colours so I was hoping for the same with the 35mm and to be fair the images that had really good light really shone.
I am so pleased that I bought loads of this film, after just shooting 3 rolls I am hooked.

All I need now is some sunny weather to do it justice, even though I was pleased with most of the images its the one’s in the best light that showed the best of the film. Roll on the summer I say 🙂