portra 160VC

Hi there,

I just shot a roll of portra 160VC and had it developed at local 1 hr
photo lab. The outcome is kind of orange. Can you judge by this is the film
out of date or the lab didn't do a good job? Thank you!

L. Jou

On 2-Feb-2004, "L. Jou" wrote:

I just shot a roll of portra 160VC and had it developed at local 1 hr
photo lab. The outcome is kind of orange. Can you judge by this is the
film
out of date or the lab didn't do a good job? Thank you!

I assume you are looking at the prints. Evaluating a film by the prints from
a one-hour lab is about like choosing a Governor by the quality of his
Movies. My guess is you shot the film indoors without a flash or color
correction filter. Other possibilities include poor exposure and poor
printing by the lab. If the film was way out-of-date (like many years) or
had been stored on top of the oven it's possible that the color shifted. I
think it's pretty unlikely you'd get a shift that you could detect without
direct comparison to a fresh roll.

--
Tom Thackrey
www.creative-light.com
tom (at) creative (dash) light (dot) com
do NOT send email to (it's reserved for spammers)

"Tom Thackrey" wrote in message
om...

I assume you are looking at the prints. Evaluating a film by the prints
from

yes

a one-hour lab is about like choosing a Governor by the quality of his
Movies. My guess is you shot the film indoors without a flash or color

no. it's all outdoor and I suppose nikon L37c is a skylight
filter.

correction filter. Other possibilities include poor exposure and poor
printing by the lab. If the film was way out-of-date (like many years) or

Well, they used to do well on my portra 800 and 160NC. This time I ask for a
custom print, not machine quality print. Does this matter?

had been stored on top of the oven it's possible that the color shifted. I
think it's pretty unlikely you'd get a shift that you could detect without
direct comparison to a fresh roll.

--
Tom Thackrey
www.creative-light.com
tom (at) creative (dash) light (dot) com
do NOT send email to (it's reserved for spammers)

"L. Jou" wrote in message
...


Well, they used to do well on my portra 800 and 160NC. This time I ask for
a
custom print, not machine quality print. Does this matter?

If their custom print looks like that, then you should take those custom
prints back to the lab and ask for either 1. Your money back. or 2. New
prints.

Portra 160 VC should not be all orangey and especially under daylight
conditions. I don't think you can find a roll of Portra old enough to have
this much color shift unless it was stored in the back window of a car in
the tropics.

Your story is one of the many that makes me feel justified in processing and
recommending processing one's own films. C-41 in my opinion is less
difficult than B&W, as there no variances you need to (or should) make. If
you can hold a film drum at temp for B&W, then you can for C-41.



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Jim Phelps wrote:
"L. Jou" wrote in message
...


Well, they used to do well on my portra 800 and 160NC. This time I ask for

a

custom print, not machine quality print. Does this matter?


If their custom print looks like that, then you should take those custom
prints back to the lab and ask for either 1. Your money back. or 2. New
prints.

Portra 160 VC should not be all orangey and especially under daylight
conditions. I don't think you can find a roll of Portra old enough to have
this much color shift unless it was stored in the back window of a car in
the tropics.

Your story is one of the many that makes me feel justified in processing and
recommending processing one's own films. C-41 in my opinion is less
difficult than B&W, as there no variances you need to (or should) make. If
you can hold a film drum at temp for B&W, then you can for C-41.

Except C-41 needs a much higher temperature, indoors 68F is probably not
too hard to keep, but C-41 needs 90F which can be tricky if your dark
room is 68F. There are solutions though, like a warming tray, you
either add hot water when the temp drops a little, or get an aquarium
heater capable of 90F then add an aquarium pump, to recirculate the
water in the warming tray......

What I used to do, was warm it up to hot, then let the temperature drop
through 90F until it was the same temperature too cool. For example
start at 100F and end up at 80F. Worked well, and never had a problem.

W

Many one hour labs have problems with printing accurate colors for so-called
"professional" films. Take the negatives back to the lab with an example of
a properly printed image. Accept the possibiltiy that this particular job
may not be able to handle the job, even if they say they can.

Rick

In article ,
says...

Hi there,

I just shot a roll of portra 160VC and had it developed at local 1 hr
photo lab. The outcome is kind of orange. Can you judge by this is the film
out of date or the lab didn't do a good job? Thank you!

L. Jou

Thanks for all the reply.

Well, I took the negative to the lab again for reprint of two of the
pictures and the outcome is a little bit better. Then I had another kodak
lab do the same reprint. The result is somewhat different, not that orange
(I might be misleading, the first prints I got was just a little bit
orange). So well...... . I also checked kodak's website and it said that
portra 160VC is for use in controlled lighting. Is this the reason for what
happened? Thank you!

L. Jou

"L. Jou" wrote in message
...
Thanks for all the reply.

Well, I took the negative to the lab again for reprint of two of the
pictures and the outcome is a little bit better. Then I had another kodak
lab do the same reprint. The result is somewhat different, not that orange
(I might be misleading, the first prints I got was just a little bit
orange). So well...... . I also checked kodak's website and it said that
portra 160VC is for use in controlled lighting. Is this the reason for
what
happened? Thank you!

L. Jou



I use Portra in almost all it's flavor (160/400, NC/VC/UC) in all types of
lighting (available/flash/sunlight). I process it myself. I never have
color shifts I can't filter out. A custom printer would be able to do the
same. In fact, most of my print under similar lighting conditions use
almost the same filter pack while enlarging.

Either the film was processed incorrectly (and the many variables that could
happen then) or someone is not doing their job and printing the image
correctly. Is there a way for you to scan and post the image for us to see?

Jim



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Because VC stand for Vivid Contrast, the emulsion has more contrast. In
high contrast situations you may get results a little hard to control until
you understand how you camera exposes and what you're looking for. Having
said that, even with the high contrast all C41 films these days have ample
exposure lattitude on the high side. Rate the film at 100, be safe.

Controlled lighting means any lighting you want to use, so long as you get
used to how the film will handle it. Set a result exposure index depending on
how your equipment meters. Find a good consistent lab.

Rick


In article ,
says...

Thanks for all the reply.

Well, I took the negative to the lab again for reprint of two of the
pictures and the outcome is a little bit better. Then I had another kodak
lab do the same reprint. The result is somewhat different, not that orange
(I might be misleading, the first prints I got was just a little bit
orange). So well...... . I also checked kodak's website and it said that
portra 160VC is for use in controlled lighting. Is this the reason for what
happened? Thank you!

L. Jou

Well, I post 3 pictures to this newsgroup yesterday but it never shows up.

Anyway, I think I might need to try other labs for a comparison. Is kodak
prepaid mailer doing a good job processing portra films and what about A&I?
Thank you!

L. Jou

"Jim Phelps" wrote in message
...

I use Portra in almost all it's flavor (160/400, NC/VC/UC) in all types of
lighting (available/flash/sunlight). I process it myself. I never have
color shifts I can't filter out. A custom printer would be able to do the
same. In fact, most of my print under similar lighting conditions use
almost the same filter pack while enlarging.

Either the film was processed incorrectly (and the many variables that
could
happen then) or someone is not doing their job and printing the image
correctly. Is there a way for you to scan and post the image for us to
see?

Jim