Kodak Portra 400 Overview: Kodak Portra 400 is an extremely versatile professional film available in 35mm and 120. It loves light and handles highlights and detail retention extremely well.
Rating at ISO 200 and metering for the shadows or midtones will give beautiful, warm colors and natural skin tones.
You can pick up some Kodak Portra 400 on Amazon here: Kodak Portra 400 in 35mm or 120
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Kodak Portra 400 Film Review by Samantha Stortecky
Happy Spring everyone! It’s good to be back here chatting with all you lovely folks about film. Today, I’m going to cover one of the staples in the film world, Kodak Portra 400.
I’ll be completely honest, when I first started getting into film, I wasn’t even interested in Kodak. I was a Fuji 400H fan girl all the way. Those light and airy pastel tones were what initially drew me into shooting color film.
But as I got more comfortable in my film journey, I started to venture out into unknown territories, and Kodak Portra was my first one to try. And it is such a gorgeous film stock! I found I was never disappointed when I grabbed a roll of Portra 400.
Let’s jump into the details!
Related Article: Guide To Choosing A Color Film
Rating, Metering, and Pushing Portra 400
Nine times out of ten, I always overexpose Kodak Portra 400 by metering it at 200 and meter for the shadows or midtones. This, as most of you know, will give you a beautiful and colorful images.
One of the areas in which Portra excels in is with its color. The vibrancy is absolutely glorious, especially with the skin tones. I find that when I overexpose my images, the skin tones and greenery are more true to color.
I find that even when you overexpose this film, Portra 400 always has a natural warmness to its images. It gives me the warm fuzzies, and I love it.
Pushing Portra 400
Portra 400 was actually one of the very first films I attempted to push, and it always looks so dang pretty.
I was starting a new portrait project and I was shooting indoors and decided, what the heck, I’m going to shoot it at 640 and have my lab push it by one stop. When pushed by one stop, Portra packs a nice punch in contrast, something I love in my images.
The yellow tints can sometimes be added as you push this film, but please don’t let this deter you from pushing this film! This is a setting that can easily be adjusted post process if you find that the extra warmth is something you dislike.
Where Portra 400 Shines and Where it Struggles
One of the areas where Portra 400 truly shines is in its retention of detail. I know that film already does a fantastic job of not blowing out the highlights in images, but with Portra 400 I have noticed this especially.
Last summer, I was able to travel to Niagara Falls and document the stunning scenery. The details in the clouds and waterfalls were kept in perfect detail even when I shot it at a 2.8 aperture. How’s that for freakin’ awesome?!
This film really shines with skin tones, but definitely don’t knock it for landscape and settings because it’ll knock your socks off with how awesome it is!
An area where this film can struggle is with the red and/or yellow tints. Like all film, this particular film stock loves light, and I’ve found that if I shoot this stock in lower light settings indoors, I can tend to get an odd tint to skin tones.
As mentioned earlier, pushing Portra 400 can also accentuate yellow tints.
There are so many pro’s to this film stock that it makes the con’s pretty small and easily manageable.
Related Article: How To Shoot Kodak Gold 200
Okey dokey guys, that’s it for me. Now go out there, see the world, and document it with this beautiful and vibrant film.
And if you do start shooting with it, feel free to share your work with me on Instagram (@splendidmusings). I’d love to see it!
Thank you so much, Samantha! Samantha is a regular contributor here at Shoot It With Film, and you can check out her other articles here, such as How to Shoot Ilford Delta 3200 and Fujifilm Instax Wide 300 Instant Camera Review. You can also check out more of Samantha’s work on her website, business Instagram, or personal Instagram.
Leave your questions about Kodak Portra 400 below in the comments, and you can pick up some for yourself on Amazon here!
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Blog Comments
Kyle
May 28, 2019 at 7:40 pm
Hi,
Analogue noob here! Just purchased an Olympus OM-2n and am looking to purchase some Portra 160/400.
My question is regarding pushing/pulling/shooting at box speed. I plan to use it solely for shooting outside when the weather is nice so bearing bright sunny skies in mind, is shooting Portra 160 a better option? Also, just to clarify, “pushing” Portra 400 means going *down* in ISO to 200, and not upwards to 800? And this would have to be marked on the film for development as “-1”?
Sorry for all the questions but I really like that retro, grainy washed-out look that I can only seem to emulate so far on my X-T20!
Best,
Kyle
Samantha
June 3, 2019 at 10:37 am
Hello Kyle,
I actually think that Portra 160 does a better job with indoor portraits where as Portra 400 is wonderful outside. As for pushing film, pushing is when you rate the film HIGHER than the box speed and then have it pushed in development to compensate for the underexposure. So pushing Portra 400 one stop (+1) would be shooting it at 800 iso.
When you rate Portra at 200 you are overexposing the film and basically telling the film to let more light in. When you rate lower than box speed you do not need to tell your film lab. You only need to notify your lab when you are pushing your film to a higher iso (800, 1600 etc) so that they can leave the film in the developer for longer.
I hope all this makes sense! If you’re going for a grainy washed out look in film, I would definitely look into different film stocks. Every film stock is unique and offers many different styles and variables. Have fun shooting!
Jake
February 9, 2023 at 12:05 am
If you’re giving advice. Make sure you’re giving correct advice. Pushing Portra 400 one stop (+1)
Would be 800 not 600. Because one stop is double the amount of light. 400 to 600 is a half stop. You’re giving people wrong information.
shootitwithfilm
February 9, 2023 at 3:28 pm
Thanks, Jake! Yep, Portra 400 +1 is rating at 800, not 600. We corrected the comment!
Kiriako Iatridis
January 14, 2020 at 4:25 pm
I’m just confused about how or why you are setting your camera to ISO 600? I’ve never heard of a camera that has a ISO 600 setting. Do you mean ISO 640? And if so, that is only 2/3 of a stop push. Are you purposely telling your lab to push it 1 stop to make the exposure 1/3 brighter? Or is this a typo and you are you meaning ISO 800?
Joanne
August 20, 2021 at 1:59 pm
Hi !
May I ask you which camera did you use to shoot the guy in the café. Love these shots ! I am investigating to buy my first film camera.
Thank you,
Joanne
Samantha
August 24, 2021 at 3:27 pm
Hello Joanne! I used the Pentax 645N for those images.
Nicol
October 16, 2021 at 4:12 pm
When you shoot portra 400 at 200, do you compensate by pulling -1 when developing or do you just leave it over-exposed ?
shootitwithfilm
October 16, 2021 at 6:34 pm
HI Nicol! You can develop normally. No need to pull the film! Portra 400 does really well when it is shot at 200 and developed normally.
Nicol
October 16, 2021 at 7:28 pm
Thank you
Oscar Salamanca
January 14, 2022 at 9:32 am
Hi!
Beautiful work! I really want to try this but I have a question regarding the metering. When you say “Rating at ISO 200 and metering for the shadows or midtones” it means in my camera I set the ISO to 200, but in the light meter I set it to 200 o 400? I reckon it must be 200 but I am not sure.
Thanks for your articles and sharing this with us!
shootitwithfilm
January 14, 2022 at 10:57 pm
Hello Oscar! Yes, you are correct. You’ll set the ISO on whatever light meter you’re using to 200. If you’re using the light meter in your camera, make sure the ISO on your camera is set to 200, and if you’re using a handheld light meter, make sure the ISO on that is set to 200.