Testing the Exposure Limits of Kodak Portra 400 Film from -3 to +6!

I've always known that Kodak Portra 400 is one of the best and most versatile film stocks ever made, but I wanted to see how much it could really take in exposure latitude. I photographed a full roll [12 frames] at the exact same exposure [1/60 | f/3.5] both indoors and outdoors to see what would and wouldn't be useable and I was honestly shocked with the results.

My filming gear:

Music: Kowloon Walled Kitty

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The film in this video was processed and scanned by the good people at Indie Film Lab.

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#kodakportra400 #portra400 #kodakfilm Kodak Portra 400 Exposure Test underexposure overexposure film photography

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[benjhaisch]

What has been your experience with Portra 400? Has it been this flexible for you too?

[mattdayphoto]

Such a good, practical test! Love this, dude. Also digging that hoodie. 👌🏻

[chevydie]

Correct exposure=amazing....wrong exposure=amazing in a different way. They all looked great man.

[TonyWodarck]

Dude! Thank you for making this. I can now share this with all the people I speak to about film and are scared. This is so helpful.

[sidescrew]

All of those photos have such a great colour! Portra is sooo damn cool! Thanks for this video!

[JamieMPhoto]

I discovered how far I could miss and still get a photo and that was a big part of me falling in love with film again years ago. It was a lot more latitude than digital at the time, and even now, highlight retention is probably better. Heck, I can miss by a stop or two on slide film and pull it back acceptably with my scanning setup now. It helps me shoot dramatically less on digital, too, which does help the resale value and longevity of gear. Great idea!

[ctrivin]

Matt Day sent me in this direction.... wasn’t disappointed. Great video, loved how you tested a classic in Portra 400. Love the content 👍🏼

[RichardStroffolino]

Been taking pics of my toddlers with my Mamiya C33 and this was just fun to watch. The latitude is darn impressive, Portra loves it some light! Thanks!

[nickhaisch]

Wow! So cool! I just ran a roll of Tri-X 400 in my Yashica MAT shot all at 1/60 f3.5 Lots of it was indoors so I was planning on pushing it two stops. Excited to see how it turns out!

[TravieTrav_DMV]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing this information! I’m jumping into 120 film & I’m excited to give this a shot! 🙌🏾💯

[wykevanweelden]

Portra is so good really. The grain as well is amazing I think. Thanks for ur vid 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼

[tigerareyouthere]

Great, informative videos Benj! Thanks! Just subscribed 👌🏻

[alexjohnsonphotography]

Great video! About to be a dad In a few weeks and I love seeing how much heart you put into photos of your boy. Nice work!

[zach.hanford]

This makes me happy. I haven't shot a ton of film, but I have a bunch of Portra 160 waiting to be scanned. The meter on the K1000 isn't exactly what I'd call precise, so I made sure to always be slightly higher than what the camera recommended and I wasn't sure how it'd turn out. This makes me worry slightly less.

[DannyDD]

Very cool man. Makes me want to go back to film or at least add it back into the kit. Cheers from Canada 🇨🇦

[Zetaphotography]

Saw this last year Kyle McDougall did the same thing.
Thanks for the test.
Can you try a different film.

[westonsmith]

Wow, thank-you for making this video. Very inspirational. Cheers from Canada.

[theundefinedphotographer]

Another great case for shooting film. The first time I shot film was also the first time that I had done any kind of manual photography. I knew nothing about the exposure triangle or how to manipulate it, so I ended up ignorantly shooting an entire 35mm roll of Fuji superia 400 film at f1.8 and 1/60th of a second, so I was in the same boat as you of having probably over a dozen shots be over 6 stops overexposed, but I was still impressed with how the images looked. It was an interesting learning experience into film photography and just basic photography in general. But yes, negative film, especially portra, is very forgiving. Thanks for sharing!

[joeschlicht]

Portra 400 is known the be very good overexposed, some people even purposely shoot it over exposed (or so I have read)... I haven't tried to do that (no real reason to), but it's interesting none the less. Portra is really good looking film. Your first two exposures were fantastic!

[leopan]

The film is great, but still, it depends on the labs, how they scan it how they adjust the scanned files, some labs they do shit!But some like yours, did a great job for scanning.