Need Help With Film Selection

[carney2]

I need to select two 35mm films for close in portrait shooting - one color and one black and white. Both will be shot in natural light in the home and probably should be AT LEAST ISO 400 - maybe higher. Will probably not be blowing anything up higher than 8 X 10 or so. Will be shooting infants and toddlers up close and personal, so skin tones are critical.

I checked the reviews, but reached no firm conclusions.

Thanx.

Tom in Pennsylvania

[Franglais]

I need to select two 35mm films for close in portrait shooting - one color and one black and white. Both will be shot in natural light in the home and probably should be AT LEAST ISO 400 - maybe higher. Will probably not be blowing anything up higher than 8 X 10 or so. Will be shooting infants and toddlers up close and personal, so skin tones are critical.

I checked the reviews, but reached no firm conclusions.

Thanx.

Tom in Pennsylvania

I would use Fuji Color Pro 400H (aka NPH400) in colour and Ilford XP2 in black and white. Both should give nice smooth results. If you need more ISO then there's Fuji Color 800Z (aka NPZ).

Charles

[another view]

If you're not doing your own B&W processing and can get away with ISO400, then try the C41 films like Kodak BW400NC. The trick with this stuff is to use a lab that knows how to print it because some places will give you prints with color casts.

For color neg, the only one faster than 400 that I've used is Portra 800. It gets grainy really quick, so I exposed it 2/3 stop above that. Actually, I can't remember what the number is but one ISO speed faster than 400 is the one... Of course, this won't give you ISO800 anymore but I used Portra 400NC at 250 or 320 usually too.