Color Film

Last Frames With Fuji FP-100c Instant Film

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I woke up this morning thinking about how much I really miss Fuji FP-100c instant film. It is such a shame that Fuji decided this film stock wasn’t profitable any longer because as far as I’m concerned it was the best instant film ever made by a wide margin. Fantastic colors, consistent performance, and a reasonable price always made it a go-to film stock for me.

Photographed with a Mamiya RZ67 and Fuji FP-100c Instant Film

One of my favorite things to do with Fuji FP-100c was to rescue the negative side of the image. Instant film was always designed to give the photographer an immediate positive print, but with Fuji it was easy to keep the negative side as well. All it took was a dab of bleach, a cheap paint brush, and a bit of patience. Simple. In many ways this quality made Fuji FP-100c the cheapest color film on the market because you didn’t have to pay any developing costs to get a negative. How cool was that? Fuji truly had a magical product on their hands and it is such a shame it no longer exists.

Photographed with a Mamiya RZ67 and Fuji FP-100c Instant Film

These images represent some frames from the last pack of Fuji FP-100c I ever exposed. By the time I got around to using it the film was significantly expired so there are a lot of color shifts going on here. I probably shouldn’t have waited so long to expose this pack of film, but once Fuji announced FP-100c was discontinued I became afraid to expose my last few packs on hand. Even with the color shifts, I still like the resulting images. Color shifts have always been part of the fun with any instant film as far as I’m concerned. It’s not about complete accuracy to the original scene.

Photographed with a Mamiya RZ67 and Fuji FP-100c Instant Film

Camera used was my Mamiya RZ67 with an instant film back. I still have the back in the vein hope that someone will pick up where Fuji left off and create a peel part instant film again. I know there is a snowball’s chance in hell that will happen, but hey, I suppose you never know. After all, Polaroid came back from the dead and seems to be going strong and I never thought that would happen either.

Kodak Portra and the Nude

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I feel like it has been a little while since I’ve posted any work with color film. Even though the majority of my work is in black and white, I actually love working with color film. Color negative film in particular tends to be my jam because I feel like the results are a bit more muted and slightly more painterly than color slide film. Granted, I’m not picky and will happily work with any color stock I can get my hands on for a halfway decent price.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Kodak Portra 400 120 film.

Both of the images in this post were made using Kodak Portra film stock. The top image was with Kodak Portra 400 and the bottom image with Kodak Portra 160. In practice I don’t find a huge amount of difference between the two. Yes, of course the ISO 400 film has more grain, but the warm color rendition with both film stocks just looks absolutely gorgeous. A little bit gets lost when I digitize the negatives, but I still think there is a different vibe here than one would get from a color image coming from a digital camera. It’s just a bit more organic in my opinion.

Photographed with a Pentax 645n and Kodak Portra 160 medium format film.

This post also marks the debut of the first image I’ve posted with the Pentax 645n medium format camera. I’ll speak more about this camera at a later date, but I recently purchased it on whim after seeing one in a store for a very VERY attractive price. It’s been a fun new tool to play with and I’ve been pleased with the results.