Kodak Portra 400 is a colour negative film in 10.2×12.7 cm (4×5 inch), 10 sheets to the box, ISO 400, C-41 process. It is the industry standard for portraiture: when a studio or wedding shoot goes to film, nine times out of ten it is Portra.
How the picture looks
A warm rendition, a little more saturated than Portra 160, and — above all — the best skin-tone reproduction in its class. Skin comes out alive, neither yellow nor pink plastic. Its updated grain structure was made for the modern shoot-and-scan workflow: in the ISO 400 class this is the finest-grained colour negative there is. Fujifilm PRO 400H and Superia X-tra 400 beat it on sharpness and resolution, but for skin tones people accept that trade.
What to shoot on it
Large-format portraiture and fashion, weddings, family work, natural light, and any reportage where skin colour matters. ISO 400 in 4×5 means you can hand-hold a press camera, or stop down for depth of field.
How to shoot it
Meter at the nominal ISO 400, though Portra is famous for its latitude: it holds two or three stops of overexposure confidently, and many photographers deliberately rate it at EI 200 for a denser negative and even softer skin. It likes underexposure less — when in doubt, give it more light. Sheet film is loaded into holders (double-sided, two sheets each) in complete darkness — you need a darkroom or a roomy changing bag. One sheet is one frame, and that changes how you shoot: exposure is worked out in advance, composition is built on the ground glass, and every frame costs time. The box holds 10 sheets — roughly €18.11 a frame.
Processing and scanning
Standard C-41; check in advance that your lab handles sheet film. A particular virtue of Portra is that it was designed to be scanned: the files come out malleable, with plenty of headroom for grading, and usually need very little doing to them.
How it compares
Ektar 100 in the same size gives brighter, more contrasty colour and finer grain, but narrow latitude and less flattering skin. Portra 160, where available, is slightly cooler and less saturated. For large format, Portra 400 is the most versatile colour choice on the shelf: it forgives more than any other colour film in its class.
