Kodak Portra 400 in 8×10 inch format is a colour negative sheet film, 10 sheets to the box, ISO 400/27°, C-41 process. It is the same Portra known in 135 and 120, on a sheet of more than 500 cm²: a professional film for portraiture and studio work in large format.

How the picture looks

Portra 400 is built around one job: skin. Colour rendition is neutral and restrained, with no lift in saturation; flesh tones come out natural across a very wide range of lighting, from an overcast day to studio flash.

For its speed the grain is very fine, and at 8×10 it effectively stops being a factor: a sheet that size needs no enlargement, and the scan shows an even, almost noiseless tone with a long roll-off in the highlights.

What to shoot on it

Portraiture is the point of it. Beyond that: studio still life, fashion, and location large-format work where ISO 100 is no longer enough. Four hundred ISO in large format is expensive in the literal sense, but it buys what slow films cannot — stopping down to f/22 and still staying within a hand-timed exposure on a tripod.

Ten sheets to a box is a supply for a specific shoot rather than for learning. At this cost per sheet, every frame deserves its own plan.

Exposure

Like all colour negative, Portra likes light: it holds two or three stops of overexposure confidently and even benefits from it, with cleaner shadows and finer grain. Underexposure, on the other hand, gives muddy shadows and a colour shift.

Standard large-format practice applies: meter for the shadows and give a stop more when in doubt. At this price per sheet, insurance is cheaper than a reshoot.

Processing

Standard C-41. For sheet film that means either a lab equipped for large format or your own processing in a tank with hangers or a temperature-controlled drum — C-41 needs 38 °C and considerably tighter tolerances than black and white.

Check before shooting that your lab takes 8×10 in C-41: it is a rarer request than roll film, and not everyone accepts sheets this size.

How it compares

The colour choice in large format is small: Portra 400, the slower Portra 160 with finer grain and slightly more restrained colour, and transparency films, which demand more precise exposure. Ektar 100 gives more saturated colour and suits product and landscape work rather than skin.

If what you need is large-format portraiture with natural skin and speed in hand, Portra 400 has practically no alternative.