The magnitude of Kodak successfully rereleasing a film like Ektachrome is huge. It’s also a milestone that, frankly, many of us never thought possible. We’d been through this before with other film projects. Big promises on social media to #keepfilmalive, the flashy promotional campaign, the buzzworded crowdfunding, and the whole load of nothing that happens afterwards. For more than a year we heard just a few intermittent reports that Ektachrome was still coming. And now, proving our fears wrong, it’s finally here.

Gold 200‘s popularity stems from its remarkably balanced imaging characteristics. It has just the right amount of grain, is sharp without being clinically sharp, its colors are vibrant but not gaudy, and its speed is just right for an afternoon photo walk. It performs admirably for anybody’s general photography, and in experienced hands it can produce some seriously beautiful images. Aside from the music and podcast, Rob is also a photographer. It started out as a hobby—simply another creative outlet—but has turned into something much more. His photographs have been printed in media globally and he’s regularly commissioned to photograph musicians. He often uses a Fujifilm camera loaded with a Film Simulation Recipe. Portra films usually scan well. The ISO 160 version can yield teal colour shifts in overblown highlights and blue shifts in under-exposed shadows. The ISO 400 film does that less — but it does happen. Your scanner software may resolve that for you automatically. However, if you’re inverting your negatives by hand for maximum control, you may need to adjust the colour balance after the fact. I had to do this a few times for my “pastel” experiments.

Also, there will be a 30-minute pre-show that I invite you to join. So if you have a little time before the show, even if it’s only five or ten minutes, please tune in as we showcase some of your pictures and have an informal chat with the audience. Exposure to heat can damage the emulsion on your film. The specifics of temperatures for different films are as follows… Lighting Conditions: If you will be shooting in low light conditions, you should choose Kodak Ultramax as it has an ISO speed of 400. If you will be shooting in well-lit situations, Kodak Gold with its ISO speed of 200 is a good choice.

As the old NC and VC versions were consolidated in 2010 due to the increase in digital processing going on, improving the scanning performance for the new version as Kodak did was a natural step forward too. Kodak Portra 400 was launched in 1998 and replaced the older 'Vericolor' emulsion in Kodak's range. Originally there were two variants of Portra: 'Vivid Colour' and 'Natural Colour' but a technical update in 2010 made the difference redundant with a new and improved film. Dynamic range. Portra 160 seems to have the least forgiving latitude, whereas Portra 400 can handle 2+ stops over-exposure with some interesting side effects (see “ pastel colours ” below). In all three speeds, the film shows some colour shifts in over-exposed areas; however, they are relatively easy to correct in Photoshop . If you have a camera or photography shop near you that keeps a good selection of film, they should really have some Portra 400. The only reason they wouldn’t is that they’ve sold out. It comes in a 5-roll box but any shop worth their salt should let you buy single rolls from open boxes too.After shooting your Portra, it’s developed using the standard C-41 process. It’s also designed to be a great film for scanning, which makes a lot of sense considering its history. These were sold alongside Ektacolor until 1974 when the upgraded Vericolor Professional II came along, with the codes updated to VPS and VPL. At this point, Ektacolor and the original Vericolor films were discontinued. FXW: Tell me about your behind-the-scenes photography. What do you try and convey through these pictures? You can see straight away that Ultramax is indeed more sensitive to light, across the spectrum - which corresponds to it's higher ISO. And you can also see that the shape of the yellow curve is slightly more uniform across its peak. You have to turn the camera sideways to get landscape results, which is confusing at first. Shot on Kodak Ultramax 400 film using the Kodak Ektar H35. (Image credit: Jon Stapley/Future)

The times when film does become unusable is when it is exposed to extreme conditions. Jon spoke to us about what to watch out for when storing film. Type of Photography: If you will be shooting portraits, Kodak Gold is a good choice due to its natural color reproduction and good skin tones. If you will be shooting outdoor or snapshot photography, Kodak Ultramax with its vibrant and punchy colors is a good choice. The grain’s sharpness is a separate concept from grain size. It refers to the amount of definition around the edges of the film particles. For example, slide films tend to have less grain sharpness, which makes them appear smoother when enlarged. However, sharp grain can make things like distant text appear more legible even if the granules are large. All that said, for a cheap 35mm film with a rating of 400 ASA, the grain in Ultramax 400 could certainly be a lot worse!

The Technical Bit

If you were to perhaps accidentally leave your film somewhere that was a little too warm, or on a sunny windowsill by mistake, the chances are that it will still be absolutely fine. You may get some slight fogging, a loss of contrast or some discolouring but you will definitely get an image. Ultramax 400 is Kodak’s do-it-all consumer-grade film. It’s a general-purpose, daylight-balanced, color negative film with a sensitivity of ISO 400 (27º). It offers fine grain, deep saturation, and wide exposure latitude, and all of these traits make it well-suited to enlarging, and for digitization through scanning. It’s developed in standard C-41 chemistry, meaning it can be developed anywhere that film is processed. It’s also inexpensive and ubiquitous. May produce high levels of contrast, making it unsuitable for high-key or low-key lighting situations. This episode will conclude our discussion of the Kodak Gold 200 Film Simulation Recipe, and introduce the next recipe-of-the-month: Kodak Tri-X 400. It will be a great time, with wonderful photographs and discussions. You won’t want to miss it! It has been the first choice for many top photographers over its lifespan - in fact when Kodak went through bankruptcy and restructuring in 2012 Don McCullin panic-bought 150 rolls of Kodak Tri-X in case it didn't survive the turmoil! Fortunately for Mr McCullin and every other photographer, Tri-X did survive and is still available fresh in both 35mm and 120 formats. Features: