Kodak GC 400 rated at 200

I know I showed you guys some shots of this roll in my Japan film post but I wanted to expand a bit more and then pop that info into my film guide tab above. I've been a bit slack on updating that guide, so this is my push to keep it active and hopefully inspire myself to take more film!

The images are from a roll of kodak GC (ultra max) 400 that I used in my 1000f canon camera (which on a side note, takes my digital camera's lenses - a big plus in my opinion!).  The film is a standard type, jack of all trade, sold to the masses as opposed to something like Kodak's Portra aimed towards professional shooters. I have a horrible memory but I believe I picked up this roll whilst thrifting, so I have no idea of age but I would say colour and grain haven't been negatively affected.

I've come to learn that film loves light and that I have a particular love affair with film photos that fall on the over exposed side. When I shot film, I overexpose the metering by two stops which I have been loving but I decided to push it further and try an extra add on trick. It's a trick I discovered whilst reading about, José Villa's technique and how he creates his beautiful light and dreamy photos. He shoots 400 film but sets the ISO manually in his camera to 200. This means that your camera is going to work out the metering for 200 film, which is going to need more light and therefore you'll hopefully end up with lovely dreamy and bright shots. I've found film to be extremely forgiving, especially with highlights and the only time I've majorly stuffed up is when I've underexposed and my shadows (the blacks in the film) lost all details. Although dark shots might be your thing and a large joy of film is experimenting!

 

I scan my film using this method but I've got some supplies coming so I can try out the DSLR scanning method - I shall report back with how I go!

I'm really happy with this method of rating (in camera) your film at half its ISO and the processing per its original ISO. In other words, I loaded this kodak 400 into my camera, manually changed the ISO in camera to be 200, took it down to get processed and told them to process as normal at the rated 400 ISO.

I also wouldn't hesitate to pick up some more kodak 400 GC (ultramax) knowing it's cheaper than portra but still has pleasing colours and grain :)