Agfa Portrait XPS 160

           

 This particular film is no longer in production, so you'll have to excuse this post for a certain level of sentimentality as Agfa Portrait was probably my favourite ever film.

I think the film was first introduced in the early 1990's a part of the 'Agfa Triade' which consisted of three emulsions Ultra 50 which was a high contrast & saturation film, Optima 100 which had a normal saturation and Portrait 160 which had a lower contrast and saturation. Later they added an Optima 200 as well and dropped the 'Triade' moniker.

Here is a schematic of the layer structure:

Agfa Portrait had a very natural colour rendition and because of its lower contrast it captured white wedding dress detail even in the brightest of conditions. I also remember it having excellent latitude to over exposure with detail in overexposed areas easily recoverable four stops over, it couldn't be underexposed I'd say half a stop at the most.

I used this film mainly for weddings where the aforementioned detail in the whites coupled with very nice skin tones nearly always gave great results. I think it is one of the most natural colour films I've ever used.

 

Cool natural tones

 

I found a small amount of this film which expired 2007 on a well known auction site and just had to go on a little trip down memory lane and have had fun revisiting an old favourite.

I had forgotten the peppermint flavoured 120 roll seal :)

© Photo Utopia 2011

Low Tech Fun

This photo was taken about fifteen years ago, with a Cheap Russian 6x6 camera called a Lubitel 166B.  The Lubitel (Russian for amateur I'm told) has a cheap plastic build and a simple triplet lens that gives a wonderful soft look that is great for portraits.

The idea behind this shot was to give a feel of the 1950's- so film choice was important too, the emulsion used was the now unavailable Agfa Portrait 160. The film was one of my all time favourites with a really nice low contrast natural colour that made it my standard film for weddings and portraits.

Agfa Portrait also had another desirable (for me at least) character, in that if over-exposed by more than 3 stops the film would allow halation to occur softening the highlights and killing contrast (and fine detail).

The picture above was overexposed by guesstimate about 3 stops to give the aforementioned effects and I think it worked pretty well. Today you could use Kodak Portra NC a film that gives a similar natural colour palette.

Cameras like the Lubitel and Holga are considered by some to be toy cameras, but for me they are very important tools that not only are fun to use but can give very satisfying pictures quite unlike anything produced by 'high-tech' cameras.

All images and text © Mark Antony Smith