The Ektar Gloss
This is a simple example of when I think the Kodak Ektar 100 makes a good choice of film. I like using this film when the ambient light includes some artificial light but I particularly like it in urban settings with all kinds of light reflection from glass and shiny metal. For flatter less contrasting luminosity, I much prefer the very reliable Kodak Portra.
This picture shows two layers of images, the flat low-contrast scene on top of which luminous Christmas balls seem to be floating. The image would have been better over-exposed by an extra half-stop but since my camera didn’t have a battery and I was guesstimating the EV luminosity, I feel satisfied with the result.
Pentax MX, Vivitar 50/1.7, Kodak Ektar 100, Unedited.
Pentax MX, Vivitar 50/1.7, Kodak Ektar 100. Unedited.
Cool stuff! Do you shoot Ektar at the box speed or something different? And how do you have your color film developed?
I always shoot at 1/1000 or as close to it as possible and open the aperture to as many f-stops as the light intensity deviates in EV units from EV = 16. On a sunny summer day in Atlanta, the EV luminosity is EV16. On the day we had our photo trek, I guesstimated that the EV luminosity was 4 or 5 lower (EV = 12 or 11).
On a “perfect” day when luminosity is EV16; ISO is 100; and shutter speed is 1/1000, the aperture should be f/8 based on the two charts at the bottom of http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm. So if EV is lower by 4 units, then a combination of higher aperture and lower shutter speed must be cranked up by 4 units. In this case, I probably had the shutter speed down to 1/500 (+1 stop) and the aperture up to f/2.8 (+3 stops) for a total of 4 extra stops.
I have my pictures developed at Showcase but starting next month, I’ll do my own B&W and C41 development. I hope we meet again soon, William.
Huge fan of Ektar, I shoot it almost exclusively when I want to capture the color of the world. Though I am not opposed to putting a roll of Portra 400 in my cameras every now and then.
Indeed, I see great work with Ektar on your site.