Hi, my name is Andrew and I am a fine art wedding and wedding fashion photographer. However, my life is filled with tens of other projects and shooting film is just one of them.
As a big fan of Kodak Portra 400 and 800, I finally decided to try Kodak Portra 160. I was already in love with pleasant Kodak colors and Portra was one of my films that I would use for weddings or professional photoshoots. However, I always avoided Portra 160 since I did not really see any value in such ISO. All my Portra 400 shots were made at ISO 200 or even slightly lower and I was always happy with the result. Working with ISO 160 as a starting point was never in my dreams. But this time I decided to try it out. So I purchased 3 rolls for 3 different photoshoots, and in a few months, I finally could review all my Portra 160 shots and decide if I like them or not. To be honest I was disappointed. It was far from what you get when shooting Porta 400 (here and here) or Portra 800 (here). I can't say what went wrong but the colors are definitely not the same even though it is the same beloved Portra (I even desaturated some to get rid of the nasty tints in blacks). I asked few people here and there what they think and all confirmed the same - Portra 160 is a wishy-woshy film - sometimes the shots look good, sometimes not. So at least I was not alone there. Well, it is what it is, we can't change the world, but we can definitely make decisions on the film. So please have a look at the shots that I have. All those were slightly corrected by me in post (added more contrast, brightness, or blacks). However, I will also provide you with the raw footage straight from the lab - no retouching is applied. Those are on the bottom of the page. Enjoy and comment, I would be interested to hear your opinion on this film.
Kodak Portra 160 medium format
Camera: Mamiya AFD 645
Lens: Mamiya Sekor 150mm F/3.5, 80mm F1.9
Location: parks, manors (Panevezys, Lithuania)
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Here are some raw shots of the Kodak Portra 160 for comparison: