With the news of Fuji 400h being discontinued, I wanted to start practicing shooting indoor film photography with my Kodak Portra. So I broke out the Kodak Portra 800. What’s a film photographer’s best subject? Well, family can be difficult, but I love to photograph my kids. To my surprise, this time they did great.
Here are my best 6 tips for shooting film indoors.
- Kodak Portra is the best shot at box speed or close to box speed. So I metered all of these images at ISO 800.
- With my handheld meter, I metered with the bulb out and at a 45-degree angle for the shadows.
- Indoors finding the window light coming in is important. Even though it’s an 800-speed film it still needs light.
- Turn off indoor lights! Just like digital needs one light source so the color is not muddled. Film is the same and needs clean daylight to be at its best. So turning off all the lamps and overhead light and just having window light will keep the light clean.
- Add a video light where there just isn’t enough window light. I recommend the Godox LED light stick set to 5600 Kelvin.
- And in really low light situations I like to switch to Black and white film, Ilford Delta 3200 is a personal favorite.
Here are the photos we took inside our house with Kodak Portra 800.
Do you want to learn more about indoor film photography? If you are just starting your journey in film photography and want to learn more, give us a shout! We would love to hear from you.
