Kodak Portra 800 is known for its exceptional performance in low-light conditions, offering richer contrasts and deeper colors while maintaining that signature soft film aesthetic. Whether you’re shooting portraits at night, indoor settings, or capturing those evening street scenes, Portra 800 shines through with its versatility. It stands out from its siblings, Portra 160 and 400, with a more pronounced character, featuring slightly cooler tones that make it the go-to film for low-light photography.
If you’re looking to replicate the iconic look of Kodak Portra 800 on your Fujifilm camera, you’re in luck. I’ve spent time developing a film simulation recipe that captures the essence of Portra 800, particularly for low-light and evening photography. This recipe uses Classic Chrome as the foundation, which already carries a muted and cinematic feel, similar to the original Portra films. From there, I’ve made a few tweaks to dial in that warm yet slightly cool vibe that Portra 800 is known for.
Understanding Kodak Portra 800 Character
Before we dive into the recipe, it’s worth noting the unique features of Portra 800 that make it stand out. Portra 800 is designed for low-light scenarios, which is why it has a deeper contrast range compared to the other variants in the Portra family. Under typical daylight conditions, Portra 800 tends to look more vibrant than its 160 and 400 counterparts, but when used in low-light environments, the film’s true magic emerges.
What makes it even more distinct is its cooler color balance. Unlike the warmer tones you’d get with Portra 160 or Portra 400, Portra 800 exhibits a slight blue-green cast, which makes it ideal for night-time or indoor portrait shoots where you want to capture the warmth of artificial lighting but with a cooler undertone.
The beauty of Portra 800 lies in its ability to balance saturation, shadow detail, and soft skin tones, all while embracing the grain structure that comes with higher ISO films. This combination of factors makes it perfect for evening photography or any situation where you’re working with artificial lighting, such as tungsten or street lights.
The Fujifilm Portra 800 Film Recipe: Mimicking the Film Look
This Portra 800 film recipe is a tricky one I’ve put together after a lot of fine-tuning. It’s designed to do two things at once: under bright sunlight, it brings out warm tones, while in low-light situations, it shifts to cooler tones with a slight blue-green cast. Perfect for portraits and those low-light shots, this recipe works great no matter the lighting conditions. You might notice some color shifts based on where you’re shooting, but that’s part of mimicking the authentic aesthetic of Kodak Portra film, which I’ve aimed to replicate as closely as possible with Fujifilm settings. Don’t mind me for reusing some photos in the process; they were part of my experimentation to nail this down. It took me several hours to refine the tones and get them as close as possible to the actual Kodak Portra 800 film experience.
The base of this recipe is the Classic Chrome film simulation, which offers that subtle vintage feel with soft contrast and muted tones, perfect for achieving the Portra aesthetic. To get the dynamic range close to what Portra 800 can capture, I set the Dynamic Range to DR400. This ensures you keep details intact in both shadows and highlights, which is essential for creating balanced and rich images. For highlights, setting it to +1 helps maintain that soft, natural look, especially in portraits or low-light environments, where overexposure can quickly ruin the effect.
To enhance contrast, particularly in darker areas, I boosted the shadow setting to +2. This adds depth and dimension, making your images pop even in low-light conditions. The color setting is pushed to +2 to introduce a bit more saturation, bringing out richer tones while still keeping things natural. Since Portra 800 is known for its filmic grain, I’ve reduced noise reduction to -4, allowing that grain to come through and contribute to the analog feel. For sharpening, I dialed it down to -2 to keep the images soft and dreamy, in line with the classic Portra look.
In low-light situations, where Portra 800 truly shines, I bumped clarity to +1 to help bring out midtone contrast without making the image too harsh. The grain effect is set to strong, ensuring you capture that natural graininess that comes with high ISO films, especially in darker environments. To really enhance the warm tones in dim light, I set the Color Chrome Effect to strong, which boosts the reds and yellows. To balance things out, I also set the Color Chrome Effect Blue to strong, which intensifies the cooler tones, giving shadows that signature blue-green cast while preserving warmth in the highlights.
For the white balance, I went with 5000K, adding +2 to red and -5 to blue to create the signature warmth in the highlights and the cooler, more muted shadows that Portra 800 is known for. The ISO is set to Auto, which can go up to ISO 6400, allowing you to shoot in dim lighting while keeping the natural grainy, cinematic look. Finally, exposure compensation should be adjusted between 0 and +2/3 depending on the light conditions. This will let you fine-tune the exposure to capture the mood and contrast that’s perfect for any situation, whether you’re indoors at night or shooting outdoors at dusk.
This recipe isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty close, and I hope it helps you capture that timeless Portra 800 feel with your Fujifilm camera.
Where to Use This Portra 800 Simulation Recipe
This film simulation recipe is ideal for situations where you want to capture the essence of Kodak Portra 800. It’s best used in low-light environments like evening portraits, indoor shoots with warm lighting, or when shooting under streetlights or tungsten bulbs. It’s perfect for urban night photography where you want to add a nostalgic, cinematic touch to your images, making them look as though they were shot on a classic film camera.
The slight coolness in the shadows, combined with the warm highlights, gives portraits a unique depth, making them appear more dimensional and lifelike. It’s particularly great for capturing the mood of the golden hour, dusk, or any scenario where you’re shooting in artificial or low-light conditions but still want that authentic film aesthetic.
