Images shot on Kodak Portra 800 in the Pentax MX with SMC Pentax-M 28mm f2.8
A couple of my personal favourite rolls of film I shot whilst living out in Shanghai were some CineStill 800T and some Fujicolor Natura 1600. And man, do a lot of people wish the latter was still being made today.
In both cases I liked them so much because I was able to shoot them in low light – be that indoors or outside at night – without a flash and get some results with a completely different feel to the daylight ones I usually post on this site.
You can see what I mean with the CineStill film here, and the Fujicolor Natura here. And if you carry on through the article you’re reading now, you’ll see even more photographs shot on colour film by night – this time with the lovely Kodak Portra 800 in Great Yarmouth.
So why not do that and learn a little about how you can do this too.
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Some quick tips on shooting colour film by night
If you haven’t shot film at night before without a flash, the first thing to know here is that it is not a difficult thing to do.
Trust me, and read that again. This time in italics for effect. It is not a difficult thing to do.
When you take photographs in normal daylight, whether they’re on film or digital, it’s easy to get an image because there’s plenty of light available. And really that’s the basis of all photography. How much light there is for you to use and how much you allow through your lens and onto your film or sensor.
So you can think, in that sense, shooting at night is no different to shooting in daylight. The light is coming from a different source, but to produce a photograph, all you need is enough of it. That’s it. You don’t need any more than just… enough.
There may be a relatively small amount of it compared to the daytime, but don’t let that worry you. Remember – all you need is enough.
In daylight, even on misty or cloudy days, everything is illuminated enough by the sun to allow you to photograph it. That’s why you can have your whole scene evenly exposed, like the running track below for example.
For night shots like the ones I’ve taken here though, we’re not relying on an outside light source to illuminate everything. Instead, we’re shooting the light source itself, like the neon burger above for example.
That’s why in the case of the neon burger and the Coca-Cola sign that came before it, the rest of the image is dark. Because there’s no light there.
But just like when shooting in daylight, so long as that light source itself is giving off enough light and enough of it is going into your camera lens, you’ll be able to photograph it.
Don’t worry about there being relatively little light away from your source. Remember – all you need is enough, and all the light sources in these shots are giving out exactly that.
Of course, the exposure triangle of ISO, shutter speed and aperture setting is highly important here. You can read my guide on how that works by clicking that link there.
The higher ISO film you use, the easier it will be to get a shutter speed you can work with and avoid blurred results from camera shake while going with an aperture setting that gives you enough depth of field for the compositions you’re trying to achieve.
It’s no coincidence that the few occasions I’ve shot film at night have mainly been ISO 800 or above stocks, like this monochrome Ilford Delta 3200 to go along with the colour ones already mentioned.
That said, I did get some okay results with this roll of Ilford Pan 400 too, so it is possible. But I wouldn’t recommend going lower than that.
Overall though, once you’ve got your settings dialled in, just point your camera at whatever the source of light is rather than the darkness around it. If your light meter tells you your exposure is okay, then you should be good to go.
Great Yarmouth isn’t the most glamorous place in the world, but I do like how someone there has taken inspiration from Las Vegas when it comes to the naming of their amusement arcades.
The Flamingo, Caesars Palace, Circus Circus, Golden Nugget. If it was just one or two I’d say it was a coincidence, but four is too much of a pattern.
There doesn’t appear to be a Leisureland in Vegas though, from what I can gather from a quick Google.
I did enjoy composing those last three shots too, getting some reflection in the roofs of the cars to add some interest in the foreground of them too.
The shots below were taken inside the amusement arcades and are examples of what you can do when applying the same principles already discussed to artificial light sources indoors too.
Playing with Portra 800 in the hotel bar
Although I’m aware I’m fortunate enough to be able to get to a lot of different places to do my photography, this website isn’t a travel blog. But that doesn’t mean I can’t occasionally recommend a nice hotel should I stay in one.
The Kensington in Great Yarmouth is a good example of that. Located just in front of the Venetian Gardens that I mentioned in this post and just a 15-minute walk from the main seafront area, it’s a place I would point you towards if you’re looking for somewhere to stay in Yarmouth too.
I had a nice enough single room, which I didn’t take any photographs of, and there was a decent bar and restaurant area too, which I did.
Not because I wanted to overly promote it here, but because I wanted to see how the Kodak Portra 800 film did in such a situation. Indoors, but not in the dark.
Shooting Kodak Portra 800 in broad daylight
The final little test I wanted to put this Kodak Portra 800 through was shooting it in daylight and seeing how it would fare with that – specifically to see if the ISO rating that enabled me to shoot it at night and indoors would be too damn high for this.
As you can see, we had blue skies on that day in Great Yarmouth, which is usually a good thing when shooting colour film.
It means you’ve probably got good light and, if you’re shooting in the morning or afternoon, some nice shadows and contrast to play with too.
I don’t remember the settings I used for these photographs now, but I can tell you a couple of things. The highest shutter speed on the Pentax MX is 1/1000 of a second and there’s enough depth of field in these shots to give away that I had the aperture closed up to somewhere around f11, give or take a stop either way.
So if your camera is able to achieve something near these settings, neither of which are anything special, then you should be able to shoot some ISO 800 film in daylight on a bright, blue sky sunny day.
A wander around the Wellesley Recreation Ground
I’m not sure if that Wellington Pier is saying welcome, free admission, or if you get a welcome-free admission. But thinking about it, it’s probably both.
Regardless, let’s move on and change the subject a little.
The main reason I was in Great Yarmouth here wasn’t to take photographs. It was for something else, but something that has become just as big a passion these days.
Running.
The 10k that I did started and ended at the historic Wellesley Recreation Ground, and it’s there that I finished this roll of Portra 800.
The grandstand at Wellesley dates back to the 1890s and some articles say it’s the oldest still in use in England.
Others go a bit further, a bit Jeremy Clarkson, and say it’s the oldest… in the world.
They must have done some work on it since I was there because there were clear signs saying it was not to be used under any circumstances, so I’m glad whatever issue that was has been sorted.
If you’re ever in town and want to see a match from this piece of football heritage yourself, Great Yarmouth Town FC play their home matches here.
The quality of play might not be the best down at like level 9 or 10 of the English football pyramid, but I’m sure you’d have a good time in this old structure anyway.
Wrapping up this roll of Porta 800 in Great Yarmouth
This wasn’t the only roll of film I shot during that weekend in Great Yarmouth, and the Pentax MX wasn’t the only camera I shot there either.
There was also a couple of rolls – some Ilford HP5 400 and some Kodak Gold 200 – in the Reto Ultra Wide & Slim and a roll of Lomo CN 400 in the Sprocket Rocket.
Four different rolls shot with four very different sets of results coming from them, with the Reto UWS and Sprocket Rocket definitely having more novelty value than the Pentax MX.
But that doesn’t mean I think any of these cameras have any less value in terms of being a way to get out and create something.
Being an SLR, the MX is obviously the one I would trust the most to shoot some low light work like I did with this Portra 800 though, and the kind of camera I’d recommend you go with if you want to try some too.
Something with a light meter and some aperture and shutter speed settings that you can control yourself – both for ensuring you get enough light coming in for those night-time shots, and that you’re not getting too much in the daytime.
Shooting colour film by night and day. The same roll. It’s not difficult, but it is fun.
Try it yourself if you haven’t before. I bet you’ll like it. 🙂
If you enjoyed that post on shooting some Portra 800 by night and day, why not have a look at some of these other film photo essays too:
And if you think others will find this post worth a read, help them find it by giving it a share 😀
