Over the past couple of months, life has been hectic and a bit crazy. I suppose that's the holiday tradition these days, though. Traveling to and from family, shopping for gifts, working extended hours, etc., tends to make it tough to be productive outside of every day responsibilities. Beyond that, my family also suffered the loss of our matriarch and patriarch this fall. It's been a rough end of year. Having said all of that, I did manage to find some time to squeeze in the solace of exposing film since my last post. I was lucky enough to be the recipient of a Fujifilm giveaway on Instagram, awarding me with two boxes full of 120 format Pro 400H film! 400H was a film I had only tried once when I was new to my Yashica Mat 124G, and I didn't have great conditions to shoot in. I was extremely excited to load up a roll and go shoot. I've actually ended up exposing three rolls of 400H in the time since, and boy has this film been good to me. Shooting Fujifilm Pro 400H Although Fuji's Pro 400H isn't often discussed as a film stock favored by landscape photographers, I had the film and a trip to Eureka Springs planned one weekend and thought I'd load a roll into the RB67 and see what we could find. Initially I had planned to shoot more in town, but time dictated that we needed to get into our hike at the lake without any wandering of the town. With the roll of 400H already loaded into the Mamiya, we set out on our hike and I captured my first image shortly thereafter. Once this photo was scanned, my jaw nearly hit the floor. I never expected such great landscape rendition from a film known to be the wedding photographers choice. The greens mixed in with the autumn colors really pop on the Fujifilm. I was concerned at the time of taking this photo that the highlights may be a bit harsh due to how early in the day it was, but the Fujifilm handled it with aplomb. After making this shot, my wife and I continued our hike around the lake. We made our way down some great trails and found a few more places to make some photos. A few of the compositions I tried just didn't work with the flat, early light. I tried a couple of them anyway, and continued on my merry way. We finally found a spot with some interesting views and dynamic lighting. It also happened to have a nice bench for us to take a rest. My wife had brought her knitting along with her in case of me having an extended search for a proper composition. She's been on these hikes before. Luckily for me, her and her knitting always make for a fun photo as well. I figured with Fujifilm's Pro 400H being known as a great portrait film, and the light being so great, it was time to give it a try for a couple of portrait shots. These photos definitely made me understand why portrait photographers love this film stock so much. I had also shot a couple of photos on my Sony A7III to help judge my exposure, and even after correcting the raw files, the highlights are so much smoother and less harsh on the Fuji 400H. I'm absolutely in love with the color reproduction of this film at box speed for these shots. The greens have that signature Fuji perfection. The blues in the water look amazing. The skin tones are also spot on for the lighting situation we had that day. Pushing Fuji Pro 400H One Stop After attending my grandpa's memorial service, I was able to find some respite shooting around Oklahoma City again with my good friend Brett Day. I had brought along my grandpa's Minolta 7000 he had given me (loaded with Ilford HP5+ pushed to 800 ISO (See my last article for more)) and was using it to meter for my RB67. I forgot that I had been shooting at 800 ISO and took my first frame metered that way with the 400H in the Mamiya. This was how I decided to push 400H to 800 ISO for the first time. I was surprised to see that pushing Fuji 400H didn't result in a dramatic difference in its rendition of scenes. Sure it was slightly more saturated and contrasty, but not to the levels I've seen when pushing other films. It retained its signature look quite nicely, and didn't seem to increase in grain drastically. Fujifilm Pro 400H in a TLR On my most recent photo trips, I decided to switch it up a bit. Prior to Christmas I only had one film back for the RB67, but I wanted to shoot a roll of black and white and a roll of color film. My solution was to throw the Fuji 400H in my Yashica Mat 124G and a roll of Ilford FP4+ in my Mamiya. Unfortunately, this was the trip that showed me that my Yashica needs to be resealed. I got a few light leaks on this roll of film, but most of the shots turned out great. Every time I bring the Yashica out, I'm impressed with that little camera. It has such a sharp lens, and it renders bokeh in such an interesting manner. Paired with the 400H, it makes for a great, compact medium format setup. In the photo above, I was again impressed with the skin tones of the Fujifilm. The green in my wife's yarn really looks excellent as well. I can't wait to shoot this stock in the Spring this year. Since I had brought two cameras and two rolls of film to Devil's Den, I didn't make it through both rolls. I had a bit of free time on my day off a week or two later and decided to head to my local nature park. To finish the roll out, I decided to see how the Fujifilm Pro 400H handled intimate landscapes. I looked for little gems with some winter greens remaining, others with more subtle colors, and one of the "everyone in this area has a picture of this" pictures. Again, I was quite pleased to see how well the 400H handled all of these scenes. I was particularly pleased with the way the Fuji rendered the more subtle scenes. Versatility With a Different Palette My overall impressions from these first few rolls of shooting with Fujifilm's Pro 400H are overwhelmingly positive. Like it's main competitor, Kodak Portra 400, Fuji's 400H is an extremely versatile and flexible film stock. Both can be overexposed to almost no end. They both have excellent dynamic range, push well, and have their own unique subtleties. When it comes to choosing between them, color is really where it's at. I've found that I really enjoy Fuji's subtle and neutral colors for the landscapes I've shot this Winter so far. The soft and beautiful blues with the deep and vivid greens have been a pleasure to look at. In the end, like so much else in photography, which one is better comes down to preference.
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