Fujifilm Pro 400H, a unique film now sadly discontinued
Many who still shoot with film will know that, sadly, in February of this year, Fujifilm announced that it would discontinue production of a highly regarded professional film, the Fujifilm Pro 400H.
The Pro 400H film is much loved by wedding photographers who shoot in analog for its very pastel tones and weaker saturation.
I must say that this was the first time I used this film, and I obviously had difficulty finding it: after the announcement of the end of production, prices for the remaining stock skyrocketed, and availability (at least here in Italy) ended very quickly.
As mentioned, this is the first time I shoot with the Fujifilm Pro 400H. Since my photographic beginnings almost twenty years ago, I have used Kodak Portra but never Kodak Pro 400H. Also, the overexposed aesthetic of wedding photography has recently made me think this film has too low a saturation for my taste.
Using the Fujifilm Pro 400 H
With proper exposure, however, the film offers excellent dynamic range and a really beautiful, rich, and natural color without exaggeration. The Fujifilm Pro 400H offers a more neutral, less warm tone than the Kodak Portra, which I usually prefer in portrait photography.
I also found it easier to convert from negative to color, so I had to do less work to get the color I wanted, without having to overwork the excellent Negative Lab Pro plugin in Lightroom Classic CC.
The film development was handled in-house using the Ars Imago C-41 color kit, as with the previous photo shoots.
The extraordinary Pentax 67
The camera I used for this photo session was the fabulous Pentax 67: for those who have never seen it, it is a reflex camera that takes 6cm x 7cm large frames; therefore, the maximum size for what was the medium format 120 in the field analog.
The quality, obviously, compared to 35mm analog frames, can be seen in both sharpness and depth, as well as in the nuances and tonal passages. The lenses used for this session with the Pentax 67 were the 90mm f/2.8, the 55mm f/4 and the 165mm f/2.8.
Team
Model: Robbie Palmer / Casting Agency
Make-Up: Lara Quercioli
Styling: Maria Ferrari
Location: Florence / Ponte all’Indiano
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