Back in 2021, I wrote an article about how to shoot portraits of people with darker skin like mine. And recently, I was inspired by a Reddit thread to also discuss film emulsions for darker skin. As the only surviving traditional photography publication of note to have reviewed most of all the film emulsions currently on the market and within journalistic ethics, I figured that I’d dive into the site’s archives to give even more insight into this matter. Here are the best film emulsions for shooting portraits of people with dark skin.
To back up what I’m saying I’m including links to the site’s previous reviews and even originally shot sample images included in those reviews.
So straight up, the best film emulsions for shooting portraits of people with dark skin are Kodak Portra 800, Portra 400, and Kodak Ektar 100.
Generally speaking with any film emulsion, I think that you’ll get better photographs when you shoot in larger formats. That means that you can still get nice photos with 35mm film, but you’re going to get even nicer skin tones and all with medium format. My personal favorite for this is Kodak Portra 800.
Portra 800 looks really nice and vintagey because it’s made from a different formula than the newer films. This emulsion works very well for darker skin partially because of the more muted look that it can give; which also makes it easier on scanners and color versatility editing. You can read more of my thoughts on this in the full review.
On top of that both Kodak Portra 400 and Kodak Ektar 100 are great for skin because of how they’re specifically rendering color. What I always recommend is to overexpose negative film. I like to shoot Portra at ISO 200 and develop it at 320 for example. And sometimes I even do the same for digital shoots. Giving film more light to a certain point makes it more versatile later on for most developers. Ektar emphasizes melatonin more for sure, but I’d still also give the film more light.
But in addition to all of this, film isn’t necessarily meant to mimic real life. It’s designed to have a specific look to it and it embraces that look. While Ektachrome can look nice with darker skin, it’s also really dependent on the light.
If you’re using other films, be sure to use a daylight flash of some sort. If you’re just working with natural light, the ones we spoke of are better.