A little over two years ago Kodak started offering its new E100 slide film in 4x5 sheets, which meant I was finally interested in it after the initial launch period made it sound like the film would only be available in rolls. While it was exciting that a new transparency film was being produced after a decade of gloomy discontinuations, I wasn’t quite sure where E100 would fit into my shooting style.
Sheet film can be one of the best ways to test out a new film, since you can easily change the film type with every shot. However, if I’m going to be honest with you, trying out a new film is often frustrating. The more film types you have, the more film holders you find scattered about your bag requiring constant unloading and loading. It’s really nice to be able to have just one or two film types to choose from so I was a bit slow on working E100 into my flow. I’d usually just have one, maybe two holders loaded with the stuff so a long trip often resulted in just a few sheets of E100 while I mostly continued to work with my old favorites.
“Redwood Towers” - California, February 2020. E100, 210mm lens, 20 seconds at f32, no filters
Some of the earlier images I shot using this film were from the redwood forests, where I quickly found that the reproduction of lush greens was spot on with this film. It also became apparent that the film had very good dynamic range with at least a stop of extra highlight detail, as well as a much more neutral color palette than the Fuji slides we are accustomed to. After my initial tests I shot another box or so but found the film to be a bit lacking compared to Velvia or my favorite negatives like Ektar and Portra. I mostly shelved it, still shooting a sheet or two here and there but not really committing to it.
The Fuji Effect
I think it would be an understatement to say that Fuji slides, especially Velvia 50, have played a major role in how the world views landscape photography. Many of us first found inspiration by flipping through books or walking into galleries that were filled with prints where sunsets beamed with surreal hues of magenta and autumn foliage popped right off the paper and into your eyes. It could even be said that as digital photography became more common, photographers have spent two decades trying to recreate (with varying degrees of success) what they saw captured on Fuji slide films. The idea of landscape images bathing in hues that range from magenta to outright purple has become quite commonplace.
A view of two sheets just the way they came out of the scanner to give a representation of what these look like on a light table. The E100 image was taken with an 812 warming filter. Notice how intense the blue and magenta are on the Velvia image, those strong colors can be quite hard to work with after scanning. E100 resembles reality much more closely.
While I can’t know what was going on in the minds of the mad scientists at Kodak, it seems as if they set out to shake up the notion of what a slide film should look like. Dreamlike hues were out and reality was in. It was time to make a transparency film that actually represents the world we live in, for better or for worse. It took me a while to realize this, after all my eyes have been conditioned to Fuji colors since I first started photographing. To anyone wanting to try out E100, I recommend that you begin your journey by realizing that you’re leaving the Fuji world behind and seeking out a fresh take on color
Working with more subtle color and contrast
As I thought more about the more neutral color palette of E100, I decided to try it out during the winter with some fresh snow. Snow can be one of the hardest subjects to white balance, a little bit of shade can make it blue and it also reflects any sunrise colors coming down from the sky. With an oversaturated film this can quickly look unnatural. The softer, less magenta color of this new Kodak film was immediately a perfect match with snow scenes. You’ll notice that a good number of the images in this post are from the winter and there’s good reason, it’s quickly become my favorite slide for anything with snow.
“Prairie Frost Sunrise” - Colorado, January 2022. E100 4x5, 210mm lens, 4 seconds at f45, 812 warming filter. I couldn’t believe how closely this slide represented my memory of this delightful frosty morning.
But what about the desert? When working with intimate desert photos it’s often pleasing to see those blue shadows and saturated warm glow that Velvia provides, but E100 seems to work pretty well here too. Expect less of that extreme contrast on the light table and remember that it’s ok to add a touch of contrast if needed after scanning with just a simple curves layer. It’s much easier to add contrast to a scan than it is to reduce it. This film seems to provide a very usable scan that has more leeway for interpretation, and it’s still much easier to perfect the colors than a negative.
“Bush and Waves” - E100, 135mm lens, 1 second at f32, 812 warming filter
How to Shoot E100
First off, this film does not seem to be a true 100 speed film. One of the issues I had when shooting the first few boxes is that the sheets just weren’t bright enough. I suspect the film is closer to ISO 80 or even 64. There can be a lot of variables such as development that go into the true speed of a film, but I like to develop all of my E-6 film at once which means that my Kodak and Fuji slides will be developed the same way. I’m using the Tetenal 3-bath kits which have always given me the expected brightness for Fuji slides which is why I assume that E100 needs a little more exposure to make it shine.
Another comparison between Velvia 50 and Kodak E100. Notice the huge boost is usable shadow detail on the E100 shot, the stones in the foreground have real color and detail.
The biggest complaint most people have with E100 is that it's too cool in tone for them, though to my eyes the color cast of the film is more green than cool. I tried combating this with the 81b warming filter that I often use for Provia but it just wasn’t quite right. Eventually I settled on the Tiffen 812 filter which is a warming filter with a bit of a magenta cast, a “coral” filter sold by other manufacturers may be similar. This filter seems to make white snow pure white on a light table and also knock down some of the green in all scenes, while still keeping the magenta shift much less intense than Provia or Velvia. I add another ⅓ stop for the filter, meaning that this film ends up with a practical speed of ISO 50 to 64. For incredibly warm sunsets or forest scenes where I want to embrace the green I don’t plan to use a filter at all.
“Brainard Snow” - Colorado, March 2022. E100, 210mm lens, ½ second at f32, 812 warming filter. The softer contrast and color of this film makes snow scenes look so good right on the light table.
Don’t want to use a filter? No problem! Some people have warmed the film up by using Cinestill’s dynamic developer and others love the color palette just the way it is. Remember that this is entirely up to personal taste, and just because I choose to use a filter when possible doesn’t mean that’s the only way to shoot this film. Another great thing about this film is it’s pliability after scanning; if you feel the white balance is a tad too green or cool, just pull down a tiny bit on the green and blue channels in a curves layer in Photoshop or Lightroom. It’s really quite easy to tweak after scanning and I promise I won’t tell people that you “manipulated” your film, your secret is safe with me! Color correction is a completely normal part of the scanning process. Before rushing out to get a filter, I highly encourage you to experiment with the film on your own first to see how it works with your lab’s development and your scanning methods.
“Ponderosa Snow” - Colorado, March 2022. E100, 210mm lens, 1/30th at f22, 812 filter. This white balance was spot on and needed no adjustment whatsoever after scanning, a rarity for snow on film!
Huge Dynamic Range!
One of the more surprising things I’ve noticed about E100 is that the highlight detail almost approaches that of a negative film like Portra or Ektar. Slide film in general has always had a reputation for lousy dynamic range especially when it comes to highlights, but it appears that Kodak created this stuff to take some exposure abuse. As with any film, overexposed areas do tend to lose saturation but the subtle details hold very well. Take for example this scene of the sunset bursting through a rock arch; the light was extremely intense but E100 held the highlight details and color in the opening as well as the sunlit rocks on the beach. Quite impressive! I will continue to push the exposures on this film to see when it fails. The shots from my latest trip have given me the courage to try more exposures directly into the sun.
“Keyhole” - California, February 2022. E100, 200mm lens, 8 seconds at f32, 812 and 4 stop ND filters.
If you want to push the exposures I’d recommend exposing more for the shadows to midtones to take advantage of the extra highlight range. As always, it’s most important that your subject is properly exposed so place emphasis on that when making metering decisions - don’t worry too much about the extreme shadows or highlights.
“Oak Row” - California, February 2022. E100, 200mm lens, 6 seconds at f32, 2 stop soft GND and 812 filter. Balancing green in shadow with a much lighter sky is a real challenge for any slide film.
Reciprocity
Kodak does not like to publish reciprocity data for their films, which isn’t really a problem as anyone doing very long exposures should be coming up with their own data. Personally I’ve only done a few exposures beyond a minute and it seems to do alright. Not quite as good as Provia, but nowhere near as bad as Velvia or any negative film. Start by adding 10-20 seconds for exposures over a minute and build up from there.
Grain Detail
This isn’t something I concern myself with too much as all films tend to have a fine enough grain when using large format, but those using smaller formats may care. E100 seems to have a very reasonable grain structure that isn’t too far off from Velvia 50. It’s not as infinitely smooth as Provia but the sharpness and detail is great without too much color variation. This comparison below does show how much more intense the Velvia colors are though!
Final thoughts… for now
With Fuji slides becoming harder to get especially in sheet format, I’m actually quite happy that Kodak seems committed to producing a lovely slide like E100. While it has taken me a while to find out how to make it sing, I’m excited to use it more and more in my upcoming projects. I still shoot it side by side with both Provia and Velvia, but lately E100 is taking up more of the holders in my bag while I ration sheets of Velvia 50. I hope this blog post has given some ideas on how to use this unique film and I plan to update it periodically as I create new work with it and push the boundaries.
“Longs Peak Snow” - Colorado, April 2021. E100, 210mm lens, 1 second at f32, 812 filter.
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