... Journal Entry
Fans of Kodak Ultra Max 400 Everyday film on the web have declared it as having "Vivid & accurate colour, wide exposure latitude, smooth skin tones, natural hues, fine grain, and bright blues, greens & reds" and say it is, "Perfect for all kinds of photography; from portraits to action to scenics. I have a very different view.
I find its colour palette garish, unbalanced (exaggerated blues, bright greens but vapid reds) and of limited tonal range, it is of high contrast (probably to enhance its appearance of apparent sharpness), grainy for its speed (more like an 800 film), of more limited exposure latitude, and perfect for... well really nothing at all other than being half the purchase cost when compared to Kodak's range of professional colour negative films.
The best way of describing the results of photographs made with Ultra Max 400 is, "Ungainly". So you might have guessed that, despite its very attractive price, this is not going to be the film for me, well...?
By applying a cooling filter No. 82 to effectively drop the colour temperature of the film you can get this amazing " special effects" result. I got a hint to try this from Kodak's own blurb about the film giving especially good results with flash photography. Now flash ihas a more blue colour temperature which gave me the thought to see how the film might behave with a stronger blue filtration!
I also took the top most picture too with the same filter, with a similar captivating result. So have I found a use for Kodak Ultra Max 400 after all? The answer is of course, "possibly" Upon reflection, as a cheaper film stock for experimental work maybe, but the jury is still out as they say. It will, however, never take the place of my well tried and tested Portras, Ektar and CineStills films. They're in a class of their own.