Highly saturated Reala prints

[Malcolm_Stewart]

From a thread six years ago, Nick (Benchista) wrote:

P.S. This is what Fuji themselves think of Reala, from http://www.fujifilm.co.uk:
"Fujicolor REALA is a truly specialist portrait film that's perfect for capturing totally natural fleshtones and colours. Designed specifically to reproduce subtle skintones and the delicate pastel shades of floral subjects, REALA achieves this remarkable breakthrough with a real sense of beauty. Used by professional Wedding photographers for their very best work, along with Schools photographers who value its portrait qualities, REALA has also gained a considerable following amongst keen gardeners who want to record their creations both subtly and accurately."
I wouldn't quibble with that at all.

Why am I digging this up?

Simply because I've just received 12 10" sq. prints from a 1 year outdated 120 Reala which I used as a test film in an Ikonta 521/16. In my opinion, the prints are highly, even overly saturated, and I can't understand how this would be a suitable film for weddings or gardens etc. The lens on my Ikonta is an Opton Tessar in clean condition.
Processing etc. was via a P&P package from Peak Imaging.

Do films get more saturated if they haven't been stored correctly? (I've got 9 more films in the fridge, but have no idea how well they were stored before being given to me...)

[huwevans]

Colour balance is the thing that tends to change over time with a film, so I wouldn't necessarily be too surprised. I've never used out-dated Reala, so I couldn't say for sure exactly what to expect. Of course, if you're looking at prints it could be the printing that is at fault rather than the film. Though I would have thought that Peak could be relied upon for decent QC.

In general my experience of Reala (quite a long time ago now admittedly) is that some colours can be very punchy (reds and greens as I recall) but that flesh tones are quite well-controlled, making it a reasonable potrait film. However, it doesn't have the more subdued contrast of a film like Fuji NPS. It is much finer grained though, so perhaps a better choice for 35mm rather than MF.

One other thing - old leaf shutters can be slow, as I'm sure you know - are the negs unusually dense? A bit of unintended over-exposure could perhaps be the culprit.

[Malcolm_Stewart]

...One other thing - old leaf shutters can be slow, as I'm sure you know - are the negs unusually dense? A bit of unintended over-exposure could perhaps be the culprit.

I chose a colour neg film deliberately as I wasn't sure about the shutter speeds which were around the 1/100 and 1/250s area, and the negatives are evenly exposed, but perhaps slightly more dense than I've had from other films in 35mm focal plane bodies. I'll get them checked.
The same meter, a Weston V, I'd used earlier when checking a Zorki 4K with Provia 100F slide film. Results were spot on.

[Benchista]

A bit of unintended over-exposure could perhaps be the culprit.

That's almost certainly the answer. Over-exposed colour neg film always has more saturation than if "correctly" exposed, and this is particularly obvious with Reala. Rated at the standard speed, or perhaps a 1/3 stop faster, it's pretty neutral; overexposed by even as little as 1/3 stop it becomes quite vibrant in terms of saturation. I had never really thought of it as particularly saturated using my EOS cameras, which typically were set up to produce saturated slides, and thus always tended to underexpose rather than overexpose. It's only when I started using it in 120 that the truth became really clear to me.

So, we've got out-of-date film, an Opton Tessar which if my experience with Rollei versions is anything to go by is likely to be a touch warm, and possible mild underexposure - sounds like you've found the culprits.

FTR, personally I always used Kodak Portra NC for weddings (about the only thing I ever used Kodak film for out of choice!), but I use Reala as a general-purpose colour neg film for 120 as it gives me that choice of colour balance, and also scans particularly well on my scanner.

[Malcolm_Stewart]

Thanks to both for your comments.

Apart from the saturation, these are possibly the best results I've had from older 120 bodies, with quite decent sharpness across the frame.
#2 does look as though the film got sucked towards the lens on opening this old folder! Very poor in the middle, and sharp at the edges. I note that there's no "vacuum relief" grooves which some other bodies of the same era had. I could always try opening before winding, as the Ikonta has an anti double-exposure lock.

[Mojo_66]

I used some old out of date (by about 4 years) Reala rated at about ISO80 a couple of years back and found it to be very saturated, I quite liked the effect though

[Zou]

I seem to recall reading somehwere that there are/were 3 versions of Reala - an original, a newer formulation, and the Japan-only Reala Ace. It's the latter which I have used, and I consider it the nicest colour neg film for my kind of photography.

Perhaps the variations on the Reala theme have caused some confusion?

[Mugshot]

I like Reala for general photography, but for less saturation
softer skin tones, and less" Mickey Mouse" colours I use Fiji Pro. 160S.
P.S. I find generally that the same film in 120 seems much more saturated than in 35mm, I think it's something to do with the micro- negative image contrast.

[apochromatic]

The saturation of your prints has little to do with the film and more to do with the printing IMO. Reala is a relatively low contrast film, sometimes awkward to print in certain lighting situations, but never saturated. Get back to the lab and ask them to turn the wick down. It's much easier to reduce the saturation than magic it up from nowhere.