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Best Film Looks for Night & Low Light

Fast emulsions built for bars, concerts and streets after dark.

Low light does two things to film: it forces you to push, which raises contrast and grain, and it usually means mixed artificial sources, which wrecks white balance in ways that differ by emulsion. The stocks here were designed for exactly that, and their pushed variants are more authentic to how they were actually used than their base renderings.

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15 looks in this selection

Fuji 800Z

Fuji's fast professional negative: cool, grainy and surprisingly clean in mixed light.

4 renderings

Fuji Neopan 1600

A fast Japanese emulsion with tighter grain than its western rivals.

5 renderings

Fuji Neopan Acros 100

Fuji's fine-grain film, famous for having essentially no reciprocity failure.

1 rendering

Fuji Provia 400F

The predecessor to 400X — flatter and more neutral.

1 rendering

Fuji Provia 400X

Fuji's fast slide film, with more saturation than Provia 100F.

1 rendering

Fuji Superia 1600

Very fast consumer negative — heavy grain, compressed colour, strong night-time character.

4 renderings

Fuji Superia 800

Fast consumer Superia: grainier, contrastier, still unmistakably green-cool.

4 renderings

Fuji Superia HG 1600

An earlier high-speed Fuji emulsion with coarser grain and cooler colour.

1 rendering

Fuji Superia X-Tra 800

The surviving fast Superia, built around Fuji's fourth-layer technology.

1 rendering

Ilford Delta 3200

The classic fast black and white film — enormous grain, unmistakable atmosphere.

5 renderings

Ilford HPS 800

A discontinued fast Ilford emulsion sitting between HP5 and Delta 3200.

1 rendering

Kodak Elite Chrome 400

The fast Elite Chrome: grainier and flatter than the 200.

1 rendering

Kodak Kodachrome 200

The fast Kodachrome — the family look with grain and slightly cooler colour.

1 rendering

Kodak Portra 800

Portra colour rendering at ISO 800, with more contrast and visible grain.

5 renderings

Kodak T-Max 3200

The fast T-grain film — big grain, low contrast, built for the dark.

6 renderings