In article <43kp3b$8sg@shellx.best.com>, svoboda@svoboda.com says...
>sparus@umich.edu (Steve Parus) wrote:
>>Which color print film has the ability to capture the widest range of
>>light levels (in the same exposure) from highlights to shadows? ...
>I would expect one of the films that portrait and wedding
>photographers use, such as Kodak Vericolor III (VPS), to have the
>widest exposure range for a color print film. This type of film needs
>to handle a wide exposure lattitude to maintain detail in difficult
>subjects like wedding dresses. It has lower contrast and lower color
>saturation.

I thought that, also, until I ran a little test with VPSIII, Reala,
Pro 400MC, and Royal Gold 400, all rated normally, except VPSIII
at 80. Each film was used for the same harsh sunlit scene with
skin tone, white shirt, blue-jeans, grey sidewalk, yellow basket,
blue house, red truck, and near and distant foliage. As much as possible, the various parts of the scene were both sunlit and shaded.
All films were exposed two stops over, one stop over, on, one stop
under. I then set up a scene that was entirely in the shade with
skin tone, white shirt, blue-jeans, green foliage, and white and
orange towels. The exposures were: one stop over, on, one under.
The film was all processed by Kodalux, and all printed by a good local lab on the same print material with color and density matching.
Guess what. The three Kodak film were ringers for each other in
contrast and color saturation - the prints were hard to tell apart
in any way, except that the brackets revealed that the 400 Royal
Gold was faster than rated compared with the two pro films (not surprising). The Reala showed a bit more shadow detail than the
others when matched in overall density. I subsequently used Reala
rated at 64 for an outdoor wedding on a bright, clear day, and was
happy with the results. Ektapress 1600 (PPC, not PJC) rated at 800
gave similar color and contrast that day, but with somewhat increased grain and decreased sharpness. If you are looking for the best in
shadow detail that I have seen in color negative, PPC exposed at 250 works very well, with VERY open shadows.
Hope this helps.