AshigrainColour negative · Natural
Agfa Agfacolor Portrait XPS 160
Agfa's soft, forgiving negative for flattering portraits.
Restrained colour and flat contrast for skin. Original vs Ashigrain.
At a glance
- Exposure index
- 160
- Daylight
- Introduced
- by 1995
- Discontinued
- Process
- C-41
- Prints on
- Scan
About the film
Portrait XPS 160 was the gentlest of three Agfacolor Professional negatives that Agfa sold as a scale of saturation, so a photographer could choose how intense the print colours would be before shooting.
Agfa first offered the idea as a trio, Portrait 160, Optima 125 and Ultra 50, built on one film technology and set apart by how emulsion layers of different speeds were mixed. By Agfa's account, each step from Portrait to Optima to Ultra doubled the colour saturation. Testing the trio for Amateur Photographer, Joël Lacey found Portrait the finest-grained of the three although it was the fastest, and the most forgiving, still coping with exposure errors of three stops either way. He thought it a little bland for flesh tones, while granting that subdued colour and lower contrast were exactly what a flattering portrait film was designed for. Agfa's guide of September 1998 describes Portrait XPS 160 as soft in colour and very fine in grain, made to tone down rich colours and high contrast, and notes that its roll film had a retouchable emulsion. Agfa-Gevaert sold its photo business to an investor group in November 2004, and the new AgfaPhoto GmbH filed for insolvency in May 2005.
Sources for this history
- Agfa Professional Films, Technical Data PF, Agfa-Gevaert AG
- Amateur Photographer test of Agfacolor Ultra, Optima and Portrait (13 October 1990), in Early Agfa colour materials, Amateur Photographer (transcribed on photomemorabilia.co.uk)
- Technische Daten: Agfa Professional Filmsortiment (F-PF-D4, 07/2003), Agfa-Gevaert AG
- Technical Data: Agfa Professional Films (F-PF-E4, 08/2004), Agfa-Gevaert AG
- Insolvenz-Poker um AgfaPhoto, photoscala
- Vor sieben Jahren gingen bei Agfa die Lichter aus, dpa (newsroom.de)
- Technical Data: Agfacolor Portrait XPS 160 Professional (Stand 08/1995), Agfa-Gevaert AG
- Agfacolor Professional Negative Films (product page, February 1997 capture), Agfa-Gevaert AG
The look
A daylight ISO 160 colour negative that Agfa built for portraits, with restrained saturation and flat contrast to tame rich colours and harsh light. It sat at the gentle end of Agfa's three saturation levels. It starts as a scan; it prints on Agfa CP30 by default or on any other print film.
Gentle saturation that keeps skin calm.
Flat contrast and soft skin on a portrait negative.
Best for
- Studio and window-light portraits
- Soft, low-contrast skin tones
- Taming harsh contrast and loud colours
Among the films
Science & sources
A daylight still-photo colour negative rated at EI 160, flatter in contrast than Agfacolor Ultra 50. It defaults to a scan. Its individual dye shapes and grain are borrowed from Kodak Vision3 250D, because the guide does not publish them.
Response curves and the evidence behind the model
Compare manufacturer data with the Ashigrain model on the same axes. This shows the calibration to source curves; comparison with photographed film is a separate question.
Characteristic response
RMS granularity
Density variation (σD) measured through a 48 µm aperture. Where the datasheet gives a single grain value, the response away from that point is an approximation.
| Channel | Density | Datasheet-based σD | Model σD |
|---|---|---|---|
| R | 0.3 | 0.00893 | 0.009258 |
| G | 0.3 | 0.008541 | 0.008846 |
| B | 0.3 | 0.015744 | 0.016281 |
| R | 0.6 | 0.006813 | 0.007063 |
| G | 0.6 | 0.006835 | 0.007079 |
| B | 0.6 | 0.012503 | 0.01293 |
| R | 1 | 0.005353 | 0.00555 |
| G | 1 | 0.006506 | 0.006738 |
| B | 1 | 0.013138 | 0.013586 |
| R | 1.5 | 0.004546 | 0.004713 |
| G | 1.5 | 0.006341 | 0.006568 |
| B | 1.5 | 0.012183 | 0.012599 |
| B | 2 | 0.0077 | 0.007963 |
Model limits
These images show the film model in use. Spectral response, lighting and viewing conditions include approximations, while halation, bloom, grain size, weave and flicker are not fully measured for each film. A real film capture also depends on development and print timing.
- Custom lighting spectra, camera metering and the spectral reflectance inferred from fixed-white-balance footage are modeled assumptions, not measurements of this film.
- Colour-print timing and scan balance under arbitrary lighting are modeled. Scanner colour balance has no standard physical unit.
- Only a midscale neutral and a minimum-density spectrum are printed, not separate cyan, magenta and yellow dye spectra. The individual dye shapes are borrowed from Kodak Vision3 250D (5207), a proxy rather than this film's dyes.
- The source prints one visual MTF curve, not separate red, green and blue curves. The model applies it to all three layers.
- The source publishes one RMS granularity value, 3.5 × 10⁻³, without saying whether it is read at gross or net density. Grain is proxied from Kodak Vision3 250D (5207), so the granularity values shown are that film's, not measurements of Portrait XPS 160.
- Printer-light timing on this film can differ from the full spectral calculation by up to 0.27 printer points.
- No antihalation layer is named for this film; an undercoat is assumed. Halation strength, radius, layer weights and bloom are not measured.
- Individual dye amounts, layer interactions and push/pull behaviour are approximated where the datasheet provides no calibration. Grain size is assumed; published RMS granularity does not specify dye-cloud size.
- Characteristic response outside the published exposure range is an extrapolation, not measured film data.
- The default output is a scan. Scan balance has no standard unit and is modeled.
- The printer lamp and filter spectra and the Status A grey aim used in this preview are approximated; the source does not publish the required spectral or laboratory aim data.
Film guide: assumptions and practical choices
Sources
- Process: Agfa Professional Films, Technical Data PF, Technical Data PF, 09/1998, 1st edition, p. 4
- Characteristic curves: Agfa Professional Films, Technical Data PF, Technical Data PF, 09/1998, 1st edition, p. 8
- Diffuse RMS granularity: Agfa Professional Films, Technical Data PF, Technical Data PF, 09/1998, 1st edition, p. 8
- Exposure index: Agfa Professional Films, Technical Data PF, Technical Data PF, 09/1998, 1st edition, p. 8