Kodak Portra 160 - 35mm Colour Negative Film

The quietest film in the Portra family. Also the finest.

Portra 400 gets the attention. Portra 160 gets the results, when the light cooperates.

Kodak Portra 160 35mm Film is an ISO 160 daylight-balanced professional colour negative film and the finest-grained option in the Portra lineup. Built on Kodak's T-GRAIN emulsion with VISION Film cinematic technology, it produces images with very fine grain, low contrast, medium colour saturation, and the natural, accurate skin tones that have made the Portra name the professional standard for portrait, wedding, and commercial photography. Portra 160 is widely regarded as one of the best all-around colour negative films available, especially when it comes to exposure latitude: it handles overexposure extremely well, maintaining highlight detail and smooth transitions. DX coded, 36 exposures, standard C-41 chemistry. Sold in unboxed individual canisters.

What Makes Kodak Portra 160 35mm Film Habit-Forming

The Finest Grain in the Portra Family With the finest grain in the Portra family, Portra 160 delivers exceptionally smooth and natural skin tones and enlarges beautifully. The T-GRAIN emulsion produces negatives with a clarity and smoothness that Portra 400, for all its versatility, can't quite match at the grain level. For work destined for large prints or demanding scans, 160 is where the Portra family performs at its technical best.

Natural, Accurate Colour The film is known for its warm, natural skin tones, medium contrast, and low saturation. Colours are subtle and refined rather than bold, making Portra 160 a great choice for portraits, weddings, lifestyle photography, and landscapes where realism and smooth colour transitions matter. It renders the world as you remember it rather than as you wished it looked.

Exceptional Exposure Latitude Portra 160 handles overexposure generously, with highlight roll-off that is natural and pleasing rather than abrupt. Shooting at ISO 100 rather than box speed gives even more shadow detail and is a widely recommended approach among experienced Portra shooters.

Portrait and Wedding Photography's Quiet Standard Portra 160 is at its best when photographing people or food and you want the images to have a subtle, high-end look without the film drawing attention to itself. Commercial photographers and wedding photographers who require consistent, faithful results in controlled or good natural light have relied on it for years. It doesn't shout; it simply gets the image right.

Built for Scanning The T-GRAIN micro-structure was optimised for scanning applications. Negatives are clean and well-behaved on flatbed and dedicated film scanners, with colour information that translates predictably through standard inversion workflows.

ISO 160: Give It Good Light ISO 160 is slower than Portra 400 and demands more consideration about light. In good daylight or studio conditions it is exceptional; in low or mixed light it asks for more care than its faster sibling. That trade-off is exactly what produces the finest grain in the family.

DX Coded, 36 Exposures Compatible with any 35mm camera including fully automatic models. 36 exposures per roll.

Best For Portra 160 earns its place for portrait, wedding, commercial, fashion, and fine art colour photography in good natural or controlled light. The grain quality, skin tone rendering, and exposure latitude make it the most technically refined option in the Portra family for daylight work, and the results at large print sizes are difficult to match in the 35mm format. It is not the film for unpredictable light or fast-moving, available-light situations; for those, Portra 400 is waiting.

Perfect for: Wedding and portrait photographers who want the finest Portra grain in good light, commercial and fashion work, landscape photographers who want natural and precise colour, and anyone whose dependency on accurate, beautiful colour film has been looking for the most refined 35mm option Kodak produces.

Portra 160 is the film that makes photographers who discover it wonder why they didn't load it sooner. The fine grain, the accurate colour, the skin tone rendering: these are the qualities of a film built for photographers who need to get it right. In good light it is, quietly, one of the finest colour films available.