Does an image model really know these film stocks?

It knows the names, because they are written under millions of photographs online. It answers better when the next clause names the physical result: the grain, the contrast, the cast and what happens to skin, sky and green foliage.

What is the difference between CineStill 800T and Vision3 500T?

One layer. CineStill 800T is Vision3 500T with the remjet backing removed and rated at 800. Without that layer, light reflects off the film base and puts a red glow around every bright highlight. Vision3 500T keeps it, so its highlights are clean.

Can I still buy all of these films?

Most of them. Fujifilm discontinued Pro 400H in 2021, and Fujifilm replaced Superia X-TRA 400 in many markets in 2023. Both names still work in a prompt, because a model learned the look from the pictures rather than from the shelf.

Do I have to say the camera as well as the stock?

For the consumer stocks, yes. Gold 200 and UltraMax 400 are bound up with a compact point and shoot and a direct flash, and naming the camera gets you half the look. For the professional stocks the film does the work on its own.

Colour film stocks

The colour stocks, and what each does to skin, to sky and to green.

A colour negative stock is a set of biases, and the biases are the look. One film holds skin neutral and lets the sky go pale. Another throws the shadows green and the sky cyan. Name the stock in a prompt and a model applies the whole set at once, which is faster than writing warm highlights, muted green and fine grain as three separate clauses. Every entry here says what the stock does to skin, to sky and to green foliage, because those three are what a prompt has to steer.

The portrait stocks

Three professional stocks built around a face. Wide latitude, low contrast, and a colour bias you pick on purpose.

Portra 400

Warm, low saturation colour with fine grain and skin tone that survives heavy overexposure.

Portra 800

The same warm, low saturation family one stop faster, with visible grain and a little more contrast.

Pro 400H

Cool colour with green shadows and pale mint whites, shot two stops over on purpose.

The everyday stocks

Three cheap films from a supermarket shelf. More grain, more contrast, and a colour bias you cannot switch off.

Gold 200

Cheap, warm, yellow-forward colour with visible grain: the family snapshot look.

UltraMax 400

Gold turned up: warmer, grainier and more contrasty, at twice the speed.

Superia 400

Green in the shadow and cyan in the sky: the Fujifilm bias at consumer speed.

Cine film in a still camera

Three stocks from the motion picture line. One keeps its anti-halation layer, and two have it stripped off.

CineStill 800T

Tungsten balanced cine film with a red glow around every bright light.

CineStill 50D

Daylight balanced cine film with very fine grain, clean colour and almost no glow.

Vision3 500T

The motion picture stock itself: tungsten balanced, very wide latitude, and no glow at all.

Saturated, and strange

Three stocks that do not try to be neutral. One is only saturated, and two rewrite the colours outright.

Ektar 100

The most saturated and finest grain colour negative Kodak makes, and it is not for faces.

LomoChrome Purple

A colour shift film: every green leaf comes back magenta and purple.

Harman Phoenix

High contrast, heavy grain, a strong red bias, halation, and almost no latitude.

Shoot one of them

Copy a prompt into an image model and pay for that one run. No subscription.

Open an image model

Other look groups

Black and white film stocksThe stocks, and what each one does to grain, to skin and to the sky.8 black and white stocks Slide and instant filmThe positive stocks, their narrow latitude, and the wording for each.8 slide and instant stocks Camera and formatThe ways to size a frame, and the wording that gets each one.8 cameras and formats Darkroom and processThe changes made to the film itself, and the wording for each one.6 darkroom processes Historical processesThe processes from before the film roll, and the wording for each.10 historical processes Photographic genresEach genre written as the lens, the light and the distance that make it.16 photographic genres Product and commercialThe shots a product needs, and the light, shadow and edge each takes.10 product shots

Cinematic techniquesShooting a video rather than a still? The same reference, for the camera in motion.

Start from the subject. A face wants Portra 400, or Portra 800 in low light, or Pro 400H if it should look cool and airy. A landscape wants Ektar 100. A snapshot wants Gold 200 or UltraMax 400. A lit street at night wants CineStill 800T.