Grain, Again

Rosie Matheson makes portraits on Kodak Portra 400, in the larger 120 format. The photography site Them Frames asked what keeps her on that stock, and she went straight to the face. "The skin tones are always true to real life," she said. She shoots mostly portraits, so for her that settles it.

The film look is back in portraiture. It shows up on actual rolls and in the phone filters built to imitate them. The reasons are easy to feel: the grain, the color, the care. What holds the look up is harder to see. It rests on a small market, prices that keep moving, and a favorite stock that one industry writer traces to a single factory.

Start with the stock. Them Frames reports that Kodak introduced Portra 400 in the late 1990s, and that its fine grain made it popular with wedding and portrait photographers. The site calls it the most popular roll photographers use. Loyalty has its limits, though. In the same piece, photographer Chantal Convertini said, "I love shooting film for its variety in color, looks and its surprises." She rarely shoots the same film twice. Photographer Jinnifer Douglass goes elsewhere for herself: "When I am just shooting for myself/just for fun I like Ultramax 800."

Ask a teacher and the answer moves from the look to the habit. Eric Tomberlin, an associate professor of art and head of the photography concentration at UNC Asheville, told the campus paper The Blue Banner, "Film makes you a more careful photographer." Some professional clients, he said, ask for film because it looks different. A client paying for difference is a stronger signal than any filter count.

Students on the same campus arrived by a stranger road: the phone. Jensen McDonald, a junior mass communication major, told the paper, "Film definitely has a look you absolutely cannot replicate with digital." He also credited the feed: "Social media has definitely had a huge part in the resurgence of film," he said, and that is how he got into it. The Blue Banner describes a wave of film-styled filters and photo dumps that built momentum around the analog look. On film, the paper notes, grain, color shifts and the character of each stock come with the medium instead of being added as a digital effect. So the imitation sells the original. For McDonald, at least, the filter was the door.

The numbers point the same way, measured by different people at different times. Citing the e-commerce analytics firm Pattern, The Blue Banner reported that demand for film cameras in April 2021 was about 61 percent above April 2020 and roughly 90 percent above April 2019. In Ilford Photo's 2024 Film Photographer's Survey, the paper reported, 71 percent of respondents shot more film than the year before. In 2026, Capture magazine said demand for film had reached its highest point in nearly twenty years.

Then the paper adds the caution most coverage skips: "Film has grown, but it is growing from a small base."

Kodak's books show both halves of that sentence. The company reported 2025 revenues of $1.069 billion, up 2 percent from 2024. Its Advanced Materials & Chemicals unit, which includes its still films, grew 17 percent to $316 million. Kodak still posted a net loss of $128 million for the year. The company said the loss came mainly from the one-time impact of ending its retirement income plan, which is a pension decision, not a Portra habit. Chief executive Jim Continenza said the unit "has introduced a range of still films."

The newest Kodak stocks arrived in March 2026, Capture reported: the Kodak Professional Ektacolor Pro 160, 400 and 800 color-negative films. Capture describes them as refined versions of the Portra family. According to Kodak, the 160-speed version offers ultra-fine grain and smooth highlights. That is the portrait photographer's wish list, printed on a box. Capture also lists the Kodak Snapic A1, an affordable 35mm point-and-shoot released in late 2025, so the new rolls have somewhere cheap to go.

Cheap is relative. Fstoppers reports that average 35mm film prices have risen nearly 70 percent since 2018. Analog Cafe's data put the average U.S. film price at $16.17, up from $14.83. Its 2026 price report, covered by PetaPixel, found prices up 2.5 percent on average across 37 tracked products. These figures come from different windows and different baskets of film, so they do not add up to one clean line. They do agree that the roll costs more than it did.

The supply side is where the look starts to feel delicate. The Fstoppers writer says every roll of Portra 400 in the world comes from one factory in Rochester, New York. In an opinion column, the same writer predicts that 35mm will look more and more like vinyl records: a dedicated community paying premium prices for a tactile experience. No one quoted here says how many portraits in the feed were shot on film and how many were only dressed to look like it. Nobody in this story is counting that.

A filter can borrow the grain. What Matheson asked of her roll was plainer: give the face back as it was. One factory in Rochester keeps answering. For now.

“The skin tones are always true to real life.”

1. Kodak fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results
2. Capture magazine: Kodak revives Ektacolor brand
3. Them Frames: Photographers on their love for Kodak Portra 400
4. The Blue Banner: Why film photography is trending again
5. PetaPixel: Film prices remain stable
6. Analog.Cafe: Film prices up 9% since February 2025
7. Fstoppers: Why instant film is winning while 35mm film is dying