Kodak’s Fashion Muse - EPR 64 & TRI-X - Tools that Transformed Light into Art.
Part One : Kodak Ektachrome Professional EPR 64 120 - The film that made me the image creator I am.
After art college, assisting, then going out into the world as a fashion and beauty photographer you were confronted by a sea of film choices. I chose to work with two for 90% of my work - Kodak EPR (colour) and TRI-X (B&W). I’m going to talk about EPR today. (TRI-X will be Part Two).
In the golden age of colour film, Kodak Ektachrome Professional EPR 64 120 was a studio and location medium format staple for fashion and beauty photography. Its technical brilliance and cool, polished aesthetic defined 1980s–2000s editorial and advertising across the world, marrying precision with artistry.
Balanced for daylight (5500K), EPR 64 delivered flawless skin tones and true-to-life colours under flash or natural light. Its neutrality ensured makeup and fabrics retained vibrancy, whether in studio or on-location, capturing sunlit (or HMI) gradients and bold hues with equal fidelity.
The film’s jewel-like colour signature set it apart. As an E-6 slide film, it rendered blues and greens with a subtle cool undertone, striking a balance between editorial vibrance and natural skin radiance. This "Ektachrome look" became iconic—sharp, glossy, and unmistakably modern for the time.
Technically, EPR 64 120 excelled. Its ISO 64 sensitivity produced fine grain and ‘skin friendly’ sharpness, resolving textures with the feel of a soft muslin fabric. The 120 format’s larger transparency (6 x 6cm) enhanced dimensionality, while moderate contrast preserved detail in shadows and highlights, ideal for dramatic lighting or soft beauty portraits.
Discipline was key. I rated it at 50 ASA, and overexposing beauty shots by half a stop to give a glowing dewy skin texture. ‘Clip tests’—cutting off a few frames and processing the short strip at +1/3 stop - let us, hopefully, adjust development to +2/3 for optimal density. Without Photoshop, exposure was critical, teaching me to ‘capture in-camera’. The exposure was so critical, I would take exposure and colour temp readings across the entire frame. To be more than 1/2 stop out the shot would look awful once processed. There was no latitude with E6 which was a major factor in photoraphers switching to colour neg as the emultion technology improved.
Preparation was ritual: check hair, makeup and styling, Polaroid, check, adjust, Polaroid, check, shoot! That rigour—obsessing over details upfront— is ingrained and continues to shape my workflow today.
For editorial, and actually for a lot of commercial clients, four rolls was the budget. With 8 shots on 6 x 8, 12 shots on 6 x 6 and 16 shots on 6 x 4.5, there was no loading in a 64Gb card and shooting till you felt like you’ve got it!
We are now so used to seeing our images pop up on a screen instantly that it seems so alien to think back to shooting maybe 500 rolls on a two week trip and not having a clue what was on them until you got home and saw those first clip tests.
Shooting film for years before the transition to digital and I can assure you the butterflies in your stomach, going into the lab, and judging your clip tests never ever went away until you knew everything looked fab! It’s strange, writing this I’m mentally running through the doors at Bayeux in Newman Street (they have survived and still process film) to judge my clips!
We used to keep really accurate log books holding the job details. Client, crew, Polaroids, shot numbers, shot details, shot exposures, clip test instructions and final processing details. I still have them all. They tell the story of my career from the very start of ‘testing’ until the switch to digital. I miss using those books. For those of you who know, I still occasionally find part of the little paper wrapper, that you tore off the film to load it into the camera back, in a camera bag behind a divider or wedged into the stitching! It makes me smile!
Discontinued in 2007 EPR 64’s legacy endures. Its blend of cool-toned vibrance and technical mastery captured an era’s glamour, now frequently echoed, ‘never quite achieving’, digital presets. For photographers, it wasn’t just a film; it was daylight perfected—a tool that transformed light into art, one frame at a time. And for me, it remains a masterclass in precision, a reminder that the best images are built not in post, but in the moment.