Best 120 Color Film for Boudoir
Kodak Portra 800 and the Art of Sensual Boudoir
Boudoir with Bronica Zenza S Captured by Yuliya Panchenko.
In the soft countryside outside Zurich, Switzerland, Yuliya Panchenko once again found herself at the crossroads of nature, beauty, and pure artistic expression.
Working with the stunning Marina Siahaan, the no.1 boudoir photographer in Zürich are, and armed with her trusted Bronica Zenza S medium format camera, Yuliya set out on a new boudoir challenge: to create soft, sensual nudes surrounded by nature’s raw palette.
This time, it wasn't just about film — it was about color.
And for that, Yuliya reached for a roll of one of her all-time favorite films: Kodak Portra 800.
Boudoir with Bronica Zenza S Captured by Yuliya Panchenko.
Kodak Portra 800 — The King of Natural Color
Kodak Portra 800 is a professional-grade color negative film known for its stunning skin tones, rich saturation, and the ability to handle tricky lighting situations with ease.
Unlike slower Portra stocks (like 160 or 400), the 800 speed film allows photographers to capture beautiful detail even in lower light without losing that signature creamy, painterly quality.
What makes Portra 800 even more special is its ability to retain saturation and control contrast, even when overexposed slightly — delivering breathtaking greens, vivid reds, and lifelike pastels without ever feeling harsh or digital.
Yuliya had fallen in love with the Portra family earlier during her boudoir challenge with the Nikon F3, where she used Kodak Portra 160 and marveled at its soft glow and fine grain.
Now, with Portra 800 loaded into the Bronica, she was ready to push the colors of Zurich’s lush fields and glowing flowers into a living, breathing canvas.
Boudoir with Bronica Zenza S Captured by Yuliya Panchenko.
Boudoir with Bronica Zenza S Captured by Yuliya Panchenko.
Boudoir in the Wild — Sheer Fabrics, Flowers, and Fields
The setting was magical: endless rolling wheat fields kissed by the golden light, pockets of red wildflowers bursting from the earth, and a quiet, untouched lake surrounded by deep, emerald forests.
Marina moved softly through the scene, draped in delicate sheer fabrics that caught the breeze and clung to her body in the most poetic ways.
The goal of this boudoir challenge was not just to capture nudity, but to capture sensuality — the softness of touch, the weightlessness of fabric, the whispers between body and nature.
The Kodak Portra 800 responded like a dream:
The greens of the forest and fields came alive, rich but never overwhelming.
The reds of the wildflowers sang against the earth tones of the wheat.
The skin tones glowed with a creamy radiance, delicate and natural.
Every frame felt painterly, intimate, almost like a secret you could keep tucked away between the pages of a leather-bound journal.
Boudoir with Bronica Zenza S Captured by Yuliya Panchenko.
Boudoir with Bronica Zenza S Captured by Yuliya Panchenko.
Yuliya Panchenko and Marina Siahaan, Switzerland (July, 2024).
A Color Story Written in Film
Shooting medium format 6x6 with the Bronica Zenza S allowed Yuliya to craft each image with slow, deliberate artistry — embracing the square composition to focus fully on light, form, and emotion.
And Kodak Portra 800 — much like its sister stock Portra 160 — delivered beyond every expectation.It preserved the spirit of the day: sensual, colorful, gentle, alive.
This Zurich session wasn’t just another boudoir shoot.
It was a love letter to color, to film, and to the timeless beauty that happens when two artists — model and photographer — trust the moment, the medium, and each other.
Boudoir with Bronica Zenza S Captured by Yuliya Panchenko.
Boudoir with Bronica Zenza S Captured by Yuliya Panchenko.
