Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/06/29

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Fluorescent filtration
From: "Henning J. Wulff" <henningw@archiphoto.com>
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1999 16:11:02 -0700

>Malcolm McCullough wrote:
>>
>> >Try though I will to avoid it, I may find myself in a situation soon
>> >where I will be shooting chromes under fluorescent lighting.  What are
>> >the popular recommendations for on-the-fly filtration.  I'm not going
>> >to have the time to carefully correct the lights; I just need to tone
>> >down the green.  Anyone have experience with the B+W FL-Day?  What
>> >about a CC40M?  (No one seems to have off-the-rack 39mm and 46mm
>> >CC30M's).
>> >
>> >Thanks,
>> >Rob Schneider
>><snip>
>I thought color meters were no good for reading the green of fluorescents?
>Mark Rabiner

3-colour meters Like the Minolta and the present Gossen do just fine; only
the old obsolescent 2 colour meters neglected the green-magenta axis.

The main problem from my point of view (architectural photography) is that
lighting has gotten a lot less consistent. Most interior spaces of interest
have a great variety of lighting, including halogen, regular incandescent,
flourescents of various types, Metal Halide, etc. Impossible to balance
all. Also, as the ambience of a room depends on the lighting, overpowering
it with flash is out of the question. The best solution is to use one of
the four layer Fuji negative films, and as for filtering, forget it or stay
very subtle. Make chromes from the negs. It usually gives a much better
rendition. The cost of making high quality chromes is offset by the fact
that you don't generally have to bracket with colour neg film.

So my Minolta Color Meter doesn't get much use any more, nor do my various
filters. Just as well; they are a pain to use if you have to do a lot of
shots under different lighting and with different lenses.

   *            Henning J. Wulff
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