Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/07/15

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Subject: Re: [Leica] "Filters for the 75/1.4M indoors?"- Certainly! Especially for negatives!
From: "Dan Post" <dwpost@email.msn.com>
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 09:56:41 -0400

MArk-
You are right- using a lighter filter to get SOME information will help in
negative film. Since so many folks use chrome film, however, that the more
correction used there, the better.
A funny thing is that even negative film will show the bias of the time of
day- I can print a roll taken over the period of a customer's outing, and
while the photos taken in the late morning to early afternoon look natural,
the late afternoon sun seems to render a 'golden' glow when the shadows
start to lengthen! I had always heard that if you wanted good color before
10am or after 2pm, a bit of cooling filtration was needed (82A).
I have an 81A also for slight warming- I used to use it for chromes when I
shot under trees or cloudy days and wanted a nice 'warm' tone.
If your photofinisher can correct ( some of these kids don't understand
color- I had sent one customer back to a Wal-Mart and told them to have the
prints redone. They were too dark, but the negatives looked fine. We had
done some 5x7 enlargements from them and they came out very nicely. He took
the negatives back, and we got a call from the 'lab' person at Wal-Mart who
wanted to know how to print them lighter!!! It was one of those moment where
you don't know whether to laugh, cry, scream, hang up the phone, or just
shake your head. I was speechless!)- as I said, if your photofinisher can
and will make corrections, by all means shoot with some sort of correction
filter- some is better than none.
Dan
- ----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Rabiner <mrabiner@concentric.net>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 1999 2:34 PM
Subject: Re: [Leica] "Filters for the 75/1.4M indoors?"- Certainly!
Especially for negatives!


> Dan Post wrote:
> >
> > AS a photofinisher, in a one hour lab, I have to sqeak up, at this
point.
> > The problem with balancing color negative film to tungsten, without
filters,
> > is that the blue sensitive layer is usually so underexposed as to have
very
> > little information on it.... this is the yellow dye layer, and you can
add
> > as much yellow filtration- in the negative process of printing this
yields
> > blue or minus yellow in the print, and if the information is not there,
it
> > is JUST NOT THERE! You get an overall blue pgoto that looks like....
crap!
> > Either over exposed the film so you get SOME information on the blue
layer
> > or use a blue filter- either way, you reduce the efective speed, but
you'll
> > get much better color!
> > Flame all you want, but from where I sit, at the printer, it is a lot
easier
> > to correct to a decent color balance when you have sufficient
information on
> > the negative in all three layers, to get a fair representation of the
> > subject!
> > The hardest task I've ever had was explaining to a lady that even if she
> > used a white backdrop to photograph her craft items with tungsten light,
> > that if I balanced the sheet to look white, everything else was a funny
> > color- had to show her the densitometer readings where the blue
sensitive
> > layer had a density of .22 and the red and green layers had densities of
> > about .80!
> > If you do use filters, and want good correction- shoot a frame or two
with a
> > neutral gray card- modst printers balance to a gray. I can read the
> > densities of the gray card on the negative and get a ballpark
correction- or
> > read a test print of the gray card and know the amount of correction to
key
> > in for that roll. Some one hour labs, however, may balk at taking the
time
> > to do this, or they may have operators that use the PHD button to print
> >  Push Here!, Dummy!).
> > Try it with filters and a gray card- you'll be pleasantly surprised.
> >
> > Dan ( The Sixty Minute Man....)
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: apbc <apbc@public1.sta.net.cn>
> > To: Leica Users Group <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
> > Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 1999 6:42 AM
> > Subject: [Leica] Donning his asbestos suit, he asks: "Filters for the
> > 75/1.4M indoors?"
> >
> > > >When you folks are shooting color film with your wonderful 50/1.0 or
> > > >75/1.4, how do you avoid the dreaded orange glow from incandescent
> > > >lighting?
> > >
> > > 64T, 160T, 320T or a professional printer of negatives all do very
> > > nicely, thank you.
> > >
> > > Bests
> > >
> > > Adrian
> ><snip>
>
> Do you have any experience or how do you feel about, Dan, instead of
> using that dark blue correction filter for the full recommended
> correction absorbing many stops use a cooling filter of only a couple
> a hundred K; light blue. That would give you enough "information" to
> work with and may be the best way of working.
>
> Those light blue filters are also usable when you want your sunsets to
> not make your subjects grey suit go tan.
>
> Also for black and white so the tungsten doesnt make for pasty skin tones.
> Mark Rabiner