Using daylight film, indoors

[Guest Daniel J. Ashley-Smith]

Hi,

 

Basically, I'm shooting a live performance with a 35mm SLR. Trouble is, I am going to need 800iso film but the only stuff I can find is daylight. Could I use a blue filter to cancel out some of the red? If so how much blue is needed?

 

Thanks,

Dan.

[Matthew McDermott]

What's the situation exactly? You're shooting stills, right? Without knowing what lights you'll be under, it's difficult to answer. You may not want to put anything in front of the lens so as to avoid the loss of film speed and correct for any color shifts at the printing/scaning stage. Besides, depending on what type of show it is and what the specific stage lighting is, the color shift may have an interesting look. In most clubs you're fighting for every footcandle, so anything in front of the lens isn't helping that much. What stock are you using?

[David Mullen ASC]

An 80A blue filter corrects tungsten for daylight stock, but it cuts nearly two stops of light (i.e. your 800 ASA film becomes an effective 200 ASA.)

 

Kodak, of course, makes fast tungsten-balanced color negative stocks for motion picture use (ECN-2 process) but in their still-camera line-up, you've only got 64T, 160T, and 320T Ektachrome reversal and Portra 100T color negative.

 

You could try a lighter grade of blue filter to cancel only part of the warmth.

[Guest Daniel J. Ashley-Smith]

Right,

Since that no-body geek decided to delete everything on the board, I?ll start again...

Besides the IP has been logged and a date was recorded so, looks like a road trip to Mexico for you mate! (You?re obviously new to hacking)

 

Anyway. I am using Kodak Portra 800 film. I'm not sure if this is even an issue with professional film but Kodak seems to be warmer full stop. So maybe using Fujifilm NPZ 800 is more practical to tone down the colours.

 

Yeh, I would use a blue filter but light loss is always an issue.

 

Is using a flash recommended? I don?t usually like to use a flash, a continues light maybe but flash can sometimes bring bad results, like for example when taking a picture of people they get a nasty shine on their face. And it's quite a large area to fill, and no I can?t position any flashes. (Simply because I only have one)

 

A few people said I should just let it run. Well, yeh. I think that?s my only practical option really, and it won?t come out horribly.