Tungsten FIlm

Hi

 

Could someone please help in explaining the differences of Tungsten

film and it what scenarios it should be used. I checked the

tutorials but it only recommended Kodak Porta and didnt say much

else about it. I mainly shoot indoors where the stage is well lit

but some shots have an orange tint to them but most of them dont.

I'm not allowed to use flash so should I try using tungsten film? I

normally use fuji Superia 400 or 800 and works well enough. Some of

my pics are in my gallery.

 

Thanks

T.

Key words to do a search for would be �light temperature� and �kelvin�.

 

Artificial light sources have different temperatures, measured in Kelvin. Tungsten film is manufactured for the typical household light bulb temperature range, 2800k-3600k. Halogen lights also fall in this range. Daylight film is for, well, daylight, and depending on the time of day, can be found +/- 5200-5600k. Daylight film shot under tungsten/incendesent is found to produce a warm orange, and tungsten film shot in daylight is found to produce a cool blue.

There really is no such thing as a tungsten balanced film,it is simply daylight film with the filtration layer built in.This explains why the "T" films are typically slower than their daylight counterparts.Professional films balanced for tungsten light are meant to be shot with 3200 degrees Kelvin light.This is the correct color of quartz or professional photolights.Older movie lights,and some photofloods are balanced for 3400 Kelvin,this was known as type A tungsten.The typical home incandescent bulb is usually around 2700 Kelvin.Most regular Daylight films are balanced for 5500 degrees Kelvin.This is an average assigned by the standards folks.Early or late day sun light is typically lower,and open skylight can be 10,000 degrees Kelvin!If this is critical for shooting,a color meter and incremental type color conversion filters are used to balance the light source.Daylight films can be shot under tungsten light by adding an 80B(blue) filter.Tungsten films can be shot in daylight by adding an 85B(pinkish)filter.For your uses,I would think tungsten film would work well with the stage lights.

On the side... I saw a superb portrait here made outdoors in day light with a tungsten

film. It had a blue-greenish cast all over the skin tones... Hard to explain and hard to

imagine but not at all unpleasant, on the contrary it was a very nice effect. No filters

were specified, so hoping that was true and wasn't an omission the tungsten in

daylight made it on my list as something I want to try in similar conditions (outside).

 

Anyone experimented this further?

i do it all the time. examples are under 'faces' at www.ericmilner.com

"There really is no such thing as a tungsten balanced film,it is simply daylight film with the filtration layer built in"--->I believe this is wrong.

 

There are tungsten balanced films, and there are daylight balanced films. Both have the same three basic color sensitive layers, blue, green and red, except ALL Fujicolor negative films that have an additional cyan color layer that becomes light magenta after processing, that filters the green tint produced by fluorescent lights.

 

The difference between daylight balanced films and tungsten light balanced films is that the latter have a much more sensitive blue layer that filters the yellow/orange tint produced by light sources on the +/- 3000 Kelvin degrees range.

 

I believe that the reason why these films tend to be slower is because they are intended to be used under studio controlled lighting conditions for product and reproduction applications, where fast shutter speeds are not required. Fujichrome 64T Tungsten Type II (RTP II) film and Fujicolor NPL 160 Tungsten film are designed to be used with shutter speeds not faster than 1/30 sec.

There's fast tungsten film (up to 800 without a push) and it doesn't behave, or look, like a faster daylight film with a built-in 80A. I'd always assumed that it was made by adjusting the layer sensitivities - which would include tweaking the filter layers. But that was just my assumption based on what I thought was the logical way to do it. Now I want to know the truth... Any pointers to on-line sources?

 

For shooting a stage there is Ektachrome 320T (EPJ) which is easily pushable. Some of us like it and some don't. Using a daylight film such as NPZ or Portra 800, perhaps with a mid-blue filter like an 80D (KB6) to improve the relative amount of blue shadow information, is a viable, less grainy, less contrasty alternative with the colour balance being adjusted afterwards. It helps with colour rendition without losing as much light as the full 80A (KB15) would.

 

Thanks,

 

Helen

Kodak makes an 800 speed tungsten movie film:

<A HREF=http://www.kodak.com/cgi-bin/webCatalog.pl?section=&cc=US&lc=en&product=KODAK+VISION+800T+Color+Negative+Film+5289/7289>here

is the product page</A>.

Kodak makes many tungsten motion picture stocks, their leading seller is in 500T family.

 

I�m also unaware of an �additional� layer added to any 35mm E6 still camera tungsten film, assuming that�s what we�re discussing. Perhaps Steve is confused with the Fuji daylight C41 films that are capable of being corrected under tungsten in post because of the fourth layer?

<p>Tauseef, I have just shot my very first roll of Fuji 64T, also in an indoor/stage setting. I was unhappy with other films and the color cast I always got.

<p>If you take a look <a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/2304825">at this picture</a>, you'll see that I was struggling quite a bit with the slow speed of that film and the fact that I had to go wide open to f1.4 to stay at 1/4 sec there (with a tripod, but I had trouble focussing properly).

<p>I happen to like the colors though - they are strong (unaltered in PS), and quite representative of the stage light that was there. But next time I better try a Kodak 160T. If I am not mistaken, there is no faster Fuji Tungsten film.

<p>Hope this helps a little. I'd also appreciate any other advice the oldies here can give.

<p> Thanks