fluor balancing filters?

[geert_de_keyser1]

to balance daylight or tungsten film for fluorescent lighting Tiffen sells its

FLD or FLB filters but I've read here and elsewhere that those filters can't

quiet do the job and a lot people are suggesting using a 30 or 40 Magenta. what

is wrong with the tiffen set and what are your findings for balancing for

fluorescent?

[john_murphy1]

I never had good success with the Tiffen filters: they are too generic. The problem with fluorescent light is really in the way that the film responses to it, so the balancing has to be tailored to the particular film as well as to the particular type of light.</p>

For instance, check out the table on page 3 of <a href="http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/e4024/e4024.pdf">the Kodak technical publication for E100G film</a>. You'll notice that they give different recipes for different types of fluorescent lights.</p>

This is, of course, assuming that you aren't shooting digital. In digital, I don't use filters at all, I correct the white balance in post-processing.

[chris_waller]

Like John, I've never found a filter that gives an exact correction. The best approach is to use CC filters and by experiment, find out how many units of magenta and yellow (usually) to correct for a given fluorescent light. The probelm is that there are so many different types of fluos and they all have a slightly different spectrum.

[helenbach]

Hi Geert,

 

I also prefer CC filters to generic FL-type filters. I carry CC10M and CC20M filters for documentary work when I'm shooting slide film. I'm not bothered about getting an exact correction, and prefer to have slight undercorrection to maintain the character of the lighting. In general I find that the tubes that require more than 20M correction have such a spiky spectrum that any filter is a compromise, so I stick with under-correction rather than carrying an extra set of filters. I carry a colour meter.

 

As far as the CCT goes I use either tungsten or daylight balanced film, depending on which is closest. In most cases it is daylight balanced film. I don't bother to fine tune the colour temperature.

 

It's a different matter if I'm doing the type of interior shots when I need to be in more control of the lighting. Then I'll attempt to filter the source(s) with a combination of CC-M and cooling/warming gels.

 

Best,

Helen