Exposing for good skin tones with color slide film?

sterioma · May 16, 2005

Hi,

I just bought a roll of Fuji Astia 100 from my local camera shop: it was a good deal since it's expiring on 05/2005 and I want to give it a try to take a few portraits of my 2 months daughter.

Usually with BW film I spot meter on the skin and open 1/2 stop (to put it into Zone V+1/2).

I understand that slide film has a narrower latitude, so I wonder whether maybe some one can give me some tip on how to meter to get good skin tones.

Thanks,
Stefano

jperkinson · May 16, 2005

I guess it depends on the tone of the skin. One of my daughters has a very light complexion, and the other tans pretty dark in the summer. They're difficult to get right when I try to spot their skin.

I shoot Provia a lot, and I just try to nail my greys (use grey card or sometimes I'll spot something middle like a sidewalk or other pavement), and watch my important highlights. I've rarely made a bad exposure if I just slow down and do just that.

EDIT: Provia has a bit more contrast and punch over the Astia stuff IMO...

David A. Goldfarb · May 16, 2005

With B&W for caucasian light to medium skin, I usually put the skin tone one stop over, but for Astia I would put it closer to a half stop or maybe 2/3 over middle gray.

I think jperkinson is mis-speaking. Provia has more contrast and punch than Astia. Astia is a lower contrast slide film, nice for portraits. I like Provia more for landscapes.

mark · May 16, 2005

You are going to get a lot of different ideas. Most folks underexpose their slide film by 1/2-1 stop anyway. The times I shot Astia I got good skin tones shooting it at it's rated speed and not opening up. I also never spot meter the person. I find my incident meter to be of much more use with slide film unless I want something specific.

Astia is good for skin tones because of it's more natural tones.

kaiyen · May 16, 2005

Astia has enough latitude for you to spot meter the skin and open up a bit, as you do with B&W negative film. Astia actually has quite a bit of latitude (maybe 5.5 stops), esp. compared with something like Velvia.

allan

jperkinson · May 16, 2005

David A. Goldfarb said:
I think jperkinson is mis-speaking. Provia has more contrast and punch than Astia. Astia is a lower contrast slide film, nice for portraits. I like Provia more for landscapes.

Yep, switched the Provia and Astia. Provia sometimes seems nearly as saturated as Velvia to me, but I still use it for portraits if the light is right...

rbarker · May 16, 2005

While I might check ratios with a spot meter for portraits, I generally base exposure on an incident reading. Nails the true skin tonality every time.

sterioma · May 17, 2005

Thank you everybody!

Unfortunately I don't own an incident meter, I only use the meters of my two SRL (Nikon FG-20 (CW) and F100 (CW /Spot)). It seems that +0.5 should be a good compromise; I might bracket from there....

Ok, need to complete the Fomapan 100 roll on the F100 and load the Astia
I'll let you know!

mark · May 17, 2005

Can't you change the meter ing on the cameras to an averaging meter?

sterioma · May 17, 2005

mark said:
Can't you change the meter ing on the cameras to an averaging meter?

Mark,

FG-20 has average metering only (what I noted as CW - Center Weighted).
F100 has Matrix (that I seldom use), Average and Spot.

Any particular reason why I should use average instead of spot?

Thanks,
Stefano

Exposing for good skin tones with color slide film?

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