Film colourcast? Nikon f100

dylan77 · Dec 28, 2019

I have recently started shooting film, and have gotten my first roll back in which many of the photos have a yellow colour cast on them.

I was shooting with Nikon F 100 and using portra 400. 1 Image attached.

I am trying to find out why this may have happened?

As a separate issue I was using a Nikon 50 mm 1.8, and noticed many of my shots are quite out of focus. Is there a 35 or 50 mm that is more reliable than this to get sharp images?

Thanks

pentaxuser · Dec 28, 2019

I can think of no reasons why the film which I infer was professionally developed would have a yellow cast. I suspect the negatives are fine and it is the lab that has wrongly added the very slight yellow cast by operator error. Of all the casts yellow is the most subtle and this one in only slight. It might be that the lab operator was unable to see such a cast.

You will need to tell us a lot more about the problem with you lens. It might be that individual lens or something else.

pentaxuser

Kino · Dec 28, 2019

dylan77 said:
I have recently started shooting film, and have gotten my first roll back in which many of the photos have a yellow colour cast on them.

I was shooting with Nikon F 100 and using portra 400. 1 Image attached.

I am trying to find out why this may have happened?

As a separate issue I was using a Nikon 50 mm 1.8, and noticed many of my shots are quite out of focus. Is there a 35 or 50 mm that is more reliable than this to get sharp images?

Thanks

As Pentaxuser states, a lot more information is needed.

Where was the film processed?
Is this a scan you did or the lab made?
Is this from a print or a negative?
Is the Nikon 50mm 1.8 an AF lens or are you manually focusing it?
Have you read the manual on how to use AF and Non-AF lenses with the F100?
If AF, what focusing pattern are you using?

benjiboy · Dec 28, 2019

Were all the pictures with the "yellow caste" on them of the girls wearing the life jackets ?, if so it's parasite reflection from the bright yellow shining on their faces.

Chan Tran · Dec 28, 2019

You use a lab to process your film then nothing you can do. The lab printed them not to your liking.

dkonigs · Dec 28, 2019

I would definitely look into how these images were scanned/post-processed before drawing any conclusions. A general history of disappointment with lab scans is why I always do my own scans myself now. Of course even when doing it yourself, with color negative there's still "room for interpretation" in how you invert the images. In my own workflow, I've gotten the best results from doing a "flat positive scan" in my scanner's software and then inverting using the ColorPerfect plugin for Photoshop (which has film-specific profiles).
Other people swear by Negative Lab Pro, but I wasn't pleased with the result in my own limited testing.
The scanner's own software does an okay job, but lacks the film-specific profiles to get that last bit of "perfection" without manual tweaking.

In my workflow now, the only time I see annoying color casts is when I'm using flash. (And somehow, despite people swearing that flash is daylight balanced, I'm having a hard time believing it. Flash gives me a different cast than actual daylight, and different flashes give different casts. For example, my Leica flash has a different and less noticeable cast than my Nikon flashes. Some day I need to just stick all these onto a digital camera, shoot a gray card or ColorChecker, and share actual numbers to back up this "feeling.")

Bikerider · Dec 28, 2019

dylan77 said:
I have recently started shooting film, and have gotten my first roll back in which many of the photos have a yellow colour cast on them.

I was shooting with Nikon F 100 and using portra 400. 1 Image attached.

I am trying to find out why this may have happened?

As a separate issue I was using a Nikon 50 mm 1.8, and noticed many of my shots are quite out of focus. Is there a 35 or 50 mm that is more reliable than this to get sharp images?

Thanks

There is nothing wrong with the Nikon 50/1.8 unless it has had some sort of knock. I also use a F100 and never have a camera induced out of focus image. When I get one it is always down to me.
On the bottom right side of the lens mount is the AF control switch. (AS you look at the camera from the front). This makes the focussing manual, or single point focus or constant focus such as you my use if you as taking a photograph of an image approaching you. For static subjects the single point focus is the one to go for and my guess is you have not fully understood these settings.. Normally if the subject is not in focus, the camera will not fire, but when it is set on manual it will fire if the image is in focus or not.

Les Sarile · Dec 28, 2019

dylan77 said:
I have recently started shooting film, and have gotten my first roll back in which many of the photos have a yellow colour cast on them.

I was shooting with Nikon F 100 and using portra 400. 1 Image attached.

I am trying to find out why this may have happened?

Most likely it is the scanner they used. If the cost was cheap then the process was completely automatic and no corrections are made.

dylan77 · Dec 28, 2019

Kino said:
As Pentaxuser states, a lot more information is needed.

Where was the film processed?
Is this a scan you did or the lab made?
It was done in a lab.

Is this from a print or a negative?
From negatives

Is the Nikon 50mm 1.8 an AF lens or are you manually focusing it?
It is an AF, and it seems to lock focus each time without issue

Have you read the manual on how to use AF and Non-AF lenses with the F100?
If AF, what focusing pattern are you using?

dylan77 · Dec 28, 2019

benjiboy said:
Were all the pictures with the "yellow caste" on them of the girls wearing the life jackets ?, if so it's parasite reflection from the bright yellow shining on their faces.

No most of the photos had it

dylan77 · Dec 28, 2019

Bikerider said:
There is nothing wrong with the Nikon 50/1.8 unless it has had some sort of knock. I also use a F100 and never have a camera induced out of focus image. When I get one it is always down to me.
On the bottom right side of the lens mount is the AF control switch. (AS you look at the camera from the front). This makes the focussing manual, or single point focus or constant focus such as you my use if you as taking a photograph of an image approaching you. For static subjects the single point focus is the one to go for and my guess is you have not fully understood these settings.. Normally if the subject is not in focus, the camera will not fire, but when it is set on manual it will fire if the image is in focus or not.

The AF seemed to be working fine, and my shutter was always double at least. I will try another roll and see what happens

dylan77 · Dec 28, 2019

Les Sarile said:
Most likely it is the scanner they used. If the cost was cheap then the process was completely automatic and no corrections are made.

Yes I think that is the case, as it was cheaper than I thought to get processed

pentaxuser · Dec 28, 2019

dylan77 said:
No most of the photos had it

As I said I strongly suspect that the scanner operator either cannot see the yellow cast or if it is auto-scanning it errs towards yellow. I was tempted to add benjiboy's explanation as a possibility as well until you said most of the photos had it. I am presuming that none of the other photos had a similar yellow shiny garment to reflect on to faces.

I once saw a ring-around done of a little blond girl wearing a white cardigan with a little bit more of other background colours and while most casts were easily spotted I would defy anyone who hadn't got the perfect print alongside to spot there was a cast. All the yellow cast did was to turn her hair slightly less blond and her cardigan from pure white to one with just a hint of beige. Both perfect print and yellow cast print seen separately would have been accepted by most if not all viewers as fine

pentaxuser

shutterfinger · Dec 28, 2019

dylan77 said:
As a separate issue I was using a Nikon 50 mm 1.8, and noticed many of my shots are quite out of focus.

Reread the owner manual sections on AF and AF sensor selection and AF mode. As an owner of a F4s, D300, and D800 the AF sensor and mode selection can be confused, confusing, and result in photos that do not have the area of the image in focus as you expect. The more focus sensors active and the camera selecting which ones to use may result in the wave on the other side of the boat being in focus and not the people in the boat.

dylan77 · Dec 29, 2019

shutterfinger said:
Reread the owner manual sections on AF and AF sensor selection and AF mode. As an owner of a F4s, D300, and D800 the AF sensor and mode selection can be confused, confusing, and result in photos that do not have the area of the image in focus as you expect. The more focus sensors active and the camera selecting which ones to use may result in the wave on the other side of the boat being in focus and not the people in the boat.

Oh that’s interesting. I’ll need to find out. Hopefully this applies to the f100 to. Thankyou

dylan77 · Dec 29, 2019

I have it set on s out of s,c,m now at the front and it seems to be focusing well. Looking through the manual I don’t see anything else I need to actually change there

foc · Dec 29, 2019

pentaxuser said:
As I said I strongly suspect that the scanner operator either cannot see the yellow cast or if it is auto-scanning it errs towards yellow. I was tempted to add benjiboy's explanation as a possibility as well until you said most of the photos had it. I am presuming that none of the other photos had a similar yellow shiny garment to reflect on to faces.

I once saw a ring-around done of a little blond girl wearing a white cardigan with a little bit more of other background colours and while most casts were easily spotted I would defy anyone who hadn't got the perfect print alongside to spot there was a cast. All the yellow cast did was to turn her hair slightly less blond and her cardigan from pure white to one with just a hint of beige. Both perfect print and yellow cast print seen separately would have been accepted by most if not all viewers as fine

pentaxuser

+1

shutterfinger · Dec 29, 2019

I looked at the F100 manual before posting #14. The F100 allows for a single center focus point, a center group as for portraits, and the full sensor array. See manual pages 22, 37-39.
I think your focus error occurred with Dynamic AF Auto Selected which is available in either single servo or contentious AF.

Kino · Dec 29, 2019

dylan77 said:
If AF, what focusing pattern are you using?

Depends. I change it frequently depending on what I am trying to do. It's not hard, you just have to get used to changing it.

Just because the lab made a scan with the color not balanced properly doesn't mean you cannot take that file and correct it in a program like Photoshop or GIMP to your liking.

Eventually you can purchase a scanner and scan your own negatives; only use the lab scans as a rough preview.

I played with your file a tiny bit...

dylan77 · Dec 29, 2019

shutterfinger said:
I looked at the F100 manual before posting #14. The F100 allows for a single center focus point, a center group as for portraits, and the full sensor array. See manual pages 22, 37-39.
I think your focus error occurred with Dynamic AF Auto Selected which is available in either single servo or contentious AF.

Thanks I will try that

Film colourcast? Nikon f100

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