Film for great skin tones with strobes

[markbau]

I have an upcoming assignment that will be portraits shot with a soft box indoors. Somehow I'm never happy with studio shot skin tones. A while ago I realised that flash meters seem to overexpose film and I got better results by taking a reading and closing down a stop. So what are your favourite films/developer combos for nice skin tones using strobes/

 

[BrianShaw]

Portra. Exposed at box speed; commercial processing at a pro lab.

FP-4 in DD-X. Box speed.

You should test your exposure assumption before your “assignment”.

 

[markbau]

Portra. Exposed at box speed; commercial processing at a pro lab.

FP-4 in DD-X. Box speed.

You should test your exposure assumption before your “assignment”.

Ooops, should have mentioned that I'm talking B&W. Yes, of all the B&W films I've used with strobes, FP4 seems to be my favourite and I agree with you about box speed. Anytime I've rated it at EO 64 I get poor skin tones with strobes which is a bit weird as a studio setup is usually a low contrast situation so as long as the skin tones are on the straight line there shouldn't be a problem.

 

[radiant]

I have an upcoming assignment that will be portraits shot with a soft box indoors. Somehow I'm never happy with studio shot skin tones. A while ago I realised that flash meters seem to overexpose film and I got better results by taking a reading and closing down a stop. So what are your favourite films/developer combos for nice skin tones using strobes/

Tri-X or Tmax 400. I don't think developer matters that much in these cases.

 

[Donald Qualls]

The only time I've done portrait with strobes I got great skin tones, but the FP3000b that I used then is, um, a bit hard to find now...

 

[MattKing]

It is probably appropriate to ask: what type of skin tones?

 

[markbau]

The subjects will be Caucasian. From memory the last time I did anything like this I preferred the shots done with a silver brolly compared to the ones done with a soft box.

 

[benjiboy]

I like Ilford HP5 Plus.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

I have an upcoming assignment that will be portraits shot with a soft box indoors. Somehow I'm never happy with studio shot skin tones. A while ago I realised that flash meters seem to overexpose film and I got better results by taking a reading and closing down a stop. So what are your favorite films/developer combos for nice skin tones using strobes/

Kodak Tmax400 in D76 1+1

 

[spijker]

Ooops, should have mentioned that I'm talking B&W. Yes, of all the B&W films I've used with strobes, FP4 seems to be my favourite and I agree with you about box speed. Anytime I've rated it at EO 64 I get poor skin tones with strobes which is a bit weird as a studio setup is usually a low contrast situation so as long as the skin tones are on the straight line there shouldn't be a problem.

I think that rating FP4 at 64 ISO is your problem. Caucasian skin is pretty close to 15% grey that flash meters are calibrated to. So you're overexposing the skin tones by 1 stop. If you manually compensate that overexposure, skin looks fine again you say. So meter with FP4 at 125 ISO. I use Ilford Delta 100 at 100 ISO (box speed) with studio flash and a flash meter. Skin tones come out fine to my eyes.

 

[removedacct1]

I've found HP5 is better at rendering flattering skin tones than most other films: it has less tone separation in the higher values, which tends to deliver a softer look in light skin tones.

 

[MattKing]

The other question I should have asked when I asked about the skin tones is what sort of portraits do you like to make.
If you prefer the classic, Karsh like portrait, the film you want is likely to be very different than if you prefer portraits with a more ethereal look.
This was done with a softbox and T-Max 400, but the softbox was set up to give very strong and directional light:

I'm intrigued to find that I don't have much flash photography in black and white that has been scanned. I used to do more of it than I am doing right now, but none of that is in digital form, so I can't share it here.

 

[MultiFormat Shooter]

This was done with a softbox and T-Max 400, but the softbox was set up to give very strong and directional light:

A great portrait, it has a 1950's vibe. I'd like to emulate this style, but haven't quite been able to pull-it-off, successfully.

 

[radiant]

I've found HP5 is better at rendering flattering skin tones than most other films: it has less tone separation in the higher values, which tends to deliver a softer look in light skin tones.

The flattening skin tones on HP5 is the only thing I don't like about HP5. It is not the worst portrait film (Foma) but not the best either in my taste. (for the record I just bought 50 rolls of HP5)

 

[Adrian Bacon]

Fomapan 100 tends to render pretty nice skin tones if you're using daylight or strobes, there are a number of people that are down on Foma films. I think it looks fine and delivers a classical look, especially with larger formats.

 

[M Carter]

I find the softness of the light and the skin texture to be a big deal - getting hard posterized highlights from shiny skin often looks a little harsh.

For female skin with B&W, I really like using a CC05m (magenta) filter and adding a hair of exposure to compensate. It can make lips look slightly lighter, but you can compensate for that with makeup.

 

[Adrian Bacon]

I find the softness of the light and the skin texture to be a big deal - getting hard posterized highlights from shiny skin often looks a little harsh.

That's relatively easy to deal with. The bigger and more diffuse the light source is, the less that happens. I"ll often use a really big diffuse light for my main light and park a secondary strobe with just a standard 7 inch reflector in front of it. The main light provides a nice big smooth light and you can separately control the brightness of your speculars with the light that has the standard reflector.

 

[DREW WILEY]

What are we missing here? For one thing, we don't even know the color temperature of the strobe setup involved. And that can make a big difference as far as film choice and filtration is involved. For example, a warm light source combined with TMax can often lead to overtly pale, paste-like Caucasian skin tone reproduction, calling for a light yellow-green filter to offset that tendency. And then, the age and gender, and exact complexion of the sitter is yet another factor. A "rugged" manly portrait might call for a deep green filter more reminiscent of the ortho look. But not many women like that amount of detail showing. Do some experimentation.

 

[markbau]

The other question I should have asked when I asked about the skin tones is what sort of portraits do you like to make.
If you prefer the classic, Karsh like portrait, the film you want is likely to be very different than if you prefer portraits with a more ethereal look.
This was done with a softbox and T-Max 400, but the softbox was set up to give very strong and directional light:
View attachment 299195

I'm intrigued to find that I don't have much flash photography in black and white that has been scanned. I used to do more of it than I am doing right now, but none of that is in digital form, so I can't share it here.

Great photo Matt and yes, that’s pretty much the skin tone I’m after. Did you just take the diffusion cloth off the soft box?

 

[MattKing]

Great photo Matt and yes, that’s pretty much the skin tone I’m after. Did you just take the diffusion cloth off the soft box?

It was back in 2011 and I was actually using someone else's light kit - it was a portrait session that my Darkroom Group did together. Several different light setups in several locations, and several amateur models (and volunteering group members) acting as subjects.
Between all of us in the group, we have too many light kits.
As I recall it, it was just two very powerful, fairly large soft boxes with diffusing scrims in place - placed far enough from the subject to ensure that the light was directional. One set up as main, the other as fill.
Obviously there was a hair light and a background light as well.
I have other, less traditional portraits from the sessions, but none of them are digitized for easy access.
FWIW, a lot of what you see is also the result of some printing decisions - that is a scan of a print.

 

[Adrian Bacon]

What are we missing here? For one thing, we don't even know the color temperature of the strobe setup involved. And that can make a big difference as far as film choice and filtration is involved. For example, a warm light source combined with TMax can often lead to overtly pale, paste-like Caucasian skin tone reproduction, calling for a light yellow-green filter to offset that tendency. And then, the age and gender, and exact complexion of the sitter is yet another factor. A "rugged" manly portrait might call for a deep green filter more reminiscent of the ortho look. But not many women like that amount of detail showing. Do some experimentation.

Most strobes are ~5500K-6000K unless you put a gel on them to change the color temperature. Depending on the type of power control circuitry the strobe has, it can vary by as much as 80K per stop of power reduction either warmer or cooler (depending on the power control circuit), but rarely falls outside of the 4500K to 6500K range without gels.

All that said, yes, the subject should have some influence on what you do with the lights.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Well, I don't trust anything unless I test it with a color meter myself. And TMax has a somewhat different panchromatic sensitivity than most pan films, which certainly affects how light complexions turn out, not so much darker ethnic complexions. But what's nice about TMax is its sheer contrast range, making outdoor portraits containing mixed ethnicities, or containing both dark fabric and white fabric, much easier to bag well.

 

[Adrian Bacon]

Well, I don't trust anything unless I test it with a color meter myself. And TMax has a somewhat different panchromatic sensitivity than most pan films, which certainly affects how light complexions turn out, not so much darker ethnic complexions. But what's nice about TMax is its sheer contrast range, making outdoor portraits containing mixed ethnicities, or containing both dark fabric and white fabric, much easier to bag well.

There's nothing wrong with testing things for yourself, however, strobes by nature emit a very wide band of wavelengths and generally naturally fall in the temperature range I mentioned above unless the manufacturer specifically did something to get it out of that range, and in those cases, I'd expect the manufacturer to disclose that simply because almost everything the various strobe manufacturers do, at least with recent strobes is to make changes to make the strobe always emit as close as possible to 5500K output. For example, many strobe manufacturers use a combination of the two power control circuits so that the strobe always emits 5500K +-100K (or less, usually +-50K) at all power levels instead of allowing the strobe to wander off 5500K as you power down from full power. This is what actually separates the good strobes from the less than top shelf strobes. The good ones are 5500K no matter what, the lower class and lower cost ones will wander either warmer or cooler depending on their power control circuit as you lower the power output of the strobe. The same applies for the green/magenta axis of the color spectrum. The good ones won't shift towards green or magenta over the power range, the less good ones do.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

I think that rating FP4 at 64 ISO is your problem. Caucasian skin is pretty close to 15% grey that flash meters are calibrated to. So you're overexposing the skin tones by 1 stop. If you manually compensate that overexposure, skin looks fine again you say. So meter with FP4 at 125 ISO. I use Ilford Delta 100 at 100 ISO (box speed) with studio flash and a flash meter. Skin tones come out fine to my eyes.

There is no reason to rate film below boxspeed unless shadow detail is of particular importance.

 

[Helge]

More contrast in the face (basically what makeup enhances) leads to a more feminine look (blue filtering for contrast). But so does fair skin (yellow or even infrared filtering).
So opposite ends of the spectrum.
It very much depends on the subject and the mood you want to instill.
The various Aviphot derivatives are actually quite good portrait films, precisely because you can filter them almost however you like.

With just a straight strope and no filter on the lens either of the three TMaxes are great.