I got the blues

[Darryl Roberts]

The subject was 12 feet from the WHITE background and there was NO BLUE (including her shirt) in the scene.

No ambient
Photogenic 1000w Power Light
Sinar Norma 4x5
Kodak Portra 160
Developed by Oldschoolphotolab.com

Please help

 

[MattKing]

How do the negatives look - share a photo of them, backlit against a white light source.

 

[Patrick Robert James]

Looks like tungsten correction by the lab to me. Did you use the modeling light on the flash instead of the flash? Assuming you were using flash? Or you had a blue correction filter to correct for tungsten but used flash instead and the lab scanned it as you gave it to them? Could be a couple of things obviously.

Like Matt said, can't really tell where the problem lies unless we see the neg....

 

[Darryl Roberts]

Looks like tungsten correction by the lab to me. Did you use the modeling light on the flash instead of the flash? Assuming you were using flash? Or you had a blue correction filter to correct for tungsten but used flash instead and the lab scanned it as you gave it to them? Could be a couple of things obviously.

Like Matt said, can't really tell where the problem lies unless we see the neg....

Thank you. They haven't mailed the negatives yet. I have a light table. The modeling light was used to see, but I shot with the strobe/flash. No gels. Isn't the flash supposed to go off when the flash fires?

 

[Darryl Roberts]

How do the negatives look - share a photo of them, backlit against a white light source.

Thank you. I will when I receive the negatives in the mail.

 

[MattKing]

If I was dealing with a lab that uploaded scans like this before mailing the negatives, I would contact them immediately and ask if they could pull them from the shipping room and check the scans.

 

[Darryl Roberts]

If I was dealing with a lab that uploaded scans like this before mailing the negatives, I would contact them immediately and ask if they could pull them from the shipping room and check the scans.

Can you recommend a lab to process my film?

 

[MattKing]

Yes - but Vancouver, BC Canada probably doesn't work for you.
That being said, I've worked in and with lots of labs over a very long time. I've yet to encounter one that doesn't make a mistake at least once in a while.
The best (pro) labs I have ever used or worked in checked everything visually and manually. I doubt that is economic for most now.

 

[Ariston]

Can you recommend a lab to process my film?

Darryl, I've used TheFindLab in the past and they were great. Not the cheapest, though, so I started developing my own.

I think Indie Film Lab is closer to us, and I've heard good things about them.

 

[Darryl Roberts]

Yes - but Vancouver, BC Canada probably doesn't work for you.
That being said, I've worked in and with lots of labs over a very long time. I've yet to encounter one that doesn't make a mistake at least once in a while.
The best (pro) labs I have ever used or worked in checked everything visually and manually. I doubt that is economic for most now.

I use http://photogenic.com/item/82/201/pl2500dr-1000-ws-with-digital-display/ and I just test-fired it with the 250w modeling light on full blast and it doesn't go off. I thought they were supposed to when the flash fired. Argh!

 

[MattKing]

If you were relying on the built in optical slave, all optical slaves depend on there being line of sight between the triggering light and the slave.
If the slave can't "see" the triggering flash, it won't trigger.
Similar problem if the ambient plus the modeling light is strong enough to overwhelm the triggering light.

 

[removed account4]

I use http://photogenic.com/item/82/201/pl2500dr-1000-ws-with-digital-display/ and I just test-fired it with the 250w modeling light on full blast and it doesn't go off. I thought they were supposed to when the flash fired. Argh!

HATE when that happens
i usually ask the person i am photographing " hey did they ALL fire?" and make changes accordingly. what optical slave did you use, a peanut you plug into the pc cord socket or the little dot that some of the lights come with ? the peanuts work pretty well, depending on the dot they work OK to badly ( as you've seen )

 

[Darryl Roberts]

I used a PocketWizard PlusX on the lens and other on the strobe.

 

[Darryl Roberts]

Strong theory it's the 250w quarts modeling light that I had on full power with a large portrait reflector. Shutter was 1/125

 

[pentaxuser]

It may be unconnected to the problem but i unless it is the make-up on her face and to a lesser extent the same kind of make-up as is on her face that was applied to her neck down to about the collar bone, her face as well looks a strange colour to my eyes. I had no idea that a white background and other colour jumper could be turned so blue when the neg cannot by definition reflect this colour

It beggars belief that a lab could send out such a scan which must bear almost no semblance to the negative colours.

I bet the one thing that lab has never been accused of is producing "wishy-washy" colours

pentaxuser

 

[Darryl Roberts]

The lab refunded most of my money, a darkroom expert stated they likely had the temperature wrong.