Problem with Portra 400

zehner21 · Jan 13, 2015

Rudeofus said:
I have also heard of special filter swatches which you hold on your print. The one showing the picture as you want it will have the filter correction printed that you need to apply to your filter pack.

Kodak Color Print Viewing Filter Kit

anikin · Jan 13, 2015

Rudeofus said:
I have also heard of special filter swatches which you hold on your print. The one showing the picture as you want it will have the filter correction printed that you need to apply to your filter pack.

I was not very successful print viewing filter kit. For some reason, I just can't see which one would work the best. Maybe it's the light in my darkroom.
For me, the easiest was to use a color calculator. My most reliable flow was to take one shot of grey card in the target light almost filling the frame. Then continue with shooting the subject. When printing, I would put the grey card negative into the enlarger, color calculator onto a piece of photo paper and after two iterations I would get my color corrections. After that the subject prints will only need minor corrections, or no corrections at all.
These days, I just look at the test print, then at color wheel on the wall and make the needed corrections. So yes, it does get easier

amellice · Jan 13, 2015

I've Lee print viewing kit, I think it's similar to Kodaks. I used it and it's certainly helpful for (imo) minor corrections but for huge corrections it's not so much help. But I can definitely and will try. just to double check also, when I add X amount of any color filter, I need to increase the exposure time by 0.1 x X right?

Rudeofus · Jan 13, 2015

amellice said:
just to double check also, when I add X amount of any color filter, I need to increase the exposure time by 0.1 x X right?

If you add "X amount of any color filter", you have reduced the amount of light "by 0.1 x X ", but only for the affected color. The other two colors stay the same, so it depends on your negative and the current filter setting which change you need to make to exposure time.

Photo Engineer · Jan 13, 2015

Once you reach a good filter pack for a given lighting condition, that filter pack should remain the same from batch to batch of film and paper except for any changes printed on the box of paper itself.

PE

Xmas · Jan 13, 2015

amellice said:
totally true, digital is way way way easier than film by all means in any aspect but imo everyone who's passionate about photography should learn film even if he's a master in digital, it's such a beauty to me and amazing feeling when i print with my hands

thanks for the suggestion, i think that was my mistake, i did what you're saying with my first Ektar 100 film but didn't do this with my first try of Portra 400, i think there's a photo in broad sunlight so i can try to balance on that one first

she's an understanding person, although she never quit teasing me with my camera stuff flying over every inch in my 1BR apartment. digital didn't require much space but film does.

since you brought the grey card thing out, what do you think about the color checker? i like it but i just can't justify the price of it. no B&H website the cheapest one is $100

I just used a colour wheel (kodak) but you do need to look at the test strip in white light. Even with a grey card test I found the best filter small step hard to pick.
White baby shawls, white skirts and white tops are good photo 'props'.

MattKing · Jan 13, 2015

When you are evaluating colour, concentrate on the edges of shadows - places where the light goes from bright to dark. It is in the areas where density is changing that colour casts will be most obvious.

In the case of people, areas under the nose or chin can be good.

Sirius Glass · Jan 13, 2015

zehner21 said:
Kodak Color Print Viewing Filter Kit

Thank you. I will have to snipe for it on evilBay. :devil:

zehner21 · Jan 13, 2015

Sirius Glass said:
Thank you. I will have to snipe for it on evilBay. :devil:

Quick! At this time, January 2015, there are only two unit on evilBay

Problem with Portra 400

Moderator

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency