Tips for shooting Fujichrome Provia 400X

[keithwms]

I've seen "daylight" balanced compact fluorescent bulbs in the store.

Even daylight balanced fluorescents have the big, sharp mercury ~488 and ~546 nm spikes, which cause problems even if the overall colour temp is 5000K. Those spikes can wreak havoc on the white balance.

By and large, 400x really likes ~5000K light. If you are really concerned about colour fidelity and have mixed lighting, 400x is simply not the way to go. And neither is velvia or provia or even astia (although astia does fare quite a bit better in mixed light).

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

Definitely right there Keith. Velvia and Provia (don't know about Astia) loathe mixed light or particularly fluoro/incandescent light. Provia 400X results for me should be interesting as they were made in warm sunset light with a furiousgale blowing, enabling a higher shutter speed to hedge against the 67's dreaded mirror whack. Gotta love the beast for making a noise that can be felt, much less heard...

 

[Brandonium]

I love this film at night. I've pushed +3 and it does very well. I see where some say it does well in sun. Well, I suppose I've not had the correct lighting conditions but when I did use it in full sun I was unimpressed. I tend to use it at night.

 

[keithwms]

I love this film at night. I've pushed +3 and it does very well. I see where some say it does well in sun. Well, I suppose I've not had the correct lighting conditions but when I did use it in full sun I was unimpressed. I tend to use it at night.

Please post images!

 

[Brandonium]

Will do. I'll attach some shortly.

 

[Brandonium]

Please post images!

Here is one that's a push of +3, taken at night with my Rolleiflex 2.8D.

These other two are +2, indoors with same camera.

And one of my day shots.. Bad lighting. I probably should have used color negative film this day.

 

[keithwms]

Hey, nothing wrong with those, I like the look! When I say "should" do this or that, obviously I am talking about getting middle-of-the-road, accurate colours... which may not necessarily be effective colours...

 

[Brandonium]

I just know that I have had better results under hard lighting (Full Sun) with Portra than 400X. But I stockpile 400X just in case because I love the film.