Film choice for child portrait
Stomper
I have been persuaded to take some portraits of a friends children. I
will be using medium format camera and studio flash (main light reflected of
gold umbrella and fill in light shot through translucent umbrella).
What would be the better film to use, Fuji NPS or Fuji Reala? I have never
used NPS, but I have used Reala for my landscapes with some success so would
it be better to stick with the film I am familiar with?
Many thanks
Steve Loveridge
Malcolm Stewart
NPS with low contrast lighting. Prints from my local High Street shop were
sharp, fairly grain free (35mm) but had a horrid colour shift -
turquoise-ish. Since then I've got a film scanner and when printed from a
scan they're fine. Same shop has no problem printing "amateur" films which
are done to a high standard. Probably worth finding a professional lab and
using NPS - you should get good skin tones - don't under-expose it.
--
M Stewart Milton Keynes, UK
Stomper <st...@steveloveridge.com> wrote in message
news:9veu6g$eu8o3$1...@ID-108015.news.dfncis.de...
Anthony Polson
> Had the same problem some time ago, and went for the "professional" film,
> NPS with low contrast lighting. Prints from my local High Street shop were
> sharp, fairly grain free (35mm) but had a horrid colour shift -
> turquoise-ish. Since then I've got a film scanner and when printed from a
> scan they're fine. Same shop has no problem printing "amateur" films which
> are done to a high standard. Probably worth finding a professional lab and
> using NPS - you should get good skin tones - don't under-expose it.
I agree that NPS is great for portraiture. I use NPS and NPH,
its ISO 400 sibling, for nearly all my wedding and portrait work.
Your problems with the local high street d+p is that they either can't
find the channel for NPS or their low-end minilab doesn't have one.
Even so, they should have manually corrected the "horrid colour shift"
whether you asked them to or not. It would be worth asking for
reprints, because not only will you get something more satisfying, but
you will help *them* learn to change their ways.
--
Best regards,
Anthony Polson
McLeod
film designed for use with flash units. You will get better skin tones and
truer colours using a film like NPS or AGFA's Portra 160, etc., then you
would by using a higher contrast general purpose type film.
"Stomper" <st...@steveloveridge.com> wrote in message
news:9veu6g$eu8o3$1...@ID-108015.news.dfncis.de...
zeitgeist
And what kind of paper does your lab print on?
Well, they say it doesn't make that much if any difference, but I'm
always intriqued by those worried about the nuances of the film choice
yet don't have a clue about what happens to the image after they give it
to whatever lab is used. I'd use the NPS as it designed for
skintones.
zeitgeist
> NPS with low contrast lighting. Prints from my local High Street shop were
> sharp, fairly grain free (35mm) but had a horrid colour shift -
> turquoise-ish. Since then I've got a film scanner and when printed from a
> scan they're fine. Same shop has no problem printing "amateur" films which
> are done to a high standard. Probably worth finding a professional lab and
> using NPS - you should get good skin tones - don't under-expose it.
> --
This can happen with a consumer lab that doesn't get much pro films.
Each film stock, even within a family of film, has a different profile
in the basic filter pack, the starting point. (Kodak and I believe fuji
now claims that each of their pro line films are matched so a photog can
switch among the family and choose a slow low contrast and a faster film
for the same shoot and get closer results) and many times a gum chewer
sees fuji and runs the roll, probably on auto, with the same filter pack
or channel or program for the consumer film they are used to and not the
pro film you used. I used to get this years ago even with Kodak, geez
you'd think KODAK would recognize amongst their own films but I'd get
back a dozen rolls printed very very yellow cause they didn't recognize
that it was VPS (goosh it was so long ago it might have been CPS)
When they make a mistake like that, they just pass it back to you hoping
that you won't know the difference, think it was YOUR mistake, or in my
Kodak case, they'll reprint only the ones that are too yellow, wadya
mean they are ALL yellow, no there not, this one, its just warm, you
mean that isn't a yellow shirt?
Anthony Polson
> I'd use the NPS as it designed for skintones.
As is Fujicolor NPH and Kodak Portra 160.
Stomper
lab I intend using has assured me it is geared up to accomodate this film.
I'll let you know how it turns out.
Regards
Steve Loveridge