6400K Lights with Velvia

[William Lindley]

I am planing to use 6400 K daylight fluorescent bulbs for fill lighting for interior shots for a Cabin.

I am planing to use Velvia 50.

Dose anyone have any experience with 6400K bulbs and Velvia 50?

Thanks!

[Kirk Gittings]

They should come out very blue green and will not be bright enough if you are trying to balance interior light and daylight, such as an interior balanced with the exterior through the windows (unless it is at twilight).

[William Lindley]

They should come out very blue green.

I thought the "daylight" bulbs were balanced for daylight film. What film/light combination would you recommend. I prefer continuous light to flash.

[Joanna Carter]

Daylight film is meant to be exposed under light at 5500°K, therefore a light at 6500°K will turn out bluish on such film and would need an 81B filter to correct it. Also, because the bulbs are flourescent, you may also get a green tint that usually requires an additional 30M magenta filter to correct that.

[Kirk Gittings]

The eye sees flourescents differently than film. Photographic daylight is 5500K. So if they are correctly represented, they will be cool to the tune of 900k. They will also be green on film which the eye does not see. How much? Depends on the light, but will probably require somewhere between 15-50 magenta to correct.

What to use? For film I would never use flourescents at all, as all the bulbs are different and require testing to get the balance right. I would use halogens with Rosco blue filters to bring them to daylight. By the way, I would not use Velvia 50, I would use a faster film, you are going to have very long exposures. I would actually use a color negative film like Fuji Pro 160 and scan it. But to be truthful, I wouldn't shoot film for such projects anymore anyway, digital is much more forgiving in these circumstances.

[Archphoto]

If you want to use this type of light: get the type with color 950 (Philips).
They are used for slide vieuwing tables in the graphic industry and have no green component in their light and are 5500K.

You will have to do some testing though, or use a color-temperature-meter to be 100% shure.

Peter

[Merg Ross]

The eye sees flourescents differently than film. Photographic daylight is 5500K. So if they are correctly represented, they will be cool to the tune of 900k. They will also be green on film which the eye does not see. How much? Depends on the light, but will probably require somewhere between 15-50 magenta to correct.

What to use? For film I would never use flourescents at all, as all the bulbs are different and require testing to get the balance right. I would use halogens with Rosco blue filters to bring them to daylight. By the way, I would not use Velvia 50, I would use a faster film, you are going to have very long exposures. I would actually use a color negative film like Fuji Pro 160 and scan it. But to be truthful, I wouldn't shoot film for such projects anymore anyway, digital is much more forgiving in these circumstances.

Very good information.

I have some ugly memories of shooting mixed flourescents, combined with daylight, on Ektachrome 4x5. I carried every CC filter available and tested, tested, tested!

Once I got lucky on a shoot for HP; the maintenance chief made certain that the flourescents were all the same color. That was seldom the case, and I was fooled more than once where they looked the same. No, I didn't have a color meter although there were times when it may have been helpful.

[Vick Vickery]

An 81B filter would also correct it to 5500 acording to my chart; I would also probably opt for a higher speed film, just for ease of operation, but that does depend a little on how many watts you're throwing at the subject...some of those daylight flourescents are being made pretty bright these days.

[Bob Salomon]

You also need to know the CRI rating of the bulbs in the reflectors. For photographic use you need at least a CRI rating of 95+.

[CG]

Some color neg films may be much more forgiving of varying lighting color temp etc. and Velvia would be my absolute last choice if I want a "normal" result. If you want to make the lighting look funky, that's different.