Tungsten Film for Landscapes

[Scott Rosenberg]

good day...

i recently read where bruce barnbaum shoots his color landscapes using tungsten film and an 85B filter. advantages to the W balanced film cited were less contrast, softer palette, and a wider exposure latitude. are any of you guys doing this?

sounds like the same could be accomplished sans the 85B using a daylight film like astia, which seems to offer the same advantages as the tungsten in terms of latitude and contrast.

any thoughts on this?
scott

[Ted Harris]

Stick with the daylight emulsions unless it is an emergency. Astia will give you thje most natural palatte and Provia will give you the most exposure latitude. I can't really speak for the Kodak films as I do jnot shoot enough of them. I have used E100Vs and it is ok, E100G and it is ok but not enough of either to make any useful comments, at least not in sheet film. I have shot a lot of E100VS in 120 and find the colors there to be even more vivid than Velvia.

[QT Luong]

In my experience, Astia's exposure latitude exceeds Provia's, not to mention the much better color rendition. It could be that Barnbaum's experience was prior to Astia. If you really want a wide exposure latitude, color negative film would certainly beat any transparency film, daylight or tungsten.

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

I have used Kodak EPY 5x7 with a daylight filter for many years, and have always been very pleased with its color rendition and exposure latitude. Mostly however I have been happy with its price in comparison to other 5x7 color tranny film.

[Jim_3565]

EPY is the best color film I've ever used. It has a longer scale than many black and white films and none of the harshness you get with most transparency films. And it has absolutely perfect color balance. Stick with it. Bruce really knows what he's doing, as evidenced by his magnificent prints.

[evan clarke]

Hi,
The camera is set up, the scene is worthy of high consideration, shoot a sheet of each!!..EC

[Mark Sampson]

Well, I used to shoot Vericolor II type L outdoors with an 85B filter, but that was because the daylight-balanced neg films of the time just didn't work at long exposures. Haven't done that in a long time. I took a class from Steve Rosenthal in the '90s, and I recall that he preferred to shoot filterd tungsten film in daylight, even with strobes. There was nothing wrong with his color, either, so it may be worth a try.

[Scott Rosenberg]

sounds like this was done 10 - 15 years ago. i wonder if advancements in slide films of late (ie astif, provia, etc) makes this unnecessary.

evan... the less i have to carry in my backpack, the happier i am!

[Frank Petronio]

Meyrowitz and Misrasch used unfiltered 8x10 VPL in the 1980s and early 90s - don't know if they still do. Anybody know?

[Chad Jarvis]

Meyerowitz still shoots tungsten film.

[tim atherton]

"Meyerowitz still shoots tungsten film."

and also Portra daylight

[Kirk Gittings]

The other trick that Misrasch used was to use "green" developer on his C prints, which gives you kind of slight pastel colors and slight magenta highlights. You can really only tell if you can see the white boarders of the prints which will have a slight pinkish tint, but he always overmatted past the image edge to hide this. I always suspected he did this by the look of his prints. I went to a gallery in Chicago that had some unframed and I lifted the matt to see the prints underneath and sure enough-pink borders. Combining this technique with VPL negatives gave him that soft smooth tonality.

He was originally asking about chromes. If were talking negatives now, I only shoot NPS at 100 and never ever filter it in camera. It corrects back very well in all circumstances that have uniform lighting and most mixed light situations too.