instant film exposure compensation

[thedeep]

hi, I was wondering if there was typical exposure compensation to apply when shooting instant film.

ie, if the final shot is on neg/slide, and you meter for a certain value, will that setting give the same exposure on instant film (fuji fp100c to be specific), or would one need to adjust. I seem to remember from years ago that overexposing polaroid film by one whole stop seemed to give a much better indication of actual film exposure.

thanks!

[Gene McCluney]

I shoot color Polaroid type 79 and/or Fuji FP100c in my studio with flash, to determine my exposure settings for my final shots on Ektachrome EPP 100 ISO transparency film. With my own film processing line, I find that the exposures on the Polaroid Type 79 need to be a tad light to have the Ektachromes exposed at the same f-stop come out optimum, but this may just be that the Polaroid tends to wash out the lightest highlight values. I have found that Fuji FP-100c tends to retain more highlight detail at the same F-stop settings, so I would have to say that the Fuji gives a "truer" indication of what the Ektachrome transparency will look like. In any case, even with the Polaroid the difference is less than 1/2 stop, and more on the order of 1/4 stop.

Now for long exposures, the Polaroid has color shift towards green, but I don't know if that effects the speed, as I generally only shoot in the studio with flash, for situations where I need to test with Instant film materials.