Re: [Leica] My First Post!

[Henning Wulff <henningw@archiphoto.com>]

At 8:42 PM -0500 3/19/01, Dave wrote:
>Hello Gentle-people!
>
>I thought I would finally post to the LUG!  My name is Dave Cross. 
>I'm 28 and I live in Laurel, MD, USA.  I've been reading this forum 
>for quite a while and can honestly say that I've learned more about 
>_photography_ here than anywhere else on the Internet.  I'm an 
>electrical engineer.  Even with occasional OT threads (most of which 
>I enjoy) the signal to noise ratio here is really high.  As someone 
>who has never ventured out of this country (and I hope to remedy 
>that soon - I can afford to now) the periodic posts about travel to 
>other places are especially interesting and useful.  Keep 'em 
>coming!  Indeed I consider the international nature of the LUG to be 
>one of its best points.
>
>I got into rangefinders the traditional way.  I read about them 
>(thanks Mr. Gandy), then went out and bought a mint Minolta Hi-matic 
>7sii.  Nice machine.  Good fast lens, leaf shutter with flash sync 
>up to 1/500s.  Next I bought a Zorki 4.  I really enjoy using it. 
>The 50/2 Jupiter-8 lens has a pleasing look to it.  The rangefinder 
>camera is small and elegant.  I've used many cameras, and personally 
>own too many.  I started with a Minolta SRT101, and purchased many 
>MC/MD lenses and an X-700 - now discontinued :(.   I have a 500C/M 
>here too (on semi-infinite loan from my uncle).  I'd use the 'blad 
>even more if I could project or scan 2 1/4 chromes more easily.
>
>  I shot a wedding once - talk about pressure!.  That's the only time 
>I got paid for photography.
>
>I recently bought a new M6TTL 0.85, 50/2 summicron and SF-20. 
>Needless to say I love this stuff.  I'm not sure why the M is the 
>only camera system I actually lusted after.   Oh well, you all know 
>about that.  BTW I received my $300 rebate check from Leica NJ the 
>other day for my new kit.
>
>Now that I've introduced myself, I'd like to ask about 
>color-correction filters.   For accurate color on slides, color 
>filtration is the only real option (right?).   OTOH, using negative 
>film I get overly warm prints when I shoot under tungsten lights 
>with daylight film (e.g. Supra 800).  The store said they could 
>correct for some of the imbalance - but they usually don't do it 
>selectively on a roll.  Now if the _entire_ roll was shot under 
>tungsten lights, a uniform correction with minilab processing would 
>be more convenient. There are a few tungsten-balanced negative films 
>available, but none are terribly fast.  Can these films be pushed 
>successfully?  Are 80 series filters my best choice?  Just wondering 
>if others handle this problem differently/better.  After all, fast 
>print film and fast M lenses go well together.  Then again ANY film 
>and fast M lenses go well together!
>
>Thanks very much!  I'll try to limit my verbosity in the future.
>
>Dave Cross

Welcome! and dont' mind the OT and other stuff too much.

Tungsten balanced film is good for 3400K photofloods (type B). Normal 
tungsten lighting in homes is usually lower (around 2400-2800K), 
often with other overtones. If you need correct colour in 
transparencies, the only solution is to get a good colour meter like 
the Minolta, and a whole set of (tested) colour correction filters.

For negative material, it helps a little to do basic correction by 
using a tungsten balanced film or an appropriate 80 series filter; 
however, many labs will individually correct prints for you, so that 
is usually the best solution when you need the speed. Some colour 
crossover errors may occur, but they are usually not that noticeable 
in available light situations.

Fuji professional material tends to be somewhat better at handling 
mixed lighting situations than Kodak films.

Scanning and colour correcting in Photoshop is now the best way to go 
when faced with colour errors, but there are limits. If the shot is 
done on daylight transparency material in dimmed incandescent 
lighting, which can be down to 1500K, there is sometimes no blue 
content to boost. Neither filtering nor Photoshop correction nor 
using tungsten balanced film can put it there. Accept the fact that 
'correct' colours cannot be achieved, and be happy with what you can 
pull out. Or use B&W ;-)

- -- 
    *            Henning J. Wulff
   /|\      Wulff Photography & Design
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