I know... stupid obvious question.... Would you use indoors with bright lighting?? Reason i'm asking is because i've received some 64t from the lab with a bluish tent. I was thinking that this most likely was caused by the filter. It was an overcast day, and I cant remember if I was using the daylight filter. I'm going to say no. I also noticed the bluish tent when indoors with bright lighting... Thus my question.
When do you use Daylight filter for S8?
- Thread starter SteveWilliams
- Start date
This is related to color temperature, not brightness. Daylight is a higher color temperature (around 5000 Kelvin) than tungsten (around 3000 Kelvin), so shooting tungsten film in daylight without the daylight filter will result in a blueish tint.
It can, of course, be easily color corrected digitally, so ultimately the filter isn't really necessary.
It can, of course, be easily color corrected digitally, so ultimately the filter isn't really necessary.
Ideally, you never use the internal filter.
Much better to use appropriate screw-on filters on the lens, if possible. Why's that? Any given Super-8 camera is (at least a few) decades old and the cheap piece of orange plastic in there could be beat to hell and back. Warped, faded, cracked, whatever.
Currently, all Kodak S8 film is tungsten based.
If shooting any of the b/w stocks, there is no "filter notch", so the internal filter will always get switched on (if the camera recognises these notches) Doesn't really matter about colour balance here, as it's b/w. Even so, would be nice to be able to switch it off.
If shooting colour (64T, 200T, 500T), there is a notch on the film cartridge. With that notch, there is no hard plate for the pin inside the camera to hit against... so you can manually adjust that "bulb/sun" switch all you want.
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Keeping in mind that all current colour Kodak stock is made for tungsten lighting...
If you are shooting outdoors in daylight, you want an orange (85) filter on. Either the internal one (move switch to "sun" icon), or add your own at the end of the lens.
If you are shooting outdoors at night... it depends on what your illumination sources are. Your usable light could be tungsten or daylight oriented. Heck, whenever I rent a set of Kinos I always get tubes balanced both ways, so I can swap them out for what is appropriate.
If you are shooting indoors... what is your main source of light? If it's the tungstens overhead, filter off. If it's a tonne of daylight pouring in through open windows, filter on. If it mainly daylight, with some help from the tungsten overheads, time to gel the interior lights. Mixed light temperatures suck.
For indoors, you'd even need to take a look at the actual bulbs in their sockets. My ghetto light-kit has replacement bulbs in regular tungsten, and also a stash of daylight-balanced socket bulbs (very cheap at K-Mart, wherever) to use inside when outside daylight is the main source.
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Arrrgh! Fix it in post?!
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Finally! Getting to address the specific questions...
That sounds right to me. Tungsten film shot in daylight, with no orange filter, will look bluish.
Harder Q. Was it a lot of sunlight coming through windows? You have non-tungsten bulbs in the light sockets? (or daylight-coloured tungsten ones?) Did the previous owner of your camera remove the internal filter? (Not as crazy as it sounds)
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It's a lot easier these days with video cameras. Every man & their dog knows how to operate the "Set White Balance" button. But back in the day...
p.s. Find a good colour temp chart.
Much better to use appropriate screw-on filters on the lens, if possible. Why's that? Any given Super-8 camera is (at least a few) decades old and the cheap piece of orange plastic in there could be beat to hell and back. Warped, faded, cracked, whatever.
Currently, all Kodak S8 film is tungsten based.
If shooting any of the b/w stocks, there is no "filter notch", so the internal filter will always get switched on (if the camera recognises these notches) Doesn't really matter about colour balance here, as it's b/w. Even so, would be nice to be able to switch it off.
If shooting colour (64T, 200T, 500T), there is a notch on the film cartridge. With that notch, there is no hard plate for the pin inside the camera to hit against... so you can manually adjust that "bulb/sun" switch all you want.
_______
Keeping in mind that all current colour Kodak stock is made for tungsten lighting...
If you are shooting outdoors in daylight, you want an orange (85) filter on. Either the internal one (move switch to "sun" icon), or add your own at the end of the lens.
If you are shooting outdoors at night... it depends on what your illumination sources are. Your usable light could be tungsten or daylight oriented. Heck, whenever I rent a set of Kinos I always get tubes balanced both ways, so I can swap them out for what is appropriate.
If you are shooting indoors... what is your main source of light? If it's the tungstens overhead, filter off. If it's a tonne of daylight pouring in through open windows, filter on. If it mainly daylight, with some help from the tungsten overheads, time to gel the interior lights. Mixed light temperatures suck.
For indoors, you'd even need to take a look at the actual bulbs in their sockets. My ghetto light-kit has replacement bulbs in regular tungsten, and also a stash of daylight-balanced socket bulbs (very cheap at K-Mart, wherever) to use inside when outside daylight is the main source.
_______
Arrrgh! Fix it in post?!
_______
Finally! Getting to address the specific questions...
That sounds right to me. Tungsten film shot in daylight, with no orange filter, will look bluish.
Harder Q. Was it a lot of sunlight coming through windows? You have non-tungsten bulbs in the light sockets? (or daylight-coloured tungsten ones?) Did the previous owner of your camera remove the internal filter? (Not as crazy as it sounds)
_______
It's a lot easier these days with video cameras. Every man & their dog knows how to operate the "Set White Balance" button. But back in the day...
p.s. Find a good colour temp chart.
Arrrgh! Fix it in post?!
Color is one of the few things that I think is acceptable to say "fix it in post" to... because ideally the footage should have some color correction done to it anyway, a simple white balance adjustment along with matching between shots & overall look adjustment is nothing. And it's a helluva lot better than saying "Eh, fix it in post" when there's a group of errant crew who wind up in the only good take of an expensive stunt shot or something..
As a post guy, you generally will see me cringe if someone says fix it in post, but for color timing, no big deal.
Great replies from the both of you. I was totally confused by what the 85 filter actually was. I was under the impression that it acted more as an ND filter. This is why I didn't use it when my lighting wasn't ideal. Thanks a ton from the help.
ZenSteve, I know that my filter works as advertised. I had to rolls, one where I kept the filter off outside (overcast day), and another on a day that was perfect weather... The second roll came out amazing.
I'm not the best at CC'ing. Luckily these were mainly just test rolls so I wont have to worry about it. I'm using the color corrector from FCE. I no that it's not the best and does differ a little from pro.
ZenSteve, I know that my filter works as advertised. I had to rolls, one where I kept the filter off outside (overcast day), and another on a day that was perfect weather... The second roll came out amazing.
I'm not the best at CC'ing. Luckily these were mainly just test rolls so I wont have to worry about it. I'm using the color corrector from FCE. I no that it's not the best and does differ a little from pro.