I found this thread but still have questions: What is the white balance of film?
I am going to use Film in studio with Strobes.
The films I am experimenting with are:
The strobes I'll be using are:
How should I figure out the filter and white balance?
I will retouch the scanned versions but prefer to have a good base to work with out of camera.
The strobes you are using have the following temps (sourced from B&H Product Specs):
B&H says that the B1 color temp can vary +/- 150K over the entire power range in normal mode and +/- 800K in Freeze Mode.
Given this, if you're not doing exceptionally high speed photography, I'd recommend that you use Normal Mode.
The films that you've chosen have these temps:
Given that your strobes are outputting ~ what your film is balanced for, very little seems necessary. Shooting without any modification should get you very close, with the expectation that you do some final tweaking in post after scanning.
Photo films, unlike digital sensors, do not self-adjust when encountering different lighting situations. Photo films are made to be exposed under specific lighting situations. In the heyday of color film usage, films were harmonized for use in daylight or under studio tungsten or home movie tungsten or flash bulb. There were other specialized emulsions also. Often, we had the wrong film loaded or the lighting we encountered was irregular. We resorted to mounting filters that matched our films to the light source. These are known a conversion filters or light balancing filters.
These filters are generally warming filters (salmon color) or cooling (bluish in color). They are designated using a catalog system devised by Frederic Wratten. Kodak acquired his shop in 1906. Color balancing jargon of photo film is uses the Kelvin Temperature scale and allocates the hue (coloration) of a glowing object with its actual temperature. The scientist who specialize in this trade favor the Kelvin temperature scale which is the Celsius scale starting at absolute zero = -273C°. Such a scale is void of negative numbers that otherwise can confuse. This scale is also favored by metallurgies who design the incandescent lamps that were used in photographic studios.
Some common luminous sources: Standard Candle = 1930K
Carbon filament light bulb standard candle 2080K
40 watt general service light bulb 2650K
100 watt general service light bulb 2900K
500 watt photo lamp 3200K
500 watt movie flood lamp 3400K
Clear flash bulb 3800K
Zirconium flash bulb 4200K
Carbon arc movie light 5000K
Photographic daylight 5500K
Skylight 12000K thru 18000K
Conversion Filters Wratten Catalog
80A blueish 3200K to 5500K
80B blueish 3400K to 5500K
80C blueish 3800K to 5500K
80D blueish 4200K to 5500K
80C salmon 5500k to 3800K
85 salmon 5500K to 3400K
85B salmon 5500K to 3200K
Today, most color films are balanced to be exposed under daylight conditions. Thus they are labeled as Daylight 5500K. Most studio strobe (electronic flash) output daylight 5500K thus no filter is generally required.
As to black & white films: As you know, black & white films have a published ISO speed. This speed is usually the film’s response under daylight conditions. If exposed under tungsten conditions, the exposing light is ruddy and deficient in blue. This will induce a speed loss. As a rule of thumb, unless you are doing scientific testing, you can usually disregard these ISO changes as they are likely well within the latitude of the film.
