Help! Having used a digital camera it has been easy to compensate for fluorescent lighting and now (since converting to film) I am stumped as to how to compensate for different lighting conditions. I will be shooting (at a childrens day care centre) with mixed natural and fluoro lighting without flash and with both a MF Hasselblad 501c/m and 35mm Nikon F90X with both colour and b&w film.
How best do I compensate with film for these conditions?
Thank you for your help! :)
Kind regards,
Nicole

PS - Just goes to show how slack a digital photographer can become! Forgets all the basics! :(

An FL-1 (I think thats the one) filter for colour ill help stop making people look like Vulcans (green) under fluorescent lights. It will say on the package.
Shouldn't be much difference in B&W.

Hi Nicole,

Actually, it's an FLD filter - flourescent to daylight. Several manufacturers make them.

Regards, Art.

Thanks everyone. I won't be using flash at all on the littlies.
I'll check out the FLD filter.
Can this filter be used for only fluoro lighting or mixed fluoro & natural?
Cheers
Nicole

The FL-D filter should be sufficient to approximately compensate for the florescent lighting. However, if you want to provide an accurate compensation, you will need to use the appropriate color compensating filter. I have used a CC30M with "normal" fluorescent lighting with good results. Given that fluorescent lighting varies in color temperature quite a bit, it is best if you can use a color compensating filter instead of a FL-D filter (which offers limited correction). This would also take care of your mixed lighting scenario.
Note: FL-D is for use with daylight film. If you are using tungsten film, you will need FL-B.

I have Hoya's FL-W and FL-DAY filters, for the two main types of tubes in use today. Here is a link:

http://www.camerastore.com/cat_003_hoya/003flor.html

Bruce

Generally it's a good practice not to mix light sources. The CC filters or Fld/Flb filters will work for you provided the light/film combination is not mixed. With B&W it's no problem.
Stay away from mixing with sunlight as best you can when using any of the above filters. Can you draw the blinds to exclude natural light?
Frequently when a serious pro shoots they will actually filter the surrounding natural light sources to balance to the flourescents. This is done with large Gels taped over the windows. This way the photographer has only one light source to filter for.
Must be nice to charge the client, eh?

Hi Nicole,
What speed film are you using? because as far as I can remember FLD and FLW filter have a fairly large filter factor, about one and a half or two stops which would effect your ability to hand hold the camera, or you might need a faster film. After reading your question I had a look at Cokin filters they make a FLD filter for mixed lighting which could fit your bill, it,s an A139, and probably wouldn't be half as expensive as a glass one, afterall it's not something you use every day.

There are offering from both Kodak and Fuji which are known to perform well in mixed flourescent and daylight situations. I believe that the Porta films have this feature as does Reala and other Fuji offerings. I think one of the things that will require a lot of attention is to make certain that the over-head nature of the flourecent lights does not leave you with dark eye sockets.

Nicole, if possible, I would visit the site with a person and a gray card and expose a test roll of Porta 400 VC for instance, exposed with and without a FLD filter and have it printed and see how the photos look. As far as B&W is concerned the very soft nature of flourescent lighting may call for some added development of the film.

I don't know many homes that have tungsten lighting in their kitchens, but that may be a local thing. I'd clip test a short roll in someones flourscent kitchen using flash, and some filter varities and go from there. Most labs and local mini labs can run it the same day or in an hour. Don't forget, alot of minilabs automatically balance the negs for green. IAs far as I know it's a common practice

If your using flash, and you should in some way becasue of that dark eye socket thing, you may not have to compensate very much if at all. Also check out the kind of flourscents the space has.

I believe the Fuji films and their 4th layer help combat the greenies. You can always, excuse the cuss work, "photoshop" the scans.

There are offering from both Kodak and Fuji which are known to perform well in mixed flourescent and daylight situations. I believe that the Porta films have this feature as does Reala and other Fuji offerings. I think one of the things that will require a lot of attention is to make certain that the over-head nature of the flourecent lights does not leave you with dark eye sockets.

Nicole, if possible, I would visit the site with a person and a gray card and expose a test roll of Porta 400 VC for instance, exposed with and without a FLD filter and have it printed and see how the photos look. As far as B&W is concerned the very soft nature of flourescent lighting may call for some added development of the film.
I think Claires' suggestion is a very sound one, if you are able to get to the location before you shoot, you can see in practice what sort of colour balance you will get.