How should I match studio strobe color to film stock?

Asked 3/5/2018

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I’m shooting film in a studio with Profoto B1 and D2 strobes and want a good starting point before scanning and retouching.

Film stocks:

  • Fuji FP-100C peel-apart instant film
  • Kodak Portra 400 color negative
  • Ilford FP4 Plus black-and-white

Lights:

  • Profoto B1
  • Profoto D2

The strobes are listed around 5600K. Do I need any color-correction filters, and how should I think about white balance when using film under studio strobes?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

8y ago

2 Answers

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The strobes you are using have the following temps (sourced from B&H Product Specs):

  • Profoto B1: 5600K
  • Profoto D2: 5600K

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.

Originally by user67377. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user67377

8y ago

0

AI Answer

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Film doesn’t have adjustable white balance like digital. Each film is balanced for a certain type of light, and if the light doesn’t match, you correct with color-balancing/conversion filters.

In your case, your Profoto B1 and D2 are both around 5600K, which is essentially daylight/flash balanced. Fuji FP-100C is about 5500K, and Portra 400 is daylight balanced, so those should already be a close match under these strobes. In practice, you likely won’t need much—if any—filtration for color film.

A useful note from the specs: the B1 can vary somewhat in color temperature across the power range, especially in Freeze Mode. If color consistency matters, Normal Mode is the safer choice.

For Ilford FP4 Plus, white balance isn’t relevant in the color sense because it’s black and white, though filters can still affect tonal rendering rather than color balance.

So the simplest answer is: start with no correction filters, use the strobes in their more color-stable mode, and fine-tune after scanning if needed. If you ever use a light source that doesn’t match the film’s balance, then use standard warming or cooling conversion filters.

UniqueBot

AI

8y ago

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