____Over 200,000 pictures in 8 years; 4,500 images in 3 1/2 days! That's the amount of pictures I shot while capturing the action of Ballroom Dancers at Competitions throughout the western United States. Credits include: Official Photographer for Dance Action Magazine, publisher of a Dancers' Calendar, and pictures published in magazines in the US, England, and Japan including Ford Times and Nevada magazines.
____So what film do I use and recommend?
First off, what type of film do you use?
____For shooting snap shots around the house or during our travels, most of us choose print film. This film makes a negative from which prints are made. This also applied to my dance photography where I was selling actual prints to the dancers.
____But, for my nature shots I shoot Slide (transparency) film. I know, who wants to look at a slide show. But the fact is that most magazine editors still prefer seeing slides because it's easier for them to compare images and, what they see is what they get. Also the slide films have incredible resolution. For my own part I also like the "what you see is what you get" aspect of slides. The processors of print films are always trying to second guess what the image was supposed to look like, and quite often don't come close. Whether I'm shooting the The Tulips of Skagit Valley in Washington, the Grand Canyon, or the lush imagery of Hawaii, I still get a rush from the incredible colors of slides. (Note that slide film is transparency film; in 35mm when mounted they become slides)
Film speed (its sensitivity to light) is also important. As a rule of thumb the faster the film the more grainy the picture and the more expensive the film, although faster film has improved tremendously in recent years.
____Shooting indoors in a hotel ballroom with a moving subject on a large Dance Floor made for some challenging photography. My goal was to sell prints and enlargements so I needed a fine grain film that could give me a nice 16x20 or even 20x30 print from a 35mm negative. Larger format cameras were just too bulky and not feasible for shooting moving subjects. My solution was to use an ultra fine grain film and carry the biggest hand held flash I could get.
____The dance competition environment posed more problems. Tough lighting and the fact that while the male dancers quite often wore black, their partners could be wearing any color of the rainbow, light, dark, bright, reflective or any combination. Plus, I was constantly zooming in and out (using a 28-200 lens) and dealing with the videographer's bright lights. I needed a very forgiving film with a generous exposure latitude. Translate that into: I needed some slack because I could never be sure I was getting the exact exposure. So I used Fuji Reala for years.
____Recently I made the switch to the new 400 speed films and found them to be fantastic. I still get great 16x20's even with the faster film!
So here's my film choices.(click on any of the names to check the prices)
100ASA
Fuji Reala (CS100) They now refer to it as Superia
Reala but it's still great stuff! One of the problems I had with off
the shelf films (Kodak & Fuji) was getting the peach colors true.
They always came out too pink. Reala has a 4th emulsion layer that
helps with skin tones and florescent lighting, which makes the film
great with peaches too!
Reala is also comparable to Kodak's Ektar in ultra fine grain. I tried Ektar at one event and was truly surprised to find a huge difference in the two. Ektar is ultra fine grain, but it has a much narrower exposure latitude meaning you need to get the exposure right. If you over expose it the contrast increases dramatically (light tones and skin tones come out white) and if you under expose it it gets grainy ... Fast. It wasn't nearly forgiving enough for my needs. Ektar was also more expensive. So Fuji Reala became my mainstay. film sale page.
400ASA (NPH400) 10 years ago 400 speed films were still quite grainy when enlarged. The newer films are truly fantastic. I now use Fuji NPH400 for my dance photo work and anywhere I need the faster film. I find the color balance to be terrific and the faster speed allows me to carry a smaller flash. And, I can still get great 16x20's!
Transparency Film (Slides)
Fuji
Velvia: Quite simply the most incredible, brightest colors
you'll ever come across. For years Kodak Kodachrome was the Magazine
publishers' choice for their covers. Kodachrome has a remarkably fine
grain structure and is a great film, but it has to be processed in
special labs and it does not compare to Velvia in color rendition.
Some photographers complain that Velvia is actually too bright in
color! All I can tell you that during one trip to Hawaii, I shot both
films side by side, under the same conditions, on the same day, then
compared them. I was hooked and only use Velvia for my transparency
work and if you check The Photographer's Market you'll find
that most editors now list Velvia as a preferred choice! It's ASA 50
so you may want to try Fuji Provia (ASA100) for lower light
conditions, but for outdoors or studio work it's Velvia for me.
film sale page
Click here for Payment / Ordering options
[Coffee
Mugs] [Wooden
Boats] [Collectible
Miniature Cars] [Artwork]
[Home]
[Payment/Ordering
Options] [Shipping
information]
Fotrek.com is owned and operated by
Northwest Tinman
307 W State St, Sedro Woolley, WA 98284
Ph (360) 856-4279, Fax (360) 854-2291 tim@nwtinman.com
Check our other pages at www.nwtinman.com