Chapter Three

35mm Films and ISO's

Color Negative Film for Color Prints

Available from many different film manufacturers, color negative film is what most people use in their cameras. You take your exposed film to the local photofinisher, wait an hour or day and you receive prints back from your processed film; a fairly common exercise. Your negatives, along with your processed prints, come back in storage sleeves or containers, depending on the film format you used, and can be reprinted or enlarged at a later date. However, proper care of your film should be taken if you ever want to have more, or larger, prints made from your cherished film. Taking care of your film involves leaving your negatives in the sleeve or container in which they were returned to you; refrain from touching them with your fingers unless you are trained in the proper handling of this sensitive medium. Let the trained photofinisher handle your negatives for you, as they are familiar with the safe practices of film handling and preservation. Do not leave your processed film exposed to direct sunlight and keep them from high humidity and excessive moisture. If your negatives get sticky and will not easily slide out of their protective sleeves have someone trained in their handling remove them or repair the damage for you especially if you cannot retake the original pictures.

10

These two examples show exactly what can happen when your negatives are mishandled or damaged. The left picture is a disaster because the negative from which it was printed was damaged in a flood and dried stuck to its protective paper sleeve. The original 3 1/2 x 5 color print on the right was scanned in lieu of being able to print a good image from the damaged negative. While technology might be trying to save us from these mishaps the sharpness and color of the original negative is evident when compared to the scanned image of the print. Careful handling and storage will afford you many preserved memories later in life. Take care of your film or electronically backup your images to CD-ROM. This was our mistake along with the help of a hurricane named Andrew. The manner in which you store your prints is also important. Keep them from humidity and moisture and store them in an album of archival quality, i.e. an album made for long-term storage of prints; the albums descriptive label will state as such on its wrapper or packaging. As with negative film, photographic prints have their sensitive emulsion layer (the picture) right on top of the backing paper and can be ruined by being scratched, fingerprinted by childrens hands, or dampened. Placing your pictures in an album is a simple precaution that will also reward you in the years to come. No one should ever have to touch your negatives except for the person making the reprints or enlargements.
11

Many people choose to use color negative film for its exposure versatility and its basis for use with several other finished photoproducts. If you want Black & White prints, color prints, or even B&W or color slides, all these choices for finished images can be achieved from the same original color negative. And all four of these choices can produce great images if processed by a good photofinishing lab. We discuss more about these versatilities in our Advanced Book. Color film has a wonderful reputation for saving the day with its exposure versatility, or latitude. Unlike slide film (mentioned next) negative film is able to capture a wider range of light intensities from the darkest dark in a scene to the brightest bright. We call this exposure versatility latitude. You will soon find out that negative film has the advantage over slide film in exposure latitude. You can usually miss your exposure mark with negative film by as much as +/-1 stops and still get a good print whereas slide film will only allow you about +/-1/3 stop of exposure error. Color Positive Films for Color Slides (transparencies) Slide film, compared to negative film, is a whole other story. Slides were not designed for printing; they were initially intended to be viewed from a projector onto a reflective screen. While there are several products on the market specifically designed for making prints from slides we recommend that while you are learning photographic technique you use color negative film for making prints and use slide film for viewing your images with a projector. Later, we encourage you to experiment with your own personal techniques; that is where you will learn the most about your personal talents and develop your own photographic style. Remember, it is not the camera; it is the lens and your eye! So, you want to shoot slides; it is probably best to mention the Do's and Don'ts first. Slide film can be very unforgiving in harsh, contrasty lighting conditions such as brightly lit scenes with dark shadows. When using color negative film we
12

said you have +/-1 stops of exposure latitude; your exposure can be off by that much and still safely capture the moment to a useable print; this is not the case with slide film. To get the same amount of exposure change in a slide only requires your exposure to be off by 1/3 of a stop in either exposure direction of what is actually correct for the overall scene. +/-1/3 of a stop does not sound like very much exposure latitude to me, and it is not. You should be certain you have metered the light in your scene correctly and taken into consideration EVERYTHING we have talked about. If you do not, your slide film will bite you where it hurts; your wallet. So, especially with slide film, bracket your shots if there is the slightest doubt about the scenes lighting and the correct exposure. By bracketing we mean for you to vary the exposure settings (Exposure Value, i.e.EV) for the scene and expose the scene at these varying exposure settings. Many cameras offer a feature that allows you to slightly over- or underexpose your scene to compensate for mixed lighting situations by taking from three to five different pictures of the same scene with slightly different exposure settings. After developing your film you can select which exposure looks the best to you and separate the rest into the rejection bin. Let's look at a set of comparative examples of what overexposure and underexposure will do to our slide film...

2/3 stop overexposed

1/3 overexposed

Properly exposed 13

1/3 underexposed

2/3 underexposed

While these images might display differently on your monitor the things to notice are the loss of detailed definition in the water's highlights and how they diminish towards overexposure. On the underexposed end you will notice how the details in the shadows are absorbed by darkness and lack shadow detail. We call both of these losses Blocking-up. Their range of colors, or shades, becomes a singular shade lacking in detail as they block-up. Being able to capture both highlight detail and shadow detail makes for a great exposure. That is Paradise, Washington in the background. Film Brands We say this with a little trepidation, but for most of your images you will not see many image quality differences between manufactured brands of film. Some brands advertise warmer skin tones, while others say they produce better renditions of natures color tones; we suggest using whichever brand best compliments your photographs. We also suggest experimenting with the various brands until you find one or more that produces the quality and color of images you like the best. Finding a photofinisher that gives you consistent results will also aid you in making any decisions about film brands and speeds. And speaking of film speeds ISO is the abbreviation for the International Standards Organization; a group of photo engineers and professionals who establish standards by which most film manufacturers produce their various films. Differing films of the same ISO should react to light equally, regardless of brand or type; only the specific coloring rendition and image grain quality should differ based on copyrighted chemical/grain design and market zeal. The photofinisher you use will normally be the cause of any variations you might see in the processing of your negatives and prints. Minor and correctable variations are due to acceptable tolerances in the photochemistry used in their processors. Choose your photofinisher very carefully. Becoming friends with your photofinisher can be the deciding point between having your film processed poorly and being forewarned to come back later when the photochemistry is more stable.

14

As we mentioned earlier there are negative films available that have tremendous exposure latitude. These films will produce acceptable results in many different types of lighting situations; from poorly illuminated scenes to bright sandy beaches, the manufacturers say you can use the same roll of film without the worry of improperly exposing your scenes. These types of film might seem to be very convenient, but we still rely on using the right film speed (ISO) for the right setting, i.e. slow ISO films (64-100) for bright scenes and Available Light Photography, medium ISO's (200-400) for light overcast daytime photography, general vacation photos, and bright interiors, and fast ISO's (800-1600) for heavy overcast days and when photographing dim interior shots without the use of flash. If the lighting in your scene suggests that you expose your film at a shutter speed slower than the reciprocal of your lens' focal length, i.e. hand holding a 50mm lens suggests using 1/60th second as a minimum steady shutter speed, and a 135mm telephoto lens suggests using 1/125th second, then you need to use a faster ISO film in your camera. For example, if you are using a 50mm lens and the lighting in your scene suggests setting your shutter speed at 1/15 or 1/30 you would benefit by using faster film. Using ISO 200 film instead of ISO100 would allow you to take the same scene at 1/60 second (instead of 1/30) without much loss in image quality; you will also minimize the chance of seeing camera shake in your photo. Films with a low number ISO (ISO 25, 50, 64, 100) are slower to react to light than films with high number ISO's (ISO 200, 400, 800, and 1600). Generally, the slow speed films (ISO 25,50,64, 100) will produce finer quality enlargements than the higher speed films because the slower ISO films contain smaller and more grains of light-sensitive silver than the faster films. Smaller grains will record finer detail, and a greater number of grains will produce more saturated color and better contrast.
15

You will rarely see much difference in image quality in your 4x6 inch prints regardless of the films ISO. If you know you are going to be taking pictures in bright daylight, you might want to load ISO 100 film into your camera, as it is about the slowest color negative film that is readily available. You will be able to have 35mm negatives of this speed enlarged to 11x14 inches without any apparent loss in image quality (16x20 if you need to cover that stain on the wall). ISO 200 speed film is great as a multi-purpose film as it is one Exposure Value (EV) more light sensitive than ISO 100 and therefore a better choice to use in lower light situations. ISO200 is also an acceptable choice for use in bright scenes because you will be able to use a smaller f/stop for more Depth of Field or you get to stop more Action by increasing the shutter speed by one stop. ISO 200 film can also be enlarged to 11x14. The difference in appearance compared to ISO 100 will be hard to detect without closely scrutinizing the image. This is a great all-around 'vacation' film speed and can be used both indoors and outside. ISO 400 is generally used for indoor and low-light situations. Its color sensitivity is tuned more for the different types of lighting you might find inside people's homes. Besides being two EVs faster than ISO 100, you can also photograph some outdoor situations, but not necessarily the beach on a bright day. Using ISO 400 or ISO 800 indoors without the assistance of a flashgun can be easily color corrected by your photofinisher in order to produce great photos, including those taken inside arenas, stages, and stadiums. Using a fast ISO film outdoors will result in an obvious increase in your photographs contrast; be careful unless you are trying to achieve this effect. Films rated higher than ISO 400 have been designed for more specific purposes that usually do not interest the average photographer. Remember, as the ISO number of your film doubles, the films sensitivity to light doubles, as well. Comparing ISO 400 to ISO 800 is a +1EV increase in exposure sensitivity. ISO 400 to 1600 is a +2EV increase. Also, the faster the films ISO speed, the larger the images grain size will be resulting in a lowering of image quality in your finished enlargements. Do you remember when we mentioned the type of film that will give great exposure results in any lighting situation? You have seen these films advertised on TV just before any special holiday occasion. We encourage you to try these multi16

purpose films to see if they meet your standards of quality and purpose. At The Photo College we are so attuned to using the correct speed of film for each particular situation we cannot tell you what to expect from these new multi-purpose films; we do not use them other than to report the results you might find. We appreciate any feedback from our students who have used these multi-purpose films. All we will say is that one of the manufacturers of these types of film has yet to let us down concerning quality and truth in advertising, even when they gave us pre-release test rolls and discs to evaluate for them in the past. Try them; they might be the films for which your camera has been pining.

17