Analog (Film) photography advice

[chriswalrath 0]

Jusst wanted to throw this out there. Don't know how many others there might be but I tend to fancy myself a film photography freak. So, if there are any non-digital questions you guys might have, do not be afraid to let them loose. I'll answer what I can and I'm sure there ought to be a couple more on here as well.

[Flyman416 0]

Alrighty then. i have a Nikon coolpix 1:3.1-5.9 and all of my pictures seem to come out with a tinted color to them and seems to capture every speck of dust there is in my room the white balance is on auto and my background is a mottled blue. to what settings do i put it on to take good pictures of flies, cause non of them are any good? go to page three of 'February 2012:Flies from the vise my pictures are in the first post on page three. sorry foudn the id number its an s210 nikon coolpix

[chriswalrath 0]

Well, it's not exactly film related but what the heck. What your white balance does is negate the affect of the light source that illuminates your subject.

 

A light's color depends on the temperature of its source. Sunlight is very hot (around 34,000 Kelvin) and generally tends to the blue end of the spectrum. Flourescents tend to the blue end of the spectrum as well. Incandescent lighting (regular old light bulbs) generally allow indoor lighting to cast a yellowish/brownish pallor.

 

What white balance does is infuses more of a color's complimentary color to balance it out to a 'more natural' look. If the source light is blue, then the white balance will decrease blue and increase yellow to get a more natural appearance. If your light source is cooler and in the yellow area it will favor blue light in the subject area and filter out the yellow.

 

So, your white balance depends completely on your light source. You should be able to choose amongst all kinds of sources including, but not limited to, daylight, flourescent, incandescent/indoor, etc. If you choose the proper white balance setting, and automatic can be a crap shoot in lower light situations, then you should get a descent image.

 

The dust is probably due to two things. First, a lot of particulates in the air. Secondly, shooting with a flash will illuminate anything in the subject area within a certain range to the plane of focus (in this case, the fly). If it is slightly off from that plane, it will appear as a fuzzy spec. As the dust was not in the same place in both photographs I do not think it is on camera dust, just atmospheric.

 

So, how was that for non film related advice? Hope it is now clear as mud. And yes, that was the short answer.

[Flyman416 0]

Haha sorry guess i didn't quite get what you meant about FILM photography. Anyway I took your information you gave and turned it into advise and voilà a better picture now i think i need to bring in the background a little. I put the camera into flourescent and turned off the flash but i left in auto. and do cameras like mine have micro because if they do I can't find it anywhere.You were very informative and easy explained for a non film related advise again sorry for not reading that correctly. Thank you again.

 

T-Boll

[Peterjay 0]

Welcome to the forum Chris. Thanks for reminding me what an enlarger looks like. After 30 years in the darkroom, I was happy to retire mine. (LOL) We just bought a house in Wachapreague, VA, which isn't too far south of you. You're welcome to come on down and prowl the marshes once we settle in this summer. There are darned few flyrodders in the area, and somebody has to show them how it's done.