White balance of film stock

[Life By Stills]

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Hey friends,

How are you doing? Hope you're all doing well - happy Friday!

So I know that each film stock renders colours differently, even for exactly the same scene - almost like the film stock's in-build white balance setting. But if I wanted to try and get a certain film stock's rendering of colour on digital, is there a site / list which gives the approximate white balance temperature I should set my camera to if I want to get the look of a particular film stock please?

Thanks in advance, guys!

[hansvons]

I can only speak for Kodak Vision cine film stocks. Kodak 5203 (ISO 50) and 5207 (ISO250) are daylight-balanced film stocks, meaning that the white point is located at 5600 Kelvin, which is direct sunlight. Kodak 5219 (ISO 500) is white-balanced at 3200 Kelvin, meaning white is white under tungsten halogen light (classic film fixtures in a studio environment). This film will render white with a solid bluish tint in daylight environments.

All of that can be corrected with filters that work as white-balancing devices. E.g. the Tiffen 81-EF warms scenes shot in cool shadows to more natural colours for daylight-balanced films, and the 85 or 85B sibling converts 5600 Kelvin to 3200 Kelvin for tungsten-balanced films. These filters show an orange shade of diverse intensity. The same works the other way around, shifting warmer white to cooler white. The 82A filter, for instance, is typical for such occasions and shows a bluish tint. 

The bottom line is that white-balancing in analogue photography traditionally has been done with filtering. 

Edited July 8, 2023 by hansvons

[frame-it]

1 hour ago, Life By Stills said:

So I know that each film stock renders colours differently, even for exactly the same scene - almost like the film stock's in-build white balance setting. But if I wanted to try and get a certain film stock's rendering of colour on digital, is there a site / list which gives the approximate white balance temperature I should set my camera to if I want to get the look of a particular film stock please?

 

The white balance should be on the box and also the datasheet for the film, though it can vary greatly depending on exposure and development

Edited July 8, 2023 by frame-it

[Huss]

The problem with looking at film from a 'white balance' POV is that basically films are designed to be used in daylight or tungsten light.  That is what their 'white balance' is.

But that is not the complete story. Kodak Gold is warmer, Fuji C200 was a bit greener, Metropolis is very blue (and desaturated) etc.

The way to do it is to build your own presets based on your scans of the film stock you are interested in.  And use the WB eye dropper (for example in LR) to give you the temp and tint settings for that particular film stock.

Of course this is also subject to the temp of your scanning light source, your WB setting in your camera when you scan film etc.

[Life By Stills]

37 minutes ago, Huss said:

The way to do it is to build your own presets based on your scans of the film stock you are interested in.  And use the WB eye dropper (for example in LR) to give you the temp and tint settings for that particular film stock.

Ahh thanks for this, @Huss. I was hoping there was some kind of list / cheatsheet where a certain film stock's look had been listed in terms of white balance and tint. But looks like I'll have to have a play about.

Thanks mate. 😃

[Huss]

Mine - from scanning these films and using the WB dropper in LR - temp then tint:

Kodak Ektar  3450  -25

Kodak Gold 3250 0

Fuji C200 2950 -18

Fuji Pro 160 S 2300 -32

Fuji Superia 400 3050 -21

Fuji Pro 400H 2400 -33

Kodak Portra 160 VC 3300 +28

Kodak Portra 400 3100 -19

Kodak Portra 800 3350 +12

Kodak Portra NC 160 3050 -29

Kodak ProImage 100 3100 -5

Lomo 800 2850 0

Lomo Metropolis 5600 +53

Blue Ultra ISO 3  6300 +66

Slow Your Roll ISO 1.6 4450 -24

 

 

 

 

 

[Greenhilltony]

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If you want to emulate the colors of the film stocks, setting white balance is not enough. You need to adjust the HSL sliders of every color to emulate the color preferences of the film stocks.

[250swb]

4 hours ago, Life By Stills said:

Ahh thanks for this, @Huss. I was hoping there was some kind of list / cheatsheet where a certain film stock's look had been listed in terms of white balance and tint. But looks like I'll have to have a play about.

Thanks mate. 😃

The look of film is also affected by contrast and saturation which in turn are affected by exposure. Setting the white balance is a start, but kind of like filling your car with petrol and then finding you've left the map of where you want to go back on the kitchen table. Maybe think about it another way, set the camera to be as neutral as possible and use a film pre-set programme to do it all for you in post processing.

[John Robinson]

Too many variables makes it difficult to set a general rule when shooting film:

-- choice of film stock, exposure and processing;

-- method of digitisation (film scanner, flat-bed scanner, camera);

-- choice of post-production software.

But I think the OP asked for some help to make an image taken on a digital camera to look like it was taken on film.  The closest I have come to this is using specialised software with presets to emulate various film stocks called Nik Collection Color FX Pro (also Analog FX Pro and Silver FX Pro in the same suite).  It was originally supplied free by Google and if you can find that version it still works as DXo (that took it over) hasn't made many changes other than charging for it.  Even the paid-for version is not particularly expensive.

Different film stocks produce quite different subjective results affected by grain, response to light, response to colour etc.  The nice thing about Nik Collection is you can take a digital image (preferably a TIFF copy of the original) and try out all the different settings until you get something you like then save it as a preset "recipe".

Have fun.

[Huss]

9 hours ago, 250swb said:

The look of film is also affected by contrast and saturation which in turn are affected by exposure. Setting the white balance is a start, but kind of like filling your car with petrol and then finding you've left the map of where you want to go back on the kitchen table. Maybe think about it another way, set the camera to be as neutral as possible and use a film pre-set programme to do it all for you in post processing.

Exactly.  It is just a starting point.