A Very Quick Look at Tungsten Filtration

To 85 or Not to 85… is that a question?

Over a year ago I bought most of, if not all the 85 filters you can throw in front of a lens. The only one I didn’t use in this test is the 85A, dunno why, prolly couldn’t find it! The results were pretty apparent and I just wanted to throw them up and let you see them for yourself.

What’s to See?

So, everybody preaches the 85B filter as the filter to use in front of tungsten stocks when shooting in daylight conditions. I’ve always felt like the “B” was a little warm and I’m sure this is by design but if you’re truly trying to get back to “normal” then an 85B is clearly not it. In this very dumbed down quick test you can see that the straight 85 is magenta, the 85B is amber/green and the 85C is, well, pretty close to what my eye was seeing on the day.

But why don’t you just correct it later and not deal with losing the 2/3 stop of light??? Fine, do that. If you’re going to grade in software that allows you control over Lift/Gamma/Gain and you understand the workings of color grading an image. For most still photographers they want something that is as close to what the eye saw at the moment of the shot. An image with accurate color reproduction is always going to be easier to take it where you want it creatively later.

That being said, if you want your image to be cool, or warm, or magenta, or neon green… then use the filters you see fit to do that in camera, I’m all for that! Remember that the Tungsten stocks are marked with a “T”. In the case of the films we sell there are a couple current stocks and some oldies. 500T, 200T, EXR100T, & Fuji 160T.

Hope to throw some more tests up soon. New year, new goals. We’ll see how much time we have to play!

Justin