Checking the temperature

Checking the temperature

I wonder if you’ve got things in your photographic past that you’re ashamed of? I remember sending a colour correction filter back to Photax because I didn’t like the results it gave me (completely neglecting the effect of the film stock – and indeed the light – involved in some disappointing pictures of Lindisfarne Priory). The filter may well be lurking in a cupboard somewhere…

Now, these aren’t the pictures involved: though they’re on Kodachrome, they sate from two or three years later, and were shot with my first Contax RTS. Kodachrome was renowned for accurate colour, though I felt that both Agfachrome Professional and Fuji Astia rivalled it. Colour correction wasn’t really a ‘thing’ for most people, although you could get an awful lot of colour correction filters to allow you to adjust the colour temperature of the light: there were even meters so you could calculate what you needed.



And with colour prints, they could do that at the lab, though often they didn’t. But my point is that it’s often much more important that it looks as you remember it (or possibly as you want to show it) than strictly accurately. And beware any effects (or Efex) filters, which will throw it all out anyway. The important thing is to take charge, and not let an algorithm make the decisions for you.



Shooting on film, I used daylight balanced stock, so that if the sunset was very red, my pictures would be: on a cold day, the light was chilly. And when I started using digital, it was logical to emulate my old way of working, so my cameras are semi-permanently set to daylight balance. I alter this in processing if I want a different look, and occasionally change the camera setting in particular conditions where daylight isn’t giving me what I want.

With film, you chose your type to suit your preferences: maybe you can still do that, as different camera brands give slightly different results, but I doubt if many people decide what to buy on this basis. Forego your favourite lenses for brighter reds? Maybe not… But do move away from ‘AWB!