800 speed color film question?

[kshapero]

I live in very Sunny Florida. Can I shoot 800 speed color film and underexpose on a sunny day then shot at night at regular exposure? What would happen if I did this on the same roll? Thanks

 

[kshapero]

Why would you want to do this? If it's because of the maximum shutter speed of your camera, just use ND filters.

oh yeah, i damn forgot i have a 1.5 ND filter here in a drawer.

 

[oscroft]

I live in very Sunny Florida. Can I shoot 800 speed color film and underexpose on a sunny day then shot at night at regular exposure? What would happen if I did this on the same roll? Thanks

Firstly, on a sunny day you'd be overexposing the film, not underexposing it.

But the simple answer is no*, you can't really do that. You can underexpose or overexpose a film, but you then need to compensate in the development - an underexposed film will need longer development, and overexposed film shorter development. To do what you want you'd have to be able to develop individual frames differently, which you clearly can't do. If you did shoot some frames overexposed and then developed as per normal, those shots would be too light (similarly underexposed shots would be too dark).

[*The slightly more complex answer is that it depends on the exposure latitude of your film. Black and white films have quite good latitude, so you can usually get away with one or maybe even two stops incorrect exposure and still get usable negatives. Color negative film has less latitude, and color transparency film has almost none.]

 

[Nokton48]

I have shot hundreds and hundreds of rolls of Fuji Press 800 film, which I normally re-rate to EI400, as a matter of course. It can handle overexposure by an additional stop or two, it simply gets a bit grainier, and can consequently be slightly flatter-looking. That stuff is absolutely bulletproof, I love it. Works great in full sun, even at the beach.

Ken, It can also be shot at night, at EI 800, although, that's a bit of a stretch IMO. If the prints look "greyed-out and thin", that's an indication of underexposure.

Fuji Press 800 is about all we shoot here, it's also "cheap-cheap" from B&H in the 20-roll bulk-boxing. I have no idea why they sell so cheaply. Shhhhh!

 

[35mmdelux]

Nokton48:

How do you develop when you re-rate to 400?

 

[Nokton48]

It's Kodak C41 process, so if it's timely we run it to our local one-hour lab for standard color neg processing. Develop-only takes 15 minutes to buzz through their machines. Or I send it to my professional color lab for developing and printing. (I use H&H color in Kansas City, Missouri). They develop it in standard C41 color process. Like it alot, it's what we've standardized on here.