color film for portraits with studio lighting?

[mexipike]

I've got a project coming up in which I have to take portraits with studio lighting. I'm planning on working in color and I'm not sure what the best film would be so I'd figured I'd run it by you guys because I'll have to order all the film at once.
My questions are
What film do people here like for studio portrait lighting?
I like slide film but I'm in Mexico right now and good devlopment is expensive and somtimes requires a trip to another city.
How does Portra Tungsten compare to Fuji Tungsta?
Should I use Tungsten balanced or should I buy regular and adjust the lights or lens with filters, considering I'm on a tight budget and don't own any blue filters or anything lik that?
Skin tone and nice saturaded color balance are important to me, and so is sharpness as I'll b working in 35mm and if I use slides I'll probably project them. I really lik slides and love working with velvia but it's a little pricey and kodachrom is out of the qustion as nobody can process it down here. Anyway I'm open to any and all sugestions.
thanks,
John

 

[kaiyen]

Are the lights strobes or continuous (hot) lights? If they are strobes, they are daylight balanced and "regular" film will work fine. If you like slides, you want to go with a neutral color film, like Astia, rather than Velvia, which will make everyone reddish and "angry" looking 🙂

If you go with hot lights, those are tungsten and either the Kodak or Fuji variants should work fine, though you never quite know with hot lights, as their color temp will change as they age.

allan

 

[mexipike]

they are hot lights, how do you view portra as opposed to fuji slides?

 

[kaiyen]

Well, if you don't have any gels, then I guess that's not really an option. So you'll have to use tungsten film. I have used the Kodak one only once, and not the Fuji so...I am not of much help. You might want to check the exact color temperature of your hot lights (should be on the bulb) and compare that to the specs for the film and see what you get. They should match up, theoretically, but it's possible one might be a bit different than the other.

allan

 

[Freneticist]

John,
I just recently went through this whole ordeal, going from outdoor landscape/architectural shoots, to indoor portrait. I found a site that is real helpful as far as lighting set-ups, but not much help for film type, however. It is predominately digital shooting.

http://www.glamour1.com

With the Porta films, unless the hot lights are rated 4800K or above, you are going to need an 80C filter. Then you will want to use the 800 asa if it is available. The Kodak T100 film is good for anything under 4800K lites, but it is slow. Personally, I did not care for the skin color it produces. I ended up using Fuji NPS 800 with an 80C filter. My lites are all 3400K lites (normal household lights). Good skin color, good color balance, picks up bright colors well. I use a 500 watt octoganal soft-box with alternating silver and gold sides for reflect, and an internal baffle to kill hot-spots, located camera right about half-way between camera and subject. I use a 250 watt "bounced" fill off a gold reflector, camera left, with reflector between camera and light so camra doesn't pick it up. 100 watt backlights. One for background to kill shadow, the other for hair backlight, etc as needed. Both with baffles to hide light from camera.
ong post, but....
Check out the link. It has some really excellent "lessons" in lighting, and color temps.

 

[Freneticist]

Gold reflectors are for skin color. Regardless of national origin, it helps bring out a good color rendition. No flat "pasty" looks. Also, if your subjects are older, it helps "hide" wrinkles, blemishes, etc.