Strong orange tint

Lauffray

Lauffray

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I'm using the impossible color film for SX70 and so far a lot of my pictures have come out with an orange tint which I can't figure out.

I made a test with 3 exposures, all in low contrast overcast natural light, I left everything on auto. I quickly put it in my pocket to shield it from light, as impossible instructs. All 3 turned out orange :bang:

Ideas ?
 
Does the time of day come into it? Within an hour or two of sunrise and sunset you get orange light but only film notices. One of those blue Wratten filters should correct it if so.

Regards, David
 
My personal opinion is that Impossible film is for having a bit of ridiculously expensive fun and not much more. If you want any ounce of "normal" then you're much better off using an Instax camera or a camera that takes Fuji instant sheet film.

I was quite excited about the different Impossible films a couple of years back, but after trying a few my opinion now is that it always comes out like ****. It is just a crappy product.

But if you want artsy then it might work out for you. :)
 
Lauffray said:
I'm using the impossible color film for SX70 and so far a lot of my pictures have come out with an orange tint which I can't figure out.

I made a test with 3 exposures, all in low contrast overcast natural light, I left everything on auto. I quickly put it in my pocket to shield it from light, as impossible instructs. All 3 turned out orange :bang:

Ideas ?
Click to expand...

There's lots of good information on The Impossible Project blog site in the Tutorial section:
https://blog.the-impossible-project.com

The Impossible films are quite sensitive to both exposure and temperature, both of which affect the color rendering and can lead to tinting. These two articles might give you some clues as to how to proceed:

https://blog.the-impossible-project.com/dr-love-s-tips-shooting-in-warm-weather
https://blog.the-impossible-project.com/dr-love-s-tips-turn-on-the-bright-lights

I was having a lot of problems with the prints getting light-struck coming out of the camera, so I made my own "frog tongue" for the SX-70 series cameras by using a bit of artists tape and a cover sheet to create a hinged flap over the ejection slot. Now the print ejects under the cover sheet, and I quickly put it into a pocket or a bag to process for the first five minutes at least.

Overall, daylight exposures with the MiNT electronic flash or a FlashBar are more successful than just the auto-exposure on any given SX-70 camera, in my experience, and the MiNT flash unit includes a couple of color filters which can offset some of the Impossible film tinting.

The other amuzing game is that these cameras are quite old and have long since drifted from as-new specs in the metering system and the shutter timings. Each of my original SX-70s (and Spectras!) produce different results in the same light, with the same films.

That said, the slow speed at which the color film processes, the scant 3/4 of a stop exposure latitude, and the temperature sensitivity all together combine to make getting "normal" results pretty challenging. On the one hand, if I really wanted "normal" results, heck, I have plenty of cameras that do that really well. On the other hand, I would like *some* predictability and consistency or I'm just spending too much money to not get the results I want. I've been talking with them about these issues and they understand, and continue to keep working on the film formulation. It really is an impossible project in many ways ... Fuji is not likely to give them the Instax film chemistry and you know where Fuji got that from in the first generation...

Because of the difficulties with the color process speed and exposure latitude, I've been shooting mostly Impossible B&W. It has more exposure latitude and less temperature sensitivity, and it processes more quickly by far (5-10 minutes vs 35-50 minutes).

It has cost me a bunch in film to experiment enough to get consistent and reliable images, but I'm getting to the point where I know what's going to come out of the camera when I punch the button now, and understand how the exposure and ambient temperature affect things. I'm more proficient at this point with B&W films and can use both SX-70 and 600 films (which have different response curves ...!) with results I like. Color is the next hurdle.

From a party on Sunday ...


Polaroid Spectra SE
Impossible Silver Shade Cool​

The whole set: https://flic.kr/s/aHsjZzNMyM
You can poke around on my flickr.com site for other Impossible Polaroidio if you like:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gdgphoto

enjoy
G
 
kennylovrin said:
But if you want artsy then it might work out for you. :)
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what you mean. I heard the film was unpredictable, strong orange hues on most shots is certainly not as random as its reputation would have you believe. I agree though it's a very expensive hobby :bang:
 
Ok so for documentation's sake, I think I found the problem, as suspected thanks to you, it's insufficient shielding and possibly too much heat (summer)
Here's the full answer from Impossible support:
---
Hi Jerome,

Yes, you must shield photos while they are ejecting too, especially if you are shooting outdoors in bright light. Any bright light that hits the photos during the ejection can cause yellow, overexposed images. I would recommend using this technique to shield during ejection: http://vimeo.com/20367465. High temperatures can also cause warm tones in your photos. If you are shooting in very warm weather, I would recommend carrying an ice pack in your camera bag while you are out, to keep developing photos cool. I do this myself when I shoot during the summer. I hope this helps!

Best,

Pxxxx
 
kennylovrin said:
...
I was quite excited about the different Impossible films a couple of years back, but after trying a few my opinion now is that it always comes out like ****. It is just a crappy product.

But if you want artsy then it might work out for you. :)
Click to expand...

"A couple of years back..." was four or five re-formulations ago. The current color and B&W are far superior to that generation. Presuming that the camera is operating to spec and you've learned the correct exposure techniques, and you keep tabs on light shielding and temperature while using the film, current films do pretty well.

Of course, I always want artsy when I'm not shooting with a modern digital camera. Otherwise, why put up with all the bother? ]:)

G
 
Lauffray said:
Ok so for documentation's sake, I think I found the problem, as suspected thanks to you, it's insufficient shielding and possibly too much heat (summer)
Here's the full answer from Impossible support:
---
Hi Jerome,

Yes, you must shield photos while they are ejecting too, especially if you are shooting outdoors in bright light. Any bright light that hits the photos during the ejection can cause yellow, overexposed images. I would recommend using this technique to shield during ejection: http://vimeo.com/20367465. High temperatures can also cause warm tones in your photos. If you are shooting in very warm weather, I would recommend carrying an ice pack in your camera bag while you are out, to keep developing photos cool. I do this myself when I shoot during the summer. I hope this helps!

Best,

Pxxxx
Click to expand...

Sounds good. Work at it and it will come ... :)

G
 
Godfrey said:
"A couple of years back..." was four or five re-formulations ago. The current color and B&W are far superior to that generation. Presuming that the camera is operating to spec and you've learned the correct exposure techniques, and you keep tabs on light shielding and temperature while using the film, current films do pretty well. Of course, I always want artsy when I'm not shooting with a modern digital camera. Otherwise, why put up with all the bother? ]:) G
Click to expand...

I've heard it's better now yes, and to be honest I quite like the b&w films, it's the color ones I always found a bit too unpredictable. Or perhaps unpredictable isn't the right word, it's more that I don't find the end result very good.

It's a matter of taste of course, I just prefer the result of the Fuji films better when I want to shoot instant films. I get childishly excited every time I see an Instax of fp-100c (if I can remember the name right) develop.

You do have a good point though that why go through the the trouble unless you want artsy. :)

What impossible are doing is definitely a good thing though all in all, it just rhymes bad in my mind. Instant photography is "supposed" to be easy, and Impossible isn't. If you know what I mean.. :)
 
kennylovrin said:
I've heard it's better now yes, and to be honest I quite like the b&w films, it's the color ones I always found a bit too unpredictable. Or perhaps unpredictable isn't the right word, it's more that I don't find the end result very good.

It's a matter of taste of course, I just prefer the result of the Fuji films better when I want to shoot instant films. I get childishly excited every time I see an Instax of fp-100c (if I can remember the name right) develop.

You do have a good point though that why go through the the trouble unless you want artsy. :)

What impossible are doing is definitely a good thing though all in all, it just rhymes bad in my mind. Instant photography is "supposed" to be easy, and Impossible isn't. If you know what I mean.. :)
Click to expand...

The severely tight exposure latitude and the temperature sensitivity continue to make shooting the Impossible color film tricky for 'normal' results. Coupled with the slow processing, it makes learning the film tedious and expensive.

Fuji FP-100c is a pack film, not Instax. You're probably thinking of Fuji Instax Wide for the Instax 210 camera (a whopping $59 new at B&H ... :). However, FP-100c is a beautiful film, and (with some modification) works great in my Polaroid 350 Land Camera. FP-3000b is also a beautiful film; so sad that Fuji has discontinued it now. I've got a

That said, Fujifilm has 100x the resources of The Impossible Project to work with regards development. Impossible has advanced by leaps and bounds considering the finances they are working with.

The SX-70 was designed to be breakthrough ground in ease of use, but with Polaroid long gone and Impossible literally having to re-invent the film from the ground up ... well, I'm just glad that I can still use the cameras at all!

It's all good. :)

G


Polaroid 350 Land Camera
Fujifilm FP-100c​
 
Godfrey said:
... Fuji FP-100c is a pack film, not Instax. You're probably thinking of Fuji Instax Wide for the Instax 210 camera (a whopping $59 new at B&H ... :). ...
Click to expand...

Yes I know, I was referring to it in the context of instant film. What I meant to say that if I want to play around with instant film I prefer either Instax or a camera that takes the Fuji pack films.

And I agree that it really sucks they discontinued the b&w one. :(
 
i missed this thread with interesting infos and links. Thanks to all contributors, and hope we'll manage to keep alive this kind of photography, not easy, expensive, unpredictable :mad:. But when it works is really a great satisfaction :)
robert
 
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