Thoughts about the "cast" of colour negative films.

[joeswe]

If the color-cast adds to the image (convey mood, tame highlights, modify "the look") then keep it.
Otherwise try to remove it.

If someone offered "Hey, your picture is too purple" to the ones I like, I'd just say "Thanks for your support, I like it that way"

I agree we should not let ourselves be intimidated too much by what others think is the "right" look.
OTOH, a lot of beginners in color photography have problems in seeing (minor) color casts at all and think what they see is a neutral grey when it fact it isn't. The brain has also a tendency to filter out casts when we get too "acquainted" with a picture, which happens when we look at it long enough or often enough. Therefore, for beginners it can be important to have input/critique from others. For me personally, printing RA4 in the darkroom (without the help of any color analyzers etc) was very helpful to develop a certain sensitivity towards color variations and also a feeling for the difficulty of proper color balancing.

 

[David Murphy]

In my experience color cast not due to incorrectly balanced lighting is often from marginal or poor control of processing, such as slightly wrong temperature or incorrect chemical concentrations. This can be a challenge (I've not mastered it even the help of a Jobo temperature controlled processor). As the above commentators point out it can be corrected to a high degree after scanning and post processing with a variety of image processing programs (these days I mostly use GIMP).

In the first sample image in this thread however, I suspect the color cast is due to low color temperature. A weak warming filter might help for color work in deep shadows.

 

[shadowfox]

I agree we should not let ourselves be intimidated too much by what others think is the "right" look.
OTOH, a lot of beginners in color photography have problems in seeing (minor) color casts at all and think what they see is a neutral grey when it fact it isn't. The brain has also a tendency to filter out casts when we get too "acquainted" with a picture, which happens when we look at it long enough or often enough. Therefore, for beginners it can be important to have input/critique from others. For me personally, printing RA4 in the darkroom (without the help of any color analyzers etc) was very helpful to develop a certain sensitivity towards color variations and also a feeling for the difficulty of proper color balancing.

Good observation.