Need help with film and fim speed

[skatephoto]

I just go my first camera last week and i bought four rolls of fuji 800 color film. I thought this would be good fast film for snowboarding and skateboarding, but then i went to a skateboard photography forum and iheard someone say it had bad grain or something. Does anyone have some suggestions. thanks[/list]

 

[photobug]

Depends on what lighting you have. Brighter light will allow you to use slower (finer grained) film.

Faster film allows you faster shutter speeds. This could be important if you need to freeze action in low light.

Let's lay out a fictional scenario for example. Please bear in mind I'm making this up, so nobody howl if the numbers are off.

Let's say you're shooting indoors in weak light. You're using f8, because that's the sweet spot for your lens. And you want to freeze the action. So....

using asa100 your shutter speed might be, say... 1/15 sec
asa200 - 1/30 sec
asa400 - 1/60 sec
asa800 - 1/125 sec
asa1600 - 1/500 sec

Okay, obviously anything below 1/125 sec probably isn't going to freeze much movement. So in this make-believe world I've created you'd have to use at least asa800 film to freeze action.

Now there are several things that can mess up my scenario:
- using flash
- newer auto-everything camera/lens that has stepless apertures
- 17 things I can't think of at the moment.

But you get the general idea. The tradeoff for gaining a faster shutter speed is grain. The faster the film, the more noticeable the grain. You have to decide whether the tradeoff is worth it, or if you can use a larger aperture, or flash, or...

I'd go get some 100, 200, & 400 and shoot a roll of each to see what best meets your needs. You might like the "grittiness" the 800 gives you. Try 'em all & use what best suits your objectives & your critical eye for a finished product.

Now wasn't all that just clear as mud?

 

[Mitica100]

I just go my first camera last week and i bought four rolls of fuji 800 color film. I thought this would be good fast film for snowboarding and skateboarding, but then i went to a skateboard photography forum and iheard someone say it had bad grain or something. Does anyone have some suggestions.

I would suggest shooting the Fuji Superia 800 ASA (I assume that's what you bought) and see what results you get. I would also suggest going to a good photo lab for minimizing the graininess (we all know how grainy pictures the Wall-Marts, the local pharmacies and groceries stores deliver). From that point on you will know what you can live with and what you cannot. If you want to blow up the 35mm negs into 8x10, 11x14 and so on, do expect more grain to be visible with more speed of the film. But for a 4x5 or smaller you can do alright with an 800 ASA. Then you might want to try 400 ASA, or even some of the black and white films. 'Experiment' is the key word here.

Good luck!

 

[ksmattfish]

Grain is not evil.

Grain is what makes up every film photograph. It is responsible for accutance, which is how sharp the image looks. Some films are finer or coarser grained than others. Higher speed fines tend to have large grain, slow films tend to be fine grained. I think you'll find that all high speed films are noticably grainy.

Grain adds texture that can create emotional responses to the photograph. Many photographers do wonderful things with coarse grain. Some people even add grain to their images using texture masks in the darkroom or grain filters in PS.

When grainy, color film is underexposed, even a little, that's when I think it looks rotton. The grain becomes more like static. As long as you give enough exposure to saturate the colors I think grain can be beautiful.

Only you can decide if grain is appropriate for your photographs. It's sort of like how a painter can choose a fine tipped brush or a big, wide paint brush. Each creates a different painting; neither is neccessarilly wrong or right. Both are choices and tools to be used by the artist.

 

[seanarmenta]

most film nowadays is pretty fine grained. Fuji has become the leader in fine-grained film. i've used Fuji NPZ 800 with more than excellent results, even with shutter speeds beyond 20 seconds.

the grain becomes an issue with enlargements beyond 11x14.

no harm in trying it out for yourself and seeing if YOU like the results.

sean

 

[Phodog]

The 800 film may be fine, depending on light conditions - I've even pushed some as far as 1600, you can also knock it down to 400 just make sure you tell the lab when developing. Think of grain as pixels - the larger the asa the bigger the pixel - can be an excellent effect.

 

[Phodog]

The 800 film may be fine, depending on light conditions - I've even pushed some as far as 1600, you can also knock it down to 400 just make sure you tell the lab when developing. Think of grain as pixels - the larger the asa the bigger the pixel - can be an excellent effect.