Say you are at the beach in the summer and take pictures of people in the shade of a beach umbrella (or any other shade for that matter).

Which filter will keep the skin tone color accurate?

An 85?, 85B, 85D?

-- Howard Z (howard@howardz.com), February 15, 2001

Answers

It depends on how blue the sky is at the time, and that depends on the time of day and the weather. There's no right answer to this one.
Get someone to hold a nice big white towel up to throw some sunlight back into the shade.;^)

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), February 16, 2001.

What you need is fill flash or some kind of reflector to brighten up those faces in the shades.

-- Shun Cheung (shun@worldnet.att.net), February 16, 2001.

I think the answer is the 85D to bring the color temp from 4200/4300 K up to 5500 K. Even though Kodak web pages include the 85D in their filter tables, I can not find anyone who sells it.

-- Howard Z (howard@howardz.com), February 17, 2001.

Oops, I mean drop the color temp from 8000K down to 5500K. The 85D or better yet, the 85D plus the 81 should do the job.

Raising from 4200/4300 to 5500k is for early morning and late afternoon - with the 80D filter - another filter that I find in kodak's tables which nobody seems to sell.

I think (85D + 81) = (85 + 82A) However using the 85 + 82A loses an additional 1/3 stop of light.

I think (80D) = (82C + 82A) However using the 82C + 82A loses an additional 2/3 stop of light.

The 85D and the 80D must both be very unpopular for the major filter manufacturers to stop making them.

-- Howard Z (howard@howardz.com), February 17, 2001.

Howard,

It really isn't that exacting of a science. The color of the daylight will change based on the presence of any clouds, the elevation of the Sun, the reflections of the surrounding area, etc. To get it exactly right you need a color meter & a decamirad filter set, but you don't need to get it exactly right. Besides any variables in film type or brand or in the processing and your back to being inexact. This is all assuming you are shooting with slide film.

If you are concerned about skin colors though, try shooting with professional print film. Then it wont matter at all if you use a filter.

-- Jim Strutz (jimstrutz@juno.com), February 17, 2001.