| Inside the Little Green Box
By Russell Abraham
When discussing the future of film, I am often reminded
of Mark Twain’s smart retort upon hearing that newspapers
had erroneously reported his death. His response, “The reports
of my demise are greatly exaggerated,” is one of literature’s
greatest understatements. In some ways, film is like Twain, resilient,
practical, colorful and long lived. While the digital capture legions
may be rattling at photography’s gates, I believe most of
us will be shooting back armed with some version of color transparency
film for a significant time to come.
There have been occasions in the past year where a
digital approach in my own work was considered, but in each instance,
my clients sternly requested I shoot color transparency film. As
one lab owner recently told me, “Ektachrome is the coin of
the realm.” Most ad agencies and all editorial clients like
color transparency film for all the obvious reasons. It is the benchmark
in all four-color processes. Put in the simplest terms, what you
see is what you get.
The Tests
About a year and a half ago, Fuji asked me to test four professional
“chrome” films with the intent of writing an article
about them. Having just finished similar testing for Kodak, I relished
the opportunity to see the differences.
 First
off, one should realize that color transparency film is chemically
complex stuff. You are not going to mix it up in your bathtub. There
are really only two companies that make it, one American and the
other Japanese. That fact alone should tell you everything. It involves
color-coupled dyes that actually reverse color when processed and
are extremely sensitive to both exposure and the most minor variations
in processing. One of the things I discovered when I started this
project was that there was more variation in color from lab to lab
than from film to film. I make my living photographing interiors
for architects and interior designers. They can be some of the pickiest
people in the world. Accurate color reproduction is a paramount
concern.
The four films I tested were Provia, Fuji’s
benchmark transparency film, Velvia, the film that gave new meaning
to the word saturation, Astia, a flatter, less saturated but more
color accurate film, and RTP, a tungsten balanced film. All of the
daylight films were exposed with Dynalite 2040 strobe heads shot
through and off of all the usual diffusion devices, and the tungsten
film was exposed with Lowell lights, 200w Peppers and existing tungsten
ambient. When testing the film, I always shot two different films
of the same subject, i.e., E100 S and Provia or RTP and EPY so that
I would have some kind of a benchmark.
I started out shooting simple tabletop on a neutral
gray background. I had a devil of a time getting a neutral gray
from either the Kodak or the Fuji film. I discovered that the Dynalite
heads were about 5700K, just enough to move everything about five
to eight points blue. A Lee CTO (quarter temp. warming gel) on each
strobe head brought everything back to normal. If you shoot a lot
with strobe, having a handful of CTO filters can make a big difference.
While both Kodak and Fuji films worked well, the Fuji seemed to
do a better job reproducing greens, a color all films have problems
with.
Over the course of the next year I shot about a dozen
assignments using both Kodak and Fuji films.
The Results
The differences between the two were subtle, but in some ways remarkable.
Generally speaking, the Fuji films were more saturated, brighter
and a tad bluer than the Kodak films. Velvia, of course, was the
screamer; a great film for landscapes and editorial work, but not
for living rooms or portraits. Provia performed well in most situations
and did a better job with greens and blues than Eastman’s
E100 S. The Kodak film was a touch redder and did a better job with
neutrals, like beige and taupe. Astia was intriguing. Its colors
were subtle and the contrast range longer. It was at its best when
recording the subtlest of paint colors and the muted tones of fabrics.
I had the feeling that I could shoot ten second exposures with this
film and get very pleasing results.
The real surprise was RTP. Here was a lively, reddish
tungsten film that is apparently color balanced for 3000K, not 3200K.
Most tungsten environments, like hotels, restaurants and retail
outlets are lit with floods or MR16s which range in color from 2600K
to 3000K. In January I had an editorial assignment to shoot several
designer showrooms at the San Francisco Design Center. They were
all lit with MR16s. I shot 120 RTP on my baby Arca-Swiss without
any filtration or supplemental lighting. The results were extremely
pleasing. The whites were clean and unveiled. The other colors were
crisp and true.
Fuji claims that their films have the finest grain
of any transparency films. While no editor has taken a one-inch
square from one of my 4x5 chromes and run it as a two page spread
yet, they probably could with any of these films. Fuji also claims
that Provia can be exposed up to 128 seconds without any reciprocity
failure. That’s a long time! I am not sure what you would
be shooting with that long an exposure, short of black cats in coal
mines at night, but fifteen to thirty second exposures to capture
cityscapes at night or dimly lit fluorescent interiors that need
a fair amount of filtration would be greatly welcomed by most of
us.
Fuji is a genuine competitor for Eastman Kodak and
their rivalry is a good thing for photographers. Fuji is continually
pushing the envelope by improving old films and introducing new
ones. Would E100VS exist if Velvia was not there first? I think
of films like paint in an artist’s paint box. They all work
and work well, but the subtle differences can sometimes turn an
ordinary job into a spectacular one.
While transparency films are not easy to work with,
they are the industry benchmarks for photography and four color
printing. From websites to billboards, most graphic designers and
art directors want to start with a well-crafted transparency in
hand. Both Fuji and Kodak keep moving the bar higher for each of
their color films by making them more versatile, more accurate and
longer lived. Today, in my studio, a stack of green boxes shares
refrigerator space with the yellow ones.
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