Color charts can be found for free on the Internet or simple household items that reflect the color gamut can be used to evaluate film.
Shooting film will not offer the immediate feedback you get when shooting digital, so it is crucial to understand how the film you have chosen to use will respond in various lighting situations. The best way to do this is to shoot a test roll of film using a color chart. Color charts usually consist of 18 patches of varying colors and six patches of gray shades from white to black. Shooting a color chart can help you better understand the tone you will get in daylight shooting as well as studio shooting with strobes and gels.
Instructions
1. Arrange your color chart on a flat, neutral-colored surface like a wall or low counter top. Load film into camera. Lock camera into tripod and focus on color chart so that the color chart takes up as much of the viewfinder as possible. Depress the shutter release and prepare for the next shot.
2. Expose a second frame of film one stop under the first frame. This will tell you how the film reacts to underexposure. Expose a third frame one stop over the correct exposure. This will tell you how the film reacts to overexposure.
3. Arrange strobes or flashes in settings you plan to use in the studio. Repeat Steps 1 and 2. Add a warming gel to the lighting and repeat the test using correct, over and under exposure.
4. Develop the film in a standard developer. Scan or print the film without enhancement. A scan might be affected by scanner software and might appear with slight color shifts if your monitor is not properly color calibrated. Evaluate the prints for color and tone by comparing the color swatches on the chart. Evaluate the prints for dynamic range by checking the gray-scale chart.
5. Repeat this procedure with a film of a different type or brand. Try to keep exposure, color chart and camera position as close as possible to the values and position used in the first test. Compare prints from the second roll of film to the first roll. Archive prints and negatives for evaluation of new film in the future.
Tags: color chart, Color charts, Evaluate prints, film reacts, roll film, tell film, tell film reacts