Color Temperature

One other technical consideration that you should be aware of when choosing a color film is its color temperature or balance. All color films are designed to be used in a certain type (temperature) of light, and you will get the best results when you are careful to match the film to the existing light source. Using the wrong film/lighting combination will result in distracting or unattractive color casts. Daylight films used indoors with incandescent lamps, for instance, will produce pictures with an overall reddish or orange cast. Similarly, indoor (tungsten) films used outdoors will have an overall blue color.

Virtually all color negative films sold for amateur use are balanced for daylight and will yield the best results under daylight or with electronic flash (both have a color temperature of about 5500 degrees K). Because photofinishers can improve color balance when printing negatives, you can get good results with a variety of light sources, or you can filter the light source during picture-taking to improve color. Color slide films, however, are available for several different temperatures of light, including daylight, tungsten light (3200 K) and photolamps (3400 K). Since no color corrections can be made when slide films are processed, they have less tolerance for error. You should choose a slide film that is balanced for the light you'll be photographing under.

You can use slide films balanced for one type of lighting under a different type of lighting if you use color-correction filters. However you will get optimum results if you expose a particular film under the light source for which it is balanced.