Tungsten-type of color films are available in ISO speeds ranging from ISO 64, 160, 320 and 640. For the 35mm shooter, tungsten films are only available in color reversal types. There is no color negative emulsion available in the 135mm format. The reason for this is that professional photographers using medium format equipment are more likely to shoot their subjects under tungsten lighting or lit by warm, photoflood lamps rather than the average 35mm shooters, and hence is not cost-effective to produce since the limited demand does not warrant economies-of-scale manufacturing in large quantities. Furthermore, available light pictures shot under tungsten-lit environment with daylight-balanced color negative films can be corrected to near normal level by the commercial minilabs and professional enlargement centers for the finished prints. Shooting available light pictures under tungsten-lit environments is usually the only option left if the situation concerned does not allow the use of flash. If flash photography is allowed, by all means use it, unless you have another reason to rely on shooting exclusively without any strobe, like preferring the natural (or artificial) warmer effect. These two pictures below were shot during the Press conference by the Marlboro World Championship 500cc riders, Spaniard Carlos Checa and teammate Italian Max Biaggi prior to the Malaysian leg of the 2000 motorcycling season. I was still testing the new EOS-1v pro model at that time, and the event allowed me to experiment with the camera's 21-zone Evaluative metering in such a situation without resorting to fill-in flash. Film used was a tungsten-type ISO 64 speed emulsion. Biaggi (right) at the conference Biaggi (left) and Checa (right) Overall, the film did not fully correct the warmer cast apparent in these pictures but it accomplished enough to give a near normal rendition of the situation as the white patches in Biaggi's red uniform are no longer yellow or orange in color. In the second shot, the large words behind the two riders were rendered close to normal in this frontal angle viewpoint. As mentioned in the preceding page, the stronger intensity of tungsten lighting will be hard to correct even when a tungsten-type color film is being used. The first picture below was shot when a tungsten spotlight was centered on the singer. In the next picture, when a weaker spotlight was momentarily used on her, the film had rendered the daylight effect correctly. For the next two pictures, the multiple spotlights had their colors changed to extreme blue, and even the tungsten film cannot do anything about the situation. Stronger intensity of light used Weaker intensity of light used     Fashion model lit in blue Another one also lit in blue << Back to Main . 1 . 2 . 3 .