PHOTO: Blue Iris (long article)

From: "Sterling Okase" <sterling_o@hotmail.com>

Hi Talkers,

For those of you who asked for it, here it is.

THE PHOTOGRAPHER AND THE BLUE IRIS

Ron Thoman, Delaware

     It is disappointing that modern color films cannot faithfully 
reproduce the blue color in iris. If the fleeting moments of the bloom 
season are to be adequately captured on film, it is important that the 
colors be realistic. Thankfully, there are filters available that will 
correct for the blue deficiency of color film. By judging from the many 
cameras dangling from the necks of iris enthusiasts on garden tours, 
this solution to a nagging problem will be of wide interest.
     I can recall on of the first Delaware Valley Iris Society meetings 
I attended. The evenings activities progressed to the major feature, a 
slide show. Midway through the presentation, Opal Brown's SEASIDE was 
projected on the screen, but as a light rosy-lavender iris. This clashed 
with any recollection of that lovely flax-blue bloom. Oh, I know that we 
don't, as yet have a true spectrum blue iris as is sometimes portrayed 
in iris catalogs. Still, how can we recreate the iris-blue hue on film? 
Trying to answer that question has been my search for the last several 
years.
     Although great progress has been made in color films, color 
rendition remains a compromise with certain colors favored over others. 
For example, flesh-tones are in the driver's seat. White and grays also 
have high priority. Comonplace colors such as that of the sky and grass 
are also important. But the blue iris must take a back-seat to these 
colors as far as the general public is concerned.
     One Kodak publication states that the heavenly-blue morning glory 
and ageratum flowers are examples of color occurring in nature that 
reproduce poorly because color films are more sensitive than the eye to 
the far red of the spectrum. The blue iris must also fall into that same 
category.
     During the 1976 bloom season, I conducted an experiment taking 
photographs of the light blue BABBLING BROOK using different filter 
combinations. I used High Speed Ektachrome film in a single lens reflex 
camera. The results are summarized below:

Filter                                     Evaluation

None                                      too red
82A                                        improvement over no filter
80C                                        improvement over no filter
80B                                        improvement over no filter
CC20C                                   fourth best
CC30C                                   third best
CC20C+82A                          best
CC20C+80C                          too blue
CC20C+80B                          too blue
CC50C                                   second best

     The evaluation is mine, but should provide a starting point for the 
interested photographer. Four filter combinations provide satisfactory 
correction; however, I consider the combinations of the two filters 
CC20C and 82A to provide the best results. Although the CC20C filter is 
the major factor, the 82A filter seems to add the right amount of blue. 
The CC20C is a color compensating filter that subtracts a portion of the 
red. The result is pleasing and realistic.
    The 82A filter, the more common of the two, is normally bought as a 
glass mounted filter. This is probably more practical to buy the CC20C 
filter as a gelatin film. Gelatin filter frames, holders and adapters 
are also available. A major photographic store will be able to help you 
in the selection for your camera.




Iris Maniac,
Sterling (not Innerst)
Seattle, WA. Zone 8
AIS, KCIS, HIPS and MIS
And Friday Night Chat-o-phile
sterling_o@hotmail.com


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