Fuji Velvia....

ekimeno

ekimeno

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Right, so I've gone through 3 rolls of Velvia 50 so far and can say that the results are good... though I must say that the colours are a little 'rich' for my liking. Also, I tried a roll at sunset and realised that it's too slow for dark conditions (great sky, but completely black foreground...) Perhaps Velvia 100 would work a bit better overall.

I've given Reala a go as well, and happy with the results, though I wouldn't mind sticking with slide film as it keeps the costs of buying chemicals down (ie. stick with one type of film - either neg or slide). I've still to try Provia, Astia and Sensia (in terms of slide film), and was wondering if anyone had any advice to share to a film type that wasn't too slow (ISO 200??) and didn't have very high saturation as in Velvia. Perhaps a slide film equivalent of Reala would be good?

Thoughts would be appreciated :)

EDIT - ooo - that was my 777th post :LOL:
 
i've got a roll of Velvia 50 and one of Astia 100F to send off to the darkroom this week - be interesting to see the differences, as whilst i like some of the velvia images on here they are high saturation. You could always try Kodak, they seem a little less intense ?
 
I was thinking that Provia would be an interesting next purchase just to test it out, though I still have 7 rolls of Velvia 50 left and not willing to give up on it yet... I'm also experimenting with different developing techniques to try and lessen the saturation, ie. doing the E-6 process in batches of 5min30 instead of 6.15. I tried this on the sunset shots but still got high saturation... the poor exposure is more than likely due to poor metering.

This is a comparison between Velvia 50 and an (almost) correctly exposed digital shot (different focal lengths, but same scene and almost same timing - maybe 2 minutes apart):

Velvia 50

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Digital:

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Not really a fair comparison, but interesting to see the differences anyway ;)
 
Thats what Velvia 50 is for, saturated warm colours.
Film was developed long before photoshop, there was no slider for saturation, you picked you're film before the shoot, and what you got was what you got.
You could calm things down a bit when going to print through the enlarger, but generally this is the characteristic of Velvia.

I dunno about the comparison, the digital shot looks a bit muted colourwise.
Nobody suggests that Velvia produces accurate as you saw them colours, but do you know that the digital version is accurate.
Looking at those, I'm tempted to say, its somewhere in between, but I wasn't there and you weren't using my eyes...:)...:shrug:

I have a couple of shots, Velvia 100f v Provia 400.....*goes off to root em out*

r2ki84.jpg


Both shot 10 mins apart.

Top is Bronica @ 50mm Provia 400
Bottom is Mamiya 6 @ 75mm Velvia 100F
 
Hey joxby. I must say that the digital shot is how I remember seeing the sunset. The reason why the Velvia shot is so dark is probably because of inaccurate exposure (should have been a couple of stops brighter). It's not to say I haven't had good / accurate Velvia shot before - just on this occasion / setting. The pic below is an example of a pretty good Velvia exposure:

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EDIT - just seen your pics now - very nice (y) Velvia certainly works well when there's lots of light around. I also love the way it's highly detailed / low grain - brilliant film. I just wish there was a way to control the saturation in developing rather than resorting to photoshop - kinda defeats the purpose of film...
 
What do you think about the sky in that one you just posted ?
 
It's debatable :thinking:

Perhaps a bit too blue, but left it as is as I wanted to show the kind of high saturation that Velvia is known for. Ideally I'd have liked it more natural...
 
I'm using a light meter!

Got a couple of rolls of provia coming back tomorrow, should be good.

I'm not getting them scanned by the lab as a reminder that I need to buy myself a decent scanner. Thinking Epson V700 right now.
 
ekimeno said:
It's debatable :thinking:

Perhaps a bit too blue, but left it as is as I wanted to show the kind of high saturation that Velvia is known for. Ideally I'd have liked it more natural...
Click to expand...


Yeah, I was just wondering if the scanner is over doing it a touch, I mean there's "actuality as you see it", there's a "not beyond the realms of possibility" and "clearly unrealistic can't exist".
I'm not sure Velvia is designed to produce the latter, more an amplification of reality, in a not beyond the realms of possibility kinda way.

I just read that through, and it read as complete jibberish......:LOL:

Ally said:
Just wondering if everybody is bracketing their exsposures? it really very hard to get a proper exsposure with out bracketing.
Click to expand...

It's better to bracket when there are elements you aren't sure about, like using a new type of film or at night when metering is a bit iffy.
Once you are used to you're equipment/film, you know exactly what the exposure will be without bracketing.
 
joxby said:
Yeah, I was just wondering if the scanner is over doing it a touch, I mean there's "actuality as you see it", there's a "not beyond the realms of possibility" and "clearly unrealistic can't exist".
I'm not sure Velvia is designed to produce the latter, more an amplification of reality, in a not beyond the realms of possibility kinda way.

I just read that through, and it read as complete jibberish......:LOL:
Click to expand...

Hmm - that is sounding a bit Douglas Adamsish!

Could be the scanner, could be my dodgy beginner developing skills (or lack thereof!) - probably the latter.... :nuts:
 
I got some variation in the blues, they are always gonna slap you round the face, they sit on the edge of possible.

a3fkwk.jpg


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domfy8.jpg
 
joxby said:
It's better to bracket when there are elements you aren't sure about, like using a new type of film or at night when metering is a bit iffy. Once you are used to you're equipment/film, you know exactly what the exposure will be without bracketing.
Click to expand...

Sorry not with you on that one joxby. The latitude with trannys is so slim that you really have to bracket because every roll is different. I think a big deal is I don't know how many people look at their film on a light box? that really makes a different to see the saturation in the colours. To get it bang on you have to bracket, even when I was using 5x4 trannys in studio I had to.
 
I was a Velvia user for many years and it was great film. Not sure about the new version , mind you.

Its only weakness for me was the oranges / reds. I found sunsets on Velvia completely over the top - so much so that i stopped taking them.

Anything red would stand out a mile, for example a post box or red van in a landscape, and on film there was nothing you could do about it.

There was no subtlety in the reds either ; red flowers, for example seemed to be red and that was that.

Now the greens, that was a different matter ....:)

I used Provia sometimes as well - sometimes by mistake - and seeing the trannies on the light box was always a bit of a let down.

I'm with Ally on bracketing. Absolutely crucial with slide film - you only need to be half a stop out and your landscape could be unusable - depending on your standards, of course.

I found that most of the time I had 2 usable trannies out of the three, and duplicates were always useful!
 
I actually love the blues.

Used it in my holga with mixed results.

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also x-pro'd a roll

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will definatly be using it again but use 100iso insted and maybe push it a little in the holga anyway.
 
These holgas a pretty good a ruining decent film aren't they ;-)

Re: ekimo's blue bridge shot, it does look as though there is a strong blue clour caste across the whole image, so it's probably safe to say it's not the film.
 
In my (2 rolls worths worth of) experience Provia is amazing for models with a pale skin tone!

Astia might be better for darker or tanned models, but the provia was very, very nice.

Can't wait to get this scanned in.

Velvia might be a touch... psychedelic. Tempting for some make-up work though.
 
If 1/2 or a 1/4 stop matters to you, or the job, or you're livelyhood, you'd better bracket then, nothing worse than a pile of badly exposed 5x4's.
Its like everything else, is perfect exposure the beginning and the end of a photograph, is perfect sharpness, is perfect colour ?...is anything ?
I haven't bracketed in a long time, its either perfect or it isn't, few are completely unusable.
 
Here's some more Velvia 50 I did yesterday, though I think the roll of Reala 100 I used during the same shoot turned out more successful given the conditions:

Velvia

The good:
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The bad:
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The ugly:
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These last two needed a lot of tweaking in PS to bring out any light at all!
...compared to the roll of Reala 100:

2891810099_edba3a242f_o.jpg
 
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