Help with slide film exposure

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ujjwaldey8165

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I know many here are very proficient in using slide films - even amongst those who now use digital exclusively.

I have just started to use slide films - done a total of 12 rolls.

I just got back 5 rolls of Velvia 100F and I have a problem with about 30% of the exposures.

First, 4 were used in Contax G1 and 1 in Minolta 505Si
Both camera use centre weighted metering. No over/underexposure was set. Most metering were done by putting the subject in the centre and the camera metering the scene. I do films exactly the same way - and never had a problem.

Development was done by Peak.

Now the problem is - large number of them have a red cast - as if a warm up filter has been used. Its most pronounced in the portraight - especially the tight portraits. The problem is also there in scenes landscapes with sky in it - especuially on dull overcast days.

I had the same problem with my first roll, but the last batch of 2 rolls of Sensia developed by Peak and 5 rolls of Sensia developed by Fuji process paid didn't have the problem.

My question are

1. Is the cast due to the film
2. Is the red cast due to under exposure?
3. I know slide exposure is more critical. Is there a better technique to do it? Like over exposing by 1 stop when the sky is in the scene; or spot metering for the fore ground; or something else
4. Why is the red cast more pronounced in portraits, even when its a tight portrait ( i.e the face covering about 70% of the frame

Any help/ tricks and tips/ caution/ pointers will be greatly appreciated.
 
Your using Velvia, thats the reason for the red cast. It notorious for taking colours and oversaturating them greatly, especially greens, oranges and reds.
In the sky it might be due to a slight colour in the sky being oversaturated and hence becoming more predominate, but with portraits the reason for the red cast is that it oversaturates pinkish skin tones so they look red, Velvia of any sort is unsuitable for portraits really but you can use Velvia 100 (not 100f) at a pinch. At least you didn't use Velvia 50, portraits look like the person has just got the worst worst case of sunburn ever or like their on mars.

On the 505si did you select centre weighted metering as by default it uses multi/matrix metering? Centre weighted is only used if a non AF lens is used.

I shoot a lot of slide films and in my experience I have not ever really had to do anything special concerning the metering. With Velvia though yes, colours tend to become much more saturated when underexposed half a stop to the extent that it looks almost unnatural. This could be the cause of the red cast.
 
I've definitely noticed a magenta-ish caste to under-exposed shots on Velvia. Manifests itself in purple-ish skys, and as you noticed, a distinct red tone to skin on portraits. I tend to shoot velvia 100 rated at 80 in the A-1, just to give myself a extra 1/3 stop of a kick. With the EOS, I'll dial in a +2/3 stop compensation, and tend to bracket anything important + and - 1/3ev, so I've actually got +1/3,+2/3 and +1ev to pick from.

I think that the pink is more noticeable on fleshtones, primarilly because we as humans are programmed to be able to distinguish natural fleshtones (sunbed tangerine blondes notwithstanding!) so any colourcast just jumps out at us.
 
Rick : they are developed and mounted by peak. No scanning. I could do a home scanning - but I guess the scanning will introduce its own distortion.

Samuel : That makes sense. Funnily, the sky came out great in most shots - its the building , especially the cotswold stone building which got this unnatural cast. Particularly if the sun was not shining on it. Oh, and I was using matrix metering for 505, for G1 it was centre weighted. Si is Velvia 100F for landscapes? They are labelled professional, so I was guessing they were high quality stuff. Now I have got 20 of them stocked up....lol

Mark : So adding 1 stop should be Ok for most cases, isn't it. Unless I am spot measuring. I think the Indian skin ( i.e darker and more matte ( if you get the drift) makes the colour cast much worse. Comes our deep maroon.

So Sensia looks like a better general purpose slide film. Whats the application for velvia?
 
Ah bugger. I got to offload some of my Velvia then...just got 20 rolls ( the cheaper out of date ones)from 7 dayshop and put them in the freezer.

The strange thing is - white garments, white shirt etc, came out beautiful dazzling white.
 
Velvia 100F is my go to for any kind of scape, in fact its all I use.
It is warm but there is no colour cast, it renders pastels with a little oompff, but nothing is pink that should be sandstone in colour.
Velvia is not good for skin tones at all..
 
You could look at Provia for portraits. I'll be ordering a bunch for street portraits in China. I find it gives great skin tones and contrast. You can push it with good results too
 
Ah John, you are the master then. Please can you give me a few tips on how you meter the scene. I was going over the slides. The worse are the ones with overcast sky and sky in top 30% of the frame. Are there any circumstances where I should avoid using it. What should I be careful about? Any metering tips?

TBH Rick, I am looking for a more general purpose film. I use them usually on the weekend when I go out with the family; and the shots are a mix of landscape, building (for memory), portrait ( for memory) and attempt to nice portraits. So its really general photography for me, I'm afraid

Mark: when I send you the negatives, i could send you a few slides for you to have a look and tell me whats going on
 
Provia might be a better slide film to use than Sensia, I find Sensia fine for general purpose stuff but it is not the sharpest film in the world for one reason, its the old last generation before the current Astia emulsion. If you do get Sensia I wouldn't bother with the 200 or 400. The 100 is good but the 200 is quite soft in my experience and very dull looking and the 400 is quite grainy. I personally would not underate Velvia by more than half a stop personally though.
 
It doesn't need any special metering, just the usual bright sky dark land compensations with a grad or something.
It responds best in good light, I wouldn't shoot many scapes in overcast conditions but its great for night in that reciprocity levels are much better than velvia 50.
For slide portraits I'd use some Astia or Provia even Reala c41 probably..:)
 
joxby said:
just the usual bright sky dark land compensations with a grad or something.
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Right, on this point. I really dont know 'the usual', John; please treat me as a 10 years old and clarify. Sorry to ask you for more details - but really i am a beginner; any help is a great help

Samuel : when you say underrate - do you mean over expose? Sorry about asking elementary questions
 
ujjwaldey8165 said:
Right, on this point. I really dont know 'the usual', John; please treat me as a 10 years old and clarify. Sorry to ask you for more details - but really i am a beginner; any help is a great help
Click to expand...


Well, a bright sky can trick your camera metering in to under exposing the land, a grad is half an ND filter, it only attenuates the light in the top half of the frame (which will be the sky) allowing longer exposures of the bottom half.
If I don't have a grad I will avoid situations where the land/subject is not lit by the sun, and/or I have to shoot in to the sun without blocking it partially with say the branch of a tree or something.
 
ujjwaldey8165 said:
Samuel : when you say underrate - do you mean over expose? Sorry about asking elementary questions
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By that I mean overexposing by reducing the ISO the meter is set to by 1/2 a stop so rate the 100f at 80.

ujjwaldey8165 said:
Dear O dear....

20 of them, process paid, sits in my freezer...
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Its not bad stuff but like all ISO 400 slide film it is fairly grainy. TBH print film is much better above ISO 200 as theres much less grain. Just shoot it and have some fun with it.
 
ujjwaldey8165 said:
Ah bugger. I got to offload some of my Velvia then...just got 20 rolls ( the cheaper out of date ones)from 7 dayshop and put them in the freezer.

The strange thing is - white garments, white shirt etc, came out beautiful dazzling white.
Click to expand...

You did right putting them in the freezer, but be sure to let them warm gradually when you take them out. Do you know how they were stored at 7dayshop? Were they refridgerated? Velvia is a pro film and thus sensitive to improper storage over a period of time - and these are out of date. Could be some of the problem and a colour cast would be typical.

Velvia is a fine film for landscapes (I always rated Velvia 50 at ISO 40) but as has already been said it is far from ideal for portraits. Why not load one camera with Velvia for landscapes and one with a colour negative film for portraits/general stuff?
 
I am pretty sure 7DS stores them properly.

However, the ones I have just used, and was talking about , were in-date films.

I guess i could use 2 cameras, but that just makes it more inconvenient.

Now that I know its the film characterestics, I will be more careful.
 
for what it's worth I shot a roll of the OOD velvia from the 7DS selloff yesterday, and it was fine - no traces of colour problems from storage etc. Can't post anything i'm afraid as it was a paid job for someone, but I'm happy with 'em, and so was the client (y)
 
goldenlight said:
You did right putting them in the freezer, but be sure to let them warm gradually when you take them out.
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According to Kodak, 35mm film refrigerated at 13 degrees should be left for an hour to warm up, at and 2 degrees for an hour and a quarter. When frozen at -18 degrees or below, then its an hour and half.

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/consumer/products/techInfo/e30/e30.pdf

Generally with me I freeze my film as theres always plenty of space in the top draw. It does get annoying though when my mum finds it and moves it elsewhere in the freezer. I tend to leave mine for a couple of hours to warm up.
 
I tend to get frozen film out of the freezer the day before, and leave to thaw in the 'fridge overnight. Then remove from fridge a couple of hours before shooting.
 
I just scanned and put up a few shots from the Velvia Rolls.

The colours are fantastic when the exposure is right. Just need to be careful about what i actually use it for, I guess.
 
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