my observations on slide films

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ujjwaldey8165

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I have exposed 21 rolls of slide films in the last few weeks; and I was going though them today. The films I have used are velvia 100F, Sensia 100, Sensia 400 and 1 kodachrome elite. I view the slides on a Rollei projector.

As a background; I have been seriously practising photography the last few months - began the journey about 18 months back. In the first year or so, I was going through the gear-mania; buying and using camera each month. More focused on the camera than the photographs. I began to calm down :D only recently, and began to focus on the photographs. This is the first time I have used slide.

I am saying this more to see whether I am getting it all wrong; or you broadly agree with some of the observations

1. Slides look much better when there is bright sunshine in the shot. The ones with no bright sunlight are dull; and lacks the punch.

2. Its better to avoid bright sun and dark shades in the same shot - film does that better than slides.

3. Each camera lightmeter is slightly different - my 2 contaxes are 1 stop apart. Its critical to calibrate the metering to one camera, since slide is less tolerant to underexposure

4. Natural light Portraits come out better in films than slides. The skin imperfections show much stronger in slides; and if the slide is underexposed even by a stop, the skin colour goes wonky. Its better to overexpose portraits than underexpose by a stop. ( I am going to try Provia as soon as I finsh the roll in the contax to see how that behaves)

5. Velvia need to be overexposed 2/3 stop to get good skin colour; but landscapes come out better when exposed to the rated ISO.

6. The metering should be done on the shadows - oterwise the shadows just become dark blobs.

7. Slides come out either right or wrong, very few are in the OK category.

8. While taking portraits, its best avoid bright backgrounds - such as water bodies. I took a few with the sea as a background, and exposed for the face. The sea washed out, and the skin tone came out fine. But when watchingthe slides, the light from the background is so bright, the eyes cant focus on the face properly.

I am sure there are hints and tips that can improve the shots enormously; and experienced slide users have their own techniques.

It will be great if you can share a few of them.
 
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I've shot slide film for over 30yrs now. In the old days (!) I shot mainly Kodachrome 200 and 64 which I found quite forgiving as far as exposure went. I always shot with a TTL meter and had no problems, really, at all with exposure.

The modern slide films I find very fickle. So much so, that I've invested in a Pentax Spotmeter V which I now find invaluable. Velvia 50 is particularly tricky to get spot on.

I don't really exposure for the shadows, but I take a reading from the darkest detailed shadow, assume that will be -2 stops, assuming there are some average exposed areas too, and that now seems to work for me.
 
I think you could make a case for everyone of those observations, some are absolutely true some are perfectly acceptable opinions based on experience thus far.
The one that's missing is the one thing that only slide can do, and that is to be something awesomely beautiful in its own right exactly as it exists, without scanners, prints or projectors.

:D
 
Iain : Can you please explain what you really mean when you say fickle? Do you mean the same slide film respond different from different batch; or you mean they have less latitude, or something different

Joxby : It will be a great help if you could please point out which are absolutely true, and which are true only in a limited way. Also, if you guys have any additional observations / pointers, it'll be very helpful for me.

Its absolutely true Joxer, when the exposure is correct, and the slide is projected on the screen, its a beauty to behold. And its the best argument against digital photoshop - the claim that photographs were always processed in the old days.

Problem for me is, I cant remember the exposure settings - and writing notes ( or a databack) are not helpful either, since mounted slides dont come with numbers. So I have to go by memory most of the time, and that is difficult to work from when I am developing 4 rolls at a time.
 
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I would mostly agree. Not tried shooting people with Velvia, in fact when I have Velvia loaded I actively avoid shooting people, so your observation there might be worth attempted repeats.

Regarding your observation about the need for bright sunshine, I think the key here is that slides need to be shots of things that are well-lit. I find all slide films I have tried do especially well with warm sunlight. I also find slides can look ok on a less sunny day as long as there is plenty of light still and they are exposed correctly of course. I try not to shoot slides on overcast days.

Oh, I must also implore you to try shooting Agfa Precisa! It really is my favourite general-purpose slide film :)
 
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ujjwaldey8165 said:
...I am saying this more to see whether I am getting it all wrong; or you broadly agree with some of the observations

1. Slides look much better when there is bright sunshine in the shot. The ones with no bright sunlight are dull; and lacks the punch.

I'd probably say with a strongly defined light, rather than necessarily bright - it does seem to come out dull on the bright but flat grey day's we've had this july. Conversely, i've had great stuff from golden hour / sunset stuff (not often awake for sunrise :LOL:)

2. Its better to avoid bright sun and dark shades in the same shot - film does that better than slides.

Pretty much down to keeping the dynamic range of the shot within the capabilities of the slide film, as it's the finished object, there's no scope for ou of bounds recovery, so Yep (y)

3. Each camera lightmeter is slightly different - my 2 contaxes are 1 stop apart. Its critical to calibrate the metering to one camera, since slide is less tolerant to underexposure

Definitely - there's around 1/3 of a stop difference between my EOS3 and the A1, but it's taken me a few rolls to establish this. Fortunately, as my EOS-3 is tied up with the last roll of Kodachrome, I've scrounged a spare EOS-3 from my mates matched pair. It's important to take some time with a camera, and learn it's little differences. We're not using brand new, recently computer adjusted stuff here - even my trusty EOS-3 is over 10 years old - plenty of scope for variations to creep in. So we have to provide the final layer of calibration.

4. Natural light Portraits come out better in films than slides. The skin imperfections show much stronger in slides; and if the slide is underexposed even by a stop, the skin colour goes wonky. Its better to overexpose portraits than underexpose by a stop. ( I am going to try Provia as soon as I finsh the roll in the contax to see how that behaves)

Not my field i'm afraid - i'll leave this to experts...;)

5. Velvia need to be overexposed 2/3 stop to get good skin colour; but landscapes come out better when exposed to the rated ISO.

I use Velvia 100 rated at 80 in the A-1, but just run it straight in the EOS-3 and trust the metering. As before, no comments on skintones - if theres people in one of my shots it's probably not a keeper anyway :LOL:

6. The metering should be done on the shadows - otherwise the shadows just become dark blobs.

As I said, I try whenever possible to shoot with the EOS, and trust the appropriate metering, adding exposure compensation +/- as appropriate. Though I have to add, I do bracket shots quite often - film stock's cheap - going back again in the right weather is expensive.

7. Slides come out either right or wrong, very few are in the OK category.

Absoloutely - even more so for projection rather than digitising...

8. While taking portraits, its best avoid bright backgrounds - such as water bodies. I took a few with the sea as a background, and exposed for the face. The sea washed out, and the skin tone came out fine. But when watching the slides, the light from the background is so bright, the eyes cant focus on the face properly.

More people comments.... I'll get my coat now :LOL:

I am sure there are hints and tips that can improve the shots enormously; and experienced slide users have their own techniques.

It will be great if you can share a few of them.
Click to expand...
 
ujjwaldey8165 said:
Iain : Can you please explain what you really mean when you say fickle?
Click to expand...

What I meant was that almost every roll of slide film these days seems to be a challenge, and again, particularly Velvia 50.

I can shoot a whole roll where every shot is (in my opinion) a stunner, or I can shoot a roll where I ruin every shot, underexposed normally!!

It's down to very precise metering, which is why I rely on the Spotmeter V.
 
Agree with most of that. I always spot meter (I find the T90's spot metering to be accurate and consistent on both bodies) for slide and usually bracket a whole stop both ways if possible.
 
ujjwaldey8165 said:
I am saying this more to see whether I am getting it all wrong; or you broadly agree with some of the observations

1. Slides look much better when there is bright sunshine in the shot. The ones with no bright sunlight are dull; and lacks the punch.

HMM yes no to that. Velvia or any of the Fuji slide films I would agree with. However I find the Kodak Extachromes to work better in this light and don't give the flat look.

2. Its better to avoid bright sun and dark shades in the same shot - film does that better than slides.

You could try metering for the mid-tones which may help out or use a polarizer. However again with Velvia I found that using it in that situation the shadows would block up like mad and it and make it tricky to scan so I stopped using it.

3. Each camera lightmeter is slightly different - my 2 contaxes are 1 stop apart. Its critical to calibrate the metering to one camera, since slide is less tolerant to underexposure

Yep, same with hand held meters

4. Natural light Portraits come out better in films than slides. The skin imperfections show much stronger in slides; and if the slide is underexposed even by a stop, the skin colour goes wonky. Its better to overexpose portraits than underexpose by a stop. ( I am going to try Provia as soon as I finsh the roll in the contax to see how that behaves)

Don't know not tried it for ages, last time I did any portrait stuff with slides was when Agfachrome was around, many years ago

5. Velvia need to be overexposed 2/3 stop to get good skin colour; but landscapes come out better when exposed to the rated ISO.

Always rated my Velvia 50 @ 64 worked for me any how

6. The metering should be done on the shadows - oterwise the shadows just become dark blobs.

Must try this, normally I just use an incident reading or go with what the camera says.

7. Slides come out either right or wrong, very few are in the OK category.

Yep :LOL:

8. While taking portraits, its best avoid bright backgrounds - such as water bodies. I took a few with the sea as a background, and exposed for the face. The sea washed out, and the skin tone came out fine. But when watchingthe slides, the light from the background is so bright, the eyes cant focus on the face properly.

Again try incident meter reading or picking a mid tone and metering for that or bracket. I am sure they must be away around this :thinking:

I am sure there are hints and tips that can improve the shots enormously; and experienced slide users have their own techniques.

As you may have found slide film has different characteristics, even when it is made by the same manufacturer. It took me a while to find and like the Kodak Extachromes but I love the way that are more balanced towards the red/blue end of the spectrum. Suits how I do things. Think all the slide images on my flickr are Kodak.

It will be great if you can share a few of them.

For the cost of a coffee and big cake :LOL:
Click to expand...
 
4. Natural light Portraits come out better in films than slides. The skin imperfections show much stronger in slides; and if the slide is underexposed even by a stop, the skin colour goes wonky. Its better to overexpose portraits than underexpose by a stop. ( I am going to try Provia as soon as I finsh the roll in the contax to see how that behaves)

I just shot a roll of provia, there's a portrait in there too (posted here). It's my favourite slide film so far.
 
I use Velvia 50 /100 majority of times, although now trialing Sensia 100 as well on old Oly OM4 ti typically using TTL.

My subjects are landscape / wildlife so not able to comment on people portraits.

With landscapes I do find that where you have wide dynamic range between your highlights and shadows then slide will struggle. This has led me to look into using a hand held exposure meter along with using ND grads to reduce highlight blow out.

Things being worked on at moment include looking to calibrate the film to the camera (reading up on this now) and using the camera's spot meter & highlights/shadows features.

Been filming now for 4 years, still learning and still loving it. The punch of slide when you get it right - Cant beat it.
 
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