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- Ujjwal
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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 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.
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 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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