First crack with velvia 50

gad-westy

gad-westy

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Morning all. Just picked up 5 rolls of velvia 50 120 film for a great price. This will be my first time using it or using any slide film for that matter. So far all of my 120 film experience has been with Kodak Ektar 100 and Portra 400.

So I'm really after tips on what sort of scenes Velvia works well for and what it does't and how best to expose for it. I'll be using a Bronco SQAI with spot meter.
 
I haven't shot a huge amount of slide film but I think the most important thing is not to overexpose the highlights as they'll just blow completely. With colour negative you can expose for the shadows and let the highlights fall however they want (within reason of course) but with slide film you need to take care of the highlights.

I think that's the most important thing to remember, but there are a lot more experienced people who will give you more advice :)
 
Good skylines,good grass and buildings, all together and you will be amazed. Good luck.

Exposure is or should be spot/exact on,but, I have always had results using the camera,s meter or a hand held meter.
 
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Velvia is lovely just tricky to get right, I tend to use a hand held sekonic. Avoid shooting into the sun or with very bright elements.
blue seas on holiday are lush and also deep greens, I also love flowers on velvia.

it pretty much lives in my RB67

 
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Cheers chaps. I'm thinking I'll probably need to change what I typically shoot a tiny bit because digital sensors have lured me into a false sense of security with high contrast scenes, particularly blue hour city lights or shooting into the sun. I'm thinking velvia needs to have the sun behind me or more flat lighting. I guess several spot meter readings are the order of the day.
 
It was so long ago I can't remember when I last used slide film..but do remember that if you can't get the exposure spot on then under expose slightly. How far can you under expose slide film before the results are terrible?
 
My experience with slide, especially velvia 50, is that the shadows can be really rather dense on the resulting slide. This means that for most scanners (with the exception of drum scanners) struggle to expose the shadows correctly without blowing the highlights. I'm not sure as to the linearity of the change in density with exposure - someone who scans it more often might be able to 'shed some light' on this :D - but my point is this: The exposure needs to be spot on, ideally having spot metered from (at least) the hightlights and shadows. I personally try and put the highlights on zone 7-7.25 (based on the average of the highlight and shadow readings). If the shadows go further than zone 3, then slide is probably not the film to use unless you can grad filter the highlights. I find that to get scanable frames, tend towards placing the highlights towards (but NOT over) the max exposure to retain detail.

Just my experience :)
 
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My advice. 1. Bracket. 2. Find a good place with E6 in house. A lot of places send it away and might not tell you this.
 
RumpFace said:
My advice. 1. Bracket. 2. Find a good place with E6 in house. A lot of places send it away and might not tell you this.
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That's interesting to note. I'll check my local place but any particular lab recommendations?
 
Woodsy said:
My experience with slide, especially velvia 50, is that the shadows can be really rather dense on the resulting slide. This means that for most scanners (with the exception of drum scanners) struggle to expose the shadows correctly without blowing the highlights. I'm not sure as to the linearity of the change in density with exposure - someone who scans it more often might be able to 'shed some light' on this :D - but my point is this: The exposure needs to be spot on, ideally having spot metered from (at least) the hightlights and shadows. I personally try and put the highlights on zone 7-7.25 (based on the average of the highlight and shadow readings). If the shadows go further than zone 3, then slide is probably not the film to use unless you can grad filter the highlights. I find that to get scanable frames, tend towards placing the highlights towards (but NOT over) the max exposure to retain detail.

Just my experience :)
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Cheers Jonathon. I think I can just about grasp that. I unfortunately ditched using grads a little while ago. I can see that they would have been useful for velvia but I think I'm just going to have to me more careful about what scenes I'm shooting.
 
I like it as a film, but it is very difficult to get right. Out of the rolls I have shot, only about 10% are keepers, I tend to miss the exposure slightly and ruin a frame.

Get it right and you will be left wondering why we use digital (and why you can't wet print from it anymore).
 
Grads are of course, not a universal fix and don't work in some scenes anyway. Essentially, dress to the right is the underlying message, as this preserves as much detail in the shadow as possible. The downside of this is that careful metering is a must, as slide is incredibly unforgiving of over exposure. Personally, while I hate bracketing with a passion, roll film is relatively cheap per frame, so a bit of experimentation could be useful in the beginning.
 
Woodsy said:
Grads are of course, not a universal fix and don't work in some scenes anyway. Essentially, dress to the right is the underlying message, as this preserves as much detail in the shadow as possible. The downside of this is that careful metering is a must, as slide is incredibly unforgiving of over exposure. Personally, while I hate bracketing with a passion, roll film is relatively cheap per frame, so a bit of experimentation could be useful in the beginning.
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This is what I'm thinking. I have bought 5 rolls for £15. So 60 exposures. I think that gives me the freedom to bracket a fair bit. I'll also cheat a little and take some digital reference images.
 
be warned using the digital for reference shots as slide is much trickier as folk have said, I would shoot a test roll and make your own notes on each shot and get it devved and go from there and enjoy :-)
 
Mr Bump said:
be warned using the digital for reference shots as slide is much trickier as folk have said, I would shoot a test roll and make your own notes on each shot and get it devved and go from there and enjoy :)
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Cheers Paul. The reference shot was more in relation to assessing the scene contrast from the histogram. I can see that a lot of trial and error and copious bracketing will be the order of the day.

I am questioning my sanity somewhat as I was (and still am) perfectly happy with the forgiving Ektar 100 but Velvia always seemed to be a must at some point. Time will tell if I stick with it!
 
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Remember that the histogram on a digital camera is derived from the jpeg conversion of the raw that you've just taken (if looking at it in camera). Live view I'm not sure about. The histogram on a digital image in post will be derived from the image which has been recorded on a digital sensor; the response of which is, to a good approximation, linear. The light capture process in film is, by comparison, not linear, and the response tends to fall off towards the extremes in latitude. The best thing you can do, IMHO, is to note down the exposure meter readings of the highlights, a middle grey and the shadow and use these when considering the developed slide(s).
 
gad-westy said:
Cheers Paul. The reference shot was more in relation to assessing the scene contrast from the histogram. I can see that a lot of trial and error and copious bracketing will be the order of the day.

I am questioning my sanity somewhat as I was (and still am) perfectly happy with the forgiving Ektar 100 but Velvia always seemed to be a must at some point. Time will tell if I stick with it!
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To be honest matey don't question your sanity at all, slide film is proper lovely and a joy to play with. yes its pricey and takes time but that's film.
I use quite a bit of slide in my 35mm and even splash out on a role of provia which is £10+devving, jump straight in feet first
 
Where did you get the Velvia from if you don't mind me asking? If it's quite a good price as you say, then you might like to pop it up in the bargains thread as I'm sure that other people might like to get some (i.e. I mean me, I want to buy some :D )
 
I have had some decent results from Velvia 50. In face, I am not sure why i haven;t shot it more to be honest. Here are a couple of examples. I actually am not sure why I don't shoot it more. It can be beautiful.

And trust me, if I can do it and get O.K. results, then anyone can.

First one was metered with my iPhone, developed by Peak and then scanned at home using V550.




These two were from my trip to Iceland. Metered with a proper light meter and developed and scanned by UKFilm Lab

HOFN-20.jpg


HOFN-23.jpg


Dunno if that helps or not
 
Have you the right size hood in the 2nd shot? The car is excellent.
 
Carl Hall said:
Where did you get the Velvia from if you don't mind me asking? If it's quite a good price as you say, then you might like to pop it up in the bargains thread as I'm sure that other people might like to get some (i.e. I mean me, I want to buy some :D )
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Unfortunately a one off ebay buy it now from somebody who had it surplus. Expiry apr 2016 so I better get cracking!
 
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