Velvia 50 advice

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whit

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Hi

I need abit of advice please, I have just got a F5 an a few rolls of Velvia 50. I have never shot slides before in fact never shot any film before. Apart from the slower speeds and bracketing do I need to look out for problems.

Whit
 
Nice camera, I picked up an F4 a little while ago and it's brilliant so much camera for not much money. One of the main things to remember is that slide film doesn't have the exposure latitude of print or b&w film so take extra care if you're using manual settings.
 
Nope...

Just have to be spot on with exposure, slide is a bit unforgiving, half a stop is the only slack you have.
Exposures over 1 second are subject to a reciprocity factor and colour casts after 15 or so seconds.

:)
 
Thanks for the helpful comments, I am looking forward to playing and having to be more accurate with exposures rather than taking the attitude that it is close enough and I will sort it later.

Also looking forward to shooting b/w as I never seem to be able to be able to get the same tonal range with Lightroom.
:thumbs:
 
Take a tripod whenever you can.
 
Remember to remember the subject brightness range of the scene you are shooting. If it's over about 4.5 stops with new Velvia you will have blown highlights or full shadows. You can choose which one normally, or you can carry grads, but it's worth noting.

Also remember to have fun and it's not the end of the world if it goes wrong, there's plenty more film around
 
You need to be more careful of the highlights than the shadows.
Expose for the highlights and just let the shadows block up, rather than over exposing the highlights. Always works better.

Velvia is a little slow, you could rate it at 40 provided you then do as above. I used spot metering on the F5 more often than not. If you have a pretty evenly lit scene the matrix metering will be just about cock on. Landscapes will appreciate a bit of -ve comp, because the scene may be evenly lit, but generally darker shades.
 
Lensflare said:
You need to be more careful of the highlights than the shadows.
Expose for the highlights and just let the shadows block up, rather than over exposing the highlights. Always works better.
Click to expand...

I've had big problems with this technique - shots tend to come out very dark. I always find the best way of shooting Velvia 50 and even Velvia 100 is to use a grad filter and expose for the shadows. This is my rule of thumb for landscape shots where there's big areas of contrast.

Of course if you're working in a more controlled lighting environment, exposing spot on becomes less of a problem :thumbs:
 
I have ruined a few 100f shots by exposing for the sky, when I say ruined I mean rendered them.....unscannable, and there in lies the monkey with the cheesy grin.
I'm sure they are perfectly acceptable projected on a wall or printed, its them there scanners man, they just don't cut the custard....:(
 
I hear ya - they can look good on a lightbox, but after scanning on <insert cheap flatbed scanner name here>, you're horrified by big black images with a little sliver of very nice sky. Bought the t-shirt :thumbsdown:
 
I have some shots of Tornado, the Flying Scotsman clone in a little retro 20's station on the NY moors, with fabulous sky and very little train, the slide looks great the scan is baba.

I wuz gutted about those....:shake:


wtp9u.jpg


10zctxc.jpg


2mfenwh.jpg
 
is there a way to over expose the scan joxby

to scan once for shadow tones and once for highlights?
 
I've also tried over-exposing the slide when scanning, but you can see the results with that last scan of joxby's - noise city and very little in the way of detail. B&W and print retain a lot more details in the shadows.

Here's a shot I took of the Thames Barrier at sunset which would have been perfect if I'd used a grad filter, put the camera on a tripod and exposed for the dark rocky area on the bottom right. Instead I thought I'd play it cool and do some hand-held 35mm work 5-minutes before pitch black darkness with a roll of Velvia 50 :cuckoo: Amateur hour indeed :clap:

4248861567_6aea4cba8e_o.jpg
 
I know it sounds nuts but have you tried one of the slide carriers that goes in front of an dslr, then you can meter for the shadows and not have to worry about digital noise?
 
Slide carrier? Do you mean a cokin P square grad filter? If that's what you mean then yes, this would be my preferred way of shooting slide landscapes :)
 
david1701 said:
I know it sounds nuts but have you tried one of the slide carriers that goes in front of an dslr, then you can meter for the shadows and not have to worry about digital noise?
Click to expand...

Do you mean something like this?

http://www.keene.co.uk/electronics/multi.php?mycode=SLIDE


I had something similar for my film camera in the 70's and wasn't that impressed, although that may have been the cr*p Truprint film I was trying to copy from.

I've not seen any results from the newer digital ones though.
 
Its slide copying, yep I've tried it and no its no better because we are using the same hardware...a digital sensor.
There isn't as much noise slide copying with a dslr, but the same problems with dynamic range still exist when slide copying, as shooting a real scape.
You can arse about in photoshop with layers/hdr if you want, but I'd rather stick pins in my eyes.
I just accept that we can't easily reproduce the contents of a slide accurately as a digital file, but they can still look the equal of digital images.:)

I should have used an ND grad, which means we would actually modify exposure when the frame is intended to be scanned....which is more than slightly poop if yer ask me, do we shoot for the print.....or a scan...:thinking:
 
hmmmm If they looks good on the lightbox in theory they should look exactly the same digitally if you use a camera and do it manually :S
 
I can't make a photograph or scan of a 6x6 frame of Velvia 100f, look like what I see when it is placed on a light box.
What is this "theory" you speak of.....:lol:
 
david1701 said:
hmmmm If they looks good on the lightbox in theory they should look exactly the same digitally if you use a camera and do it manually :S
Click to expand...

Negative Dave. When the slide is on the lightbox your eyes and brain are doing their own little HDR on it the same as when you're outside taking the pic. The camera/scanner sensor just can't cut it. Not in one sweep anyway, and I'm like Joxby when it comes to avoiding potatoshop if possible.
 
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