Fuji Velvia 50 does My Little Town

[minoltaman]

Hello Sid! Thanks for putting it all in perspective concerning slide film. One time I went to Italy years ago, I bought some film not realizing it was actually slide film.....those were the days I just wasn't photographically knowledgeable about films......any way when I got back to the States and went to get them developed, they told me it's gonna take 10 days to get them back! I didn't have a scanner back then, so I had them make prints. The prints looked fantastic!! I found out later that the place I took my rolls for processing actually sent them directly to Kodak for processing. I really should scan some of those shots from Italy and France I have in my albums.

As for Bryant Park, yes, a total oasis in the middle of the Urban Jungle. In the summer they have movie nights and it's almost like an old drive-in movie, except no cars, just people on blankets drinking wine.

Did you know that the library there has vaults underneath Bryant Park where many archives are kept? One day, I'd like to get down there to see it, although it's not open to the public. Artifacts from George Washington's letters to Abraham Lincoln's personal items, to other incredible objects from all over the world.

[Peter S.]

Tommy,

I know Your feeling on that ISO50 Velvia all too well! I think by myself that Velvia requires a bit
of a feeling for the film. Maybe I can give You some hints - although I do admit that I put Velvia
100F more often into the camera than the original RVP. RVP (ISO 50) was unavailable for quite
some time as far as I heared due to the discontinuation of some supply for it.

But back on the film: a well exposed Velvia can't be beat by any film I know (I never had the
change to use some ISO 25 or 64 Ektrachrome by Kodak - sorry for that) - if exposed right.
My rule of thumb is:

- I expose to ISO 50 if I feel there were not too much contrast in the frame. Caveat with
polarizers: in landscapes they tend to increase the contrast.
Exposing it like that (i.e. exposing it on the edge to underexposure) means that the color
saturation becomes really very large.

- I expose it to ISO 40 (or even a bit more) if I fear, a subject might become corrupted by that
Velvia effect. In my experience Velvia is far less subject to overexposure than to underexposure.

I read by a few photographers that they use to expose it to ISO 40 all the time. This started
my experimenting that led to my procedures explained here. Daves fabulous picture of that
creek is a perfect example of this a perfect exposure. You're first two images suffer a bit from
the large contrast into this scene. Here a less contrasty film (Fuji Astia is great but difficult to
get hold of, or Kodak either E100G or Elite Chrome EB-3) would have given You a better
result (at least one, where the dark area's weren't that dark - judging about this is not due
to me - I hope You are not angry on my frank words). On the downtown image with the
reflected mirrored image of the skyscraper things are different: here the heavy contrast is
very good, as it results in a bigger emphasis of the skyscraper - IMHO a perfect exposure.

In the end I have to say: One should do more bracketing with Velvia (I am a victim of this
silly shortfall, too. Believe me). On the other hand: only 10 good exposures on a roll of Velvia
outrule 36 good exposures on an ordinary film - they have a magic touch. Maybe it would be
best to get used to carry two bodies with one - one loaded with Velvia and one with a less
critical film.

I have a couple of good Velvia images - but they are already posted here somewhere. For
Your convenience some of them are here:

www.serbe.ch/~peter/pics1/Abendgras_2006-12-30.jpg

www.serbe.ch/~peter/pics1/Glitzersee_2006-12-30.jpg

www.serbe.ch/~peter/pics1/See2_2006-12-30.jpg



I have a few with exposures troubles, too:

www.serbe.ch/~peter/pics1/Meersburg_2006-12-30.jpg

www.serbe.ch/~peter/radtap/wb01_stauberen.jpg

www.serbe.ch/~peter/radtap/wb05_kreuzberge.jpg

www.serbe.ch/~peter/radtap/wb11_kreuzberge.jpg

Of course I tried to fix the issue in PS - but no way: only a good exposure is able to deliver
the full possible quality.

Anyway I got a Velvia in my camera currently. And I have not bracketed it... (it is easier to give
advice than following it :-( ).

Best regards
Peter

PS: I am very glad You posted these images - and I'm also glad, that we got another slide film
fan here. And Velvia counts twice ;-)

[GeneW]

Peter, it sounds fussy. I'm almost afraid to try the roll of Velvia 50 that's in my fridge. How does Velvia look on overcast days? Does it handle the contrast better?

Gene

[Peter S.]

Dear Gene,

I am sorry I explained my point not clear enough. Velvia is IMHO the film that allows to create the
most magnificent photographs - it is only a bit critical when it comes to exposure. What I tried to
explain is this: a small underexposure is even increasing the boldness of its colors. Against that
a small overexposure tends to decrease the contrast of the film a bit.

It seems that the film is rated a bit on the underexposure side, and for me this explains, why
quite a few renowned photographers state using it at ISO 40.

Another thing to consider is the fact, that Velvia is extremely good on delivering differentiated
green and blue hues. Therefore it works perfect on scenery with an overall tendency to cold
hues. Using it for warm hues can be interesting, but there is a serious chance that the colors
don't look very natural. I took for example this image of a sunset:



The contrast was high, which Velvia can't handle very well - so the landscape and the silhouette
of the tree is black. But that's fine here. I hope this explains how I come to this ambivalent
statements on the film.

Another point is due to the warm hues of the sky one usually sees on sunset. You may clearly
see that the sky is driven to violett hues. While this may look great (and it is really intense
in its color) it is still not the most natural way a film could exhibit.

So coming back to contrast: Velvia works pretty steep. The statement, that it is critical to exposure
alone indicates, that it won't handle large contrast very well. Thus when You try to avoid washed
out highlights, then You will bet black shadows when the contrast of Your subject is high.

On overcast it may be fine, since the light on the subject is soft - as long as You don't got the white
overcast sky in the frame. Or You can live with a washed out sky in Your picture (I'm not able to
know about this). The least critical situation for Velvia is however blue sky and a front lit subject.
Just like the creek image from Dave. One would not think of this type of light as being optimum
when shooting negative film as it is said to be boring (flat + little contrast). But this is not true
for Velvia, as it usually lives from its color rendition.

I would by all mean not leave that film in the fridge. One might however need a few rolls to get
the feeling for it. My point is to know the strengths and weaknesses of it - then it is the best
film ever :-) !

Best regards
Peter

[minoltaman]

Peter!! Thank you for your account of Velvia 50 and I don't mind at all any critique of my shots...I'm happy to have your feedback and I thank you for that!! It helps to know that when shooting Velvia it's better to expose to ISO 40. This was my first time shooting Velvia 50. My Minolta Maxxum doesn't allow me to "pull" because the ISO is automatically set. I would have to use my X700 or XG1 for the next roll, I suppose and just set the ISO to 40. Does this sound OK?

Thank you for the compliment on my Chrysler Building photo.

I shot that whole roll of film with a polarizer on my lens.

I had received 2 rolls of Velvia 50 for free from Fuji when I went to the NYC PDN Photo Exhibition several months ago. I still have 1 roll left, so I will shoot it without the polarizer and realize that the film is less subject to overexposure than underexposure.

I am so used to shooting color negative film where overexposure is such an issue. Shooting Velvia 50 requires that one understand that underexposure is a very big issue! Thanks for explaining that!

But I must say this: the examples of your photos that you claim had exposure problems are beautiful shots!! If I had shots like that, I'd be happier than a pig rolling in mud! Those are dramatic shots!

I can't wait to see more of your shots and thank you for contributing to this forum, your tips are very much appreciated.

[Peter S.]

Hi Tommy,

yes, setting the camera to ISO 40 should be a good idea. (this brings me down to the ubiquitious comment that the layout and the definition of the control elements of those old manual focus Minolta cameras was nothing less than perfect - they do (almost) everything one wants in the way it is expected to be. Maybe other brands were similar. Modern cam usually aren't like that :-( ).

You're Chrysler Building photograph is exceptional!

And You are right with the general rule, that negative film usually should not be underexposed and positive film usually should not be overexposed. IIRC the reason for that is that a completely black film (i.e. overexposed positive or underexposed negative) shows traces of the object while a completely white film lost all information.

Velvia seems to be an exception from that rule. But this may simply due to the fact, that the optimum exposure is more towards ISO40 than at ISO 50.

I am happy to help with the tips for Velvia. While I think I am still pretty new in amateur photography I already shot a couple of dozen rolls of Velvia film. So I am just reporting my efforts get the best out of that film. Tomorrow I get back the next two - hopefully showing the mountainscape from my last skiing day.

Btw I have the polarizer on the lens for most of my landscape images. But with Velvia one needs to be very careful not to overdo its effect as the Velvia film works in the same direction than the polarizer (i.e. increasing contrast).

Best regards
Peter