First time With Slide Film

[VTHokiEE]

I purchased some expired (2003) Velvia 50 a few weeks ago. I've never shot slide film before and wanted to give it a try. I loaded my Yashica-Mat EM up with a roll on what turned out to be a very overcast and rainy day. Then dropped it off at Walmart. It took over two weeks to get my positives (whoops, wrote negatives at first) back, but here are the results. The expired film caused a magenta cast that can be seen in the images (next time I'll be buying fresh film) and I didn't expose for the highlights 🙂bang🙂 but overall I'm pretty pleased with the experience and the results.


Cocoa Cola by VTHokiEE06, on Flickr


Below the Peir by VTHokiEE06, on Flickr


Beach Chairs by VTHokiEE06, on Flickr


Beach Rentals by VTHokiEE06, on Flickr


Cone by VTHokiEE06, on Flickr


Beach Landscape by VTHokiEE06, on Flickr


Shelter by VTHokiEE06, on Flickr


Sea Oats by VTHokiEE06, on Flickr

Hope you enjoyed the set!

 

[roboflick]

Slide film is awesome. Go out and shoot more, Eky=tachrome e100g is also a nice film to try, very nice exposure latitude and pleaseing colors. Thanks for posting these!

Nik

 

[Moriturii]

Try Kodahchrome, it's amazi... oh wait :-(

 

[VTHokiEE]

Try Kodahchrome, it's amazi... oh wait :-(

Yeah, I missed the boat on that one, but so far I'm hooked. I still have to try MF C41 but this is fun.

 

[segedi]

If I had to wait 2 weeks for slide film and got negatives back, i'd be upset 🙂

Nice shots. I scanned in some old 35mm slides recently and wow, love it. For c-41 in MF, try Kodak Ektar 100. I think it's the most slide film looking of the C41's. I also like the New Porta, especially in 400 in 35mm and MF. Good stuff.

 

[FrankS]

Nice! I like the beach grass shots the best: the first for its composition, and the second for the movement blur.

 

[VTHokiEE]

If I had to wait 2 weeks for slide film and got negatives back, i'd be upset 🙂

Whoops, way too used to saying negatives. I almost wrote positive negatives somewhere...😱

 

[VTHokiEE]

Nice! I like the beach grass shots the best: the first for its composition, and the second for the movement blur.

Thanks a lot Frank, I really like the second beach grass shot a lot too. I'm think of either printing that one or the Under the Pier shot (I like the water movement in that one too, but I'm not sure about the composition...).

 

[segedi]

Whoops, way too used to saying negatives. I almost wrote positive negatives somewhere...😱

I get positive negatives sometimes. When I forget to take a lens cap off a rangefinder.

 

[segedi]

The great slide shots that I've been seeing on here make me lament that their isn't anyone processing E-6 in MF where I live... and chemicals for DIY aren't easy to find either. But I have some 30 rolls of 120 to finish off!

 

[stratcat]

Medium format slides are simply jaw-dropping. I too shot my first MF Velvia 100F roll in a Yashica Mat about 6 weeks ago and I was so astounded when I picked them up at the lab that the lady behind the counter asked if there was anything wrong with my film.

If my scanner didn't suck so bad, I'd share a couple shots from that roll that I really liked... Maybe in a couple of weeks when I get my Epson V500.

Noone develops slide film where I live either, I have to make a 40 mile trip to a big city up north to drop it off, then wait one or two weeks to be able to make the trip again and pick it up.... but it's totaly worth it! 🙂

 

[Coldkennels]

Oh, I miss using E6 in 120. I'm going to have to play with some once I have a bit of money going spare.

I really, really love that shot under the pier, but I can't place my finger on why. The blur of the water, the light, the textures... just really love it.

See if you can get your hands on some Provia 400X. I always loved that stuff in 120; unfortunately, I don't think I've got any left, but that coupled with Velvia 50 means you've got film for all occasions.

 

[VTHokiEE]

If my scanner didn't suck so bad, I'd share a couple shots from that roll that I really liked... Maybe in a couple of weeks when I get my Epson V500.

These were all scanned with the V500, not a bad scanner for 120 and usable for 35mm. I'm pretty happy with it.

 

[VTHokiEE]

Oh, I miss using E6 in 120. I'm going to have to play with some once I have a bit of money going spare.

I really, really love that shot under the pier, but I can't place my finger on why. The blur of the water, the light, the textures... just really love it.

See if you can get your hands on some Provia 400X. I always loved that stuff in 120; unfortunately, I don't think I've got any left, but that coupled with Velvia 50 means you've got film for all occasions.

Thanks a lot (I think I might look for a good crop and print the shot under the Pier, I just keep coming back to it); I'll look out for Provia 400X.

 

[HHPhoto]

Yeah slide film is awesome!
A unique medium, unsurpassed.
Color brillance, sharpness, resolution. Slide film is the master class of colour photography.

My recommendation for significantly improving both your technical quality and your joy:

1. Buy a light table (with day-light balanced light) and an excellent medium format slide loupe. Best picture quality, no visible quality loss, even an almost three-dimensional viewing effect.

I can highly recommend the Schneider 3x medium format loupe: Best sharpness and resolution, no chromatic abberrations, no distortion, changeable foot and therefore usable both for slides and prints.
It's the best medium format loupe on the market.
Picture quality is much better than scans with an V500.

And of course, a light table and the Schneider loupe are also excellent for evaluating your negatives.

2. Well, by far best of all: Project your medium format slides. That is a league of its own! You will be blown away.
Slide projection is the field on which film has still the biggest advantages compared to digital (even the most expensive 10,000€ beamers have only ridiculous low resolution of nearly 2 MP).

And what you should try as well. BW slides. They have their own charme, different to prints, more brillant and with unique tonality.

There are about ten professional labs in Europe doing BW slides (most of them in Germany), if you need a list.....
In US there is only dr5.
I don't know for Asia. Australia there is one, the lighthouse lab.

Cheers, Jan

 

[stratcat]

These were all scanned with the V500, not a bad scanner for 120 and usable for 35mm. I'm pretty happy with it.

Excellent! Thanks, this is reassuring to read. Did it take long in postprocessing to get that quality?

I too like the shot under the pier.

 

[VTHokiEE]

1. Buy a light table (with day-light balanced light) and an excellent medium format slide loupe. Best picture quality, no visible quality loss, even an almost three-dimensional viewing effect.

I can highly recommend the Schneider 3x medium format loupe: Best sharpness and resolution, no chromatic abberrations, no distortion, changeable foot and therefore usable both for slides and prints.
It's the best medium format loupe on the market.
Picture quality is much better than scans with an V500.

And of course, a light table and the Schneider loupe are also excellent for evaluating your negatives.

I'm very new to film and even newer to medium format and I'm not sure I fully understand this suggestion. Is the loupe for focusing or for viewing the slides on the light table? I guess I'm not sure how with a light table and a loupe I get the image on the computer (and I feel somewhat embarrassed that I don't understand what you're suggesting).

I am interested in projecting the slides that sounds really cool.

 

[VTHokiEE]

Excellent! Thanks, this is reassuring to read. Did it take long in postprocessing to get that quality?

I too like the shot under the pier.

I applied some sharpening and a curves layer (to correct the magenta cast due to the film being expired). Probably 3-5 minutes per image at most (the slides I forgot to scan with Silverfast took a little longer to remove the dust, but that's my fault).

 

[Moriturii]

I'm very new to film and even newer to medium format and I'm not sure I fully understand this suggestion. Is the loupe for focusing or for viewing the slides on the light table? I guess I'm not sure how with a light table and a loupe I get the image on the computer (and I feel somewhat embarrassed that I don't understand what you're suggesting).

I am interested in projecting the slides that sounds really cool.

Yea he means you put the medium format slide images on the light table, and lean over them and view them through the loupe and just look, and be blown away. If you want to have them in the computer you have to scan as usual of course, this is just for immediate viewing and deciding what to pick and choose for scanning and whatnot.

 

[stratcat]

I have seen my MF slides with an 8x loupe... it's simply amazing. As someone mentioned above, some of them give a sort of 3D effect (due to depth of field effects, I think)