First time With Slide Film

[VTHokiEE]

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.

Thanks for clearing that up. I'll have to look into it. With my own eyes I think I see more detail in the film, this would be very neat (and wow light tables aren't cheap from my quick look at b&h).

 

[Sarcophilus Harrisii]

I don't think the exposures look too bad really. If you take the pic under the jetty as an example, sure, the highlights in the distance are blown out; but this simply reflects the limited dynamic range Velvia can handle compared to many neg films. It is the reality of shooting tranny. The alternative in that scenario is you expose for the highlights and have a sea of blackness/dark shadows in the majority of your shot.

It's true, certainly, that the advice to expose for the highlights is frequently going to be the best option for tranny, as blown highlights are often unappealing; but this will not necessarily always be the case. From a creative point of view, there is no such thing as correct or incorrect exposure (unless of course you stuff it up, yourself). There is only the exposure you want. Given the sort of scene described above, I might have ended up with something close to what you did. For the first roll, you're doing really well. And shooting some tranny is always a worthwhile experience.

Apart from the pleasure of viewing the processed film (and whilst neg has its advantages, it is never as exciting viewing a colour transparency film you've just got back), if you can expose tranny well, you can meter anything. It is one of the purest forms of image capture -- what you expose, is exactly what you will get back...use it while you can, it is a magical experience.
I've exposed a few frames of Velvia and Velvia 100 today. Truly, it never, ever gets old.
Regards,
Brett

 

[FrankS]

If you have a 35mm camera with interchangeable lenses, remove the 50mm lens and look at the slides through it. It acts as a highly corrected loup.

 

[HHPhoto]

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).

Hi,

The slide loupe is for viewing the slide. The light table gives the light that shines from behind through the slide and so delivers its full brillance.
It is very simple (much much much more simple than scanning and viewing on a computer screen!).
You put the slide on the light table, put the loupe on the slide and then you can view the whole slide, but enlarged with factor 3 with the recommended Schneider loupe.
If you have 6x6 slide, you will see your picture 18cm x 18cm big.
And with best sharpness, resolution and tonality.

The quality is much much superior to viewing on a computer screen: On a computer you have mostly a resolution of 1024x768 pixel.
That is less than 1 crappy Megapixel!!
With the loupe you have the full potential of the slide, no loss.
Depending on the film, your lens and the object contrast, full res of the slide is in the 40 - 120 Mp range.

Using slide film, than scan for viewing the slide on a computer monitor sounds worthless to me, honestly, because you loose most of the quality.
With flat LCD screens you also have a significant tonality less, not only resolution, because the LCD elements are quite big and are reducing the transition from different tones.

And scanning is very time consuming. With a loupe: Instant joy. No further efforts needed.

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

Well it is, it's the coolest thing in (colour) photography.
Very very big, sharp, brillant pictures with excellent tonality.
Like cinema, but at your home in your comfortzone.

Cheers, Jan

 

[Ezzie]

......

It's true, certainly, that the advice to expose for the highlights is frequently going to be the best option for tranny, as blown highlights are often unappealing; but this will not necessarily always be the case. From a creative point of view, there is no such thing as correct or incorrect exposure (unless of course you stuff it up, yourself). There is only the exposure you want. Given the sort of scene described above, I might have ended up with something close to what you did. For the first roll, you're doing really well. And shooting some tranny is always a worthwhile experience.

.......
Brett

Well put, too often do you see people getting stick for incorrect exposure, or PoV or other choices made when taking the picture, when the result is in fact as they intended. To quote the wizard Gandalf the grey. "A wizard is never late, he arrive precisely when he intends to!" 😉