Fujichrom Velvia 50, questions

[pepeguitarra]

I am doing only B&W in film. However, I have seen some photographs taken with Fuji Volvía 50 (in color -slides) that look a lot more impressive than any digital color photo I have taken. Have you use this film before? Is there any special process to scan it once it is developed? Thanks, Pepe

 

[SaveKodak]

Velvia, and all of the Fujichrome films, is an E6 process transparency film. It's not a special process, but few-er labs do it. There are still plenty that do however. Scanning it is no problem for someone who knows their way around a good scanner, of course a dedicated film scanner (not flat bed) is necessary for best results.

Velvia films are known for their incredibly high color saturation, and high degree of sharpness. They are natural landscape films, and do not always yield pleasing skin tones. If you choose to shoot Velvia 50, make sure to bracket your exposures, and try to shoot in relatively even lighting, because you have a 3-4 stop range to work with.

I would also encourage you to try Velvia 100, which is a technically more advanced version of Velvia. Though it is faster by 1 stop, it has finer grain, and much better reciprocity characteristics.

 

[maryland_fotos]

Agree with above, colors can be very striking in landscape, greenery, lakes, etc. And yes, exposure has to be within reasonable range; I have ended up getting many a frame messed up when exposure was off (somehow I end up underexposing mostly). E6 is the development process for any slide films I have come across including Velvia 50 and 100 and Provia 400X, but then I am a very recent convert to film.

Couple 35mm samples below.

91250027 by Maryland Photos, on Flickr

61910010 by Maryland Photos, on Flickr

 

[Spanik]

With slides, an incident meter (and/or spot meter) is your friend. This has saved me more film that it costed.

Getting it developed isn't that hard but it might depend on where you live. Scanning is reasonably easy because you can compare the result with the real slide to evaluate the colours. Much harder when you have an orange film base as with negatives.

 

[stompyq]

I shot a lot of velvia 50 in 4x5 before moving to NYC. It's a really nice slide film with a lot of punch, contrast and character. Perfect for landscapes. One thing with Velvia though is that it's a little difficult to scan (probably because it's so contrasty). Here are a few examples

4x5_ Treman park1 by Pramodh Seneviratne, on Flickr

4x5_Letchworth park1 by Pramodh Seneviratne, on Flickr

4x5_Tauganock park1 by Pramodh Seneviratne, on Flickr

 

[kb244]

I love velvia for landscapes (and some neon ish architecture at night) very vivid greens and blues great sharpness.

Though I only ever used it in medium format (6x6 and 6x7) I still got the developed 120s at home, but I don't have a dedicated scanner and my flatbed at present only does 35mm (but I do have a dedicated 35mm film scanner).

Thought about the best work around being to shoot it with my digital + macro lens with it mounted to a very well diffused light table.

Ps: the velvia medium format rolls I shot were self developed. I had a unicolor rotary drum to make it easier and at the time unicolor was still selling E6 chemistry packs out of Ann Arbor, Michigan off of eBay.

 

[raid]

I must have taken several thousand photos with Fujichrome, with Velvia 50 often being my first choice. I still have frozen Velvia film in the refrigerator. 16x20 enlargements look very good with this film.

 

[pyeh]

Nice shots, Pramodh.
Velvia is my favorite film, following the demise of Kodachrome, even though Velvia colours are different. I stocked up on Velvia 100 while I was in Japan last week. over there it's about the price that it sells for in the USA (slightly cheaper), but as a tourist you get the sales tax rebate. Compared to Australia, it's nearly half the price.

 

[lynnb]

I haven't used it much - I think only 2 or 3 rolls in total - and found the saturated colour a bit too much for my liking in most situations (my favourite transparency film was Kodachrome 25). There were some occasions when I got very pleasing results:

I also found it converts well to bw. Here's the original (with slightly boosted mid-dark tones) and then a bw conversion (in LR, with increased contrast):

There is an impressive amount of detail in these.

My only scanner is a V700, which does a decent enough job as long as the negs/trannies are flat. I don't use any 'special process' when scanning - I set the levels as usual.

 

[lynnb]

This is not a particularly good photograph, but I wanted to show you how Velvia deals with a high EV range scene. Note blown highlights on the wave. If I'd exposed more for the highlights, the skin tones on the boys would look bright orange-red. You really have to pick your light conditions to make the most of this film, in my brief experience.

This one worked out better, exposing for the highlights, giving those inky-black shadows (approx 50% crop):

the sunbaker #639 by lynnb's snaps, on Flickr

 

[Skiff]

I am doing only B&W in film. However, I have seen some photographs taken with Fuji Volvía 50 (in color -slides) that look a lot more impressive than any digital color photo I have taken. Have you use this film before? Is there any special process to scan it once it is developed? Thanks, Pepe

I am using Fujichrome Velvia 50 regularly. Outstanding stuff! It is a film icon for very good reasons:
- unique, outstanding colours
- much better sharpness, higher resolution and finer grain than all colour negative films
- unsurpassed image quality with an excellent slide loupe on a light box and espcially in projection.

Scans: You just don't need them!!
Because with reversal films like Velvia and Provia already after processing you have a finished, perfect picture which can be looked at. No need for scans or prints, no further costs for scans or prints.
Overall costs are lower with reversal film.
And even better quality, too:
A slide on a lighttable under an excellent loupe and in projection delivers a 100x better quality than any picture on the (quality limiting medium) computer monitor.

Slides on a lightbox and especially in projection are a league of its own: You cannot get that quality with digital (or prints).
When you see it, you will immediately realize it.
The colour depth, brillance, detail rendition and kind of "3D look" are breathtaking.

And some excellent labs offer E6 processing at very attractive, low prices (sometimes even lower than C41).
For example in the US AgX Imaging:
http://www.agximaging.com/
For Europe Photo Studio 13:
http://www.photostudio13.de/