SLR+TTL Meter+Velvia

V

Vics

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I'm reviving my old Pentax K1000 cameras and lenses, and I intend to shoot Velvia to scan and post (and possibly an occasional lab print). My question regards bracketing exposures. Should I shoot at box speed and bracket each side by one stop, or less? Are three exposures enough? I've not used reversal film for many years and I need a refresher course! Thanks for your help in advance.
 
Vic, I don't have much experience with Velvia, but with slide films, in general, 1/2 stop change in exposure is significant. I have always bracketed slide film in half-stops.

I have heard of some photographers rating Velvia differently from the standard 50 ISO (possibly 32), but I'm not sure. Hopefully some Velvia shooters will chime in soon.

- Murray
 
Thanks, Murray. I know I used to under-expose Kodachrome a third of a stop for better blue skies when projection, but those slides didn't maintain their shadow detail very when I scanned them. Half-stop bracket, huh? I'll try that. Hoping for a stormy day Thursday for some trials.
 
Vics said:
I'm reviving my old Pentax K1000 cameras and lenses, and I intend to shoot Velvia to scan and post (and possibly an occasional lab print). My question regards bracketing exposures. Should I shoot at box speed and bracket each side by one stop, or less? ...
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A revived "old Pentax K1000" is not likely to be all that precise in terms of shutter accuracy and meter accuracy. Exposures will likely be within a stop, but you really can't bank on anything more accurate until you test it.

My suggestion is the start off with a 3 shot bracket, one stop over to one stop under. Do this for at least part of the first roll and for any really important images on the rest of the roll. When it's processed you can judge better whether you need to continue with 3 shot brackets or not and whether the "normal" exposure is more often the correct one or whether you need to bias your exposures one way or the other.

Velvia 50, like all transparency films, has a rather narrow latitude and contrasty scenes need to be very carefully exposed. Even so, if you are only looking at needed enough dynamic range and overall image quality for screen display then you can get away with some pretty bad exposures provided your scanning and post processing skills are good enough.
 
Dwig said:
A revived "old Pentax K1000" is not likely to be all that precise in terms of shutter accuracy and meter accuracy. Exposures will likely be within a stop, but you really can't bank on anything more accurate until you test it.

My suggestion is the start off with a 3 shot bracket, one stop over to one stop under. Do this for at least part of the first roll and for any really important images on the rest of the roll. When it's processed you can judge better whether you need to continue with 3 shot brackets or not and whether the "normal" exposure is more often the correct one or whether you need to bias your exposures one way or the other.

Velvia 50, like all transparency films, has a rather narrow latitude and contrasty scenes need to be very carefully exposed. Even so, if you are only looking at needed enough dynamic range and overall image quality for screen display then you can get away with some pretty bad exposures provided your scanning and post processing skills are good enough.
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All good points. The good thing is that the two meters agree. We'll see about the shutters. I have test rolls in the cameras now. I hope to shoot them both this week. Thanks.
 
Vic, I've always heard that Kodachrome doesn't scan well - another reason for its demise - so the poor scanning results you cite may not apply to Velvia.

- Murray
 
I shot a ton of Velvia with my Nikon FE...I had the meter over ride to a -1/2 stop and let the meter do the rest...even with difficult back-lit shots I got great results...
I got to love the FE's meter and that got me to buy other Nikon bodies...
 
nikon_sam said:
I shot a ton of Velvia with my Nikon FE...I had the meter over ride to a -1/2 stop and let the meter do the rest...even with difficult back-lit shots I got great results...
I got to love the FE's meter and that got me to buy other Nikon bodies...
Click to expand...
The legendary Nikon 60/40 metering system is legendary for a reason. But here's the thing... The Nikon had the better body, while the Pentax had the better lenses. I wish I could mount my Pentax lenses on my Nikon FM, but...
 
It's been some time since I shot Velvia but IIRC overexposing by 1/3rd (rated 32 ISO) was better for scanning purposes. Less contrasty.

As I say. That's how I remember it.
 
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