Velvia tips anyone?

[Steveh]

Hi all - I found a deal on Ebay that was too good to resist the other day, so am about to become the proud owner of 27 rolls of Velvia (50 and 100), all unexpired, which cost me £75 and came with a free Olympus OM-1n with 50mm f1.8 and 28mm f3.5 Zuikos 😀.

I love some of the Velvia work I've seen on Flickr (the cool, ultra saturated urban stuff from Tommy Oshima and clones - landscapes don't really do it for me) but I've taken about two rolls of slide film in my life and never any Velvia, so I need a quick crash course from the RFF gurus. What's the difference between the 50 and 100 versions (speed aside)? How does it scan? Do you rate it at box speed? How contrasty is it (very, is what I hear, but I'm going to be using it in the English winter so that shouldn't be a problem 🙄 )? How much latitude will I have to play with? Do you routinely bracket or do you trust the meter? Anything else I need to know?

All info/tips/reminiscences welcome!

Cheers, Steve

 

[sepiareverb]

Run it in E6- it looks a lot better that way. 😀

Seriously- Velvia is one of those great emulsions, but one that I tend to bracket if I want a perfect exposure. I've not any experience with the newer versions- just got my first roll of the 100 back from the lab about ten minutes ago- but I used to shoot a lot of the old 50.

Great with blue & great with green.

 

[oscroft]

I've shot quite a lot of the Velvia 50, but not much recently because when I shoot colour these days it's mostly in tropical light with contrasty RF lenses and it's just impossible to avoid excessive contrast in such conditions - Sensia seems to suit the conditions better.

I shoot Velvia 50 at the box speed, but I find there's very little latitude. I'll rely on the meter if the lighting is not too challenging, but if there is much in the way of highlight to shadow contrast in a shot I'll often bracket too.

I reckon English winter light should be a great way to start with it - the only real way to get a feel for how to shoot it is to try a couple of rolls.

Btw, congrats on getting such a nice bargain 🙂

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Too saturated for my taste. I never had any problem scanning the few rolls of it that I ever bother to burn. As for exposure, I simply rated it at ISO 50 and treated it like any other slide film: you expose for the highlights and let the shadows fall where they may.

If you have nice fall coloring in your neck of the woods, Velvia may come in handy. However, it's a film I've always associated with intense color. It may backfire with skin tones (make them too orangy or reddish), but that's up to you to find out.

Take care and enjoy it! 🙂

 

[Steveh]

Thanks all - sounds like I may have to finally figure out how to work the auto-bracketing on my G1! Playing with that contrasty, super-saturated look is what I'm after, so it sounds like I've got some fun in store. Am I right in thinking that under is better than over exposure, to avoid blowing the highlights? Does anyone rate below box speed for more saturation, or is it saturated enough already?

Also what about X-processing? Anyone tried that?

Questions questions.....

Cheers, S

 

[oscroft]

Am I right in thinking that under is better than over exposure, to avoid blowing the highlights?

Biggest problem I've had (admittedly in tropical light) is with shadows blacking out completely, so I'd say underexposure has been a bigger problem for me than overexposure.

 

[Steveh]

Share the wealth! 😉

I'll trade you 10 rolls of Velvia for the 50 Planar 😉

 

[Lilserenity]

I'm sure someone will beg to differ with me on this one but that's the beauty of photography - we all have our own ways, workflows and wisdoms!

I remember my first roll of Velvia 50, I rated it at box speed and I found it far too saturated and underexposed.

From that day on I have tended to rate it at ISO 32/25 around sunrise and sunset and around ISO 40/32 from around 2 hours after sunrise to two hours before sunset. This might be personal taste but I even find at ISO 40 during sunset/sunrise it to be too contrasty and too dense.

I also recommend investing in a Cokin filter system with ND Grads to control the shadows against bright skies, which is always good fun to manipulate the light and you will get some stunning shots through this but it needs practice, patience and a willing to get a roll back and think "Hmmm where's my exposure notes, I need to do some thinking and learning!" (I love that part of photography as much as being out there!)

Use a tripod, it can be handheld but I do recommend having one or a monopod for those shots where the lighting is too tricky to handhold, espcially on an SLR.

Also, don't waste Velvia on overcast days, it does nothing for me then and you'd be better off using something like Provia 100F or 400X (current emulsions.)

Velvia 50 (never used 100 or 100F) is a rewarding slide film to work with when you get it right, but it does take me a while to use all 36 exposures on 35mm.

Also, it says on Fuji's data-sheet but don't expose for more than 6-7 seconds or your pictures will start to take on a green hue.

BTW: I'm from England (Worthing) and regularly use Velvia in winter and low sun so it does work fine.

Most of all my biggest tip for Velvia is...

...ENJOY! 😀

Vicky

 

[kievman]

I have use plenty of velvia, both the old 50 and new 100, but not the new 50 yet, The old 50 you had to rate at 32 or 40 or it was under exposed exspecially the shadows, often to the point that images were too dark. the old 50 was great landscape film, with its super saturated colors, trying to get those colors to show up on my coolscan 5 was often problematic, exspecially the blue-purple spectrum. I don't recommend using velvia for people portraits, unless you like orange skin tones! THe 100 speed never really matched up to the 50 as far as the super saturated colors, that why fuji came out with the new velvia 50, which I have never tried- have fun!!!! P.S. In photoshop you can often get the velvia look by increasing the saturation and playing around with the color channels, and color balance of images from other films.

 

[Steveh]

Wow - thanks everyone - this is RFF at it's finest - a complete novice's guie to Velvia in less than 24 hours. Looking forward to getting stuck into it - I'll post some pics in a few weeks when I have some results to share.

Has anyone got any insights on cross-processing? Other than sending it to the lab and saying "please process as C41" what else do I need to know? Has anyone tried cross-processing Velvia?

 

[urban_alchemist]

I've stopped using it so much except in very even lighting conditions... the dynamic range is so narrow that you tend to get that horrid blue shade everywhere on even very minor misexposures... even half a stop out and you see problems...

 

[oscroft]

From that day on I have tended to rate it at ISO 32/25 around sunrise and sunset and around ISO 40/32 from around 2 hours after sunrise to two hours before sunset

Interesting, yes, that ties in with my experience of exposing it at box speed, and often getting bad underexposure of shadows (using an averaging meter, which are usually balanced towards highlights for colour film). In tropical lighting I suspect I'd have got better results with a 1/3rd stop more exposure.

 

[Steveh]

Interesting, yes, that ties in with my experience of exposing it at box speed, and often getting bad underexposure of shadows (using an averaging meter, which are usually balanced towards highlights for colour film). In tropical lighting I suspect I'd have got better results with a 1/3rd stop more exposure.

I love this talk of 1/3 stop increments - boy am I in for a shock 😱. I'd better find a noddy guide to metering as well!