What is the least saturated slide film you know?

Pirate said:
Nope, I'll be making actual darkroom prints from these.
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On what? There is no more reversal paper being made. If you should be using Ilfocolor (a high contrast display material for laser printing and no good for direct enlargements) you will have to use heavy masking - that could also be used to reduce its saturation.
 
Low Contrast Films

Low Contrast Films

Why not give a tungsten based film a shot - has an extended DR so should be less contrasty. You could also slightly overexpose and pull the processing. Does anyone still do this ? And is tungsten film still available? (EPY/EPT etc). You'll have to use the appropriate filter to correct (85 range, I believe).
Ian
 
k__43, telenous, thanks for the clarification. Provia 400X is my go-to slide film, when I'm not looking for eye-popping colours. I've only got 4 packs of Astia left, so I don't use it often.


IanBiggar said:
Why not give a tungsten based film a shot - has an extended DR so should be less contrasty. You could also slightly overexpose and pull the processing. Does anyone still do this ? And is tungsten film still available? (EPY/EPT etc). You'll have to use the appropriate filter to correct (85 range, I believe).
Ian
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I still see RPT around, but I think it too has been discontinued. Can find heaps on the web.

Let me say, I've never earned a cent for my photos. I'm just someone who likes slide film and I spend my play money on it. But failing slides as others have said, I have both Fuji Pro 400H and Kodak Portra 160NC in my C-41 selection. I think Portra is just known as, "Portra 160" (or 400 or 800) now, no more VC or NC.
 
Scotch 3M 1600 was a low saturation slide film years ago.
I stopped shooting slide film since I found RFF.
Usually, a faster film is lower in saturation.
 
Pirate said:
I have a project coming up that will be a colour photo but it will be about as little colour as I can get on film. Most of this will be just from finding subject matter that is aged and devoid of colour, which won't be much of a problem in the winter, but I also wanted to ask what slide film you guys have used that seems to have the least amount of colour saturation.

Slide film will be my preferred choice, but I can use negative colour film as well.

Thanks
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Well, on the market Provia 100F, Provia 400X, Velvia and Velvia 100 are still in production and available without problems.
Yo may have luck in still finding Ektachrome E100G, E100VS, Velvia 100F.
To find Astia 100F is probably even more difficult.

I've used all these films and compared them under completely identical situations:
The lowest saturation have Provia 100F, Astia 100F and E100G. It is not possible to say one of these films has in general lower saturation than the other, because it depends on the specific color.
Example: Astia 100F has a bit more saturation in red compared to Provia 100F, but a bit less in blue.

In the group of the films which are currently in production Provia 100F has the lowest saturation. Velvia 50 and 100 have significantly higher saturation.
Provia 400X has a bit more saturated red (and yellow) than Provia 100F in direct comparison, the other colors are almost on the same saturation level.

My recommendation: Use Provia 100F, and not at box speed, but with a light less speed (0,5 - 0,75 stops) and pull development.
That works great with this film (and Provia 400X, too). You get a bit less saturation and a bit lower contrast (and better shadow detail).

Here are some examples of pulled slide film:
http://www.dia-spezial.de/html/dia-entwicklung.html
 
sevo said:
On what? There is no more reversal paper being made. If you should be using Ilfocolor (a high contrast display material for laser printing and no good for direct enlargements) you will have to use heavy masking - that could also be used to reduce its saturation.
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Well, my college still develops slide film and we have a project to make prints from it, so there has to be some available somewhere.


Thanks again guys, lot of good info here to look into.
 
The Agfa Pro slide films were low saturation, I used to love the RSX50, not sure how good any of those would be anymore if you could find them. Astia would be the best choice I'd say, then maybe Provia 400.
 
Buzzard kid I loved that emulsion I was going to answer with that but haven't used it in years.
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I loved the way it looked cyan-cool and it's reds which were punchy.
I have an Ikon with uncoated Tessar too – shot some Autumn colours on 400x last week-end!
 
I found out that we will be seeing the Slide work through a projector, not printing them. That bums me out. I was so looking forward to printing slides!
 
Pirate said:
I found out that we will be seeing the Slide work through a projector, not printing them.
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Be happy and enjoy it.
Slide projection (with a good projector and projection lens) delivers by far the best quality at big enlargements.
The sharpness, resolution and color brilliance of a projected slide is absolutely unsurpassed. No other photographic medium can deliver such a unique quality.
 
Skiff said:
Slide projection (with a good projector and projection lens) delivers by far the best quality at big enlargements.
The sharpness, resolution and color brilliance of a projected slide is absolutely unsurpassed. No other photographic medium can deliver such a unique quality.
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I Copy that! I use Schneider/ISCO, Buhl, and Golden Navitar projection lenses on my 35mm Ektagraphic projectors, and Zeiss on my Hasselblad PCP-80. There is no way that a paper print can come close to a projected slide.
 
Pablito said:
shoot it digitally so you can get the color just the way you want in PS,
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The OP wants to shoot slide film, because he likes them and their colors.
And it is impossible to get completely the identical colors film delivers with digital technique.
No matter whether you use a film simulation software or try to do it in photoshop:
The results from real film are always different from the results of simulating techniques. Film colors are unique.
Lots of photoshop experts have tried to get completely identical colors with simulating techniques. All failed, no one has really been successful. Here one of the prominent examples:

http://www.onlandscape.co.uk/2012/08/film-emulation-software/#sthash.UzSPToVt.dpbs

With film red, green and blue all have their own layer in the film and are captured at 100%. With digital Bayer sensors the colors have to be divided with green 50%, and red and blue only 25% of the pixel coverage.

Pablito said:
then transfer to sildes via a film recorder. 😱
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Does not make much sense, because you
- then get significant lower resolution; the recorder resolution is much less than the system resolution of slide film and lens of an original slide
- it is pricey; shooting slide film and then projecting it is much cheaper (and has a much better quality).
 
Pablito said:
Paper print far superior in a well lit room! 😀
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The illumination of the room is not the decisive point.
Slides have a Dmax of up to 4 logD, some BW slide films even 5 logD.
With prints you have a physical limit of about 2.3 logD.
Slides offer a greater contrast range compared to prints, resulting in a better brillance.
And at big enlargements of 1.50 m or 2 m width a projected slide (with a good projection lens) has much better detail resolution compared to the common 150-200 dpi prints at that size.
I've done all these side by side comparisons.
For big enlargements slide projection is unsurpassed.
 
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