Velvia

darraghsherwin · 07-05-2009 8:19am

cnocbui wrote: »

How long do the chemicals keep? 50 rolls would take a fair while to shoot.

The date on the both kits I have are for Sept 2010, I am already half way through my first kit in 2 months as I regularly shot about 1-2 rolls of 120 a week

Darragh

darraghsherwin · 07-05-2009 8:46am

Velvia 50 is colour balance towards magneta, this can become pronounced with reciprocity failure and may turn blue. The magneta colour balance is less pronounced with Velvia 100 and not there at all with Velvia 100F.
Velvia 100F is the most forgiving of 3 but doesn't have the contrast or the saturation of velvia 50.
Provia is supposed to be a lot more forgiving and has a more neutral colour balance.
The biggest problem with scanning velvia is not the resolution but the dynamic range.
The dMax of velvia is supposedly around 4.0 and most flatbed scanners have a dMax of 3.4, so the only way to get a higher dMax is to do multiple scans and combine them as HDR

Darragh

Anouilh · 10-05-2009 10:47am

Reciprocity failure may have been part of the problem in some of the photos on the roll in question. It's hard to tell, as some photos were taken in bright sunlight and others on a very shaded street. There is a large variation in the exposure chosen and I'll get another few rolls to experiment.

Thanks to everyone for all the help and ideas.

DaireQuinlan · 10-05-2009 11:19am

Anouilh wrote: »

Reciprocity failure may have been part of the problem in some of the photos on the roll in question. It's hard to tell, as some photos were taken in bright sunlight and others on a very shaded street. There is a large variation in the exposure chosen and I'll get another few rolls to experiment.

Thanks to everyone for all the help and ideas.

you're not likely to notice reciprocity failure on velvia unless those shots were 10 second exposures or so ...

Anouilh · 10-05-2009 11:55am

I have to admit I'm quite puzzled by some of the photos I took. You are right in that none of the exposure were particularly long enough to cause reciprocity failure, but the effect seems to be similar in some cases.

There is another factor that might be causing colour casts.
I have noticed that whenever I try to use full manual mode, rather than AV or TV settings on my Pentax MZ 50, the result is a photo with a sort of gelatinous cast that is not pleasant. This happens regardless of the film used.

This is the sort of result, and it can be a bit alarming

6034073

DaireQuinlan · 10-05-2009 12:52pm

Thats a relatively old camera, right ? Could be that the metering is shot, or the shutter speeds are off. Slide film in general, and Velvia in particular, are very particular about exposure.

Anouilh · 10-05-2009 1:12pm

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

Thats a relatively old camera, right ? Could be that the metering is shot, or the shutter speeds are off. Slide film in general, and Velvia in particular, are very particular about exposure.

Thanks again. You are right about the camera's age. I think that the MZ 50 is now obsolete. Probably time for an upgrade...

Mr. Grieves · 10-05-2009 11:53pm

I've found that well-exposed negative or slide film scans well, but if the exposure is not correct and the scanner software automatically attempts to correct it, colour casts appear. Whether they're inherent in the film or are a product of a shift in the digital exposure, I'm not certain. This happens much sooner with slide film than with negative film (poorly exposed slide film is pretty much useless anyway).

Anouilh · 11-05-2009 2:59pm

I decided to investigate the camera a bit more and it seems that there are so many variables that I just need more study.

It is possible that the shutter is working well, in fact, and that the crippled Kaf lens system my be part of my problem.
It does not respond to f-stop changes, even when the settings are seemingly being changed.

http://forum.manualfocus.org/viewtopic.php?id=11808

If this site (http://www.bdimitrov.de/kmp/technology/K-mount/crippled_AF.html) is correct, the camera automatically underexposes in certain circumstances, even though I have changed the f stop settings when working in manual mode.

Thank you for pointing out the differences between slide film, which is much more sensitive, and regular film.
I did not know that.

Schlemm · 16-05-2009 9:58am

while we're talking about velvia....anyone got some basic tips for shooting slide? I'm off to rural Turkey at the end of the month and thought I'd get some velvia 50 or 100 for some nice landscape shots...I don't have any filters, so would it be worth investing in any? And should you bracket, or underexpose slightly? I really want to get some nice deep saturated tones and I've been reading some sites for shooting tips but I'm kinda confused, I've never used slide before!

oh and dya have to scan them if ya want to upload them, or can you get them developed onto a disk?

darraghsherwin · 16-05-2009 10:10am

I always overexposed Velvia 50 by 2/3 of an f-stop or rate the film at iso 40 to get that traditional velvia look.
Velvia 50 is very unforgiving, so ensure you meter your scene well.
I have never shoot velvia 100 but have shot some velvia 100f which is more natural looking and a lot more forgiving.
If you are shooting landscape, you'll probably need some ND grad filters and maybe a circular polariser.

Hope that helps
Darragh

Velvia

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