Any tips for shooting color reversal film?

[Dubie]

My next project entails color slides and it's my understanding it can be a tricky business. Any tips for using that type of film?

 

[Mike_E]

Pay strict attention to your meter! Slides have very little tolerance to too much or too little light.

For more saturated colors, use a longer shutter speed and a narrower (higher #) aperture.

btw.. some just call it (color positive) E-6 and color neg C-41 (although there is a B&W film in C-41 too)

 

[Helen B]

I confess that I use the terms ‘reversal’ and ‘negative’ because they seem plain and simple: more descriptive and less arcane than E-6 and C-41. Furthermore, as long as Kodachrome survives, E-6 is not the only colour reversal process.

By and large it is best to expose colour reversal for the highlights and let the shadows fall where they will – ie make sure that the highlights do not blow out, unless you want them to, of course. This is not difficult. Incident metering tends to be successful and simple for colour reversal film. Are you familiar with incident metering techniques, and variations (eg palm-of-the hand, or white or grey card methods)?

Best,
Helen

 

[Sideburns]

Yes, the film is very sensitive to exposure...you only have a small amount of play in that....about .5 stops if you're lucky before the photo is basically useless. I forget the word for it....latitude I'm pretty sure....just be very careful.

 

[Dubie]

Thanks for the help. I know the teacher was saying that you had very little lattitude when as far as exposure. So we'll see what happens when I get my slides back. lol...thanks again

 

[Big Mike]

It might be a good learning experience to bracket your shots...that way you will see the difference that a slightly different exposure will have on the resulting slides.