Color Slides

[MichaelMigz]

Hey guys/girls. I have a question about shooting slides. I just picked up a roll of fuji velvia 100. Any special instrutions on shooting it or any tips that youve picked up???

 

[MichaelMigz]

By the way, I shoot a Nikon F100 with a 28-80 mm lens. If that helps at all. Thanks!

 

[Unimaxium]

That's a nice film you have there. Velvia is very high on color saturation, and is especially good for lanscape/nature shots. It doesn't like skin tones very much, so it is not good for portraits. You should stick to shooting it outside; flourescent light is pretty hideous without a correcting filter and I would bet that tungsten light is as well. But that's pretty typical of any daylight-balacned film. I think the effect might be more dramatic on Velvia than on other films, though.

One inherent characteristic of slide film is that it has a narrower exposure latitude than negative film and thus is more demanding of proper exposure. It's much easier to get blown-out highlights and overly dark shadows with slide film. So be careful with your exposure, especially in contrasty scenes. You might want to bracket as well.

Other than that, there really isn't anything else that's different about shooting with slide film.

 

[terri]

Good advice from Unimaxum. :thumbup:

Fuji slide film is wonderful, and Velvia 100 is sort of in a class of its own, as far as color saturation. Beautiful stuff! I tend to stop down a half step or so just to saturate even more. But bracketing is always recommended, just to give you a good density spread to choose from.

Have fun with it! Don't forget to post your results here.

 

[MichaelMigz]

I sure will! But one question, how do you bracket? Ive heard of it before but have never actualy done it/tried it. And this may sound dumb, but when you say step down a stop, is that opening a stop(lower fstop) or closing a stop(higher fstop) ???

 

[Unimaxium]

Well, when you bracket you do both. You take one exposure at the setting the camera's meter recommends, then one above and one below. So you take one exposure, open the aperture up to one stop above the first exposure, then close the aperture down to one stop below the first exposure. You can also do this by adjusting shutter speed if you want.

What terri is talking about is shooting the entire roll slightly underexposed, which means having the f-stop a half-stop smaller (larger f/number) or setting the shutter speed a half-stop shorter than what the camera recommends.

And remember, you are smarter than your camera's meter, so use it more of a guide than as a definite measure of how your shot will come out.

 

[Digital Matt]

I sure will! But one question, how do you bracket? Ive heard of it before but have never actualy done it/tried it. And this may sound dumb, but when you say step down a stop, is that opening a stop(lower fstop) or closing a stop(higher fstop) ???

Yes, but you don't always have to adjust your aperture. Bracketing is just varying your exposure by a stop over and a stop under, which could be any combination of shutter speed/aperture. Most times, I will vary the shutter speed, keeping my depth of field consistent.

You don't always have to bracket a full stop either, if your camera lets you adjust in 1/3 stop increments, or 1/2 stop increments, you can do that.

 

[MichaelMigz]

Thanks a lot! You guys are always so helpful!

 

[MichaelMigz]

my camera goes......4.8 5 5.6 6.3 7.1 8 9 10 11 13 14 16 18 and so on.... Is that one full stop or half stops? (in terms of aperture) ??

 

[terri]

We aim to please. :mrgreen: Click around the dial on your camera; you will note that you can click a half-stop between those numbers.

I learned to love Velvia when I shot manually. I let my meter tell me what "it" thought the perfect exposure was based on my shutter speed/aperture, and then closing down one or the other to deliberately underexpose, hence saturating those colors even more. I still bracketed, going a half-stop over that "perfect" exposure recommendation, but very, very rarely did I like the slightly overexposed shot. It's just my routine to give myself a density spread.

 

[Unimaxium]

2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, and 32 are all full stops apart.

The other numbers are third-stops. So 4.8, 5, 5.6, and so on are all a third of a stop apart. Looks like your lens does thirds instead of halves.

 

[MichaelMigz]

alrighty. Ill be sure to post results ASAP! THanks!!!