Portraits on Chrome?

Sw1tchFX · Jul 24, 2011

Has anyone done alot of portraits shooting chrome?

I just got some E100VS back today, I was shooting some landscapes with it, but the last 5 or 6 shots on the roll, I went and I took pictures of my neighbors for them. WOAH.

The tone and color looks INCREDIBLE. I was in Pro Photo and I said "Holy S&*^" out loud when I put them on the light table. Screw the landscapes, the portraits looked like my neighbors were right in front of me!

So I'm totally going to shoot some pictures with either E100G or E100VS in the Mamiya and see how they turn out. Haven't decided yet. I know the E100G is more realistic, but the VS just has that extra boom to it.

RRYANSMITHH · Jul 24, 2011

I've been meaning to shoot some chrome in my Yashica-Mat LM, but haven't got around to it yet.

Your post however, has definitely inspired me to hurry up and do it though, haha.

D-B-J · Jul 24, 2011

What do they look like. I want to see!

Jeatley · Jul 24, 2011

I would love to see also

Sw1tchFX · Jul 25, 2011

I'll be scanning them in a couple days and i'll put them up on here so you can see, the only bummer though is that the scans will never look like the slides, and that vibrancy in the skin tones is what made me go "wow!"

we'll be surprised if that translates to the scans.

Derrel · Jul 25, 2011

What kind of scanner and scanner software do you have? Or will you farm the scanning job out to a commercial outfit?

My first experiences with portraits shot on slide film were mostly Ektachrome 100 Professional stuff, and since my flashtubes were uncoated, and Ektachrome 100 Pro was just slightly blue anyhow, the skin tones looked mighty cool...the E100VS appears to me to be an incredibly modern, updated and improved version of what Ektachrome "used to be".

Have you used any filtration on your new slide work? Like a warming filter of any type?

Andrew_Northover · Aug 6, 2011

Sw1tchFX said:
I'll be scanning them in a couple days and i'll put them up on here so you can see, the only bummer though is that the scans will never look like the slides, and that vibrancy in the skin tones is what made me go "wow!"

we'll be surprised if that translates to the scans.

Its been a few days haha, I'm quite eager to have a look at this as I'm only just getting into film now and its all so exciting haha.

Alpha · Aug 14, 2011

Portraits on chrome are GREAT. I highly recommend Fuji Astia (more neutral) or Provia (more color-rich). I still have a significant stash of Agfa RSX that I love for portraits, as well. Provia may be more your taste than Astia if you like E100VS, given that the VS means "very saturated."

c.cloudwalker · Aug 14, 2011

Chrome is beautiful.

Never liked Ektachrome though. As D says it was a bit cool. I shot Kodachrome until Fujichrome came out and I switched. I liked the colors better. I think it was just called Fujichrome but I could be wrong, it was a while back. Beautiful stuff. I see Fuji has a 50, you should try it...

The only problem with chrome today is that unless you have a projector, there is really not too much that can be done with it. And projecting them is actually not the best idea. they supposedly don't last much when projected. So the only thing is Cibachrome prints which are quite something but are there any labs still printing those...

Alpha · Aug 14, 2011

c.cloudwalker said:
The only problem with chrome today is that unless you have a projector, there is really not too much that can be done with it. And projecting them is actually not the best idea. they supposedly don't last much when projected. So the only thing is Cibachrome prints which are quite something but are there any labs still printing those...

Yeah there are labs. In fact I'm sending a 6x7 Velvia chrome to be printed at Lab Ciba in Burbank, CA this week. They also scan very nicely since they're super low grain and have a somewhat narrow dynamic range.