About to shoot my first slide film

wolfiect · Oct 21, 2014

Just loaded my Pentax Spotmatic with Fuji Velvia 100, and about to take some shots of the fall foliage in Connecticut. Believe it or not, this is the first time I ever shot slide film, even though I shot film for most of my life and was fascinated by reading about such films as Kodachrome and Ektachrome and how pros used these films to obtain the great images in such magazines as Life and National Geographic. After a lifetime shooting b&w, color negative and digital, hopefully this fist experience with slide film will turn out well.

Hopefully, new adopters like me will be proof that slide film is not dead!

AgX · Oct 21, 2014

Welcome!

Next step: get yourself a projector.

Dr Croubie · Oct 21, 2014

All you gotta know about shooting slide film is that the range is very limited, meter properly (or bracket for your first time), and the sky will blow out really easily. Just like digital in a way (but you can't chimp and re-take the shot).
Once you get those negs back, you'll be hooked, it's a slippery slope to 4x5 RVP...

Rick A · Oct 21, 2014

I always underexpose by 1/3 stop, gives beautiful color saturation. Also I expose for highlights, just the opposite as for negative film.

TheToadMen · Oct 21, 2014

Hi,
Welcome on APUG! Velvia 100 is a beautiful film to catch the colors of the fall. Also easy to scan.
Enjoy yourself!

BTW: be careful for under- and overexposure with slide film and post images here from your shoot.

Bert from Holland

Hatchetman · Oct 21, 2014

assuming your spotmatic is working properly, you will have no problems. Great camera.

snapguy · Oct 21, 2014

lucky

You are lucky, as I have been waiting for the cacti in my neck of the woods to turn color for a dozen years and no dice.The Pentax is a wonderful camera with great optics. Underrated.

ME Super · Oct 21, 2014

Enjoy the slide film! You need to get a projector too though - projected slides are amazing!

Roger Cole · Oct 21, 2014

What they said. I highly recommend getting a projector. Expose carefully, but it's not as hard as some reading would leave you to believe. You can be 1/2 stop off and get acceptable, though noticably sub-optimum, results. Bracketing may be lazy and wasteful in some situations but not a bad idea for someone new to slide film. Velvia, all varieties, is really contrasty too so the range is even more limited. Provia is a bit less contrasty. There is still some Provia 400X available if you look, though expensive, and it's a bit less contrasty than the 100 (but would probably get you hooked on a film that is no longer made and is drying up.) Same only more so for E100G and all the Astia in the known universe has now been shot up or hoarded.

Kyon Thinh · Oct 21, 2014

Next step, get a medium format camera and a projector, then you have been sold to the devil.

Poisson Du Jour · Oct 21, 2014

All of the Velvia emulsions favor soft light e.g. morning or evening, rather than the blinding light of midday. The meter of the Spotmatic you have is rudimentary, considering that transparency film of any persuasion requires careful metering a separate spot meter would be the best way to go, but there is no harm in running a roll through the camera as an experiment. RVP100 is a very contrasty and hyper-saturated palette (noticably cyanic) quite oblique to its more subdued and slower ISO50 namesake. Good luck!

Fixcinater · Oct 22, 2014

I shot a roll of Velvia 50 in a Spotmatic when I was first jumping back into to the film way of life with little experience beyond what 3 years of DSLR life had given me. Decided to just trust the meter except in heavily backlit situations, and it was a great roll of film when I got it back from processor. No bad frames, except where I pointed it at boring things.

Enjoy and share those slides, here and with people you know.

pbo · Oct 22, 2014

Kyon Thinh said:
Next step, get a medium format camera and a projector, then you have been sold to the devil.

Regarding projecting medium format slides, I've briefly tried but couldn't find anything available commercially that's also affordable.. Any DIY opportunities perhaps? I think it'd be awesome to see the glory of medium format slides, projected! Maybe use the film scanner holders to hold film strips, then some lens in front and a lamp in the back - would something like that work?

Dr Croubie · Oct 22, 2014

pbo said:
Regarding projecting medium format slides, I've briefly tried but couldn't find anything available commercially that's also affordable.. Any DIY opportunities perhaps? I think it'd be awesome to see the glory of medium format slides, projected! Maybe use the film scanner holders to hold film strips, then some lens in front and a lamp in the back - would something like that work?

I'm sort-of designing a DIY 8x10 enlarger, it will be something along the lines of a back for my camera that I clip in like a regular GG, it'll have a bank of LEDs, a diffusion screen, and 2 bits of glass to sandwich the film in between. The bellows, lensboard, focussing etc will just be my regular monorail.
Or the other option I'm looking at will involve using a hacked-up film holder and only 1 bit of glass with rails from the holder instead of sandwiched between 2, but otherwise fairly similar.
Either way, I definitely plan to use it to project some of my 4x5 chromes (and, well, all my other 135 and 120 too, especially the 8x10s if I ever do any). That would look so good, on the side of my house at night, if I use the right lens I can correct parallax by shifting as well...

Stephen Schoof · Oct 22, 2014

I second all the advice about being careful with exposure and bracketing, but if your meter is accurate and you know how to use it there's no reason to be intimidated. One word of caution - Velvia 100 is, to me at least, a really finicky film, giving fine results in some situations and ghastly results in others (usually because of too much contrast or overly exaggerated reds and magentas). SO, at some point you should definitely try a roll of Velvia 50. It's a considerably different film, and to me is easier to control and works in a much wider variety of applications.

You should have fun with the 100 though - juxtapose some orange and red leaves against a blue sky and you'll be blown away.

Roger Cole · Oct 22, 2014

Stephen Schoof said:
I second all the advice about being careful with exposure and bracketing, but if your meter is accurate and you know how to use it there's no reason to be intimidated. One word of caution - Velvia 100 is, to me at least, a really finicky film, giving fine results in some situations and ghastly results in others (usually because of too much contrast or overly exaggerated reds and magentas). SO, at some point you should definitely try a roll of Velvia 50. It's a considerably different film, and to me is easier to control and works in a much wider variety of applications.

You should have fun with the 100 though - juxtapose some orange and red leaves against a blue sky and you'll be blown away.

I'd agree except I'd suggest Provia 100F (or the less expensive Agfa Precisa which is the same film.) Velvia 50 is slow and while it may not be as finicky as the 100 it's still Velvia and tends to be saturated and contrasty, often too much so. On an overcast day it can really improve things (if you can tolerate ISO 50, often best shot at 40, on such a day) but in brighter light where the speed might be ok it can look over the top.

Some people do gorgeous work with Velvia, don't get me wrong, but I've just never gotten along that well with it. Sometimes, yes, but neither the 100 nor 50 are as easy to get along with as Provia IMHO (and that isn't as easy as now gone films like Astia, E100G and Provia 400x. Sigh. But it's fine most of the time.)

LyleB · Oct 22, 2014

Shooting slides are not all that difficult, as others have said, experiment with exposure and you can get some fantastic effects with color, sunrise, sunset photos. When I first got at all serious about photography I bought a FM2 from the local camera shop. I was advised to use slide film and have done so for many years. Also advised to pick one or two particular films to start with so as to learn the characteristics. Good advice. I used Kodachrome mostly, wish it were still available.

As others have said, get a good projector, the only way to view slides properly. Along with the projector, a good screen will improve the looks a great deal. An old sheet or a beige wall doesn't cut it if you want the true quality experience.

pbo · Oct 22, 2014

This thread really makes me want to shoot some slides on my upcoming weekend fall colors/apple picking trip, but I have so many liters of C-41 chemicals mixed up right now I really shouldn't diversify.. But the temptation is strong

Dr Croubie said:
I'm sort-of designing a DIY 8x10 enlarger, it will be something along the lines of a back for my camera that I clip in like a regular GG, it'll have a bank of LEDs, a diffusion screen, and 2 bits of glass to sandwich the film in between. The bellows, lensboard, focussing etc will just be my regular monorail.
Or the other option I'm looking at will involve using a hacked-up film holder and only 1 bit of glass with rails from the holder instead of sandwiched between 2, but otherwise fairly similar.
Either way, I definitely plan to use it to project some of my 4x5 chromes (and, well, all my other 135 and 120 too, especially the 8x10s if I ever do any). That would look so good, on the side of my house at night, if I use the right lens I can correct parallax by shifting as well...

That sounds very exciting! I'd definitely like to do something similar in the future if I get the resources - any thoughts on focal length/aperture that would be good for projection?

TheToadMen · Oct 22, 2014

Every one says " get a good projector". But what is a good projector?

Bert from Holland
http://thetoadmen.blogspot.nl

AgX · Oct 22, 2014

I would say it depends on the lens in first instance, second come the mechanics.

Are there actually bad projectors?

MattKing · Oct 22, 2014

I have two projectors - a Rollei and a Kindernann. Both work well. One was free, the other was very reasonable. They are both quite old, and both have quite basic lenses with them.

miha · Oct 22, 2014

Some years ago I got a Pradovit P600 S/H for peanuts. It's much better (smoother, more quiet, better lens, illumination, etc) than my previous Zett / Pradovit 150 bought new in the mid 90's, which broke down.

zammtronic · Jan 20, 2015

Some of my favorite shots came from an old roll of Lumiere 100 that o found in a bin, but there's nothing like putting a roll of rvp100 through my Mamiya 645. Slide is best.

RedSun · Jan 20, 2015

Slide film has great colors.

Other than hobby, is there any other purpose? How are you going to get film developed? Most likely you'll get the film scanned, not projected.

Slide film is not dead. But commercial use is pretty much dead. Good things do not live forever. It is the money/profit that matters.

Yes, I also have a lot of CN-41 and BW chemicals, I do not want to start the E-6 processing. So I just trade my slide films for color negative and BW films.

Looking forward to the great photos.

About to shoot my first slide film

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