Explain slide film to newbie

Forget having it done locally. Mail it out. Takes longer but LESS hassle in the long run. I've been sending mine to Dwayne's Photo in Kansas, or use the lab above.

Velvia is...strong stuff. Some love it, some don't. I'm not usually a fan. It's very saturated and very contrasty. On an already bright day you're going to have very contrasty photos, and unrealistic colors, but many these days seem to like exaggerated color. It's great for flat lighting and dull days (though slow for such - using a tripod fixes that and enables you to get the sharpness the film is capable of) when you want to make otherwise drab colors pop though.

Nothing looks quiet as good as a beautiful slide projected, but of course you can also scan, and with good scans get great prints. They can be machine printed onto negative paper from scans too. Many labs can do this. Well, many good ones, which means mailing it out.

I would have definitely steered someone new to film to color neg or black and white first unless they knew about slides already and knew why they wanted to shoot them, but you may love the stuff. As others said, you have one of the best built in meters ever made. Just shoot a couple of rolls and have fun, then evaluate the results. If you like slides but find it too contrasty you can go to Provia (or discontinued but still available some places Kodak E100G, or even harder to find Astia, sigh.) Provia will also give you choices of faster speeds, 100 and 400.

I would like to make some points here:

1) Velvia is awesome
2) You will be amazed when you see the first roll, just hold it up to a window and you'll be stunned
3) Definitely it is worth persevering with if you can, you are so so close.. Don't give up now!
4) There are definitely lots of places that do E6, but chances are they aren't local. Again, don't give up!

^ Velvia in New Zealand...<sigh>: mmmm, wild places, beautiful greens, Taoist waterfalls, the ever-present chill and teeming rain. LOVE IT! When's the next plane over?

Poisson Du Jour said:

^ Velvia in New Zealand...<sigh>: mmmm, wild places, beautiful greens, Taoist waterfalls, the ever-present chill and teeming rain. LOVE IT! When's the next plane over?

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Hahaha. Got your rain right here mate, it's hosing down! I am one of those locals who hasn't been half the places that look nice in this country, I must get out and visit some more of this country. I can never think of where to go to shoot, I suck so hard mate

Velvia is certainly saturated and contrasty. For some things that's good. I used to be a big fan of the old Agfa Ultra 50 negative film - for some things. Velvia tends to give reddish Caucasian skin tones too - not generally good for portraiture of Caucasian subjects (and I confess I haven't tried it with other subjects.)

But if you're getting advice from Ken Rockwell, then you probably will like it.

It's all well and good holding it up to the light, but that's not a very good way of viewing photographs, especially 35mm sized ones, even if they do look impressive. Slide film needs to be projected to really be appreciated (well, short of 8x10s which do look mind blowing on a light box - and 4x5 and even medium format aren't bad) or otherwise scanned and output in some other way. A good quality scan of a really good 35mm Velvia slide will produce an awesome file, true.

I love Velvia, and you have the perfect camera to shoot it with.

Some ideas for you, try shooting at night, tripods, long exposures, all that stuff. Slide film struggles with contrasty scenes, and the less light, the lower contrast. The beauty is that what colour there is becomes much more vivid, and you don't care about seeing into the shadows anyway, I mean, it's night!

I have always got my best results from Velvia at night/sunset, during the day the colour can be a bit garish.

Also, forget the local labs, I'm in London, have my pick of local pro labs, but skip them all, it's easier and cheaper to send it off.

"A slide is a positive and you don't generally print it; you look at it on a light table (or hold it up against the window) or project it. The analog technology for printing slides (Cibachrome) is discontinued so the only good option for printing them is to scan and print digitally. However, the slides have a lot more dynamic range than can be represented in a print, so the print will always be a sad imitation of the slide."

Cibachrome was not the only process for printing slides. There were several processes prior to the introduction of Cibachrome (Ilfochrome), and some survive including kits for home processing.

yohimbe2 said:

.( Walgreens, Costco, and even my high end dealer , ACE Photo)

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There's your trouble. Forget about those fools at Walgreens, etc. They don't know anything about photography. Send it to a real lab. It will take a few days, but so what?

Velvia is a niche, a specialty. With a 40-year-old $50 beater 35mm camera, it will produce eye-popping colors and extreme detail beyond anything any $10,000 digital camera will do. Because of the lack of exposure leeway, you will have a certain number of rejects. Because of the expense of purchase and processing, you won't be able to get over that hump by spraying and chimping. You will need to learn a new (old, actually) style of shooting. This may be a bigger task than Mr Rockwell led you to believe, but it will make you a better photographer. The results will be a mixture of frustrating and fabulous.

I'm just a casual hobbyist who shot Velvia as my everyday film for a few years. I have since switched to mainly B&W, but only because I want to learn other aspects of photography. Velvia is wonderful - look in the galleries for examples. Just don't expect it to be easy.

^^^ what pbromaghin just said is spot on.

Jim

By all means, once you learn to use the Vevia, get a slide projector - you're in for a real treat!

I know a lot of people here don't like this kind of romanticized Ansel-in-color, but check out what Velvia will do. I stumbled into this guys gallery in Cambria, Ca a couple years ago. He shoots velvia in 4x5 and has some original slides on display in a light box. Damnedest thing you ever saw - almost 3 Dimensional.

http://www.visionsofnaturegallery.com/

I've heard good things about Dodge Chrome in the DC area. Checking their website, they have a location in McLean, VA that sends to their main lab in Silver Spring, MD. http://www.dodgechrome.com/photofilm/wetlab/filmprocessing.html

nickrapak said:

I've heard good things about Dodge Chrome in the DC area. Checking their website, they have a location in McLean, VA that sends to their main lab in Silver Spring, MD. http://www.dodgechrome.com/photofilm/wetlab/filmprocessing.html

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Thanks! I called them this afternoon and they will take velvia. Perfect.

Now, where can I get a light wheel that you mention? And my last question, is velvia 100 decent as well?

thanks much for all the great info. This forum has some really Great people!

Velvia 100 is very similar to 50; most people won't spot the difference even in an A/B comparison. 100F is notably different though, it's much much stronger in the reds and has less powerful blues/greens. If you want the slightly lower contrast of the 100F, try Provia 100F instead as it's more neutral.

Asking for Velvia preferences is one of the quickest ways to a fight on APUG though, you'll get N+2 opinions from any N forum members. You have to try them and see for yourself. You'll know what I mean when that first roll comes back from the lab; it's like a string of perfectly-formed little jewels of colour.

Rather than ask about differences between Velvias, just use a couple of rolls of each and form your own opinion. Velvia 100 is not the same as 50, and 100F is not the same as either 50 or 100. Find some, try some then come back and tell us about it. After all, the F5 you have is one of the finest cameras on the planet. Less questions, more action.

Jim Noel said:

"A slide is a positive and you don't generally print it; you look at it on a light table (or hold it up against the window) or project it. The analog technology for printing slides (Cibachrome) is discontinued so the only good option for printing them is to scan and print digitally. However, the slides have a lot more dynamic range than can be represented in a print, so the print will always be a sad imitation of the slide."

Cibachrome was not the only process for printing slides. There were several processes prior to the introduction of Cibachrome (Ilfochrome), and some survive including kits for home processing.

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Really? Name one.

I know you can reversal process RA4 papers with results, with enough experimentation, that are good for some images, but it's quite limited.

I printed a lot of Type R (2203 at the time) as a poor college student because it was so much cheaper than Cibachrome. I'd LOVE to be able to get fresh good type R paper and chemistry, but PE says forget it coming back and I'm sure he's right.

The only way I know to chemically and optically print transparencies now, other than reversal processing RA4 paper, is via internegatives.

yohimbe2 said:

Where can I get this film developed? Can anyone explain what slides are and how it works to get them printed? Rockwell lead me to Velvia 50 and I'm lost

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As for the processing, I also use Dwayne's in Parsons KS.

A slide is a single frame of film which has been processed and usually mounted in a 2 inch x 2 inch cardboard or plastic "mount". With color or black and white print film, the film contains a "negative" of the original scene. By negative I mean that the image on the film is the opposite of the original scene. For instance with Tri-X black and white film the bright portions of the scene will appear darker on the negative and the dark portions of the scene will appear less dark on the film. In this way you can make a print of the original scene by shining light through the negative onto a piece of light sensitized (Photographic) paper and thus the print will approximate the original scene. The print will have light areas that were light originally (highlights) and dark areas that were dark originally (shadows). For color print film, not only are the highlights and shadows a negative image on the film, but all of the colors are tuned into their complimentary colors. So what was red in the original scene will not appear to be red on the negative. It can be quite difficult to look at color or black and white negatives and be able to see what the original scene looked like.

Slide film is quite different. Instead of a negative of the original, the slide film will record an image that can be looked at much the same as the original scene. If you take Aunt Nelly's portrait with slide film, you can see Aunt Nelly clearly in the slide and you will know what color her dress was without having to make a print.

At one time it was standard in the publishing world to accept only slides for publication. Slides are also great to view projected onto a screen in a dark room. Sometimes slides are called a "reversal" film. There was in the past photographic papers that could be used to make prints from slides. Cibachrome as mentioned was the last of these and has now been discontinued. Kodak used to make a reversal paper called Radiance that was the same sort of product. There was another way to get prints from slides. You could have had an "internegative" made. This was essentially a duplicate (or Dupe) of the slide made on negative film and then printed on regular photo paper. Sadly the Internegative films have also been discontinued. If you want to have prints made from slides, it is easiest to have the slide scanned and printed digitally.

If you would like some advice, shoot a few rolls of the film that you have and experiment to see what you like. What's the worst that can happen?

Until very recently, I would have said to the OP that the results from slide film were very similar to a still version of what you see when you go to a movie theatre.

Hatchetman said:

The lab Rockwell recommends, North Coast Photo, is excellent. http://www.northcoastphoto.com/.

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I like Pro Photo Connection in Irvine. If you mail out to them, they will develop and scan for $12.50 a roll.
http://stores.prophotoirvine.com/-strse-template/labservices/Page.bok

MattKing said:

Until very recently, I would have said to the OP that the results from slide film were very similar to a still version of what you see when you go to a movie theatre.

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I'm more excited about my new f5 and velvia than any of my digital cameras. People at work all think I'm nuts, but that only makes it more interesting to me.

I'll post pics as soon as I figure out how.

To the guy that says I should just shoot and ask questions later I say " pbttttt" (with respect and humor)

I really wish I had asked more questions before ordering 10 rolls of velvia 50 120 film! The shock when it didn't fit into My camera ! What a waiste ! I tossed four rolls in the trash. Anyone else need an unopened unexpired box of five rolls?

Dude!

You have pointed out in your profile that you shoot 35mm, and yet you managed to order 120 film?

I am sure someone will be interested in your remaining box, but how the heck did you manage to waste four rolls before grasping that it was not going to work out????




Cheers,
/J.F. Felinik

Felinik said:

Dude!

You have pointed out in your profile that you shoot 35mm, and yet you managed to order 120 film?

I am sure someone will be interested in your remaining box, but how the heck did you manage to waste four rolls before grasping that it was not going to work out????




Cheers,
/J.F. Felinik

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Dude ! Man....


I missed the "120" tag on ebay and to be honest had no idea that film has different sizes. Please keep in mind that I started photography in the land of digital and have ZERO experience with film..

I tossed the remaining four rolls because I knew they wouldnt work and selling an open box would be difficult. Chances are the remaining five rolls will never sell as well.....too much bother.

For someone new to film, any film, whether it's Fuji, Kodak, Ilford, colour, black & white, negative or positive, the best thing to do, is pick a film, shoot 50 rolls of it, get to really know what that film is capable of, know where you can push it's abilities, where it succeeds really well, where it falls miserably. Don't worry all films will have areas they succeed at really well and others they don't. Once you know A film really well, you will know when that film will not do for that scene, so you need to learn another film. So you do the same thing, buy a pile of another film and shoot with that film and only that film until you know it well, hopefully the places it does not do well and places the first film succeeds with. Personally I think if your first film is colour slide, your second should be B&W negative film.

The unused four rolls would have been sealed in the foil still - they would have sold easily.

PhotoJim said:

The unused four rolls would have been sealed in the foil still - they would have sold easily.

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And there probably is someone here on APUG who would have been happy to do a trade with the OP - not to mention take the opportunity to give some help.

To the OP: I am in the process of trying to sort out my father's collection of slides and movies. They aren't organized, except in very rough date order. Most are Kodachrome and are spread between 35mm and 828 formats mainly, with a fair number of 110 rolls as well.

I would guess there are about 1,000 rolls, covering about 40-50 years. Dad is 90 now so he isn't adding to the collection, but there are a few from the 1990s.

Want to help?