Slide film for snow

eSPhotos · Oct 30, 2011

I mainly shoot B&W films but I want to try colour films during my upcoming trip to East Asia.

I have some ideas on print films but am looking for opinions on slide films.

Shooting mainly outdoor scenes with snow and vibrant colours.

Is slide film good for snow with +1 or 2 exposure compensation or should I just stick with print films?

Two23 · Oct 30, 2011

I am a winter photographer, and even in summer I go to places like Iceland, LOL. You need a film that shoots clean whites. The best I found was Kodak E100G.

Kent in SD

Poisson Du Jour · Oct 30, 2011

I'm extremely biased regarding films, but that bias is based on long experience!
Fuji's Provia 100F handles snow scenes with style: clear blues, crisp whites and natural colour. At the other extreme, if you want colours from Vaudeville, angle for Velvia 50 (rated at EI40); you may wish to experiment with either/both, but generally Velvia will have the better "WOW"! factor, particularly early morning to evening snow scenes. If your camera has evaluative metering, it should nail the snow scene without trouble, otherwise 1.5 stops in bright sun added to baseline exposure. Remember that print films have much wider latitude (or "play") than the transparency films commonly available. Velvia is very unforgiving of gross exposure errors.

eSPhotos · Oct 30, 2011

Thanks Kent and Gary,

Yeah they claim E100G has lower D-min giving the whiter images. Definetely I will give it a go together with Velvias.

I don't know which I will like more because E100G has closer to the natural colours whereas Velvia has higher saturation.

Good thing is that E-6 processing in Korea and Japan is quite cheap ($3 for 120 roll) compared to Australia ($12) so I might try Provia as well.

I'll be using my reliable Mamiya 645 Pro with AE finder so the camera side should be fine.

debanddg · Oct 31, 2011

+1 for Fuji Provia 100F .. my recent trips to the Swiss Alps had many shots incorporating snow and blue sky.. the Provia did create "WOW"..

Lionel1972 · Oct 31, 2011

Poisson Du Jour said:
If your camera has evaluative metering, it should nail the snow scene without trouble, otherwise 1.5 stops in bright sun added to baseline exposure.

So I guess, you're talking about reflective metering here, adding 1.5 stops. Is incident metering a bad idea when shooting bright sunlighted snow landscapes? Does it give too much over exposure to the snow?

jeffreyg · Oct 31, 2011

I rarely use color and snow doesn't happen down here but I would consider some bracketing especially with slides. Your shutter speeds may not be exactly what the dial says and just trying a new film might take some getting used to. Taking an 18% gray card might help with your metering. Bright sun and snow may require more than 1.5 stops with any film.

http://www.jeffreyglasser.com/

mts · Oct 31, 2011

Provia 100

Works well for me, for snow scenes and New Mexico blue skies.

Diapositivo · Oct 31, 2011

Incident light metering is the way to go to minimize risks of overexposure. You can subtract some 0.5 EV from the incident meter reading in order to have more of your scene further from the film's toe. Said in another way, your snow will be greyer, but with more overtones and undertones, and as your mind knows that the snow is white, you'll appreciate the greater texture while not bothering with the "un-whiteness" of the snow.

Be wary of scenes where you have half the snow in shade and half in full sunlight. The part in shade will have a blue cast if the sky is blue. If the sky is blue, and the scene is entirely in the shade, you will have the blue cast all over, which means it is easy to correct either during capture (with an amber* filter) or after capture if you print or scan.

Fabrizio

* EDIT It goes without saying I mean one of those light amber filters sold as "skylight" filters.

keithwms · Oct 31, 2011

Obviously the biggest issue is metering. You need to be sure not to underexpose or you won't get crisp whites.... with any film.

Provia 100F, for my taste, blues up too easily. Watch out for that, especially at high altitude. There are warming filters specifically for this problem; I forget the number but I have one.

My choices would be velvia 100 and astia, and provia 400x if you need higher speed.

Amog the print films I would say reala, but it is no more Unfortunately the 160 films fight so hard to prevent whiteouts that you lose a lot of that slide-like pop. Maybe ektar would work but if you can get your hands on some reala....

keithwms · Oct 31, 2011

Ah I see reala on the b&h site in 120 size. That is the ticket.

Poisson Du Jour · Oct 31, 2011

Lionel1972 said:
So I guess, you're talking about reflective metering here, adding 1.5 stops. Is incident metering a bad idea when shooting bright sunlighted snow landscapes? Does it give too much over exposure to the snow?

Incident metering can be used, but I would be favouring spot metering iin contrasty light. With incident metering, white will be white and black will be black, but does not take into account variations in luminance of the scene. I have never added anything additional above or below the meter reading for a snow scene in bright daylight. Evaluative meters are modelled on the Zone System and do work well, but they are not foolproof, hence I would angle for separate metering and analysis of the scene.

eSPhotos · Nov 2, 2011

I never used incident metering so I will have a go. I have a Minolta IVF meter with 5 deg viewfinder but now I have to find where I placed that dome thingy ...
We don't get snow in Sydney but have plenty of white sandy beaches. Good substitude I guess.

@Keithwms - Reala is my fav too and I have a few in the freezer. I also like Pro 160S particularly suited to Aust outback scenes but I know this is not for my trip.

Slide film for snow

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