What do you guys like Provia for?

Grim Tuesday · Nov 11, 2019

I have built a decent stash of E6 stocks in my freezer for the Filmaggedon, including about two dozen rolls of Provia. Mostly the desire to acquire Provia it was built on low expired or short-dated prices and the belief that all medium format slide film looks amazing, which comes from some of my most favorite pictures ever being on medium format Velvia 50. But I am consistently disappointed with Provia 100, both in comparison to Velvia as well as to highly saturated color negative like Ektar 100 and even less saturated color neg like Portra 400. Provia seems prone to blowing out and very cold. If I don't own a projector, what situations does Provia shine in?

rayonline_nz · Nov 11, 2019

I like Velvia also due to the color with cityscape and landscape esp a bit away from the cities. Cos it can look excessive for cities. For Provia I find it not as as strong as Velvia. Maybe more daytime midday around the city and township. Maybe more walkabout, less planned shoots, less hunting for the golden light, more lifestyle shots etc or documentary. Provia has maybe a blue tint to it, some here they shoot with a skylight filter to help that.

Eg, I shot a roll of 12 frames with my Hassie with Provia just walking around the city here in NZ with the most instagram shots. I did it cos it was daytime and didn't want that excessive look and wanted to capture a single roll portfolio with it under 1 roll of film.

GarageBoy · Nov 11, 2019

Don't shoot it in the shade and it won't be so blue
Or use the 81A (light warming) filter
Use it for people photos, and other situations where high contrast doesn't help you

Michael Firstlight · Nov 11, 2019

Provia 100 (6x7)

NortheastPhotographic · Nov 11, 2019

https://sperryphoto.com/x

This entire series was shot on Provia using both a Chamonix 45N-2 with a Schneider 150/5.6 and the Hy6 Mod 2 with an 80/2.8 AFD.

Prest_400 · Nov 11, 2019

NortheastPhotographic said:
https://sperryphoto.com/x

This entire series was shot on Provia using both a Chamonix 45N-2 with a Schneider 150/5.6 and the Hy6 Mod 2 with an 80/2.8 AFD.

Shot #12 and the rest from the workshop remind me of the classic Shorpy Kodachromes. Lovely blues and shadows, with him standing out.

Most of the E6 I've shot is Provia, it's a good general use film. Glad I brought and froze a couple propacks prior the price increase. I honestly feel a lack of purpose compared to B&W (which I can print) with the slides, as a flatbed scanner doesn't do it justice. However, seeing 6x9 slides on the light table is pure beauty.
Ektar I find shines in similar lighting conditions; beautiful under difussed lighting and for primary colors.

GLS · Nov 12, 2019

I find Provia 100F to be more generally useful than either of the Velvia emulsions. The nuclear-strength colours and higher contrast of the latter do not suit many scenes well, IMO. Provia has a tamer contrast, higher dynamic range and *much* better skintones; in fact it is one of the best colour portrait films ever made IMO (provided the subject contrast is not too high, then you are better off with Portra). It also has exceptional reciprocity characteristics; the colour version of Acros in this regard.

It's true that Provia leans more towards the cool side, especially the greens, especially if in open shade. That is easily remedied with an 81A filter though.

macfred · Nov 12, 2019

GLS said:
I find Provia 100F to be more generally useful than either of the Velvia emulsions. The nuclear-strength colours and higher contrast of the latter do not suit many scenes well, IMO. Provia has a tamer contrast, higher dynamic range and *much* better skintones; in fact it is one of the best colour portrait films ever made IMO (provided the subject contrast is not too high, then you are better off with Portra). It also has exceptional reciprocity characteristics; the colour version of Acros in this regard.

It's true that Provia leans more towards the cool side, especially the greens, especially if in open shade. That is easily remedied with an 81A filter though.

I totally agree!

---

A few from mine ...

A vintage Volvo on 35mm Provia (Nikon F4 - Nikkor AF 35-70mm f/2.8) with 81A filter:

Provia 120 (FUJI GA645 - Fujinon 60mm f/4) - a quite long exposure:

Provia 120 (FUJI GW670iii - Fujinon 90mm f/3.5) on a bright day - no fiter was used:

35mm Provia (Nikon F4 - Nikkor AF 35-70mm f/2.8 ) with 81A filter:

removed account4 · Nov 12, 2019

I like it for b+w film, processed in dektol, or ansco 130 with caffenol c, scans great, prints well.. less filling AND tastes great!

guangong · Nov 12, 2019

Provia produces pics that are less garish than Velvia. Just because Provia colors outdoor shadows blueish, is only because the colors in nature are bluish. Our brains normally act as a color correction filter so we tend not to see the bluish cast. Keep in mind that the Impressionist painters painted outdoor shadows with a bluish cast. Kodachrome was popular with vacationers and National Geographic not because of color accuracy, but because it was snappy. For pics of people back then I preferred Agfachrome.
It comes down to a question of taste and preferences. If snappy pics are desired choose Velvia, less snappy but perhaps more accurate choose Provia. There is no better. That’s why both films are on the market. Thank the gods or small favors.

destroya · Nov 12, 2019

I like provia. it is a great general all purpose slide film. most people are used to velvia ans i use a lot of it. but for most MF shots and 4x5, provia is cheaper and more usefull than velvia. for me, i can always add more saturation in post after i scan the film if its needed. Provia has a little less than 1 more stop of exposure in my eyes, which helps a lot when scanning and printing. my guess is that if fuji were to cut all but 1 slide film, Provia would be the last film standing.

mshchem · Nov 12, 2019

A little bracketing. Pick the best. I like Provia F 120 for scanning better than Velvia. Blue skies.

GLS · Nov 13, 2019

destroya said:
Provia has a little less than 1 more stop of exposure in my eyes

In my estimation I would say it's closer to two stops more. When I shoot Velvia 50 I treat it as having a 5 stop dynamic range, and Provia 100F 7 stops. When using a spot meter the end results tend to bear this out.

benjiboy · Nov 13, 2019

I think Fuji Provia Professional 100 F is the best 100 i.s.o slide film currently available, but unfortunately we are coming into the Winter season and there is no 400 i.s.o slide film still made and I'm down to my last 2 rolls of Fuji 400 X Professional.

lantau · Nov 13, 2019

I have Provia 4x5 sheets for my pinhole camera. I rarely use it, but when I do it mostly works. But I only ever exposed 5-6 sheets. The rest of the box of 20 is still waiting. And maybe the same number of b/w sheets.

Anyway, you can use E.I. 50 and pull process it for a little more dynamic range, which is useful for pinhole.

I was once in the tea gardens above Taipei, Taiwan and finished a roll of Provia 400x (6x6) and then changed to Velvia 50. It was somewhat late in the day. The last Velvia picture was the sunset behind a mountain top maybe an hour later in the hike.

Anyway, I repeated the last Provia frame with Velvia (Rollei 6x6 SLR on tripod) and, once seeing the green vegetation on Velvia, the Provia looked terrible. Maybe it would have needed an 81A already.

Apart from that the colours look nice, of course. Urban environments might be best, and nature from late Autumn to early Spring might be the right mood for it as well. I remember a winter picture with barren vegetation, a partially frozen creek and amazing blue colour from the water on Provia 100F in its Agfaphoto CT Precisa incarnation.

DREW WILEY · Nov 14, 2019

Provia is more saturated than Ektar. Any chrome film is, except for certain defunct high speed products. Most of my color work, except my early Kodachrome era, involved sheet film. Provia was a headache because it is coated on dimensionally stable acetate base. But I used quite a bit of it until Kodak came out with E100G on superior polyester base. Their current color neg sheet films are also on polyester, including Ektar and Portra. And long ago the venerable Ektachrome 64 was an "Estar" film. With Fuji, the later generation Astia 100F was coated on polyester and a superb product. I never found Velvia especially versatile for printing purposes, being excessively contrasty for most scenes, but sometimes used sheets of Velvia 100F, likewise on polyester base. Bracketing is never an option when shooting expensive 8x10 color film. You either do it right to begin with or go broke. I've been remastering some old 8x10 Provia shots via contact onto 8x10 Porta 160 for sake of RA4 printing. This involves masking etc, but is capable of very high quality results. Velvia is more difficult to obtain good internegs from - it's not just the higher level of contrast, but some peculiar mismatch in the dyes themselves; yet I have obtained a few excellent examples from Velvia 100F.

Alan Edward Klein · Nov 14, 2019

DREW WILEY said:
Provia is more saturated than Ektar. Any chrome film is, except for certain defunct high speed products. Most of my color work, except my early Kodachrome era, involved sheet film. Provia was a headache because it is coated on dimensionally stable acetate base. But I used quite a bit of it until Kodak came out with E100G on superior polyester base. Their current color neg sheet films are also on polyester, including Ektar and Portra. And long ago the venerable Ektachrome 64 was an "Estar" film. With Fuji, the later generation Astia 100F was coated on polyester and a superb product. I never found Velvia especially versatile for printing purposes, being excessively contrasty for most scenes, but sometimes used sheets of Velvia 100F, likewise on polyester base. Bracketing is never an option when shooting expensive 8x10 color film. You either do it right to begin with or go broke. I've been remastering some old 8x10 Provia shots via contact onto 8x10 Porta 160 for sake of RA4 printing. This involves masking etc, but is capable of very high quality results. Velvia is more difficult to obtain good internegs from - it's not just the higher level of contrast, but some peculiar mismatch in the dyes themselves; yet I have obtained a few excellent examples from Velvia 100F.

So when do you shoot Velvia 50

DREW WILEY · Nov 14, 2019

I really don't shoot chromes anymore at all, now that Ektar is here and Cibachrome is not. But when I did shoot chromes for three decades, Velvia was chosen when I wanted a contrast boost in misty scenes or in rain, falling snow, etc. It also had the ability to distinguish rather subtle distinctions in early season Spring green hues which other films cannot - but actually reproducing these hue distinctions in print form is a more involved topic! I pity anyone who has inkjet as their only option.
I shot Velvia 50 sometimes when I mainly used a 4x5 system. Once 8x10 became my preferred format, I bought less Velvia due to the expense of 8x10 film in general, and during that time, Velvia 100F evolved with a superior polyester base. I realize that there are some rather heated debates between Velvia 50 versus Velvia 100 users, but I found the whole Velvia category of minor utility for my own purposes. Sure, it looked snappy on a lightbox. Printing something that contrasty was a whole other story, and there were better choices.

Alan Edward Klein · Nov 15, 2019

Drew: A lot of magazine editors selected Velvia 50 shots. How did they deal with the higher contrast and other issues you mentioned?

NortheastPhotographic · Nov 15, 2019

I will also chime in again and say that I process and scan a ton of chrome. For what we might consider 'portrait' or 'more neutral' work, E100 kicks the pants off of Provia in pretty much every way. I can't speak to preference but E100 has slightly finer grain, crazy accurate color without needing an 81A, and a base that doesn't curl nearly as much. Provia tends to look better as you go up in formats, but following that logic E100 will too. When it's available in 120 it's all I will likely shoot for color, and I seriously hope I can see it in 8x10 some day. I often want Provia to impress me when I shoot it in 35mm, and on rare occasions it does. But more often than not I wish I had just not bothered with chrome. As I said in 120 and sheets it does better. I have a box of 8x10 Provia ready to shoot.

DREW WILEY · Nov 15, 2019

Alan - I sometimes had to work with some serious glossy architectual magazines which paid exceptionally well, but outlawed Velvia because of the repro headaches. Velvia was popular with glitzified travel shots etc where subject color accuracy and high detail were unimportant. But it also had a lot to do with how some editors just appraised such things by how they casually looked on a lightbox, without sufficient understanding of the printing process involved. The same applies to optical color printing in a darkroom. It's the final outcome that counts, and being able to understand that in advance when choosing and shooting an appropriate film. Today, people just hypersaturate digital shots to slather them with gooey honey and jam atop already too sweet sugar cubes.

GLS · Nov 15, 2019

NortheastPhotographic said:
I can't speak to preference but E100 has slightly finer grain, crazy accurate color without needing an 81A

From the examples I have seen, I find the skintones with E100 to be too yellow.

lantau · Nov 15, 2019

Obviously it's entirely a matter of taste. A lot of film people, today, love Portra and friends. But others are less than in love. I talked to two former film users from the old days.

One shooting chromes, when traveling, had problems with the stability of Kodak slides and he also didn't like the warm tone. Both was fixed for him by using Fuji.

The other was a commercial photographer doing motor sports and possibly other stuff, but I don't think he did portrait. When I spoke to him in summer 2018 he talked in rather derogatory language about those modern yellow portrait films. He stopped at the time of the digital transition because clients payed ever less and buying into the new equipment wasn't worth it.

EDIT: Needed to correct typing mistakes. Was writing on my mobile on the train...

DREW WILEY · Nov 15, 2019

A lot of things have changed. Evolve yourself or go extinct yourself. It's that simple. None of us like losing a favorite film or paper we're familiar with. But it's going to happen sooner or later, so it's always smart to be exploring alternatives.

mshchem · Nov 15, 2019

It only took 1 roll of Ektachrome SW for me to truly appreciate Provia F. Haven't tried the new Ektachrome, really waiting for the 120 version. I love Kodak pro negative films. I tend to use Portra 160.

What do you guys like Provia for?

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