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Please help me! I have ben shooting digital images with a Nikon D-70 then a D-

80 for over a year and I remain rather disappointed with the lack of color

saturation and richness. I am seriously considering going back to my beloved

Fuji Velvia film. I shoot mostly nature and landscape images and I cannot

convey how disappointed I am. I have tried every setting that I can imagine yet

I still think that the images are less than impressive. At this point in time I

cannot even begin to compare the color quality of digital images to the Velvia

film.

 

Can any of you please tell me what I am missing? I have color calibrated my

monitor and my printer (Epson R-1800) yet I am still disappointed. Please help

me or I will be forced to go back to film. Thank You Photo.net users!

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It's called Photoshop. You never will get velvia like quality, straight out of the camera, from eithor of those units. People have been trying since the first digital camera to simulate velvia. Put down the camera, and spend your time with Photoshop for a while. I'll tell you this much, everything youre now seeing in print has been "photoshopped." Some more than other's but not much goes to print without post processing, especially if youre shooting RAW. . . .
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I can exceed the saturation, color distortion, and contrast of Velvia in Lightroom. With CS3, it should be a slam dunk. If your prints look flat for some reason, you may be looking in the wrong place for your solution. By the way, what happens with an actual scan of Velvia? Also, what is happening to your very intense colors on a channel by channel basis? How are you exposing your RAW? I have found that red can be really squirrely if exposed on the right like most colors. In my opinion, the saturation and vibrance sliders give control that is lacking in Velvia and are better. Maybe you need to get as much out of your raws with wb, brightness, blacks, and contrast as you can before you crank on saturation/vibrance. Velvia has short DR. You can also shorten your range with contrast in PP. Compare your images with others who use the same cameras and see whether anyone else is getting the saturation you are looking for in their portfolios.
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hi - why dont you get one of many plugins that mimics velvia. ex. nik color software. Or just boost the color in PS - yove moved in to the digital world - make your own colors -LAB color space will make Velvia look like washed out colors :) -so many possibilities that velvia will be lost in time - going from conventional to digital i dont mis velvia or for that matter the koddak 100 vs (use to be my favorits) for natur photography anymore.
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Tony, you don't say if you're softproofing. That might be the issue. If you don't softproof, the photo will look great on your monitor, but lack richness of colors when you print. I suggest you do a google search for an explanation. If you can find a simple explanation, let us know, we can explain it to you.

 

I use the Fred Miranda plug in (mentioned by Aditya) on occasion and I like the results for some photos.

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This seems an appropriate place to post a "Digital made to look like film" tip I've been

playing around with for a while after examining color palettes of film brand sample scans

at Les Sarile's site.

 

It's not meant to look pro but typical of what most consumers get from one hour labs or

auto settings off consumer grade flatbeds with all the familiar hue/saturation and color

crossover errors.

 

It's not Velvia by any stretch, but it might peek someone's interest. There's a brief

instruction on how it was done at the bottom.

 

Enjoy<div>00Nu0R-40781284.thumb.jpg.6e587d52bd4d45ad5c3d2b420d2dc800.jpg</div>

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