Nikon D3 to produce Fuji Velvia -- How?

<p>Anyone expert could tell me how to produce <strong>Fuji Velvia 50 quality</strong> images with the Nikon D3?<br>

Either or both, using the D3 body settings and/or post-production, whatever gives the best result?<br>

I am interested to hear <strong>exact specs, steps, programs to run</strong>, etc., would appretiate your answer in this regard.<br>

Thanks a lot!</p>

<p>Shoot NEFS and in Lightroom 2.3 push the vibrancy slider up to 17. and then choose the vivid camera profile</p>

<p>If you are looking to make prints or to view the images on a computer monitor you shouldbe able to approximate the Velvia 50 look. If you are looking to project the Velvia 50 slides than no digital camerea will give you that exact look.</p>

<p>Here's one possible approach:</p>

<ol>

<li>Get a Gretag Macbeth color chart.</li>

<li>Photograph it with Velvia.</li>

<li>Measure the deviation from nominal color specifications.</li>

<li>Duplicate this deviation with D3 NEFs.</li>

</ol>

<p>That would probably get you fairly close. But I'll bet someone else has already done this and approximated the look of various color films using Photoshop actions or plug-ins.</p>

<p>I think Ellis got it right on the nail. These steps are easy to follow and I have used it for the last few years whenever I wanted that effect. Few years ago, there was no LR, of course, but it was still possible using Nikon's software.</p>

<p><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3319/3412472236_e24b1275fa.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" /></p>

<p>I've tried simple global saturation techniques with my Nikon D2H and Olympus C3040-Z digital files. The Nikon D2H photos retain their characteristics (including the occasional unpleasant "meat skin" effect due to near IR response) and just look like oversaturated D2H photos.</p>

<p>The Olympus photos tend toward muted saturation and most closely resembles Portra NC. When global saturation is boosted it begins to resemble Portra VC.</p>

<p>Influencing the overall palette away from these characteristics has required using selective tools like the hue map, which can selectively alter a fairly narrowly defined hue in subtle or extreme ways without forcing the entire image to go that direction. My old copies of Corel Photo-Paint and Jasc Paint Shop Pro feature these, as do most full featured editing programs. PictoColor makes this relatively simple with their iCorrect EditLab program using a point and click selection of a range of hues, with the ability to shift only that selected range. It can be used to change the color of a shirt from green to red (not easy to do convincingly tho'), or more subtly to gently nudge that hue slightly. I'll use this technique occasionally to minimize the magenta cast in skin tones that sometimes plague my D2H photos in artificial light.</p>

<p>Nik filters have a filter witch simulates different film types. There are a velvia 100. just an idea.</p>

<p>I've found this curve on the web, input/output values of the three points are:<br>

33-24<br>

127-144<br>

191-206<br>

I've never used Velfia film so I don't know if it works, hope this can help you.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>A picture before Velvia curve application</p><div></div>

<p>The same picture after Velvia curve aplication</p><div></div>

<p>That's a fairly generic "S" curve that can be applied to many photos. Lightening the sky through the upper portion of the curve doesn't necessarily mimic the typical look of Velvia or any particular film. It's really a matter of identifying the characteristic ways different films render certain colors (often inaccurately, from a technical standpoint) and applying those biases to one's digital files.</p>

<p>Try out these curves (on the last page).<br>

http://www.prime-junta.net/pont/How_to/100_Curves_and_Films/_Curves_and_films.html<br>

Alvin</p>

<p>Just tryed the curve suggested by Alvin, it's similar to the one I suggested but there is a different curve for the three RGB channels, so I think it should be a better simulation.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>If any of you use LR or PS/CS3 (or above), when processing RAW, you can push up the Vibrance. It protects flesh tones. That's the main diff between Vibrance and Saturation.</p>

<p> </p>

<p><em><strong>Moderator note:</strong> Off topic comments deleted. The question is how to mimic the look of Velvia, not an invitation to suggest actually using Velvia. OT drift dilutes the informative value of these threads.<br /> </em><br>

<em></em></p>

<p>This is interesting. I was wondering how to set up film simulation, in camera, through picture control menu (D300).</p>

<p>I've been using the DXO Optics Pro raw convertor with their optional "film pack". It gives canned profiles that simulate many films and even allows you to choose the level of grain. The other advantage of Optics Pro is the automatic distortion correction it applies for lenses they have profiled. </p>

<p>A company called Alien Skin sells software that mimics a large number of film emulsions including Velvia. They have a web site named the same as the company. The film emulation software is called Exposure 2. I've used three of their products including the Exposure 2 product and they work quite well.</p>

<p>None of the examples here look as though they were shot with Velvia 50. Arthur's photo is beautiful, but if he'd shot it with Velvia 50, the building in the background would be very, very dark or the tree would be overexposed. Velvia 50 exhibits extreme contrast between light and dark sections of a scene. It's good for creating Rembrandt-like images, but not good for general shooting in high-contrast lighting, such as Arthur's scene.</p>

<p>Thankfully, the digital cameras that are available today have greater exposure lattitude than slide film. Shooting a scene like Arthur's with Velvia 50 can be very frustrating unless you WANT those buildings to fade into black. You'd have to incorporate adjustments to your contrast curve in order to capture the Velvia "look."</p>

<p>Okay, I just got curious and did a google search for Fuji-Velvia Nikon Picture Control and found the following link: <<a href="http://www.pixalo.com/community/general-photography-questions-answers/d300-fuji-velvia-astia-agfa-optima-custom-curves-24437.html">http://www.pixalo.com/community/general-photography-questions-answers/d300-fuji-velvia-astia-agfa-optima-custom-curves-24437.html</a>> I did a couple virus checks to make sure the file was okay. I fiddled with Nikon’s Capture NX2 and imported the file to the Picture Control menu of NX2 as shown below. When I select the Fuji-Velvia in NX2 Picture Control menu pull down, I can see a change in the photo colors. But not having shot with Fuji-Velvia, I cannot tell if this is really a true Fuji-Velvia profile or how good it is. I also felt a little brave and imported it to my D700. I had to rename the file similar to what Nikon calls theirs files and just changed the ending of the file to 50. The D700 won’t see it otherwise. The D700 took the file and shows it in the Set Picture Control menu as C-1 Fuji Velvia. I snapped a couple of shots indoors and the D700 has no problem with it. I guess the next time I am out shooting landscape I will take additional photos with this setting and see if I like it.</p>

<p>Note to all: I just found this link on the web. I cannot vouch for anything this link contains. I am just posting what I did and not suggesting you do it.</p>

<p>I am attaching links of three photos I had that were saved as JPG in NX2. I did a save with the standard, landscape and Fuji-Velvia setting in picture control in NX2. I can see a difference. But again, is it really Fuji-Velvia?</p><div></div>

<p> Photo showing stardard picture control in NX2.</p><div></div>

<p> Photo showing landscape picture control in NX2.</p><div></div>

<p> Photo showing Fuji-Velvia picture control in NX2.</p><div></div>

<p>Thanks, Jose. Very much appreciate your efforts. The slightly more intense greens are fairly typical of Fuji's more saturated films. Subjects with more red in them would also be revealing.</p>

<p>

<p >Here is more info on how to load the Fuji-Velvia file into NX2. Copy the file to CUSTOMPC folder on your CF card. Rename the file some like PICCON51.NCP (apparently the first 6 characters have to be PICCON for the D700 to see the file- I changed the last two characters to 51. Leave the CF card connected to your computer. Stay or navigate to this same directory (CUMOMPC folder) on the CF card on your computer (no camera connected- just the CF card via a USB cable). Open NX2. Load any NEF raw file. From the right hand menu select camera settings. Scroll down and change Non-Picture Control to Picture Control. Select the icon with the gear in the Picture Control area and from it's pull down select Load Custom Picture Control Settings. Then select Fuji Velvia from the popup. From the pulldown in the Picture Control area (the pull down above the Reset button), select Fuji Velvia. You can go back to gear icon and select the Launch Picture Control Utility (wait for it to load), scroll down in the Stored Picture Controls and select Fuji Velvia. This will then show you the picture control curve for this loaded file.</p>

</p><div></div>