Beginner's Velvia 100 results

Hi folks

I have posted a follow-up to my post from June 2005 re. slide

photography. I repeat it here for anyone who's interested.

Thanks to everyone who replied to my original post. Sadly I wasn't

able to take my Nikon D70 to Dubrovnik, but that meant I took a lot

more slides, getting some great experience withn the new Fuji Velvia

100 film.

Overall, I was massively encouraged by the results, I would recommend

anyone in the same position as myself (ie. a rank amateur who's

curious about slide photography) to have a go, whatever their worries

about difficulties with getting the exposure right. I definitely had

some problems with underexposure, but not too many photos were

completely ruined. More importantly, when the results were good they

were fantastic! It's immensley satisfying to get your slides back and

hold them up to the light, the colours are amazing, and when

projected they look terrific. I also used several 36 shot rolls of

ordinary print film and these were far less satisfying - they will be

the last print films I use.

For anyone who's interested, either in the new Velvia 100, and/or in

what a total beginner can achieve at a first attempt, here's one I

uploaded:

http://www.photo.net/photo/4300910

A few more can be viewed on smugmug:

http://johncarvill.smugmug.com/gallery/1338469

Just one technical note: if the filename is just a number,

eg. 'File0321' that means that photo is shown exactly as it was

scanned, for good or ill. However, I found the slides tended to scan

a little darkly, certainly they looked a lot darker on screen than

they do in slide form, so I've lightened some a touch, any which

have 'brighter' or suchlike in the name, or have a letter appended to

the filename (eg. 'File0322c.jpg'), have been brightened slightly.

Hope they're of some interest. All comments welcome.

Here's the old thread:

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00CYjp&tag=

Cheers

JC

Hi John

Your slides are quite nice - and I share your enthusiasm. I also recently started with slides, and loved the look of Velvia. The colours are strong, but I think they fit with the atmosphere in your shots. Velvia 50 might have been better - it's just a bit less strong in the red/blue contrast.

Looking at the original images (for instance File0314), they appear a bit soft. How did you scan the slides? I suspect the scanning from the general look - oterwise the slides should have plenty of detail.

Hi John-

My wife and I were in Dubrovnik last July as well. Just coincidentally I shot my first roll of Velvia there as well. I mostly used print film but shot one roll of Velvia and I got hooked. Croatia is so colorful that Velvia is perfect. I'd like for you to check out my portfolio and see my shots from there and get your feedback. Let me know if you post more of your photos as well.

Hi Daniel

Thanks for your comments. Well, I really intended to get the slides scanned properly, but haven't got round to it yet. Watch this space. As a compromise, I scanned a few on my Dad's flatbed scanner whilst visiting my parents. Bear in mind that we didn't have any slide scanning experience - my Dad had just bought the slide attachment for his scanner - and my Mum and my wife were shouting up the stairs at us to hurry up! So we just rushed a few slides through the scanning process at default settings.

Hopefully I'll get the chance to do some proper scans soon.

Cheers

JC

Hi Niklas

Our both trying out Velvia in Dubrovnik isn't the only coincidence: I see you've also been to Mostar, which I visited in 2004, it's well worth a trip isn't it? I also recommend Sarajevo, which we travelled to via Budapest, another of your photo locations. There are some shots I took with my Canon Ixus in the Sarajevo gallery on smugmug.

I had an email exchange with a very nice local Dubrovnik photographer before I went last year - I'd been hoping to try a roll then get it developed in Dubrovnik so I could see if I was going badly wrong before shooting any more - but it seems tehre isn't anywhere to get slides processed there. He suggested Zagreb, which would be quite a long trip just to process one roll of film...

Your pictures are great, I really like the one of Stradun empty at night, how did you manage that? It's usually impossible to get a shot without people in it. Also, did you use a tripod?

ALso the one of Prijeko early in the morning, again it's unusual to see it so deserted.

By the way, it says on the photo details that the film was Fuji Superia 100, is this coreect? Or was it Velvia?

Cheers

JC

Hi John-

The only photos now on my site that were shot with Velvia are marked as such. Most of my shots on that trip were taken with Fuji Superia 100 because it's so cheap. The photo of Od Puca was with Fuji Superia and is the shot I'm most proud of on that trip. I do love Velvia but at $1.25 a roll Superia 100 is a great deal and I think it works wonderfully.

Regarding your question on why the streets are so empty. Well I learned on a prior visit to Prague that July, that I had to shoot when noone else wanted to be up. That falls around 4am-8am. My wife's a trooper and came out with me too. But it's a fantastic time to shoot because the city is yours at that time of day. I did use a tripod on every evening shot.

i went to dubvronik and i am using fuji velvia 100f.

I have a house in orebic,croatia

Marko