First time slide film user - please help

[barbara_chrapek]

I've recently purchased my first roll of slide film (Velvia 100F).

Since I'm a beginner, I could use some advice on shooting with this

type of film. I'm mainly interested in nature (butterflies,

flowers, birds, etc) and I use an old Canon EOS Rebel G camera with

an EF 70-200mm F/4 USM lens. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

[bueh]

As your camera is auto-exposure, what kind of advise do you want? Load film in camera, frame your subject, focus (or auto-focus), release shutter.

 

Okay, a bit of free advise: Don't use Velvia for fair skin people shots. Don't forget that you possibly cannot hand-hold shutter speeds longer than your focal length (i.e., at 200mm shoot with 1/250 sec or better way faster). A good background makes or breaks a great image. Get a macro prime lens for best results. Have the film developed at a pro lab.

[barbara_chrapek]

Bueh - actually, I do have the manual exposure option in my camera.. Thanks for your advice, but let's assume I got past the loading film/frame subject stage... I know that slide films have less exposure latitude compared to print films and that bracketing is recommended with slide films. But I'm also curious to hear which slide films work well with wildlife/nature subjects and any other recommendations. Thanks!

[charles_stobbs3]

If you intend to project the slides you should not go slower than 1/500 sec. 1/1000 if posible. What is OK on a 10 x 14 inch print will look terrible when projected to 24 x 36 or larger.

[craig_shearman1]

Slide film works the opposite of color negative film when it comes to exposure latitude. With negative film you want to err on the side of overexposure. Slide film will not tolerate overexposure -- the highlights "blow out" and if you overexpose too much the light subject matter becomes clear and there's nothing on the film to recover an image from. If you slightly underexpose slide film, the colors get richer and it looks a little better unlike negative film where it would get muddy. Bracketing plus or minus a stop maybe even in half stop increments is much more important with slide film that negative.

[barbara_chrapek]

Thank you for your comments!

[dan_sapper]

Bracketing in 1/3 stop (+/- 0.3 EV) is enough for slide film. Maybe 1/2 stop bracketing will be OK. Previous recommendation of +/- 1 stop is way too much, you will not have usable results at those extremes.

 

Try one roll this way, with various subject matter in various lighting (sun, overcast, shade). You'll get an idea of what works best.

 

With my Canon EOS 5 camera, setting to program or auto mode, and shooting without bracketing works nearly perfectly. So you don't really need to waste film bracketing except for when you are first starting out learning the film and how it responds to your camera/lens combo.

[vcallaway]

You also want to stay away from scenes with a broad exposure range. You will either loose shadow detail or blow out highlights.

 

Slide film brings out the colors and textures in flat lighting much better than print film.

[Matthew Currie]

For normally lit scenes, 100F works beautifully at its rated speed, and if your meter is accurate, you shouldn't need to bracket, but I would still bracket if shooting scenes with a lot of shadow detail, at least until you're familiar with it, because this film is pretty contrasty, and especially if you are planning to scan, it's hard to find detail if it's very dark.<div></div>

[Ed_Ingold]

You have two unrelated questions - (1) how to evaluate the exposure and (2) where and when to point the camera.

 

There is no answer to (2). In broad terms, you will have a problem with flowers, bugs and butterflies because you need to work very close to the subjects, and the 70-200 is not a macro lens. You will also have trouble with birds because you often CAN'T get close enough without stalking skills and a much longer set of lenses (400mm to 600mm)

 

Velvia, or any reversal (slide) film is tricky to expose. A light meter interprets whatever it sees as "average" luminosity - equivalent to 18% grey. If you point it at a bright object, that object will be rendered too dark on the film. Simply "exposing for highlights" is misleading - you still want highlights to look like highlights. Certain objects are rightfully "average" - green grass, north (blue) sky, barn red for example. This is at the core of the "Zone System". You can get a good foundation about the technical aspects in "The Camera" and "The Negative" by Ansel Adams.

 

In the meantime, you should just poke and hope, and learn from your experience. You may decide to bracket your exposures - 1/2 stop makes a big difference in appearance, especially with Velvia.

[BrettPrucha]

If you are going to scan your slide film you are going to want to over expose by about 1/3 of a stop. Scanners have a very difficul time getting any shadow detail out of slide film.

[richard_s.]

Hello Barbara<br>

<br>

Don´t be intimidated by all that advices! <br>

<br>

Trust your camera meter. Just take the photos!<br>

<br>

Slidefilm is not more complicated to use than any other film. My mother

used to use slide film in her very primitiv camera decades ago; and the

slides

turned out to be great. <br>

<br>

Hi Matthew; I think the problem with your sample aren´t the

green grass but the emerald blue-green coloured sky and thats not a

problem of Velvia. <br>

<br>

Here is an example of the crass blue sky Velvia 100F is able to produce

on a clear day. Exposed as recomended by the camera meter.<br><div></div>

[Matthew Currie]

Richard, I meant to be a bit ironic, because some people say that 100F has muddy greens, and it's true that they aren't as huge as the greens in Velvia 50. But I thought the green in my shot there was pretty nice. The sky color, odd as it seems there, was also pretty accurate in this late-afternoon shot with the sun just to the right of the scene.

[discpad]

Barbara,

 

If you're not using a tripod or monopod, et your camera to shutter priority so you don't get below 1/focal length, i.e. dialing in 150mm on your zoom would be shot at 1/180 second (or faster), not 1/125 (or slower).

 

 

Beyond that, if you bracket your exposure 1/2 stop over, 0, and -1/2 stop, you'll end up with three usable photos on the light table: Pick the best one.

 

 

After you shoot your first roll of slide film, if you find that the bulk of the shots you find best trend towards -1/2 (or +1/2), as opposed to the 0 (middle) shots, then your meter may be a little off, which is quite common: In fact, this is quite common.

 

 

Lastly, Velvia 100F was a short-lived film that had all sorts of color rendition problems. Velvia 100F replaced Velvia 50; but was then replaced by Velvia 100, which has a very close color palette to the old 50 speed film. [in sequence: (Velvia) 50 -- 100F -- 100]

[Matthew Currie]

"Lastly, Velvia 100F was a short-lived film that had all sorts of color rendition problems. Velvia 100F replaced Velvia 50; but was then replaced by Velvia 100, which has a very close color palette to the old 50 speed film. [in sequence: (Velvia) 50 -- 100F -- 100]"

 

Not to nitpick too much, but Velvia 100F and Velvia 50 have been available concurrently for a long time. The new 100 (no F) replaces 50, but as far as I know, 100F continues to be made also. Not everybody likes the color rendition of 100F, but not everybody hates it either.

[richard_s.]

Matthew,  isn´t it beautiful in what "strange hues"

the sky is sometimes coloured. I myself was accused of "having

doctored" the purple-crimson sky colour of an picture.

[robert_potts1]

I can't be of much help on your question. As Edward suggested, your equipment does not match well with your chosen subjects. I can suggest that if you are serious in your current pursuits, that a tripod, shutter release cable, and a teleconverter will be in your future. If you shoot in midday sun, you will have trouble with shadows and highlights with slide film. If you shoot when it is overcast or when the light is low in the morning or evening you will need additional support for your camera because the exposures will be longer. At least try bracing your camera on something (camera bag?) and shooting flowers when the first morning sunlight touches them. I think you will be hooked.

[barbara_chrapek]

Thank you for all your great advice!

Robert - I am planning to get a good tripod and teleconverter (probably 1.4), but it's just a matter of finances at this point, so I'll have to do best with what I've got for now.