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Velvia for portraits?


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I plan on shooting promos for a band and one of the sites is this

awesome tunnel with intense yellow lighting. I'm just wondering if the

colour saturation of velvia is too much for this kind of work? I know

it's a subjective question, but I don't want them to have the skin

complexion of an alien or anything like that. I'm sure I could use a

flash to take that effect away, but in some cases will want to use

natural light. Let me know what you guys think. maybe an example

would help?

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With really strong yellow coming back out of the lights and back off the walls, the Velvia probably wouldn't be a good choice, no. It'll just show that color quite strongly and your subjects may wonder if they all need to get checked for liver functioning.

 

Velvia can be used for portraiture if your lighting is dead on. Otherwise, well, I don't think I'd do it.

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Velvia, would be most people's last choice for this type of subject. It's contrast and color balance are not designed for this. Astia, on the other hand is designed with medium contrast, and color accuracy in mind, including a more neurtral gray for more pleasing flesh tones.
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Velvia 50 is horrible for skin tones. I haven't tried the new Velvia 100 with people, but the Velvia 100F works fine. But to be safe I'd use Provia or Astia. I think you're going to have problems with the yellow light no matter what you use. This is fine if you want a speical effect but not so good it you want true to life skin.

 

You might try popping some flash and dragging the shutter to pick up some yellow.

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Yeah, I'm not expecting a miracle here for the skin tones. They will obviously be yellow because of the light -that's fine. I just didn't want a glowing yellow, a repulsive reflection if you will. For some of the shots i want the natural light to make that yellow cast. maybe i'll shoot a couple shots of velvia, but get some portra into another one of my backs. thanks for the comments guys.
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Jordan, if you have a digital camera, can you take a snapshot of the site, with a person standing in it for scale, and post it here?

 

I would STRONGLY counsel against using ANY chrome film for this assignment: Even color negative film will have trouble unless it's tungsten balanced.

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I used to take pictures of bands, and the most successful images were usually ones where I broke a lot of the usual rules to come up with something that looked different. So if this band is trying to look edgy, and that extreme yellow would be just the kick it needs, then by all means give it a try and see what happens (but shoot some other films too just in case). Anyhow, if you are going to be photoshopping the result, you could use the sponge tool to selectively desaturate.
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This is a snapshot taken during a fire drill using Velvia 100F. Neither of these guys is sunburnt in fact they both have quite olive skin and also you will notice the high contrast nature of the film. If you want your band to love you use something else - and that advice comes from a Velvia lover.

 

Mike<div>00FlPq-28998384.jpg.0e558e317a8132a812da8c9c17cb487f.jpg</div>

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  • 4 years later...

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