Kodachrome - gloomy greens?

[gary_watson]

<p>Don't recall you mentioning it, Ian, but do you own an incident light meter? Shooting slides can be way more satisfying if you do.</p>

[joshloeser]

<p>Looks to me that the time of day you shot wasn't all that great for getting good color. </p>

<p>I'd say a late afternoon shot in ideal lighting would be the best test.</p>

[Ian Rance]

<p>Gary, I do have a Weston EuroMaster - perhaps I should use it more.</p>

<p>Looking at these comments, what strikes me is that there are some hard rules concerning use of Kodachrome. Perhaps they could be summed up to help newcomers to the emulsion avioid initial dissapointment (which may turn them off using it again).</p>

<p>How does this sound?</p>

<p>For best results:</p>

<p>1. Makes sure film has been stored correctly and is in date.<br>

2. Ensure camera can be set to 64 ASA.<br>

3. If possible, use an incident light meter to check readings.<br>

4. Shoot at 90 degrees to the sun with a polariser.<br>

5. Ideally, have the end result scanned to allow final tweaks.</p>

<p>I have got 5 more rolls. I will use them, but with more thought and only for certain subjects - not dark plants anyway.</p>

[dougityb]

<p>Kodachrome is still in production? </p>

[Robin Smith]

<p>Ian,</p>

<p>The most important rule with Kodachrome is to expose it correctly, it has less latitude than E6 films so the exposure has to be bang on. What speed you set for your meter depends on the camera and the way you meter. I use it at 50, but I know some who rate it as 80. Personally, I prefer the image lighter rather than darker.</p>

<p>The polarizer rule is a general one for all color films as that is where polarized light will be coming from, it's not unique to Kodachrome.</p>

<p>With slide films (including K64) the general rule it to expose for the highlights you are want to see in the final image. Incident metering might well get you there, but is not infallible.</p>

<p>Personally I would not pick Kodachrome if you want to scan the film. I (and many others) find it among the hardest of films to scan - grain is accentuated and shadows are noisy-and dust reduction software often does not work.</p>

[mikal_grass]

<p>I have about 50 rolls of Kodachrome 25 left. When I use it, I rate it at 40, and have it developed at 40 by Dwaynes. I have never had a problem with muted greens; as a matter of fact, the greens are extremely vibrant. The reds and blues are a bit funky, but they can be toned down when scanned.<br>

I scan with a Nikon 9000 and vuescan. I like the vibrant colors but it seems that Vuescan doesn't do the job for Kodachrome 25. I have the Lasersoft software with the Kodachrome target, but I can't seem to get the hang of Lasersoft though.<br>

The attaches shot was taken in the late afternoon in Coral Gables, FL, purposely shot into the sun for effect. I toned down the reds just a bit. <br>

Sorry for not resizing the image for posting but I don't have decent software on the office computer.</p>

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[christopher_m]

<p>"Personally I would not pick Kodachrome if you want to scan the film. I (and many others) find it among the hardest of films to scan - grain is accentuated and shadows are noisy-and dust reduction software often does not work."<br>

I think it scans very nicely... at least on my Epson V500.</p>

<p><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3181/2992645203_5f9b2da5a1.jpg" alt="" width="327" height="500" /></p>

<p> </p>

[waltflanagan]

<p>If the only two slide films you've used are Kodachrome and an unknown house brand then I strongly suggest you buy a roll of Provia, Velvia, and Astia.</p>

<p>I've read quite a few posts here from new Kodachrome users who wonder why we don't all shoot Kodachrome. They think we're missing something. The reality is that many of us have shot thousands of Kodachrome slides and willingly abandoned it for other films like Velvia.</p>

<p>If you have multiple cameras try taking the same shot with the same lens using each of the films. Have them developed and compare side by side. Do the same with Kodachrome if you want to, through in 100VS and any other Kodak slide film you want. It will cost you $30-100 but to me that is money well spent so you can compare them with your own eyes instead of listening to people on the Internet. I did it years ago and it was one of the best learning experiences I've ever had. I had no more questions, I had the answers right in front of me.</p>

<p>There is nothing wrong with shooting Kodachrome and loving it but if you haven't shot other films then you are really missing out. There's also nothing wrong with loving or hating Velvia.</p>

[randrew1]

<p>Doug,</p>

<p>Yes, Kodachrome 64 is still in production. New emulsion numbers are being released. </p>

[fredrik_sandstrom]

<p>> <em>I have about 50 rolls of Kodachrome 25 left. When I use it, I rate it at 40, and have it developed at 40 by Dwaynes.</em><br>

You push process K25 by 2/3 stop? Why?</p>

[Robin Smith]

<p>I completely agree with Walt, above. K64 is a nice film and I used it for 20 years, but I switched to Astia after wanting to scan film and liking the fact that it is a stop faster, has finer grain and more forgiving in exposure and, although neutral, is better with greens and blues. There is no negative to using E6 films these days. Try them and see.</p>

[dan_sapper]

<p>One of the difficulties processing Kodachrome is the possibility of forming the wrong color image dye in the wrong layer of the emulsion. This is because each color dye is processed in its own color developer (C, M, Y). If any of the color developers is off specification, or if the re-exposure printers (for image reversal) are out of calibration, then the dye might be formed in the next developer step. For example, if the cyan developer is off spec, then the under-developed image (cyan to red axis) might get developed in the magenta developer (magenta to green axis). This causes poor color reproduction, the "muddiness" and lack of accuracy that others have mentioned.</p>

<p>When processed well, Kodachrome greens should be OK. But they are definitely less saturated and less "lime green" than most of today's E-6 films. Velvia 50 is the opposite end of the saturation and accuracy scale, with fluorescent looking bright green leaf colors. I would say that Kodachrome 64 will reproduce more subtle shades of green than many other slide films. I see more blue-greens in Kodachrome, particularly in plants like tulip leaves, spruce trees, cactus, etc. Nice for botanical studies and catalogs, but it may not have the wow factor of E-6 saturation.</p>

 

[DB_Gallery]

<p>For the most part, Kodachrome 64 represents colors as they are in the light one is working with. For example, when I started shooting a lot of Kodachrome again, I started to relate to the color palette on those terms and I would easily pick up with my eye when a scene was subject to too much cyan / UV. So as I have said before, with the exception of warmly lit reds / oranges, Kodachrome is not going to sugar coat your subject falsely like other films. You have to work at it and become very sensitive to light.<br>

Furthermore, the scanning issues with Kodachrome are there until you get a decent CCD scanner with good software. Lasersoft imaging makes an IT8 target and when that is combined with Silverfast Ai, there is virtually no color cast removal needed, mine are spot on.<br>

Kodachrome is a piece of cake to scan with a good scanner like a Nikon 5000 ED / 9000 ED so saying that scanning Kodchrome is hard is like saying pounding a nail into a piece of wood with the butt of a screwdriver is hard.</p>

 

[bjmarkowitz]

<p><a href="http://lawhawk.blogspot.com/2009/06/at-least-weve-got-nice-song-and-park-to.html">http://lawhawk.blogspot.com/2009/06/at-least-weve-got-nice-song-and-park-to.html</a></p>

<p>An end to an era indeed!</p>

[a._valerio]

<p>Green is by far my favorite color.</p>

<p>What do you think of the greens in this shot? This was Kodachrome 200.</p>

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