Velvia 50 at dusk & at night.

[hoshisato]

<p>I intend to shoot neon lights and some other street scenes on Velvia 50 at dusk or early evening; I checked the Velvia 50 product info and Fuji recommends adding:</p>

<ul>

<li>+1/3 stop for 4 seconds exposures</li>

<li>+1/2 stop for 8 seconds exposures</li>

<li>+2/3 stop for 16 seconds exposures</li>

<li>+1 stop for 32 seconds exposures</li>

</ul>

<p>First of all, do these recommendations from Fuji sound about right to you?<br /> I read some horrors stories about long exposures on Velvia 50, colour shifts, etc. I might pick up some Velvia 100 if you all agree that I'd be wasting my Velvia 50 on this.</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>I wouldn't know better than the manufacturer, that's for sure.</p>

<p>Although honestly in actually shooting street at night with slide film, I honestly didn't worry too much about reciprocity failures. Even then I was using a Repronar copier to correct slides in "post-production" in the few cases in which I didn't prefer the original, color shifts and all.</p>

[stephen_schoof1]

<p>Those numbers sound about right, though I bracket and don't always pay attention to which shot is best. In the complex lighting often characteristic of dusk/night, an "underexposed" shot may be the preferred one anyway. I usually bracket around the base exposure for anything less than 6 seconds or so, but by 30 seconds, go ahead and add 0.7 or 1.0 stop and bracket around that.</p>

<p>Velvia 50 is my favorite film and I use if for a lot of low-light work. Depending on the light source you can get some strong color casts, though that is sometimes appealing. For really dim conditions, like moonlight, I switch to 100 or 100F just because the reciprocity failure becomes such an issue with 50 (the 100s don't need compensation until you go over 1 minute). Velvia 100F doesn't exaggerate the greens of flourescent lighting as much as 50. </p>

[donbright]

<p>I don't go beyond 4 sec with RVP 50. So I don't have an experience personally with long exposures with Velvia 50, so I could just stay out of this but, I always thought that Photographers that used long exposures with Velvia 50 were looking for that happenstance color shift for effect. The Photographers I know that pressed the issue of long exposures with Velvia 50, and were looking for accuracy seemed to be frustrated with the result. I opt to use it for its intended purpose. It's a great film, but it doesn't do everything, and maybe I just don't want to dig out the compensation chart when needed. So I just load another film, like 400X.</p>

[hoshisato]

<p>Thanks everybody, very much appreciated! </p>

[david_henderson]

<p>I'm not at all sure that Velvia would be my first choice for the task you describe, for two reasons.</p>

<ul>

<li>That sort of scene tends to be contrasty, and the later you leave it and the more dependent on artificial light you get, the higher the contrast will be . Meanwhile you have chosen the most contrasty example (Velvia 50) of the most contrasty medium ( colour slide film) to make your exposures. That said , if you limit your photography to situations where the sky is no darker than your subject it is just about possible with careful metering and I've attached what I hope is a relevent example. The shot required a lot of light metering and several attempts.</li>

<li>Second, you'll face colour shifts beyond that which are caused by reciprocity. Velvia has a deserved reputation for delivering colours which don't reflect what you think you see very accurately, and the lower the ambient light level, the more likely this will be a factor. After over a decade of shooting landscapes with Velvia , often at dawn or dusk, I have had countless occasions where a slight, almost imperceptible colour in a pre-dawn or post sunset light has turned a scene from a gentle blue into a nasty dull magenta, or a touch of warmth becomes an impossibly bright pink. Some people do seem to like the way Velvia affects colour in low light conditions. Velvia doesn't do gentle subtlety well, and it is very difficuly indeed to spot when you need to be using a warming or cooling filter to get the light you actually see on the slide. I did eventually start using Provia 100F - which may have similar tendencies, but has them in a less strong form. Velvia 100 has an even greater tendency to exaggerate reds than RVP.</li>

</ul>

<div></div>

[hoshisato]

<p>Thanks David. To explain: I will mainly use the Velvia 50 I bought earlier for landscapes in daylight; I was thinking of using 1 roll to shoot some very saturated city scenes in Tokyo if the neon is still on this summer. Hence the maybe odd choice of Velvia 50 for this task.</p>

[manuel_odabashian]

<p>I don't know too much about this but on old velvia 50 i shot a 30 sec exposure and got great results i must emphasize that it was in shade velvia does get warmer the more the exposure is</p>

[donbright]

<p>Long exposures with Velvia 50 would be fun, as long as one is not bothered by surprises, and sometimes the surprises are pretty amazing.</p>

[roman_p]

<p>I agree with David that the RVP50 is not a right choice for low light/night photography. This is a wonderful film but it’s slow and Fuji didn’t design it for a low light application. What was your real reason to choose the RVP50? There’re several better choices. I recommend you to try Provia 400X. You’ll be amazed how beautifully this film reproduces the twilight sky and artificial city light. If you still prefer slower speed there’re Velvia 100 and 100F. Both are fantastic emulsions and handle the reciprocity issue much better than 50. And as Stephen noted they don’t exaggerate the greens of fluorescent light as much also. But I dont’r really like Provia 100F for this type of shooting – the colors are too pale, too “bluish” (way too blue) and neon red is quite poor.</p>

[roman_p]

<p>Provia 400X, ISO 800, pushed +1 stop, hand handled.</p><div></div>

[joe_casey5]

<p>Roman, what camera / lens combination were you using for this image? The color contrast looks correct but the image appears unsharp. Also, why are you using 800ISO here. Why not 400ISO?</p>