Garden of the Gods - Velvia Large Format

Colorado CJ · Joined: 29 Jul 2012 Posts: 210 Location: Northern Colorado

I posted my black and white film images the other day to this forum. Yesturday I picked up my color slides from the processors.

This was my first time shooting color slide film. I've always stuck with black and white because I can process it myself, and because it is cheap compared to color.

Well, I was a little nervous as I pulled the dark slide for the first time to expose my first sheet of color slide film. I did a lot of reading on proper metering for slides, but not ever doing it before, I was sure I was going to mess it up. I used my same Pentax spot meter that I use for my zone system work, but exposed the highlights to zone VII, letting the shadows fall where they may.

Once I got the slides back from the processor, I threw them on my light table and just sat there and stared at them. This was my first time seeing color slides on a light table and I couldn't believe how detailed and colorful they were.

Anyway, it took some doing trying to scan them in, I had to fiddle with scanner settings for over an hour until I was getting close to what the slides looked like on the table. These aren't near as good as they look in person (I just cant get the detail in the shadows that I can visually see on the light table in these scans), but they'll have to do.

Shot on my Zone VI 4x5 camera using either a Fujinon W 125mm F5.6 lens or a Kodak Ektar 203mm F7.7 lens. No filters were used.

Garden of the Gods - Velvia 100-1 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr

Garden of the Gods - Velvia 100 - 3 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr

Garden of the Gods - Velvia 100 - 2 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr

Garden of the Gods - Velvia 100 - 4 by Colorado CJ, on Flickr

I can tell that I'm going to like shooting slide film. I have another 44 sheets of Velvia 100 and 120 sheets of Velvia 50 coming in the mail. I'll still primarily be shooting with black and white films, but will have a Grafmatic loaded up with color slides along on all my outings as well.

rbelyell · Expire: 2014-01-31

beautiful. you should feel very proud of these.
tony

Nordentro · Expire: 2015-01-29

+1, amazing work

JJB · Joined: 02 Oct 2014 Posts: 424 Location: USA

Gorgeous!!! The balance on the third and fourth is especially impressive. I really like your work although I confess I'm a sucker for great B&W landscapes. You excel at those also.

PhantomLord · Joined: 08 Apr 2013 Posts: 472 Location: Szczecin, Poland

Absolutely amazing! I was waiting for your Velvia slides since you've mentioned them being developed, either on flickr or here.
I'm admiring your skill for composition and I enjoyed your BW photographs, although I prefer the colour photos in general.
Your Velvia shots are simply stunning and I'm really happy that you've caught the colour bug a little bit Smile

.

Cheers
Mateusz

MartinCrabtree · Joined: 10 Jan 2015 Posts: 121

Beautiful shots. What mater/system did you use for exposure calculations? Whatever it was keep using it.