The Grand Canal

[PaulC]

Pentacon Six with Fuji Velvia 100.

[Katastrofo]

Great shot, I like it a lot. Think it might be listing to the right some, tho.

[PaulC]

Well spotted. It seems to be 1 degree out.

[Laurence]

Paul! This is a stunning image! You really caught the "street scene",
except it's not on a street of course. You took advantage of the Velvia's
colorization to produce a classic looking shot.

[cooltouch]

Very nice, Paul. Great colors.

I have a question about Velvia. I've just shot my first two rolls ever of it -- ISO 50 in my case, one roll of 35mm and one roll of 220. And I was very impressed with both the fineness of grain and the fantastic color saturation. Would you say that the Velvia 100 is close to the 50 in these two areas, or is there a substantial difference?

[PaulC]

I haven't used much of either but I was much happier with the results from Velvia 50 than with Velvia 100. But the blame could easily lie with the photographer.

[peterqd]

It's a great picture, but whenever I see a Velvia shot I get an urge to turn down the color control on the monitor. Sorry :/

[eeyore_nl]

[cooltouch]

That's fine by me. I like bold, primary colors. Kodachrome wasn't a film for subtle tones either -- especially yellows and reds. So far, Velvia is the closest I've seen to Kodachrome's saturated colors, although I think it handles greens better. So it has been somewhat cathartic for me, using Velvia while missing Kodachrome.

[PaulC]

The more I look at it the less I like it. Maybe I need to adjust the white balance and I have lost detail in the bridge...
After scanning it and running it through photoshop, I'm not sure how much of the result is really Velvia and how much of it is me.

[cooltouch]

Paul, I think it is the Velvia. Or the fact that it is a slide, actually. I was hesitant to offer a criticism at first, but since you've brought it up, I'll mention what I saw. To me, it looked like the image was about 1/2 stop overexposed. Probably not quite a full stop. You had burned through whites, and the sky had turned a sort of turquoise color. These, to me, are symptomatic of overexposure. I can show you examples of slides I have where both these points are present -- burned through whites and turquoise skies -- and in every case, I think the image would have been improved with maybe 1/2 or 2/3 stop less exposure.

Now that I look at the image again, it appears pretty obvious that you've replaced the original with one where you've adjusted the brightness and contrast and saturation even? And to me, your WB is now off. I think your adjustments helped for the most part, and I hope you don't mind, but I "borrowed" you image and adjusted the WB. That's all I did. Turns out that bridge really is pink, isn't it?

[PaulC]

Yes, that's better the faces are a better colour. Lack of detail in the bridge is still an issue but if there's nothing in the slide then there's nothing I can do about it (and there isn't anything, I just checked).

Now I've got a spotmeter hopefully I won't have these problems. the Pentacon's meter which I was using is a fairly rough approximation.
I'd always rather know what is wrong with something than just be told it's nice, that way I can learn things.

[Laurence]

Regarding the question of Velvia 50 or Velvia 100: I have to really get
into a detailed look at the image to tell the differences. I just don't see that
there is as much a difference in coloration, as there is in exposure differences from the camera.

That said, if I DO look very, very closely - Velvia 50 seems a little bit
better in its rendering of the primary colors. But, "better" means how
it looks to MY eyes and is objective.

I like to shoot 50 only because an enlargement could be a tiny bit sharper,
but the essential difference, to me anyway, is not even worth an opinion.

If no 50 is available, I'm very very happy with 100.