wallybeagle

Any general suggestions on type of light/time of day for using Velvia 50 film with 50 mm or 28 F2.8 lens?

RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

It is a daylight balanced film. Lens focal length is immaterial.

jsmangis Loc: Peoria, IL

If you have plenty of light it has very vivid colors and makes great large prints.

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

Great for landscape photography. Not so much for portraits. Google Velvia 50 and click on the images to see some examples.

Blaidd

Back in the day I shot many rolls of Velvia and loved it for landscapes. Just make sure you nail your exposure and it will give you great colors.

steady27 Loc: Boston, MA

In the old days of Kodak's box cameras, we were advised to take our photos between 10:00AM and 2:00PM. Today it's generally suggested to take our photos(Regardless of film type) either before 10 or after 2. This is when you can take advantage of side lighting which increases the warmth of the light on your subject, things appear sharper and there's a wonderful quality of light. Good luck !

WayneL Loc: Baltimore Md

With the 28mm you should be able to hand hold it better at slow shutter speeds like 1/30 when the 50 might need 1/60.

MIKE GALLAGHER Loc: New Zealand

The standard/normal/usual ASA/ISO rating used to be 100. In comparison with that ASA50 will cost you 1 stop of light but with that lens you're not too likely to run out of light until the sun's nearly in bed. So while it's a bit slow you should be ok. Just keep an eye on your exposure and take the odd shot around and into dusk. It won't take you long to sort it out.'Specially if your first couple of rolls are short ones.It can get a bit expensive making too many mistakes on long rolls.
I used to love Fuji Velvia but usually stayed with 100 or faster. If you're going with film I reckon that's not a bad choice.
If you're interested there are good tutorials on scanning negatives with a flat bed scanner (Google that!) and digitising them to a computer. You could then do your own editing and printing. Have the rolls developed only. Save a fortune!

amehta Loc: Boston

If the photograph you want to take works at a slower shutter speed (and tripod/monopod/image stabilization), then it can be any type of light/time of day.

If you want to experiment first, set your digital camera to ISO 100 (and low-1 if you have it), and see if the exposures settings will work for the shot you want.

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

Diffuse (semi cloudy) or open shade will work best with Velvia.....

Arca

wallybeagle,

I absolutely love Fuji Velvia 50. I shoot it exclusively, in 35mm, 645 and large format 4 by 5. I have used it since about 1998.

It is a fantastic film for landscapes. It is not recommended for portraits as it tends to excessively redden complexions.

Be sure to bracket your shots by 1/2 or 1/3 f-stop in each direction. Since it is a slow ISO of 50, at later hours in the day or early morning, you may need to lengthen the shutter speed, especially if you are using a polarizing filter. Use a good tripod and shutter release cable and use mirror lock-up if you have that feature on your camera. This is especially useful for vertical shots as the mirror would travel from left to right causing blur. With the mirror locked up, this will be avoided.

The very fine, infinitesimal silver halide particles on the film yield very fine grain and thus can be enlarged to 16 by 20 easily without loss of clarity. This massive quantity of tiny particles is what causes the film to be so slow. Larger particles such as on ISO 400 film turn with the light much more quickly because they are larger and therefore fewer of them. The smaller particles require more time to turn with the light, but gives much more exquisitely detailed results.

Ken Rockwell gives mathematical proof of why Velvia is capable of producing finer detailed pictures than a mere 36 megapixel camera such as the 800e. See his paper http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/film-resolution.htm. Velvia is the equivalent of 175 megapixels. I know that others will disagree or find fault with that position, and I honor their right to their opinion. But I need proof before I change my opinion regarding the superior detailed accuracy of film. Until proven otherwise, my experience sides with Ken Rockwell.

IMHO

Arca

Pablo8 Loc: Nottingham UK.

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!! Have we got a 'Convert' ?? Have used, and still use Velvia film. Soft light will bring out the best features of velvia, which can look too harsh in bright direct sunlight.Sometimes, a warming filter 81b can improve the look of Velvia. Enjoy the experience.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Shot tons of Velvia back in the good old days. It's rich and saturated, with very fine grain. I agree, a warming (81A or 81B) filter can be helpful.

In many of my cameras I rated Velvia at ISO 40 and got good results with it. In my Canon EOS-3 and Elan 7E I used it at ISO 50.

I used it whenever possible for wildlife and scenic shots. One of the top selling stock photographers in the world used it almost exclusively for people shots, too... so don't buy into any statements that it's not good for that.

I don't know if they still make it, but there also was Kodak Ektachrome E100 "VS" (Very Saturated) which was similar. Fuji made an ISO 100 version of Velvia, too, but I always prefered the Ektachrome, when I needed the extra stop of speed.

Ektachrome E200 was the fastest slide film I used regularly, and is also a highly saturated film.

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

Velvia 50 shows very unique color gradations, and very deep colors if underexposed a bit. I attached a pic I took sith a Mamiya 645 camera, a 45mm lens and velvia 50. I downsized the pic from a 240MB scanned image to a 17MB jpg in Photoshop (a 26MB version wouldn't upload to UHH). But the pic is otherwise unprocessed.
Bob

(Download)

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

please do...also how long ago was the picture taken?