Velvia 100 (first time shooting slide film)

[stratos]

Hello!

I am about to load my bronica with a Velvia 100 roll.
I read on the net different opinions about overexposing or underexposing 2/3 of a stop on slides.
Which rule is true and how i am suppose to do this when the lens has full stops? :P

Note: It's my first time shooting slide film, so any tips or suggestions are very welcome!

Thank you in advance!

[DaveP]

Don't underexpose at all, just expose correctly! Advice like "underexpose 2/3" is just attempting to provide some highlight headroom for making a careless exposure in contrasty light. If you underexpose by 2/3 routinely then in flat light you'll just have unnecessarily dark slides. Having said that, exposing at 125 isn't such a bad idea, especially in direct sunlight. Your lens should let you set intermediate aperture stops, I've never seen a lens that doesn't.

Seriously though, how are you metering? If you're spot metering then things at +2 stops are going to be white or as near as makes no odds. So make sure nothing important in the scene goes above +2, or lower than -2.

Generally speaking if you don't have a spotmeter then in flat or normal light you can shoot away without much worry, but watch out or bracket a bit in contrasty conditions, at least until you get to know the film a bit. A good rule of thumb is if you're in any doubt about whether the light is too contrasty, then it probably is. The old trick is to squint a bit, and this will darken the shadows you see to roughly approximate the effect of slide film.

Other thing you want to consider is what are you shooting for, scanning or projection? If for projection you can get away with underexposure, but with scanning you want the shot as light as possible without clipping the highlights.

[stratos]

Originally Posted by DaveP

Don't underexpose at all, just expose correctly! Advice like "underexpose 2/3" is just attempting to provide some highlight headroom for making a careless exposure in contrasty light. If you underexpose by 2/3 routinely then in flat light you'll just have unnecessarily dark slides. Having said that, exposing at 125 isn't such a bad idea, especially in direct sunlight. Your lens should let you set intermediate aperture stops, I've never seen a lens that doesn't.

Unfortunately the Zenzanon 75mm 2.8 EII has full stop increments...

Originally Posted by DaveP

Seriously though, how are you metering? If you're spot metering then things at +2 stops are going to be white or as near as makes no odds. So make sure nothing important in the scene goes above +2, or lower than -2.

I am using an external selenium exposure meter which i point at the subject i want to shoot and gives me combinations of shutter speed and aperture based on my film ASA.

Originally Posted by DaveP

Generally speaking if you don't have a spotmeter then in flat or normal light you can shoot away without much worry, but watch out or bracket a bit in contrasty conditions, at least until you get to know the film a bit. A good rule of thumb is if you're in any doubt about whether the light is too contrasty, then it probably is. The old trick is to squint a bit, and this will darken the shadows you see to roughly approximate the effect of slide film.

Other thing you want to consider is what are you shooting for, scanning or projection? If for projection you can get away with underexposure, but with scanning you want the shot as light as possible without clipping the highlights.

I am shooting for scanning.

[DaveP]

Assuming your meter is not a spotmeter then your best best is to probably shoot your first roll of say 5 scenes that are typical of the type of thing you would like to shoot, different lighting conditions, and shoot some brackets, at say half stops* either direction for each of the 5 scenes, giving you a full roll of 15 shots. Then have this developed then it should give you a fair idea of how the film handles differing lighting, and give you a good basis to be able to know if you need to be routinely under/over expose, i.e. if you need to adjust your EI from the box speed. Might cost you a roll of film but will save you money in the long run.

*I'm assuming the camera must give you some means to obtain exposure setting somewhere between full stops, like intermediate shutter speeds or something like that?

[Adrian]

The Bronica 75mm F/2.8 has aperture clicks in 1 stop steps but you can still set the aperture between the clicks.

[CambsIan]

I'm still pretty much a beginner myself but I shoot my slide film (35mm) at box speed and using the in camera light meter.

Not really sure if this is a good or a bad idea, but it works for me.

Have attached a couple of low res scans from my last batch of developed slides (OOD film shot through glass)

Hope this is of some help

Ian

[stratos]

Originally Posted by DaveP

Assuming your meter is not a spotmeter then your best best is to probably shoot your first roll of say 5 scenes that are typical of the type of thing you would like to shoot, different lighting conditions, and shoot some brackets, at say half stops* either direction for each of the 5 scenes, giving you a full roll of 15 shots. Then have this developed then it should give you a fair idea of how the film handles differing lighting, and give you a good basis to be able to know if you need to be routinely under/over expose, i.e. if you need to adjust your EI from the box speed. Might cost you a roll of film but will save you money in the long run.

*I'm assuming the camera must give you some means to obtain exposure setting somewhere between full stops, like intermediate shutter speeds or something like that?

as i mentioned, the lens has full stops but as Adrian says i can set aperture between two clicks to get a half stop.
Shutter speeds on bronica are also on full stops

Anyway, thank you very much for your reply! I will try to follow your instructions and shoot 5 subjects of 3 pics each using bracketing!
You are absolutely right! I will lost the cost of a roll film but it's ok: The results will save me in the future!

Originally Posted by Adrian

The Bronica 75mm F/2.8 has aperture clicks in 1 stop steps but you can still set the aperture between the clicks.

Thanks for the tip! Very useful, i didn't knew i could do that!

Originally Posted by CambsIan

I'm still pretty much a beginner myself but I shoot my slide film (35mm) at box speed and using the in camera light meter.

Not really sure if this is a good or a bad idea, but it works for me.

Have attached a couple of low res scans from my last batch of developed slides (OOD film shot through glass)

Hope this is of some help

Ian

Thanks for the info CambsIan! Very nice shots!