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When using film one must accept that there is a learning curve. Every emulsion type is different and hense the way to meter and expose each type of film to your own personal preferences is also different. I have been researching some ways to improve my skills some say expose for highlights while some say expose for midtones. After shooting about 10 rolls of slide film I say expose for a point where you won't burn out the highlights. But at times not buring out the highlights and getting good shadow details is hard. It one must be sacrificed unless you have a graduated neutral density filter.
For the best results I would have to say use manual mode and spot meter the scene and then think for yourself the correct exposure and don't let the matrix meter tell you what to do. Meter the shadows and meter the highlights. If there is more then around 4.5-5 stops of light difference, chances are you are not going to be able to get the detail of the shot in the periphery of this range.
With Veliva underexposing by half a stop or a stop can, like other films, give you more saturation. However, this saturation can be unatural at times making the scene look fake or fabricated. You may want to over expose by just a tad bit (half a stop) to control this. But then again you have to keep in mind the latitude of your film and the problem of blowing out details.
Provia is rapidly becomming my film of choice, the colours just seem so much more realistic to me. As in this shot you can see that the blue sky is just crazy saturated. It is unatural and looks like a digital picture with saturation cranked up.
Slide film has numerous advantages over negative film. For one thing what you shoot is what you get. Underexpose or overexpose and you are screwed. This is not the case with negatives. I guess the challenge is what I am chasing after.
To be perfectly honest, I can't quite seem to get positive film down. I think this has to do with the fact that the film I am using is outdated and probably hasn't been properly stored by the guy that gave it to me (but hey it was free). I bracket my shots almost always, one shot at the exposure I believe to be correct (via spot metering) and one shot with an additional stop and a half of light. But.. still I get a problem with under exposure for both shots. Thus in a roll of 36 exposures I get around 5-6 properly exposed shots which is a real real disappointment because it costs nearly $10 dollars to develop a roll now.
I played with the spot meter on my D700, because digital is supposed have a similar latitude as slide, and just relying on the spot meter info and exposing with the same technique I use for the slides I get decent results???
Regarding Velvia, with the few exposures that turned out right, I personally feel that it packs too much saturation for my tastes. Provia on the other hand seems more suiting for general use. Maybe a slight overexposure will calm the saturation down a bit? But... I don't think I have ever overexposed anything? Underexposing is my problem!
I played with the spot meter on my D700, because digital is supposed have a similar latitude as slide, and just relying on the spot meter info and exposing with the same technique I use for the slides I get decent results???
In any case, slide is so fustrating!!! But if it were easy what fun would it be?
I think I will try a roll of this freebee film and rate it a whole additional stop higher... curious to see what happens??
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