I've been meaning to try out Fuji's Velvia 50 slide film for a while now, and figured testing it out with some brightly colour old German houses would be a nice fit. Here are my impressions along with a small history lesson!
About the film
Fuji Velvia 50 is seen by many professionals as the colour slide film, and for good reason too! It is a film that is favoured by landscape photographers due to its bright, vibrant colours. It is also the film used for one of the most viewed photographs of the time, "Bliss", the Windows XP home screen. Yep, not only was that view of rolling green hills and a bright blue sky a real photograph, it was also shot on Fuji Velvia film!
According to Fuji:
Professional, high-image quality, daylight-type color reversal film with superb granularity, and world-class levels of image color saturation and vibrancy.Precise modulation, vivid color reproduction and excellent image quality make this the outstanding film for nature, fashion, products, interiors, and artwork photography.Exceptional performance, ISO speed rating of 50, excellent results in push-/pull processing for a wide range of exposures - from -1/2 to +1 stop, enabling a wider array of photo opportunities.
Remember this is colour slide film, meaning it produces a positive image on the negative. Colour negative film produces the more usual looking negative, with dark and lighter areas that are then reversed during the scanning process. To illustrate this I took a photograph of the negatives below, they are really fun to look at!
However, slide film is notoriously difficult to shoot as it has a much lower exposure latitude, meaning you have to get the exposure bang on to get a good image. However during a bright sunny day this is not that hard, unless you are hiding in the shadows somewhere.
About the photos
The theme was quite simple - go find some old German houses and take some interesting photographs. I did, however, experiment a bit with angles and tried for some shots other than the typical postcard shot.
The locations were in the vicinity of Frankfurt, first off Rüdesheim am Rhine (also the location of a previous blog post) and then Frankfurt Höchst. Both of these locations have plenty of old German houses, and the weather was very cooperative too!
One of the many side streets full of character in Rüdesheim am Rhein. Not sure I got the exposure right on this one as the shadows are completely blacked out, but I still like the shot!
A better exposed shot of a restaurant area. I had my Rolleiflex with me, which usually gets a lot of unwanted attention, but for the most part I managed to take this shot unnoticed. Really nice warm tones in this shot.
One of my favourite shots of the roll. One of the many quaint streets in Frankfurt Höchst. This district became part of Frankfurt in 1928, but goes as far back as 790, with its old timber houses dating back to 1586.
Frankfurt Höchst Castle, with nice views onto the river Main looking down towards the skyscrapers of Frankfurt city.
The old town square. I really like how vibrant and colourful this Fuji Velvia film is!
Really nice bright shot, although the clouds are a bit overexposed now that I look at it carefully. Still, a nice colourful image!
I always enjoy trying different angles, and this is quite easily done with the aid of the waist viewfinder of the Rolleiflex.
I like the simplicity and "pop" of this image - the negative really jumped out at me when I put it on the light viewer with my magnifier.
Colours, and more colours.
Another really nice shot, although the focus is a bit off.
I kept the last shot for sunset - this taken from my balcony. I love this image, it looks like it has been painted! It is a pity Frankfurt's skyline is a bit cut off, but I just had to get as much of the colourful sky as I could (that and the fact that the bottom of the image had a building site in it!).
Overall observations
WOW - what a film! I understand why this film was such a favourite with landscape photographers, its colours and vibrancy is really spectacular. It seems to work best with lots (and lots) of light, but also towards with softer light (morning or evening time). Some of the shots with a lot of shadow did not come out as I had hoped though, I think colour negative film is a bit better at balancing out the high dynamic ranges in mixed shots of strong sunglight and dark shadows. That being said, when the shots are properly exposed the colours are really incredible, unlight any other film I have seen so far.
Unfortunately it has become quite expensive, and costs as much as 3 or 4 Kodak Portra colour negative films. Even still, it is worth saving some for a special occasion, so I am glad I have a few rolls in the fridge for just that reason.
I really enjoyed trying different angles of the old German houses for what otherwise might have been quite boring shots. That combined with the superb colours of this film produced some quite agreeable shots, if I don't mind saying so myself.
I hope you enjoyed this brief post and I will see you next time!
Thanks for stopping by,
Neil
