We have already explained what slide film is in the previous article, and now we want to share our various impressions from using it. Just a warning: the text contains an abundance of the words "magic," "enchantment," and excited exclamations. Enjoy reading!
Dima, our gang leader
It's hard to surprise people who shoot on film with ordinary negatives: they are brown and uninteresting. But when you encounter slide film – that's pure magic. A different experience that takes your breath away. Imagine: on a small piece of film, you get a super cool, super contrasty, and bright photo. It's especially interesting to see the eyes of people who see a slide for the first time. They don't understand what it is: "How was this made? What was that?" The guys have such surprise on their faces.
What I like most is that you don't even need to scan the slide; just take your films in your hands and look at them. They are very cool – that's what takes your breath away! By the way, if you look on Instagram, for example, everyone posts not scans of slide film but the positive films themselves because this thing is insanely beautiful.
Of course, it's better to shoot slide film in medium or large format. When the positive size is huge, you get a truly rich 10x12 cm photo. That's a whole work of art, not a small 2.5x3.5 cm shot. Essentially, a finished picture.
Dima shot on Velvia film with ISO 50
Sasha, our photo lab leader
Shooting on slide is harder than on negative: it's easy to miss the exposure. I shot with a camera that had a broken light meter, set everything manually, and measured with my phone. Obviously, it wasn't always possible to set the exposure perfectly. So be ready that the frame might come out either too bright or too dark. You really have to try hard, no slacking, because slide film simply doesn't tolerate mistakes. In this regard, negative film is easier: it has a wider exposure latitude than slide (the greater the exposure latitude, the more mistakes it can tolerate...).
I shot on Fujifilm Provia ISO 100 and Fujifilm Velvia ISO 50. Shooting with such low sensitivity films in winter is not easy. The daylight is short, there is very little sun, and the time to shoot is limited as well. So I pushed Fujifilm Velvia ISO 50 to ISO 200, shot outdoors and indoors with poor lighting, and got great photos.
Despite all the difficulties, slide film is very cool. I especially enjoyed developing it. It's a really interesting process. Unusual compared to D-76. It's very pleasant to hold the pictures you took and then developed yourself. You don't even need to scan! You can immediately after developing see what came out, examine your positives. That's pure magic. I was as happy as a child. Imagine – everyone is happy when they get their scans from negative film, right? But here, the pleasure is even greater, and the magic is stronger.
Sasha shot on Velvia film with ISO 50
Anya, our photographer
Once, a friend of mine sent me photos from the mountains, very rich and beautiful, and said they were made on slide film. I remember I liked them insanely. I kind of felt the visual difference between positive and negative film, and it impressed me. Then I thought that if I go to some incredible place – nature or those same mountains – I would definitely take slide film with me.
Then I tried shooting myself: I had both positive and negative impressions. What's good? It's definitely the magic of positive film. Just imagine: you hold real pictures in your hands, and they look like they are painted! So beautiful it takes your breath away.
On the other hand, shooting on slide is not that easy. For example, my last slide photos came out too dark, even though I shot on Ektachrome ISO 100, during the day and in the sun. Compared to negative film, slide photos come out much darker. That's the problem with slide – it's picky! So before taking such film to an important event or trip, test it in completely different conditions and understand how it behaves.
I have a friend, a very good photographer, and he said he doesn't shoot on slide at all. He sees no point: no scanner can fully convey the original image on the positive. You can only develop and print immediately, and that's expensive. Maybe you can pull the image out in Photoshop later... Overall, there are definitely nuances with slide.
But in general, the impressions are magical. When I went to Poland, I took two rolls of Ektachrome with me. I had some crazy inspiration – I knew there was slide inside. I knew I would later hold those positive films, the finished pictures. When I clicked, I imagined it, and the desire to shoot more and more appeared.
Speaking about slide in general, it wonderfully conveys blue, green, yellow. The film is very contrasty and saturated. I like that there isn't one dominant color. The cheapest Kodak Color Plus is all yellowish, Agfa sometimes adds pink, but slide expresses every color fully in all its beauty.
Anya took the left frame on Ektachrome 100, the right on Velvia 50
Kolya, our cool developer
Regarding the process, it is practically no different from shooting on negative film. If you have a camera with a light meter, you won't notice any difference at all. If you don't have a light meter, it's better to spend money on one first, and then try shooting on slide.
The image is very cool. Very natural colors – of all films, slide is closest to a digital image. But what I would use slide film for is not just photography and scanning. It's a slide show! That's the real bomb: darkened windows, a projector, and you watch a story in pictures, flipping slides one by one! Awesome!
Kolya shot on Velvia film with ISO 50
Yan, another cool developer of ours
I knew about slide film before working at Fotovramka, but I had never shot on it before. So this is my first experience. I shot on Fuji Velvia film with low ISO 50: it requires very good lighting conditions.
The process of shooting on slide is basically not much different from shooting on color or black-and-white negative film. The only big difference is that slide needs a lot of light. Sometimes you need to deliberately overexpose by about ⅓ stop to get the frames correctly exposed. But I shot without overexposing, and it turned out great!
As for the result, I was most pleased with the color saturation. They came out incredible – incomparable to any negative film.
Yan shot on Velvia film with ISO 50
So, now you know all about our impressions, it's time to create your own! For more details about the slide developing and scanning service, see the link:
https://fotovramci.com/pages/proyavka-plivky