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Still photography too. In the Early 90s I did some college newspaper photography. We'd push our "400iso" film to 1600 by changing the processing, which worked

Still photography too. In the Early 90s I did some college newspaper photography. We'd push our "400iso" film to 1600 by changing the processing, which worked but made it grainy. Also manual focus, when shooting basketball and concerts was challenging as the depth of field is quite small. You quickly realize the price of a lens wasn't soo much the focal length (200mm) but increased rapidly depending on much light it let in. But back to color. Some of those slide films from the 60s and 70s rendered color quite accurately/vividly. I went to a slide presentation and someone was showing slides and I guess I was a little stunned and you associate certain decades with a "look" that may have been a limitation of print film at the time.

ghaff 5y ago
My personal experience is almost entirely with stills. > I went to a slide presentation and someone was showing slides Different slide emulsions definitely had different looks. I always found Kodachrome very naturalistic and it was my go to until good ISO 100 Ektachromes came out, especially the warmish ones. Many nature photographers really liked Fuji Velvia for its somewhat exaggerated saturation--it and KC25 had about the same working film speed--but I never liked the look of Fuji film myself.
- klodolph 5y ago
  I think it's interesting what people consider to be "naturalistic" color representation--the sensitometry and psychovisuals behind why Velvia 50 is considered to have exaggerated colors, while something like Kodachrome 64 is considered to be more natural, is a bit complicated. Velvia 50 had, among other properties, a higher Dmax (maximum density / deepest black) than other slide films at the time, which allowed it to be shot differently, at a lower EI. Overexposing slides washes out the colors, so this difference alone accounts for some of Velvia's reputation for rich colors. There were also differences in the sensitizing dyes. These differences are a bit more complicated than what you can capture in an RGB model, so when people try to replicate Velvia's look by increasing the saturation in an image editor, it generally fails. You can't just create an ICC color profile or Instagram filter for Velvia. Other "vivid color" films often tried to achieve more saturation by adjusting the sensitivity curves instead, which creates a very different look from Velvia 50. People are also used to seeing films which are specifically designed to give a certain look to lighter skin tones. A lot of work went into making people, specifically white people, look "good" in standard consumer films and certain lines of professional films.
  - brudgers 5y ago
    My semi uninformed understanding is that Velvia’s color is biased for the rather overcast conditions often occurring in Japan. Color is always opinionated. But so is black and white.

ghaff 5y ago

My personal experience is almost entirely with stills. > I went to a slide presentation and someone was showing slides Different slide emulsions definitely had different looks. I always found Kodachrome very naturalistic and it was my go to until good ISO 100 Ektachromes came out, especially the warmish ones. Many nature photographers really liked Fuji Velvia for its somewhat exaggerated saturation--it and KC25 had about the same working film speed--but I never liked the look of Fuji film myself.

klodolph 5y ago
I think it's interesting what people consider to be "naturalistic" color representation--the sensitometry and psychovisuals behind why Velvia 50 is considered to have exaggerated colors, while something like Kodachrome 64 is considered to be more natural, is a bit complicated. Velvia 50 had, among other properties, a higher Dmax (maximum density / deepest black) than other slide films at the time, which allowed it to be shot differently, at a lower EI. Overexposing slides washes out the colors, so this difference alone accounts for some of Velvia's reputation for rich colors. There were also differences in the sensitizing dyes. These differences are a bit more complicated than what you can capture in an RGB model, so when people try to replicate Velvia's look by increasing the saturation in an image editor, it generally fails. You can't just create an ICC color profile or Instagram filter for Velvia. Other "vivid color" films often tried to achieve more saturation by adjusting the sensitivity curves instead, which creates a very different look from Velvia 50. People are also used to seeing films which are specifically designed to give a certain look to lighter skin tones. A lot of work went into making people, specifically white people, look "good" in standard consumer films and certain lines of professional films.
- brudgers 5y ago
  My semi uninformed understanding is that Velvia’s color is biased for the rather overcast conditions often occurring in Japan. Color is always opinionated. But so is black and white.