I'm wanting to learn some more about high-contrast and supersatured fims for my 35mm cameras (Nikon XGM and Lomo Lc-A). I'm 19 living in the digital world so my knowledge on film isn't much.
Kodachrome, Ektachrome, Velvia...
Any suggestions? Anything better than something else?
I want to watch out for redness in skin-tones. I know that I wouldnt use Velvia on people, but more-less for landscapes.
Any help would be great, thanks! Also; agfachrome. A good choice for supersaturated / high-contrast film? Velvia is the most saturated film generally available on the market.
E100VS is pretty close, with better skin tones, but not as saturated as Velvia.
Kodachrome is not at all saturated. It's almost a black and white film. Neither are the traditional Ektachrome films like EPN, EPR, and EPP. Agfachrome is no longer made, and wasn't all that saturated even when it was(or at least the few times I tried it).
You can always increase contrast by underexposing and over developing, commonly called pushing. This takes some experimenting to get good results, though.
Unfortunately, the Japanese keep the really good stuff to themselves. Fuji Fortia is a film even more saturated than Velvia which is only available once a year to the Japanese home market. It comes up for sale on Ebay every once in a while, but you'll pay dearly for it.
EDIT:
I am going to have to, for the first time ever I think, disagree with Mr. fhotoace.
Kodachrome may have been saturated back when Paul Simon wrote his song. That hasn't been the case since about 1980 when the modern K14 process came along.
Kodachrome 25 was the most saturated of the modern Kodachromes, followed by 200 and then 64. None of them were very saturated, but 25 was the best.
Unfortunately, K25 hasn't been made in about 5 years, and people have been known to pay upwards of $15 a roll for it on Ebay. K64, the only one still being made, is contrasty but has very, very little saturation. The colors are almost pastel-like. I'm not a huge fan of K64, personally.
Please see the below example taken at my family reunion this past July. Incidentally, I used K64 in this situation for it purported longevity, and not for any particular preference for its color rendering.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7d... Kodachrome has been universally accepted as the most saturated colour transparency film ... hence the Paul Simon's popular song "Kodachrome" from the early 70's.
That said, some of the most saturated images are a result of shooting Ektachrome (or other E6 film) and having it cross developed in C-41. The resulting prints are very high contrast and the colour is saturated. |
