Reversal (Slide) Film
This images in this gallery are all from 35mm color reversal film, also known as slide or positive film. Film is just more rewarding to shoot than digital, it's more challenging and getting good results with film is much more satisfying to me. I develop almost all of my own film. This gives me quite a bit more control over the final look of the image and adds another level of challenge and fun to the process. If you really want to experience the fun of photography go buy an old film camera start shooting.
Scan Quality Note: I use a Nikon CoolScan V ED and Nikon Scan 4 scanning software. I have tried two other major film scanning applications and have found that once you learn how to tweak the settings in Nikon Scan it will always give superior results to SilverFast or VueScan. You also must be aware that, in my opinion, you will never get a scan of slide film to look as good as the real thing. Trust me, I have tried. I have attempted to match each of these images as close as possible by comparing what I actually see when viewing the slide on a 5000k light table. They’re close but nothing matches the real thing.
March 13, 2012: I just found out today that Kodak has stopped production of all their 35mm reversal still film. Kodak has been in bankruptcy so I guess it shouldn't be a shock but it is. This leaves Fujifilm as the only major player in reversal film production.
Read MoreScan Quality Note: I use a Nikon CoolScan V ED and Nikon Scan 4 scanning software. I have tried two other major film scanning applications and have found that once you learn how to tweak the settings in Nikon Scan it will always give superior results to SilverFast or VueScan. You also must be aware that, in my opinion, you will never get a scan of slide film to look as good as the real thing. Trust me, I have tried. I have attempted to match each of these images as close as possible by comparing what I actually see when viewing the slide on a 5000k light table. They’re close but nothing matches the real thing.
March 13, 2012: I just found out today that Kodak has stopped production of all their 35mm reversal still film. Kodak has been in bankruptcy so I guess it shouldn't be a shock but it is. This leaves Fujifilm as the only major player in reversal film production.
Nikon F4s / 24-85mm f/2.8-4 AF-D / Fuji Velvia 50 - Developed using the Kodak Single Use Chemistry Process E6 kit. This was the 4th roll developed in a 650ml batch of chemicals. This was two more rolls than is recommended by the kit and the kit does not recommend reuse of chemicals for small tank processing. I wanted to see how far I could take the chemicals and I think I hit the limit with this roll. The film was under-developed and the silver was not completely removed. This prevented me from using ICE to remove scratches and spots. Still fairly decent looking images though.
