Postby mark.darragh » 19 Nov 2021, 10:24
Thanks, RoganJosh. The Provia is my choice too.
Natural and realistic colour reproduction of film is a black hole of chaos shooting in the wilds rather than the controlled environment of a studio. In this case, the Ektar doesn't really convey the depth of the forest. The colour balance is good but far too light. It's just a straight inversion using Colorperfect, I need to work on it. Is the Provia the most natural, no; does it best convey the feeling of standing in under a dense canopy of Nothofagus in late Autumn? In this case, it does to me.
A good question, Walter. These images are part of the continuing work on the Gondwanan flora and environments in Australia and beyond. Hopefully at the very least one of these might find its way onto a gallery wall or for publication.
I rarely shoot more than a pair of sheets on any one subject, if it’s colour neg often just one. Given the “scarcity” of RVP 50 (at least for my wallet) I’ve taken shooting a sheet paired with a sheet of Provia or RVP 100 which gets developed first. On the last Tasmania trip I shot some extra sheets of Provia of some compositions to experiment with some different development.
The second reason is one that relates to your comment about moving into the world of colour negative film.
In the last 5 years or so real possibility that E-6 processing may well go the way of E-4 and Kodachrome has made me look at shooting colour negative in a serious way, in particular, Ektar 100 and Portra 160. I’ve always carried and shot the odd sheet of colour negative but I’ve never really been comfortable working with it compared to transparency. Shooting Ektar or Potra 160 alongside Provia or Velvia gives me a standard to work toward and has helped to develop a workflow that is starting to give me reproduction from colour neg I’m happy with. All useful knowledge if E-6 chemistry does disappear.