OK, I've had comments on some of my work as lacking "color saturation"- how doea one obtain this? A lot of times my shots are hand held, camera in auto function, other times recently I've been trying more aperature priority to get more depth of field. Is exposure time the main concern with saturation? most of my shots thus far have been "snapshots" and I'd like to grow a little beyond that if possible. I did use a tripod for a lot of my Marblehead shots. I really got raked on Shuttercity this last upload, but that's OK if I can learn and grow from it. Any suggestions appreciated!
Bud

Bud,

Color saturation can be elusive at times. Generally, at least in my experience, you won't get what you're looking for taking snapshots in the auto mode of your camera regardless of the camera. Aperature priority will help you to get DOF under a little better control. I also find shutter priority useful when I know that I'm going to be shooting something that requires a particular shutter speed to freeze the action, like a wave breaking over the lighthouse out at South Haven.

Your best control over what you're doing is going to come working in full manual mode. I shoot probably 95+% of my photos manually. For color saturation, at least on the two slide films that I'm most prone to use (Fuji's Velvia and Provia 100F), I've generally found that the best results are obtained shooting off a tripod with the lens stopped all the way down to its minimum aperature (f 16, 22 or smaller if the lens has that capability). These small aperatures mandate a tripod as the exposure times will be correspondingly long.

Velvia is a very saturated color slide film used by a lot of working professionals who shoot outdoors. Kodak has a couple of choices, Elitechrome 100 and Elitechrome 100 Extra Color, which Kodak claims to be the most satruated 100 speed color slide film on the market. A lot of people swear by Kodak films. Personally, I've just never been happy with the results I've gotten with their E-100 and E-100VS so I tend to favor Velvia and Provia 100F instead, but that's a personal choice and you may want to experiment some.

I don't know if this helps much, but this at least is the approach that I've used. The shots that are shown on the Point Pinos thread that I started the other day were shot on Fuji Velvia exposed at iso 50 (some people prefer to expose at iso 40). For my two cents worth, I'm pretty happy with the color saturation on the 3rd photo in the initial post taken at sunset. The 2nd shot the sun was up and I tried my best to obscure it behind one of the trees on the grounds, but it still pretty well fried that segment of the slide.

Hope this helps some.

Gary

Thanks Gary- then do you use an exposure meter when on full manual? I could see what the readings are on ap. pri. but if I step all the way down the camera will give me the shutter speed, same differance unless I don't agree with the camera's choice, right?
Bud

Great question Bud. I could have asked it myself. Self critique tells me that I don't have enough saturation. Nothing is worse that taking a bunch of pictures that you think are going to be great and then getting the back and being disappointed because they seem all washed out.

Thanks for the tips on aperature Gary. I'll try them and hope that they help.

I know that you prefer slide film, and I may head that way myself one day, but for the time being I am shooting negatives. Are there any particular print films that you would recommend? I've been using Kodak MAX 400 and Fuji Superia Xtra 400. I've found the Fuji to do a little bit better job than the Kodak. Should I be using a slower film? The opinions I've gotten from other photography dabblers and reviews on the internet is that the 200 speed stuff is not so great, but the 400 will alow me to do some lower light stuff. Maybe I should try 100 if I know I'm going to shoot the whole roll in daylight. But I don't alway know that.

Larry,
I mainly shoot slides because of the large percentage of low light photography that I do which leads to color shifts that can't be easily dealt with if I shot negatives without doing a custom analysis of each image and the expense of that is unacceptable. That said, slides are much less forgiving in terms of exposuire latitude than is print film. With slides, you've got a latitude of +/- 2/3 stop and that's about it. With prints, you can go from -2 stops under to about +3 stops over with some print films and still get an acceptable print. There has been a bunch of discussion in some of the photo mags about print film and the versatility of it, but I'm going to keep on shooting slides.

Generally speaking, I strongly prefer the behavior and color palette of Fuji films over Kodak but that's pretty much a personal choice. On the issue of film speed, the slower the better if you're after increased color saturation. I shoot 50 and 100 speed slide film probably 90+% of the time, going to 400 speed slide film only when I'm shooting with my 500 mm lens and need very high shutter speeds, like for birds in flight. The grain structure of the slower speed films is better, so I would strongly encourage you to shoot with 100 speed print film if you're going to keep shooting prints. For low light, DON'T HANDHOLD. Drag along the tripod and use it. Probably 80% or more of the images that I shoot, even in broad daylight, are shot off a tripod. That way, I've got the best possible control over my exposure choices that I can get.

Hope that this helps some, Larry. You or anyone else for that matter, might want to check out some of the books by John Shaw, a prominent nature photographer for some tips on exposure, etc. The other alternative, if you're going up to Door County prior to Rosemont, I'm going to go and shoot the lighthouses and I'd be happy to give you some tips if you're willing to get up in the cold and dark before dawn and to shoot until well after sunset.

Gary

Larry, in regards to the print vs. slides, I have found that the difference in image quality is day and night.I ran out of slide film shooting at Little Sable last Oct. and went to Superia 400, the color difference,depth, overall looks of the images were astounding to me, and I'm as amateur as you can get. Why not try one roll to see for yourself? You may be surprised! I shoot 400 Provia or Sensia, only because I shoot with a Tamron 28-200 about all the time, its a little slower lens. I haven't till now tried much low light. I should try some 100-200 speed, I'm sure it would help my saturation as Gary pointed out. Let me know if you try slides I'd like to see if you notice same results .

Bud

Bud and others: for years I shot print film. It wasn't until last Sept. when my husband and I went to Michigan and we met Gary, that I started shooting slide film. Gary had been trying to get me to switch to slide film for some time and finally he suggested that he order film for both of us and then I wouldn't have to carry it with me to Michigan. I had been somewhat afraid to switch to slide film because it isn't as forgiving as print film. But given that, would I now switch back to print film? NO WAY!!!!!!!!!! Slide film has less grain and much better color saturation than print film, so even though I'm still in a learning mode with learning how to scan my slides and have been quite frustrated lately with the process, I still would not switch back to print film!!

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Terry (Only my mother, brothers & sisters call me Teresa) Forrest

I've never considered myself a dinosaur, but I guess if 75% of the pros are using Fuji slide film, I'd better start giving it a try.