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Category: Using Various Films & Formats

Photography Question 

Swapnali Mathkar
 

How to View Slides Properly


I have just started using slide film. But when I saw the result after shooting two rolls, the slides look dark if I hold them normally (I mean without any background light). And they look very beautiful and represent original colour that I had seen while shooting, if I look at them with a background light source. I am not understanding whether I have made any mistake in shooting - if the photos are underexposed etc. Please help, and guide me for slide shooting.


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April 08, 2004

 

Jon Close
  Slides are meant to be viewed with a light source behind them - either on a light table, with a small hand-held viewer, or projected.


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April 08, 2004

 

Swapnali Mathkar
  Thanks for reply,
But still I have question.
I remember seeing other people's slides which are kept in the album for storing purpose. and still I can see the images beautifully, without much light at the background. So I am in doubt. Either what I remember is not correct or my slides are not correct .. Please help :-)


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April 08, 2004

 

Dave Hockman
  Swapnali,
Jon is correct. Try shooting some slides with bracketing on the film your using and see if you should expose by a slightly different ISO rating. Other than that, like me,
chalk your memory up to fallible!
Good Luck!
Dave


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May 03, 2004

 

Terry L. Long
  Hello Swapnali,

If you hold your slides up to the light and you still can't see anything, you're probably underexposing the shots. Transparancy film is "unforgiving". Normally you have to be dead on during the exposure process.

There are a lot of photographers that say bracketing is a no-no and it's just a waste of film. I disagree. I usually bracket my shots by 1/3 stop in either direction. Espically if it's a once in a lifetime shoot. You should see my trashcan when I get 10-20 rolls back from the lab. If you do the math you'll figure that out of a 36 exposure roll of film, that's only 12 shots of the same subject per roll. I usually keep one or two shots of the same subject and the third shot makes it to the trashcan. But, remember the addage; "Film is cheap."

Jon is correct about viewing the slides with a light source behind the slide. What I do when I get my slides back from the lab is to use one of those cheap slide viewers to "quickly" go through the slides. If something is obviously wrong with the slide (exposure, composition, etc.) I toss the slide when it comes out of the viewer. The remaining slides make it to the light table for closer scrutenizing.

Once on the light table I check each slide for exposure, composition, focus, etc. I use a 4x loupe during this process.

Light tables are expensive. I purchased a small light table (more like a light box than table) but ended up making a light table. I wanted something big enough to spread at least a whole roll out on the table. I ended up making one a little more than 2'x4' for a little under $100.00.

Good luck and welcome to the unforgiving world of transparencies.


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May 03, 2004

 
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