The last batch of 8x10 Velvia 50

[Jim Becia]

Jim - he might be using Velvia in medium format, where the choice is acetate or nothing. A lot of his recent work is MF. Trying to keep 8x10 film in register using acetate can drive one insane. Velvia 100F and Astia 100F sheet film are polyester-based, the 50 stuff and Provia are miserable triacetate. I switched to E100G
for mid-contrast trannies, supplementing this with Astia 100F, but was indeed forced to use a lot of Provia for a decade or so. I should probably just visit Burkett
someday just for fun, but otherwise discovered a lot of shortcuts in high-end Ciba work anyway, and it's all academic for me at this point - I've already switched
over to printing color negs and wouldn't go back to Ciba even if it was still around. I knew it was just a matter of time, so got a running start on a replacement.

Drew,

Not sure why you insist he is not using Provia and Velvia 50 in 8x10. He is, his website states it, but if you would like I will forward an email from Christopher Burkett (just received) stating unequivocally that he uses the films and makes his contrast masks from Provia and Velvia 50. He did mention his huge investment in Ilfochrome materials and a freezer warehouse in which he stores the supplies.

[Roger Cole]

That article seemed to confirm that Velvia 50 in 4x5 is GONE for real, which I have heard conflicting reports of. VERY disappointed. I need to get on eBay and start buying up as much of it as I can find - I only have 44 sheets left, 40 of which may be ruined from heat on shipping.

I noticed that.

I'm not really even fond of Velvia, but it is a unique film, or at least was once E100VS was gone, and for flat scenes that need both a contrast and saturation pop, ideal in a way that nothing left is. Hell, there IS nothing left in sheets but Provia, AFAIK.

I like Ektar 100 a lot but given Kodak's sheet film pricing, um, not so much. And while Ektar is certainly a good film and more saturated than most neg films, it's not a substitute for Velvia, probably actually closer to Provia insofar as one can compare neg and pos films.

[Drew Wiley]

I'm not insisting on anything, Jim.... But if those are indeed the films he has been using, he's certainly been making a lot more work for himself than is necessary.
But people do get accustomed to things are sometimes that dictates momentum. Like I said, for awhile there wasn't an option. ... Kodak had trouble with green
reproduction up until the E100S product, while Fuji didn't offer polyester stock up until the "100F" series of Astia and Velvia. As for Fatali, he used very little Velvia.
Some of his prints are darkroom hyped or composites, but many appear to be predictable renditions of mid-range chrome onto Ciba - Velvia would have blown the
shot out: the lighting range in some of those canyon scenes can require about .90 mask density to handle - that's three stops of added exposure to a very
slow medium to begin with. I personally used Velvia very circumspectly - mainly to boost low-contrast scenes or where it had especially good green differentiation.
One never wants an "ideal" chrome for Ciba printing, because supplementary masking is necessary for not only contrast reduction, but for color correction as well.
It a very idiosyncratic medium, and it took some of us awhile to seriously tame it. Burkett uses a very different masking regime than I do; but I use a completely
different kind of enlarger.

[Drew Wiley]

Roger - Ektar and Fuji Supergloss are a marriage made in heaven, provided the initial shots has appropriate color temp filtering. Supergloss has a higher contrast
than the usual CAII RC paper. Sometimes supplementary masking is needed, but mainly for subtle tweaks. But Supergloss is only available in big rolls at this time.
At the moment I'm still printing some 8x10 Provia 160VC images onto 30x40 Supergloss; but earlier in the season I did some enlargement with smaller Ektar negs,
comparably magnified, and I'm convinced it's a step forward for me from Ciba. The idiosyncrasies of Ciba provided a special look at times, but at other times....

[Daniel Stone]

I have a feeling it might be Mitchell Feinberg:

watch here:


He's a commercial photographer, and was the guy who had the 8x10 digital back made. So he's not afraid of spending money(like $250k + for the two digital backs(one as a "spare")) to keep shooting 8x10 vs moving to digital capture...
www.mitch.fr

He's also in New York

-Dan

[Drew Wiley]

I couldn't shoot that much film in a lifetime, even if I was deliberately trying to waste shots. You can only carry so many filmholders at a time. And someone like Burkett isn't exactly a machine-gunner either. A studio guy with the right lighting ratios might have that kind of demand. I know studio pros who can drop that kind
of money without blinking an eye... just depends what kind of clients they can keep on the hook.

[Daniel Stone]

Drew,
Well the large-budget clients who sell snake-oil creams to suckered women (like Lancome, oil of olay, etc... Feinberg's clients ) are willing to spend the $$$$$$$$ if they want his/their eye.

I heard of a guy here in LA who just purchased over $1mil worth of Broncolor/Briese/Profoto/Arri <***lighting(not camera)***> gear for his studio(he rents his space/equipment when he's not using it, which is rare). Something like 50 power packs(each at $11k or something like that), 80 heads, modifiers, etc... He traded in 15-20yr old equipment towards the new stuff, simply b/c repairs were hard to get done for his stuff. But that's business, pure and simple. Someone else is paying for your tools.

Basically, there are photographers, then their are BUSINESSMEN, who also happen to be photographers .
There still are folks out there getting $50k/day as THEIR(not overall day rate in total, including production costs) DAY RATE. But they're rare birds, but they're out there and shooting regularly for clients who aren't afraid to spend the coin, to get THEIR vision photographically/artistically to sell their wares with.

-Dan

[Wayne]

I doubt he's using Velvia, but Jock Sturges definitely shoots a ton of 8x10 chromes.

Huh. I never knew he shot color at all, but sure enough he does. But I can't seem to find much on his color materials.

[Tim Povlick]

Haha Otto, Twinkies, have you seen the film "Zombieland" lately? :-)

Hi Martin,

Thanks for that movie title - it's on my must see list! :-)

Fortunately, the Twinkie is due to return to production this month. Hopefully Fujifilm will see the light and bring back Velvia in all forms including Quickload.

Best Regards,

Tim

[David R Munson]

Huh. I never knew he shot color at all, but sure enough he does. But I can't seem to find much on his color materials.

In the documentary about him, he's shown sorting through huge stacks of 8x10 transparencies. I have a few of his newer books with his color work and they're predictably very nice. One of them has reproductions that really bug me because at one point I noticed how clear the screening was, but the work itself is excellent. I still prefer his older, monochrome stuff, but I tend to prefer mono over color anyway so again that isn't exactly the fault of the work.