Velvia is a brand of daylight-balanced color reversal

Transparency (photography)

In photography, a reversal film is a type of photographic film that produces a positive image on a transparent base. Also known as dias or slide. The film is processed to produce transparencies or diapositives instead of negatives and prints...

 film

Photographic film

Photographic film is a sheet of plastic coated with an emulsion containing light-sensitive silver halide salts with variable crystal sizes that determine the sensitivity, contrast and resolution of the film...

 produced by the Japanese company Fujifilm

Fujifilm

is a multinational photography and imaging company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.Fujifilm's principal activities are the development, production, sale and servicing of color photographic film, digital cameras, photofinishing equipment, color paper, photofinishing chemicals, medical imaging...

. The name is a contraction of "Velvet Media", a reference to its smooth image structure. The original incarnation of the film was called "Velvia for Professionals", known as RVP, a classification code meaning "Reversal/Velvia/Professional series". It is known for its extremely high level of color saturation and image quality.

Velvia was introduced in 1990 and quickly became a "must try" film, and gave Kodachrome

Kodachrome

Kodachrome is the trademarked brand name of a type of color reversal film that was manufactured by Eastman Kodak from 1935 to 2009.-Background:...

 25 some stiff competition as the industry standard in high-definition color film. It has brighter and generally more accurate color reproduction (though many see its high color saturation as unrealistic), finer grain, twice the speed, and a more convenient process (E-6

E-6 process

The E-6 process is a chromogenic photographic process for developing Ektachrome, Fujichrome and other color reversal photographic film....

). Kodachrome 25 fell out of popularity a few years after Velvia was introduced (in part due to Kodak's lack of interest in promoting their film); Kodachrome 64 and 200 followed more slowly. Kodachrome 25 had previously been considered the film to which all other films had been compared, and cannot fairly be compared to Velvia, as Kodachrome is an entirely different process, in which the image is produced with "color clouds" more so than grain.

Velvia has the highest resolving power

Angular resolution

Angular resolution, or spatial resolution, describes the ability of any image-forming device such as an optical or radio telescope, a microscope, a camera, or an eye, to distinguish small details of an object...

 of any slide film. A 35 mm Velvia slide can resolve up to 160 lines per mm.

Appearance

Velvia has very saturated colors under daylight, high contrast, and exceptional sharpness. These characteristics make it the slide film of choice for many nature photographers, including such respected artists as Rodney Lough Jr.

Rodney Lough Jr.

Rodney Lough Jr. is an American landscape photographer and gallery owner.-Life and career:After receiving a Brigham Young University Outstanding Achievement Scholarship, he earned a Master of Science in Statistics from Brigham Young University in 1988, and began his professional life as a...

, John Shaw, Steve Parish

Steve Parish

Steve Parish OAM is a multi-award winning photographer and pioneer of photographic Australian publishing. Born in Great Britain in 1945, he is the founder of Steve Parish Publishing.- Early life :...

, Peter Lik

Peter Lik

Peter Lik is a self-taught Australian landscape photographer. While traveling in Alaska in 1984, Lik began to experiment with panoramic cameras. He is known for his limited editions and his work has been compared to that of legendary photographer Ansel Adams...

, and the late Galen Rowell

Galen Rowell

Galen Avery Rowell was a noted wilderness photographer and climber. Born in Oakland, California, he became a full-time photographer in 1972.-Early life and education:...

.

Shaw, who is known for his extreme close-ups of flowers, has praised the film for its accurate reproduction of the color purple

Purple

Purple is a range of hues of color occurring between red and blue, and is classified as a secondary color as the colors are required to create the shade....

, which has been a difficult color to accurately capture on other films. This was a major issue with Kodachrome, which tended to render purple objects as blue.

Velvia's highly saturated colors are, however, considered overdone by some photographers, especially those who do not primarily shoot landscapes. Its tendency to oversaturate skin tones makes it unsuitable for portraits, because it gives pink or brown skin a red cast.

Speeds

The original Velvia was an ISO

Film speed

Film speed is the measure of a photographic film's sensitivity to light, determined by sensitometry and measured on various numerical scales, the most recent being the ISO system....

 50 film. In practice, many photographers used an exposure index (EI) of 40 or 32 to over-expose it slightly (one or two thirds of a stop

F-number

In optics, the f-number of an optical system expresses the diameter of the entrance pupil in terms of the focal length of the lens; in simpler terms, the f-number is the focal length divided by the "effective" aperture diameter...

 respectively) in order to yield less saturated colors and more shadow detail.. It was discontinued in 2005.

Velvia 50 was reintroduced, on the new film base, in 2007. The original Velvia had been discontinued due to difficulties in obtaining some of the raw materials needed to make the emulsion. Fuji R&D created a new emulsion which substituted different materials in its manufacture yet retained the appearance of the classic Velvia.

Velvia 100F offers saturated colors, better color fidelity and higher contrast. It was introduced in 2002.

Velvia 100 is about as saturated as the original version (RVP) but has lower contrast. The newer speed also has finer grain (an RMS granularity value of 8), and uses the color correction layers found in Provia

Provia

Provia is a brandname for a pair of daylight-balanced color reversal films produced by the Japanese film company Fujifilm. It is available in two speeds: 100/21° marketed as Fujichrome Provia 100F Professional [RDP III], and 400/27° marketed as Fujichrome Provia 400X Professional [RXP].Provia 100F...

 100F. Velvia 100 was introduced in 2005, to replace the discontinued original Velvia (RVP).

Long exposure problems

The original Velvia (RVP) suffered from reciprocity

Reciprocity (photography)

In photography reciprocity refers to the inverse relationship between the intensity and duration of light that determines the reaction of light-sensitive material. Within a normal exposure range for film stock, for example, the reciprocity law states that the film response will be determined by the...

 failure much more than other films. Exposing the film for as little as 16 seconds produced a color shift, typically to purple or green, depending on shooting conditions. Anything over four seconds required the use of magenta color correction filters if correct color balance is required, and anything over 32 seconds is "not recommended" by Fuji.

Velvia 100 is much better with long exposures: no reciprocity failure compensation is required for exposures shorter than 1 minute.

Velvia in cinematography

Velvia film stock was available through 2006 , and has since been replaced by the Eterna series of film stock. Velvia was used for many commercials, but rarely for feature films. Its main use in movies was for shooting stock landscape shots and special-effects background plates. One example is the 1998 film What Dreams May Come

What Dreams May Come (film)

What Dreams May Come is a 1998 American supernatural drama film, starring Robin Williams, Cuba Gooding, Jr., and Annabella Sciorra. The film is based on the 1978 novel of the same name by Richard Matheson, and was directed by Vincent Ward. The title is taken from a line in Hamlet's To be, or not to...

, which took place largely within a painting. The closest replacement for the original Velvia film stock is Eterna Vivid 160, which produces roughly the same color effect and is more easily processed.

Since 2006, Velvia 50 D (also sold as Cinevia) is available in Super 8

Super 8 mm film

Super 8 mm film is a motion picture film format released in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement of the older "Double" or "Regular" 8 mm home movie format....

 via three independent companies, Pro8mm in the US, and GK Film and Wittner Kinotechnik in Europe. However, demand for it is higher than those companies together are currently capable of properly supplying. Spectra Film and Video has also been loading Fuji Velvia into Super 8 cartridges and for 16 mm

16 mm film

16 mm film refers to a popular, economical gauge of film used for motion pictures and non-theatrical film making. 16 mm refers to the width of the film...

. They recently modified the Kodak-supplied cartridges to ensure a smoother transport of Velvia film through the cartridge.

External links

• Fujichrome products page
• super8camera.com for Velvia samples & other super-8 stock.