Which color film for fall color landscapes.

[johnny9fingers]

I haven't shot with film (except Polaroid) for a while and am asking for advice on a good film to shoot fall color landscapes. I will be using my Hexar AF. Right now was thinking of using Fuji Portrait as they are slower films, and would work good with the Hexars limited shutter speeds outdoors. Are there other choices that might be better???
Thanks,
John

[keithwms]

Yeah, the hexar has a relatively slow top shutter speed so you probably want something around 100 speed for daytime work, e.g. Astia 100F or Velvia 100 or 100F. I prefer the first two- those are the two I've used most in colour autumn photography. You (probably) want strong but not unrealistic yellow and red primaries, so slide is the way to go. Other possibilities would be fuji reala or pro s or pro c or the comparable kodaks, but I'd stick to slide, as the 160 films don't render primaries as strongly IMHO, even if you rate the film slower than box speed. If you do go with print film then I'd say try reala 100.

I have some autumn slides that are really enjoyable when projected!

N.b. velvia 50 is yet another velvia choice that some may advocate; my results with velvia 100 have been more satisfying to me, but you might give 50 a try.

[Slixtiesix]

Another vote for the velvia 50 or 100 here. I´m new to slide photography and had no time to use it so far, but concerning the pictures I have seen from others it is very suitable for your intended purpose. If you want to use color negative then the new Kodak Ektar 100 might be worth a try.

[keithwms]

Not to start a brand war here but Ektar does not render skies correctly IMHO. I got cyan... not the strong deep blue typical of a fall sky, the strong blue that you need to set off the red and yellow leaf colours. One could of course filter to correct the cyan issue, but then what happens to the reds and yellows... Maybe somebody else has solved this (without photoshop) but I could not.

[Darkroom317]

How does Kodachrome handle fall colors? Better than Velvia?

[rawhead]

I, too, was not impressed with the Ektar 100 under strong daylight. Go for Velvia 50 if you want some Holy Cow saturated pictures. I'm going to be shooting exclusively Velvia 50 and Provia 100f this fall (Provia when I want to ease down on the saturation a little).

[nickrapak]

How does Kodachrome handle fall colors? Better than Velvia?

Kodachrome is excellent with fall colors, as it's strength is in reds and yellows. However, it's difficult to find, and expensive when you do find it.

[Darkroom317]

I've got a some rolls to use. So fall would probably be the best time to use it.

[tiberiustibz]

It depends what kind of image you want. If you find a really colorful scene, some nice relatively unsaturated films like provia or kodachrome will bring out very subtle tones. Velvia would take that same scene and make it look ridiculously colorful. Either way the important thing is finding the scene and composing. Film choice is not going to make or break a photograph.

[jeffreyg]

I rarely use color film and we rarely have an Autumn down here but I do recall that using a warming filter and polarizing filter is supposed to give some very nice results.