This is all really rather subjective. Velvia is a film which may help you
to realise the photo you see in your mind's eye, or it might not. You pays
yer money and you takes yer choice. That said, I don't think it can be
called mediocre. What it is intended to do (yield high saturation, very
fine-grained images), it does exceptionally well. Portrait photographers
might find that it gives mediocre results, but that's their fault for using
the wrong film for the job. People who don't like high saturation, people
who want grainy shots, people who want plenty of latitude and people who
want black and white prints will also find that Velvia is not the best film
for the job. Doesn't make it a bad or even mediocre film.
Roger
I guess I shouldn't continue this, but what the hell. The other day (a week
or so ago) I ran across what appeared to be a strange-looking B&W
portraiture on Photonet so I clicked on the thumbnail to take a better
look. My jaw dropped when I discovered it was actually a Velvia image (a
model shot) desaturated. I thought to myself, "What kind of moron is this
person?" but then shrugged it off philosophically and was on my way.
A couple of months ago (again, on Photonet) during one of our (silly) POW
discussions I made mention of a horse shot someone had uploaded for
critique. It was of a gray (out of focus on top of everything else) and
made with Provia and . . . you guessed it, this picture, too, had been
desaturated. And it was getting good grades!
I'm not sure what the message here is, except that as far as I can tell
there is absolutely no lower limit to the public's potential to behave
stupidly, most especially when it comes to anything having to do with
"art." When I think about it at all (and I try not to) this strikes me as
sad, but I suppose there's just as well humor there to enjoy if one chooses
to go that route.
Is Velvia a popular film, a sort of "people's choice"? No doubt about it,
and that alone whispers to me that something must be fundamentally wrong
with this product at core. As Steve suggested, this might well say more
about me than the public, which brings us approximately full circle and
fairly exhausts my interest on the topic.
Tris
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