Fuji Velvia 100 RVP (120): The Untamed Beast

With its crazy saturation and colors, this unpredictable slide film will add vibrant new life to your lomographs. Read on to take a look at some photos taken using the Fuji Velvia 100 RVP!

Of all the slide films in the lomography universe, Fuji Velvia 100 RVP is probably one of the most crazy, unpredictable, and wild when cross-processed. You’ve probably seen at some point the fantastic saturation, the pinky purple, red and orange hues that this film gives, among other unpredictable and fierce colour shifts.

Although this film is sometimes regarded as a rather expensive, by browsing Amazon.com at length, I managed to bag a five-pack of 120 film on sale from a vendor who, probably under the assumption that film is dead and that the world is digital now, sold it to me for under £13! That’s about £2.50 a roll! Compare this to a medium quality colour negative film, and that’ll cost you from £3 to £4. If you do some digging, you could find this film, and maybe some others, at a very good price.

If stability is your thing, then unfortunately, this wild beast is not for you. Although the fantastic purple that I mentioned is a big feature of this film, upon exposure to a bright blue sky, things can get a little unpredicatable. The sky sometimes turned a shade of dark blue, to violet, and upon sunset, purples, pinks, and even some yellows wove their way into the picture. Long exposures turn a pastelly blue. One picture went completely red upon shooting the sunset. Expect the colours to be saturated beyond belief.

For the amount of colour and saturation this film gives, its tonal contrast is surprisingly low. That being said, it still does exist. Be careful of shooting white-on-white photographs, and very light grays and whites can sometimes just become one shade. A small price to pay for such wild results. Shadows can turn out quite dark, but since this film is best for a bright day you’ll just have to be careful of exposing them correctly. Or not.

In terms of suitable cameras, I feel that the savage unpredictability of the film goes well with the Diana F+, with its dreamy image and vignettes creating a nice harmony. Personally, I feel that the Holga is too sturdy, and not fragile enough to give such untame results. And as for the Lubitel, the crisp quality of its images, for me, doesn’t do true true justice to the film. However, these are just personal opinions, and you may well prefer it the other way.

The overall unpredictability of this film makes it a great companion to the golden rules #6 and #8 of Lomography:

6. - Don’t think.*

Don’t overthink it. There’s no telling what will happen with the film, it can’t really be predicted. Therefore, don’t bother trying to predict the results.

8. - You don’t have to know beforehand what you captured on film.*

Don’t worry about knowing what you’ve captured. Sure, in terms of the subject of the photograph you will know what’s there, but everything else is uncertain as of yet, so don’t bother trying to decide.

Don’t try to tame the beast, rather, run free with it!

Fuji Velvia is world-famous as the most saturated slide film that you can buy. Shoot this on a bright day and develop it normally, and the results will knock you head over arse. When crossed-processed, it gives you that wild Fuji green-blue colour shift that we absolutely love. See the whole range of colour slides in our Shop.

written by shmarmy on 2012-07-19 #gear #review #colours #slide-film #purple #120-film #fuji-velvia #x-pro #cross-proccessed #fuji-velvia-100-rvp