Tasked with the goal of putting Velvia’s vivid colours and rich contrast on full display, I grabbed a Fujifilm gear and headed out to the streets. As I shot and tweaked my FS RECIPE a couple of key ideas began to cement themselves.
Firstly, exposing for the HIGHLIGHTS. This technique really shows off Velvia’s contrast by dipping the SHADOWS to black in dynamic scenes, accentuating the colourful subject matter. To further deepen the colours in my images I lowered the HIGHLIGHTS using the TONE CURVE to increase their density.
The other key idea that solidified itself as I continued to experiment was that of using a fixed WHITE BALANCE. While limiting in some scenes, fixed WHITE BALANCE to really highlight different colours of light even in monochromatic environments which AUTO WHITE BALANCE would fight to “correct”.
Armed with a punchy, filmic, Velvia powered the FS RECIPE I caught up with a couple of local skaters to find the most colourful spots Auckland had to offer. Here are the results.
