Just before Christmas I toured Oldfields, the grand mansion on the grounds of the Indianapolis Museum of Art. I loaded my Pentax ME with Fujifilm Superia X-tra 800, clipped on my 50mm f/1.4 lens, and took a bunch of photos inside. When I got them back from the processor, only a couple pleased me. On the rest, the colors were off, or I muffed the focus, or the image was very noisy. Bleh. Meh. Grumble, snarl, snort.
The IMA also boasts a greenhouse that I gather grows all the plants that decorate the lush grounds. You can also buy plants there for your garden. I caught the greenhouse open, so I took a tour. I had much better luck with my camera in that light.
That’s not to say I didn’t have to do some tweaking in post to improve contrast and color. It’s just that these photos could be made better, and most of the ones I took inside Oldfields couldn’t.
I have no idea what any of these flowers (or plants, in the case of the leaves above) are called. But it’s always nice to see lovely flowers in Indiana in December.
The Superia X-tra 800 renders reds, blues, and greens pretty well. Not as nice as Ektar 100, but I couldn’t have made these photos with Ektar in this light.
I’m not as impressed with how this film handles oranges and yellows. These flowers are a lot hotter in this photo than they were in real life.
The Superia X-tra 800 never gives me good definition on yellow objects. These petals are just yellow blobs.
I’m interested in trying other higher-speed color films for available light work. Which do you like?
