Japanese Garden Community Day with Fuji Provia 100

A traditional Japanese Chochin lantern with the Kanji for ‘matsuri’ which translates as festival. This came out really well on slide film. 1/1250s 58mm F1.4.

Last year I attended the Japanese Garden Community Day organised in part by the Japan Society. You can read the blog for that by clicking here. However not only did I capture digital images, but I also took some shots on Fuji Provia 100 with my Nikon F100. Seeing as Fujifilm is Japanese I thought it would be fun to also shoot something Japanese with it, especially as the days of these slide films look increasingly numbered. In theory more film is being made all the time, but they are chronically out of stock (at least here the UK) in a way they never were before Covid. That’s before you get into the eye-watering price increases as well.

One of the images with the taiko drummers. As they were stood in the shade of the trees I did struggle a bit with exposure as the background was much brighter. 1/640s 58mm F1.4.

This shot centred on the biggest drum shows how the shallow the depth of field is at F1.4. However even the drummer in the foreground is a bit soft from shooting at such a wide aperture. 1/640s 58mm F1.4.

As the 105mm F1.4 is a more modern lens with an electronic diaphragm I can only shoot wide open with the F100. Thankfully it is also a much sharper lens. 1/640s 105mm F1.4.

One thing I’ve learned about shooting film in comparison to digital is how much more of a problem vignetting is. On digital you can simply fix it with a click of a button but when shooting transparencies it can cause real problems as you cannot so readily compensate for underexposed film, especially if what you are shooting is important edge to edge. The images of the Taiko drummers were also a little bit underexposed generally which is not such a big issue with slide film but meant it required a bit more correction in post-production.

The Japanese Garden at Hammersmith Park which has hosted the community day for the past few years. Plenty of opportunity to capture those Fuji greens. 1/2000s 58mm F1.4.

The stone bridge is the prettiest attraction in the gardens. With even lighting the film was exposed much better than under the trees. 1/2500s 58mm F1.4.

As I have also mentioned before, I went through a period of only using my F1.4G lenses at F1.4 and this obviously came with the downsides of lower levels of detail and issues with depth of field. I think the lack of sharpness it fine for shooting in black and white as it can give a retro feel to the images, but when you are dealing with much more detailed slide film in colour it doesn’t work as well. I would have been much better off closing my aperture to F2.8 and then dropping my shutter speed. That would also have dealt with the chromatic aberration that these lenses are so prone to, especially the 58mm F1.4. That latter issue has almost been completely solved with modern lenses for mirrorless cameras, but it used to be a real problem in the past.

Calligraphy was the most popular interactive experience on the day and the white interior was good for lighting. 1/1000s 58mm F1.4 with polariser.

There was plenty of help on hand to guide visitors through the experience as well. 1/640s 58mm F1.4 with polariser.

Reflecting on the images I have very mixed feelings about them. Some have still come out well despite shooting them at F1.4 but others haven’t fared quite so well and would probably need more sympathetic scanning and editing to pull a bit more out of them. Such is the difficult nature of shooting slide film. Given that prices are now pushing £30 a roll (and then you have to pay to develop it) it’s important I shoot a bit more wisely in the future.

There was a nice pop of colour behind this stand although the limited dynamic range means the highlights in the background are starting to blow out. 1/200s 58mm F1.4 with polariser.

I won’t go into great detail about the event as I have already covered that in the previous blog but sadly it doesn’t look like it will run again this year and it doesn’t look promising for the foreseeable future either. Funding appears to have dried up which is a real shame as events like this give the public access to Japanese culture in a way that is normally closed to them. However, there is the state visit of the Japanese Emperor to the UK next week which will see several major events as well as a lot of press. And of course, Japan Matsuri, the UK’s biggest Japanese cultural event, will run once again in Trafalgar Square on Sunday 6th October.

Visitors also had the opportunity to buy Japanese themed items. 1/640s 58mm F1.4.

There were also plenty of people wearing kimonos on the day, the colours more vivid on slide film. 1/1000s 58mm F1.4.

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