Provia is the most versatile of the three for general use. Astia was designed for the fashion industry, and Velvia was designed for lush landscapes. Velvia has a tendency to emphasize greens which is dastardly for just about everyone’s skin tones. Velvia is also the highest contrast of the three, and Astia is the lowest contrast of the three. ΒΆ Something I noticed about Astia that surprised me a bit is that it seems to smooth surfaces for you. For example, with Provia if I took a a picture of a marble column I would be able to see the imperfections in that column. With Astia, those imperfections would be mostly smoothed out, which helps cover up skin blemishes for sure. Although, for architecture it looks a bit unnatural.
Berin Loritsch, from Flickr: Discussing Skin Tones: Provia and Astia in I Shoot Film (I didn’t know, but it doesn’t surprise me, that this much thought went into different types of film. File under “should’ve figured that one out.”)
