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Help! Wrong Film Speed Setting!


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Relax, you made an error of less than two stops, and it was in

the direction of overexposure. No biggie.

<p>

Are you going to print in a conventional wet darkroom with an

enlarger? If so, I'd just develop normally, and expect to

expose a bit longer at the enlarger, or open up its lens a bit.

Nobody will be able to tell you made a mistake by looking at

the final prints.

<p>

If you're going to scan the negatives, it might pay to cut

developing time a bit, maybe 30%. That will reduce contrast,

which isn't so great, but the nice thing is that it will cut the

density of the negatives back, keeping them within the

dynamic range of the scanner. Then you can restore the

contrast in photoshop when you set the black and white points.

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I did some hp5 in a very high contrast scene where I grossly overexposed to get detail in a dark wood door. I then pulled in Hc110. I was at least 2-3 stops over. They print fine. I`ll post the times tonight as the records are at home.

 

don`t worry. This is salvageable. You may even like them better.

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<p> I regularly shoot HP5+ at 200 and dev. for the suggested time

in

D-76 or rodinal. No blocked highlights. The negs are, of course, a

bit grainy with the rodinal, but it's not too bad. You could pull

20% off the times, but not knowing the vigor with which you agitate

makes it impossible to say.

</p><p> PS: My tests, and many others, indicate that the true film

speed of HP5+ is most developers is 160-200, so this overexposure is

close to nothing (especially if you're not spot metering).</p>

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Well, luckily I haven't processed the film yet (power's been wonky due to these summer Alabama thunderstorms). I guess it may help to let you know that some of the exposures will probably be unexposed anyway, regardless of film speed, due to the lack of light where I was shooting. So, should I still reduce dev time? I probably won't even get a chance to process until sometime tomorrow night.

 

PS: Thanks to EVERYONE for all the advice. Also, if this info helps, I usually develop with Rodinal.

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Here's a thought... assuming you were using 35mm film, is the film factory loaded in the DX coded cassette? If your camera is one of the modern units, did the camera over ride the manual setting and use the coded film setting?
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Cut the development time. As a rule of thumb reduce development time by 1/3 per stop downrating. Thus reduce by 33 percent for the first stop and by a further 20 percent for the next 2/3 stop. So if the dev time at 400 ASA were 12 minutes then that would be down to 8 minutes for the first stop and a further 1.5 minutes for the 2/3 stop, thus giving a time of 6.5 minutes.
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In 1935, Dr Paul Wolff wrote "Give full exposure and abbreviate the development." (My First Ten Years with the Leica) Dr Wolff was the first great apostle of the Leica and 35mm photography.

 

There is a way to minimize exposure errors. If you regularly set the exposure before using the meter, you will soon develop a feel for light. Use the meter (hand held or built in) only as a second opinion. After a while, incorrect exposure just won't feel right to you. I have done this for about fifteen years. I simplify things by only using Tri X rated at 200. The key factor is not the Tri X, but the one film and speed.

 

Did you like the shadow detail in your roll shot at 125? You might try using it at 200 on a regular basis.

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