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Pushing and Pulling Questions...


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In a lifetime of shooting film I have never altered the ISO of

whatever film I was using at the time. I have always shot colour

negative 35mm film, Kodak or Fuji.

 

My question primarily is this, do you change the ISO setting because

the shooting conditions warrant it? For example the light

conditions are dim and you find yourself with slow film loaded and a

lens that's too slow and no flash so you 'speed' up your film from

100 to 400 for a proper EV?

 

Do you then inform the lab, or let them process according to the

intended ISO of the film. To answer my own question I guess you have

to have it processed at whatever you shot it at or it would be

underexposed. Which means you would have to shoot the entire roll

at the same ISO, right?

 

Am I close? Nobody ever showed me this trick, I have just read it

here over the years and always wondered why.

 

Thanks for any input from any of you experienced at these methods.

 

Gup.

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Your on the right track with that question... I wouldn't push or pull colour print film at all, I don't think most colour neg will be able to handle it, although there are exceptions to this rule - and only when you break the rules of photography you start to get better shots, but have to know the rules to start with.

If your scene is high contrast, then you should down-rate the film, and meter from grey. This way you can retain shadow detail without blowing out the highlights. Over expose and under develop. If, on the other hand, the scene is low contrast, you can uprate the film and underexpose the film and over develop it to gain contrast.

 

That's if you're trying to get as much detail in the neg as possible. If you need more speed, yes, uprate, and if it's too bright to get a reading, down-rate.

Yes, you have to shoot the whole roll at the same setting, and you need to tell the lab that you've changed the ISO.

 

Hope this helps.

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I think there are some "professional" color neg films that are designed to be pushed, but most consumer color neg films probably would not benefit from this. If a lab would even do it for you, pushing would probably give you an underexposed, higher contrast negative. In general, color negative films don't like to be underexposed, but they do well with overexposure (with normal development). Color transparency film can be pushed a stop or two successfully. With black and white films, "expose for the shadows and develop for the highlights".
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Yes, you can alter the time in the C-41 developer from the standard 100.0F time of 3:15. However, many labs that claim they push process film actually fib about it, charge you extra, and process it normally, because their processor cannot deviate from the standard time -- Most all leader card processors are like this. Then, they cross their fingers hoping they can dig it out in the printing... And put the extra charge for push processing in their pocket.

 

If you find a pro lab that has a dip & dunk processor, on the other hand, you almost always will be able to get true push processing.

 

--------------

 

I used to shoot color print film at box ISO; however lately I overexpose by 1/3rd stop to compensate for production variations in the toe of the curve. [Tip of the hat to Ron Mowrey for that trick!] I do it by setting "the ISO thingey" to 125 for 160 speed film, 320 for 400 speed film, yada yada yada...

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I have pushed color film with success. I was at a concert and was <br>loaded with fuji press 400 and superia 200 everything pushed 2 <br>stops. I was really concerned whether or not anything would turn <br>out or it being too dark. but i got alot of usable images.<br><br>

 

everything from page 2 and on were pushed 2 stops.<br><br>

 

<a href="http://turborocco.com/empsoundoff/Wing/index_2.htm">http://turborocco.com/empsoundoff/Wing/index_2.htm

</a>

<br><br>

some shots are pretty grainy, but that was expected because of it being pushed.

<br><br>

I'm not a pro by any means. Just an advanced beginner. :)

 

 

Wing

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Wing, this is important: When you had the film developed, did you actually have true film push processing; or was it processed at the normal 3:15 @100F with the underexposure being made up in the printing &/or scanning?

 

Reputable labs that can't push process C-41 film will tell you up front; while more than a few will charge you extra for "push processing," while crossing their fingers and hope they can pull it out in the printing while they put the extra charge in their pocket.

 

Most all minilab C-41 processors are not able to push process via operator control.

 

[However, I've done it on a Noritsu by either watching the lights on the film progress display and pulling the plug for 45 to 90 seconds(!); or simply bumping the temp up to the controller's limit of 43.4C (110F) for a heavy one stop push (about 1-1/3 stop push).]

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