Pulling consumer film for very low contrast

[tristanlaing]

I just got a role back of Fuji 100 that I accidentally shot at 400,

and had pushed 2 stops. Not suprisingly, the contrast makes almost

all of the shots unusable. My question, would similarly overexposing

and then pulling colour negative film (I'm thinking of rating 400 at

100, or rating 200 at 50) for very low contrast results, very

condusive to bright light shooting? Does anyone have experience with

this? I use a pro lab which does not charge extra for pushing and

pulling, and uses dip-dunk machines.

[roger krueger]

Yeah, I actually like it a lot.

 

It sounds like you're covered on the lab end, which is the hard part. I've had labs lie about

pulling, and one, when confronted said "Oh, everybody knows color print film has two

stops of overexposure lattitude"--yeah, but that's not what I asked for, and it's not what

you charged me $2.00 extra for $%&hole!! Watch the base density--pulled film will have

less base density than normally developed film of the same type. Also, it MUST be a dip-

dunk--roller machines can't be sped up much in any event, and less time in the developer

means less time everywhere else too.

 

As a bonus, you get cleaner color, smoother gradation and less grain (which were really

what made me do it, not contrast--I was shooting 2 over, pull 1).

 

That said, color neg film can hold a lot wider range of contrast than traditional printing

can get onto paper, especially machine prints. This might be a case where a good scan

would be the right solution.

[scott_eaton]

Sure....you can pull C-41 film to decrease contrast. Why? Kind of stupid to shoot high contrast, amatuer print film and then pull it when Kodak Portra NC, Fuji Reala and NPS are available.

[tristanlaing]

I have purchased some portra nc, but what I'm looking for specifically here is ultra low contrast, lower contrast than people would usually want. Not normal.

[bill_tuthill]

When I shoot Portra 160NC on a sunny day, my wife asks what happened

to the shadows. So this could be the textbook definition of "lower

contrast than people usually want." Pulling C-41 is usually not done.

[josphy]

Maybe also try Agfa Portrait 160. Isn't that supposed to be super low contrast?

[scott_eaton]

Ahhh.....Tristan is after some unique effects. Hey that's different - pardon my tone. I love experimenting. Hey, pull away. You'll get some color shifting, but nothing dramatic the lab can't compensate for.

 

NPS is the lowest contrast print film on the market, so that might be a good place for starters. Pulling the consumer films might not amount to drastically low contrast such as what I feel you are looking for.

[steve g]

Why not try pulling an already low-contrast film like something out of the portra line, or fuji nps? That might get you where you wanna go.