Pushing and pulling films

[mozy]

Is it possile to push up or pull down any kind of film? Or there are

special push films for this purpose? And in case i pushed an ISO400

film to ISO800, should i under/over-expose the photos?

[john_shriver]

There are some superb ISO 800 color print films, so that there's no good reason to push a color film from 400 to 800. Pushing color film increases grain, increases contrast, can cause color curve crossovers (weird non-linear shifts), doesn't really increase film speed in the shadows, and is expensive.

 

If you need ISO 800, use Fuji NPZ (high saturation) or Kodak Portra 800 (natural saturation). The incremental cost of these films over ISO 400 films is less than the cost of a one stop push.

 

If you're shooting slides, some of Kodak's fastest E-6 films are designed to be pushed.

 

If you're shooting B&W, pushing only makes sense if you're doing your own development.

[bueh]

<blockquote><i>If you're shooting B&W, pushing only makes sense if you're doing your own development.</i></blockquote>

<p>

I dunno John, but my lab has always done a splendid job whenever I needed my film pushed or pulled (sometimes up to 3 stops). You just need to open up and learn to trust other people, I guess.

<p>

Mozy, you while you can push/pull any film you like, there are some films that are better than others. Slide film in general is not so hot for this and it is usually recommended to p/p no more than one stop. Negative films fare better, with 400-speed films, especially B/W, the most versatile. <b><a href="http://www.photosig.com/go/users/viewportfolio?id=98611" target="_new">Some people</a></b> even push Kodak Tri-X 400 up to EIGHT stops (to ASA/ISO 102,400) and still get results.<p>

If you need to push a 400-speed film to ISO 800, you underexpose it by one stop and compensate for this in processing. Of course you need to tell your lab technician what you did and what he should do.

[James G. Dainis]

Pushing film means to give it increased developmant; pulling means to give it less development. If you develop a 400 ISO filma as 800 ISO the highlights will be raised but the shadows will stay where they are. If it is a contrasty scene, sunny day at noon, the highlights will be blown away. In that case it would be better to pull the film by less developmment to lower the highlights. On a dull, overcast day, it may be better to push the film, give more development to raise the highlights. <BR>

This is all assuming that the film is shot at the box rated ISO.

[larrydressler]

My Uncle Moe Died today he was 92. As for pushing and pulling it all a matter of the type and processing. with Computers even a bad pull is better I was never Ansel Adams in the dark room with printing but I could make extra speed see my post on Diafine and D-76.