Can you push/pull slide film?

[glenn_robelen]

Is there benefit to pushing/pulling slide film? Does anybody have experiences

to share?

 

My understanding is that slides work opposite to negative film -

pushing/pulling have the opposite effect.

 

Any info would be helpful - thanks in advanced.

[stephen sullivan]

When it comes to slide film, it's best to shoot box speed. Buy the ISO you want to shoot at.

 

The two exceptions are Kodak E200 and Fuji's 400F & 400X.

 

Kodak's E200 can be pushed one stop and Fuji's can be pushed two stops.

[walter_degroot]

One time you may want to expose slide film at a higher ISO, is when the lighting contrast is low, for example early on a misty morning iso 64 kodachrome may be more saturated and pleasing at iso 80.

 

when you are taking sunrise / sunset photos, the camera meted is not too useful

you have to bracket your photos, usually underexposing.

or, in effect shooting at a higher ISO.

 

since Reversal ( slide) film is intolerant of wrong exposure , you have to rely on your " photograper's eye" to get the image you desire.

 

It's a darn shame that slide film is falling into disuse as it is of better quality that other forms of photography.

[glenn_mabbutt]

It's my understanding pushing/pulling has a similar effect on slide film as under/overexposing does - different colour saturations than the manufacturer intended.

 

I've never tried it personally, so I may be completely wrong here :)

[steve_levine]

The "benefit" of pushing (increased development)is normally to provide extra speed so you can shoot in lower light than the film you have allows. In the old days (1970's) things like ISO 400 and 800 color films were unheard of and pushing was quite common. Now days I would only push a film if it were an emergency and faster film was unavailable.

 

 

"Pulling" (decreased development) is usually done because of exposing error. Both pushing and pulling is done with a cost of increased or decreased contrast, and with pushing grain becomes more noticeable.

 

 

Usually unless you are trying to achieve some particular effect all color films are best shot at or around their suggested ISO.

[philfx]

Good info...

 

How about the chem used...why is it that 3 bath kits are not recommended? how are they inferior to the 6 or 7 bath process?

[keith_lubow]

You are getting a lot of wives' tales here.

 

Transparency film, color negative film, and black and white film can all be altered with development.

 

You should rate it where your meter/camera/film/lens will provide the threshold of density at exactly four stops below middle grey, and nowhere else; ever. The notion that uprating it actually raises the speed of the film proportionally across the entire tonal range is pure bunk. The film speed is set in stone for your setup, and the only thing that you can change is the tonal placement and the contrast.

 

Then, if you need to precisely control contrast, you don't "rate" the film at a different ISO. You just use your meter as a guidepost, and then alter exposure and processing together to control contrast. Like with all films, exposure tickles the silver, and processing brings out the latent image. Every film acts like negative film at first, until it goes through a reversal process (in E-6), so pushing is pushing and pulling is pulling no matter what your film. Exposure places low and low-mid tones where they will stay, and processing time controls where tones from right below middle grey on up will be placed.

 

As for transparency film being intolerant of the "wrong" exposure (there is no such thing, BTW), this is an area where most people have been led astray by rumors and by improper analysis of their results. The FILM ITSELF has almost as much latitude and ability to be tweaked as does black and white film. People THINK this when they have never bothered to do anything but straight, by the book E-6 processing; probably at a lab. People say you can't "overexpose" it. Sure you can. Just underdevelop it to keep those highlights from blowing out. Like I said; It can be done, but for some reason people unnecessarily fear transparency film. What people really mean when they say this is that you have to shoot more perfectly because you are generally shooting transparencies to be used as a final product exactly as they came out of the camera, with no printing step to introduce adjustments. If you have the time and equipment, you can do all these adjustments, but with transparencies, the reason for shooting them is usually to simplify the workflow and making images easier for printers to reproduce. That is why they were THE professional film for so many years (and still are among those who shoot film).

 

Keith

[fourthst]

Yes you can push/pull slide film. A good lab will (or can) push pull as much as you want in

increments as small as 1/4 stop. The push/pull is determined by the amount of time the

film is in the first developer. There are benefits to pushing and pulling but you would have

to run some tests to determine them for yourself. I actually did a "ring around" test on

kodak ektachrome 100 (or 100 plus) some years ago. First I determined the actual E.I. for

the camera, lens and meter I used. That done I exposed three sheets of film 1/2 stop

under E.I., three sheets at the determined E.I., and three sheets 1/2 stop over E.I. I then

processed one of each pushed 1/2 stop, then one each normal, then one each pulled 1/2

stop. The results were interesting but not surprising. The underexposed overdeveloped

went dark in the shadow but good highlights and the overexposed underdeveloped had

good shadow detail but was a bit flat overall. There was also a color shift involved. Pushing

at normal E.I made a brighter image at the expense of highlight detail and pulling normal

normal E.I. held highlight detail but lost in the shadow.

[rainer_nagel]

I got F. Astia 100F push developed 1 stop and used it at E.I 200 (will not do it again, you loose the features: rather wide latidude of Astia, increases color more than needed for portraiture).

 

I have pushed the new F. Provia 400X pushed 1 stop, used at E.I 800 (will do it again for indoors Circus, Stage photography)

 

but it doubles your Lab costs

[schnappschuss]

Hi!

 

I'm shooting some protraits with the Kodak E100G in a few days. I'm seeking a bit more

contrast on the photos. Would it then be possible to achieve this effect by exposing it at 200,

and develop it at 200?