Technical Developement Q.

[nathan cote]

<p>Its been a while since my zone systems class. :) I have a few night shots coming up and there will be some neon signs involved. My question is if the signs are over exposed by say one stop and i send it in to the developer(not chemical but commercial company) and ask them to over develope by one stop will it Darken the rest of the image or just bring in that highlight. It should be the only high light that is over exposed. Or could i have them over develope by a half a stop and then in Post-Processing in photoshop or lightroom bring it in? I do truly prefer to have everything exposed properly not to use photoshop as a crutch.<br>

<br /> Thank You!</p>

<p>-nathan</p>

[James G. Dainis]

If you are talking about film, overdevelopment will have no effect on the shadows. Overdevelopment will make the highlights even brighter. If the signs are overexposed, Zone 10, you want to underdevelop to bring them down to Zone 9. And underdeveloping has no effect on the shadows either.

 

Zone system = http://www.geocities.com/dainisjg/zone.html

[iliafarniev]

<p>Largely depends on what film and what developer but also on optical quolities of lens used.</p>

[robert hall]

<p>By saying zone system, you mean black and white I take it...?</p>

<p>What you would want to do is over expose the film and under develop the negative. Highlights always get what they need for exposure, what you would be missing is the exposure the shadows need. Development does little for shadows but the highlights will go through the roof.</p>

<p>As a suggestion, I would try metering the background as the sun goes down (if possible) and when it is 1/2 to 1 1/2 stops darker than the neon, shoot away. The values of the highlghts and the shadows will be close enough to give you something worth printing.</p>

<p>If you can't do the above then meter the shadow area, subtract 2 stops because it will try to make the shadow the middle, and push the neon up into the higher zones. If its really dark outside, you could have 15 zones or more between the neon and the background, well beyond what film can handle. Then when you have the film developed, ask them to knock off about 15% of the development time. This might keep the highlights from being developed into next week and you may have something printable.</p>

<p>Really you should, if you could, process your own film and do a little testing to have control over the process. It's hard for some lab guy to guess what your dev times are when he wasn't there to help you expose the film.</p>

<p>I hope this helps a little,</p>

<p>-Robert

[sandy_harper]

<p>Are you having the lab print them or only process the film? If they are only processing then have them do it straight. Don't change the development of your negatives for a neon sign. Worry about printing when you print. All that needs to be done is burn in the neon when the print is made. It is done all the time.</p>