icepics wrote: I've had film pushed/pulled but not in a long time, although I shoot film. It seems like I didn't find it made that much difference or didn't like the results all that much to bother with it.
Are you doing B&W darkroom work? I'm just wondering if the reason your professor is having you do that is to give you more range of tones in your negatives to work with in the darkroom. I've sometimes bracketed shots to get lighter or darker negatives to make sure I had one to get a nice print from.
Ask your professor... maybe it's something to do with getting more gray tones, I'd be interested to know what the course is and what you're working on. I love shooting B&W film.
Great info. Thanks!Henry Peach wrote: Pushing and pulling is usually combined with development changes. For instance increasing development time when pushing, and decreasing development time when pulling.
The numbers on the film box/cassette are merely suggestions. Personal film testing is required to determine a personal ISO. Many things can influence this so it may not be very accurate to use someone else's results. Even when using the same gear and film different photographers can get different optimal film speed results.
It is a very common practice to rate negative films one stop slower (over expose) than what it says on the box. This helps insure good shadow detail. With negative film the big concern is the shadows. Overexposed highlights can be burned in. Underexposed shadows are blank film, and there is no detail to be recovered. This is why the advice with neg film is to expose for the shadows and print for the highlights. The opposite is true with positive films: they are usually underexposed, and the issue with blank film is on the highlight end of the tonal range.
The main reason I would adjust exposure and processing isn't to capture more tones, but rather to create an easy to print negative. Prints can only display about 5 stops of full detail. That's less than the film is capable of recording. I would start by testing my film choice to determine my normal personal film speed and normal development time (normal dev time is referred to as "n"). Google "personal film speed testing" for lots of articles on how to do this.
Out in the real world I measure the difference in stops between my shadows where I wanted full detail and my highlights where I wanted full detail. If the difference is 5 stops then I expose and develop normally (my normal, not necessarily what Kodak or my buddy recommends). If the difference is more than 5 stops I would over expose and decrease development time. This compresses the tonal range and decreases contrast. For instance for 6 stops I would rate the film at a stop slower (over expose) than my normal film speed, and then decrease development by 1 stop or n-1. How much time is a stop's worth is determined in personal testing. For 7 stops I would over expose 2 stops and develop n-2. If there is less than 5 stops between important shadows and highlights then I would under expose and over develop in a similar manner: 4 stops = -1 exp & n+1, 3 stops = -2 exp & n+2. The goal here is to expand the tonal range.
Obviously this technique doesn't work well with roll film unless all the shots on the roll are made in the same sort of lighting. For shooting 35mm film I would roll my own 10-12 exposure rolls. One way to get around this if you are using longer rolls is to switch to a 2 bath compensating developer instead of single bath developer. Single bath developer contains both developer and activator. Compensating developer keeps them separate. First you soak the film in the developer. Then the developer is dumped out, and only the developer that has soaked into the emulsion remains. The activator is poured in, and begins to develop the film. Areas of the film that received more exposure (highlights) develop faster, and when the developer is deplete developing stops. While areas that had less exposure (shadows) continue to develop longer. It takes care of contrast and tonal range on its own even if the exposure rating or lighting contrast changes from shot to shot on the same roll.
Another reason for pushing is that there really isn't any film faster than ISO 800. If you read the fine print (or do personal testing) for most films rated over ISO 800 you will find it's a push to get ISO 1600 or 3200. That's what the little "p" stands for in Tmax 3200p. Kodak says it's ISO 1000 with Tmax developer, and ISO 800 with most other developers.
Henry Horenstein's books "Black and White Photography: A Basic Manual" and "Beyond Basic Photography: A Technical Manual" are excellent learning resources. They are fairly easy reading, and you should be able to find them cheap in a used bookstore or online. After you read the Horenstein books go for Ansel Adams' "The Camera", "The Negative", and "The Print".
Henry Peach wrote: Pushing and pulling is usually combined with development changes. For instance increasing development time when pushing, and decreasing development time when pulling.
The numbers on the film box/cassette are merely suggestions. Personal film testing is required to determine a personal ISO. Many things can influence this so it may not be very accurate to use someone else's results. Even when using the same gear and film different photographers can get different optimal film speed results.
It is a very common practice to rate negative films one stop slower (over expose) than what it says on the box. This helps insure good shadow detail. With negative film the big concern is the shadows. Overexposed highlights can be burned in. Underexposed shadows are blank film, and there is no detail to be recovered. This is why the advice with neg film is to expose for the shadows and print for the highlights. The opposite is true with positive films: they are usually underexposed, and the issue with blank film is on the highlight end of the tonal range.
The main reason I would adjust exposure and processing isn't to capture more tones, but rather to create an easy to print negative. Prints can only display about 5 stops of full detail. That's less than the film is capable of recording. I would start by testing my film choice to determine my normal personal film speed and normal development time (normal dev time is referred to as "n"). Google "personal film speed testing" for lots of articles on how to do this.
Out in the real world I measure the difference in stops between my shadows where I wanted full detail and my highlights where I wanted full detail. If the difference is 5 stops then I expose and develop normally (my normal, not necessarily what Kodak or my buddy recommends). If the difference is more than 5 stops I would over expose and decrease development time. This compresses the tonal range and decreases contrast. For instance for 6 stops I would rate the film at a stop slower (over expose) than my normal film speed, and then decrease development by 1 stop or n-1. How much time is a stop's worth is determined in personal testing. For 7 stops I would over expose 2 stops and develop n-2. If there is less than 5 stops between important shadows and highlights then I would under expose and over develop in a similar manner: 4 stops = -1 exp & n+1, 3 stops = -2 exp & n+2. The goal here is to expand the tonal range.
Obviously this technique doesn't work well with roll film unless all the shots on the roll are made in the same sort of lighting. For shooting 35mm film I would roll my own 10-12 exposure rolls. One way to get around this if you are using longer rolls is to switch to a 2 bath compensating developer instead of single bath developer. Single bath developer contains both developer and activator. Compensating developer keeps them separate. First you soak the film in the developer. Then the developer is dumped out, and only the developer that has soaked into the emulsion remains. The activator is poured in, and begins to develop the film. Areas of the film that received more exposure (highlights) develop faster, and when the developer is deplete developing stops. While areas that had less exposure (shadows) continue to develop longer. It takes care of contrast and tonal range on its own even if the exposure rating or lighting contrast changes from shot to shot on the same roll.
Another reason for pushing is that there really isn't any film faster than ISO 800. If you read the fine print (or do personal testing) for most films rated over ISO 800 you will find it's a push to get ISO 1600 or 3200. That's what the little "p" stands for in Tmax 3200p. Kodak says it's ISO 1000 with Tmax developer, and ISO 800 with most other developers.
Henry Horenstein's books "Black and White Photography: A Basic Manual" and "Beyond Basic Photography: A Technical Manual" are excellent learning resources. They are fairly easy reading, and you should be able to find them cheap in a used bookstore or online. After you read the Horenstein books go for Ansel Adams' "The Camera", "The Negative", and "The Print".
icepics wrote: I need to hunt out my copies of that Adams trilogy and do some re-reading, I didn't understand the zones then but with experience now they might make sense. Maybe...
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