I shot Kodak Tri-X 400 at EI 800. Should I push-process 1 stop, or can I develop it for EI 1200?
Asked 6/1/2015
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I exposed 8 rolls of Kodak Tri-X 400 in an Olympus XA-2 with the camera set to ASA/ISO 800. Since the film was rated one stop faster than box speed, should I have it developed as a 1-stop push to 800? Also, is there any benefit to developing it for EI 1200 instead, or would that just add more contrast and grain without helping exposure?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
11y ago
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If you exposed at 800, then you should develop at 800. Pushing film with special developing isn't free. It usually makes the grain worse and reduces contrast. You don't want to do it more than necessary.
Developing to 1200 after exposing at 800 will give the the drawbacks of pushing the extra 0.6 f-stops without the benefits. In fact, if the pictures were really properly exposed at 800, then the highlights will be a bit into saturation. On the flip side, you will get a little more shadow detail. Is this what you want?
If in doubt, it's better to overexpose negative film a little than to underexpose it a little. This is because the saturation of the highlights is a little "soft", which can actually be useful in some high contrast cases. On the flip side, with underexposure, dark areas will simply be blank, meaning the information is totally lost.
Originally by user7603. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user7603
11y ago
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Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
If you exposed Tri-X at EI 800, the normal choice is to develop it as a 1-stop push to 800.
Developing for 1200 after exposing at 800 usually won’t give you the benefit of extra exposure speed, because that decision was already made in-camera. It mainly adds more of the side effects of pushing: increased grain, higher contrast, and less flexibility in the tones.
Tri-X is very forgiving and can be pushed successfully, but the result depends a lot on the developer, agitation, and the contrast of the scenes you shot. Some photographers might split the difference and develop around 640–800 depending on whether the scenes were low or high contrast, but if you want the straightforward answer: process for 800, not 1200.
As a general rule with negative film, a little extra exposure is usually safer than too little, but once the rolls were shot at 800, extra push in development won’t recover missing exposure—it only changes the look.
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