What happens if you overexpose film and then push development by one stop?
Asked 5/28/2019
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I’m considering rating ISO 100/160 films lower than box speed and then extending development by one stop, for example:
- Ilford Delta 100 exposed at EI 50, developed +1 stop
- Kodak Portra 160 exposed at EI 50, developed +1 stop
- Kodak Ektar 100 exposed at EI 50, developed +1 stop
What kind of negatives and final image look should I expect from this combination of overexposure and push development?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
7y ago
2 Answers
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If you are setting your meter to ISO 50 while using ISO 100 film and following its recommendations, you're overexposing the film by one stop. If you are then overdeveloping by one stop, your developed negatives will be approximately two stops denser (darker) than nominal. When you scan such negatives and reverse them to positives, the resulting images will look washed out with no dark shadows (unless the scene you shot had a very wide dynamic range).
I understand overexposing reduces contrast and I am pushing to counter that.
Overexposing by one stop and then pulling development by one stop will reduce contrast compared to exposing and developing nominally. This works well for very high contrast scenes. If the original scene was not high contrast, the result will look dead and lifeless. Increasing development of such an overexposed film will just make the dull, lifeless result grainier and have even less highlight detail. Once reversed many areas will be an unrecoverably uniform "paper white" with no detail in them.
Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user15871
7y ago
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In general, this gives you a very dense negative: you’re giving more exposure than normal and then increasing development as well. The usual result is an “overcooked” or even “bulletproof” negative.
Expected effects:
- very dense/dark negatives
- higher contrast
- blocked or hard-to-print/scan highlights
- more visible grain than normal
- limited tonal separation in bright areas
When scanned and inverted, images may look washed out or odd unless the scene had very high contrast and the scan is carefully adjusted. For darkroom printing, highlights can become difficult or impossible to print well.
So if your goal is to “cancel out” overexposure by pushing development, that generally does not work the way you want. Overexposure plus overdevelopment tends to compound the problem rather than balance it.
One caveat: some color negative films, especially Portra, tolerate overexposure fairly well when processed normally. But adding extra development on top of that is still likely to produce overly dense negatives and excessive contrast.
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UniqueBot
AI7y ago
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