Effects of pushing or pulling film?

[swimmingskies]

i roughly understand how to push or pull film and how it works,
but what are the effects on the results,
i want to get a rougher, higher contrast, gritty kind of picture, but after going around and reading stuff on the internet,
i'm still pretty confused.
does anyone know more?
thanks (:

[catchlights]

basically when you push processing (lengthen the processing time) a film is when you underexposed the film, it will increase the contrast and the grain will be more pronounce.

and when you pull processing (shorten the processing time) a film is when you overexposed the film, it will decrease the contrast of the film.

Of course, you need a scene with moderate contrast of lighting and shadow to begin with.

to know more, read these three books by Ansel Adam, "The Camera", "The Negative", "The Print", btw, think you can skip "The Camera" for the time being.

[xylestesins]

Not all films react in the same way.

B&W has it's own reaction,
Negs has it's own reaction,
Slides has it's own reaction.

Which is why you may be confused by what they are telling you out there.
On top of that, each individual film stock differs from how it would react in a push/pull as well. While Superia and Portra VC may be both negs, they may not share the same shooting/development properties to get the image you want either.


But one thing that is almost inevitable is the increase of grain in a push process.

It is troublesome, and sometimes we find ourselves wanting a different film stock to shoot a certain situation, like how i love Kodak E100 but ONLY in soft afternoon sun (we normally get harsh sun), and maybe i want Provia 400x for some night shooting - that's hard to change mid-roll unless you shoot cameras with detachable film backs.
But, that's all part of the charm of film. You get to say things like "Velvia's my favourite filmstock." or "T64 is tungsten, but i still love it!".

Now, you don't hear the digital guys talking about their favourite sensors do you?

[Xtol19]

Originally Posted by swimmingskies i roughly understand how to push or pull film and how it works, but what are the effects on the results, i want to get a rougher, higher contrast, gritty kind of picture, but after going around and reading stuff on the internet, i'm still pretty confused. does anyone know more? thanks (:

Pushing = blocked shadows, high contrast, greater grain.

Pulling = good shadow detail, lower contrast, normal grain.

To get the effect you want, shoot Tri-X at 1600 and push, or shoot P3200 and develop for 3200.

[welspain]

Originally Posted by xylestesins Now, you don't hear the digital guys talking about their favourite sensors do you?

[jtb]

the longer the film stays inside the developer tank after the time is up, the film gets darker.
Fixing longer has no impact on the film so it is safer on this solution.(fixer)

[swimmingskies]

thank you all so much

i guess the only way to figure out what you want is through trail and error ^^