brighter pics if push 400 to 800?

[hiorgos]

Hi

I need some advice. Yesterday I finished a roll of film in a dark environment called "bar"... I used a 1.4 lens wide open but still it was quite dark, so i had to compensate in the minus side to save some shoots. In general, i think that the faces of the people might be a little too dark.

If i ask for develop the neopan 400 pushing it to 800, will I have brighter pictures? Is possible to save some of the dark details? or will I ruin the ones with correct exposure? I have no experience pushing fim so don't know sure what to expect..

I used a zeiss ikon +cv 35 1.4 +neopan 400.

Many thanks!

 

[Keith]

You will get better detail on the faces ... the shadows will be a little deeper and the highlights will be hotter. That's my experience with pushing 400 Neopan ... I really like what happens to this film when pushed ... it adds to the mood of the photo in the environment you describe IMO! 🙂

 

[kaiyen]

so...you have some photos that the meter said "ok" on, and some that you could tell were underexposed to begin with?

You are right - if you push the film, the skin tones will go up, but so will the highlights. with the ones that are exposed well to begin with, the highlights will really blow out. You will have lost shadow detail anyway with the underexposed shots.

How far on the minus side did you have to go? If it was no more than 2/3 of a stop, try a speed increasing developer to begin with - like microphen - and you should get pretty close as is. Or, use microphen and add 10-20% time and you'll hopefully salvage all of them.

 

[hiorgos]

Thanks for the quick reply!! It's more clear now. I'm new to this camera so i'm still learning what kind of results i get from different situations.. I went to -2/3 and -1 stop, for the most of them, as there were lots of shadows around, trying to keep those dark areas dark and getting some extra exposure time. For this situation I prefer to have well exposed faces, don't mind to have some background overexposed. I think i will try to push it.

Thank you very much!

 

[kaiyen]

For just a -2/3 to -1 underexposure, you're within range of what Microphen can give you to begin with. I haven't done speed tests on NP400, but Microphen or something similar should give you about 560 out of it. That's already 1/3 of a stop more than box, so you're only 1/3 to 2/3 underexposed on some of them from that. Just add a bit more time and you'd be set. Microphen is controls highlights and contrasts relatively well, too.

 

[hiorgos]

Thanks again Kaiyen!

I think im going to push it to 800, i'm looking for that extra "glow" that i have seen in samples of pushed film.

 

[kaiyen]

best of luck - be sure to show results, if you feel okay about it. It's always fun to try something new, and I hope you get results with which you are happy.