Forgot what I exposed my film at

[lrochfort]

Hi all,

I took photos in California last summer and forgot about the films, so am going to send them off now. I also can't find my notes telling me what speed I exposed them at.

They're Portra 400 and I guess I must have exposed for somewhere closer to 200 or 100 maybe.

What do people reckon I should do? Just develop at box speed, or hedge my bets and go for 200?

Cheers,
Laurence.

 

[Larry H-L]

Regular development. Color negative can usually handle overexposure.

 

[retinax]

Honestly I think two stops is not far outside the differences between different metering strategies in contrasty light like you probably had in Cali, such as spot metering in the shadow or relying on averaged metering. As long as errors are in the direction of overexposure, should be fine.

P.S.: Ha, look at this: http://www.johnnypatience.com/metering-for-film/ . He advocates for reckless overexposure and is getting decent results apparently, although we can't see what it does to the grain. That metering technique we don't even need to discuss. But the bit of truth in it is that in strong sunlight, the best exposure with a film that has enough latitude isn't as much less than in the shade as one might think (often more exposure than sunny 16), because there tend to be very dark shadows in the picture that one wants detail in, regardless of parts of the picture being in full sun. Negative film can handle it. That's very different form exposing digital or slide film.

 

[davidnewtonguitars]

C-41 film will be developed in the machine at normal time & temperature, despite the speed it was shot at.