Pushing Slide Film?

[ch1]

Last winter I bought a box of 20 rolls of 36 exp. Fujichrome Velvia 50ISO - pro stuff for daylight usage. It is fresh, but short, dated.

My thinking was that I'd bring half the rolls out to Tuscon where Sunny 16 is the rule of the day and keep half here in NY for the summertime.

Well we have been under rainy cloud cover here in NY for the last two weeks - yes, during the "height" of longest daylight hours for the year we've seen virtually no sun and have had many inches of rain!

So, while I do keep this stuff in the freezer, I'd like to start burning it off before it gets too stale. Given the weather, I am thinking of pushing it two stops to ISO 200 and using it that way.

Does anyone have any experience pushing such a slow chrome like this? Anything to worry about (e.g. reciprocity failure etc.)?

EDIT: BTW, does anyone know why we don't have a Film Forum on this site? 😕

 

[peterc]

Does anyone have any experience pushing such a slow chrome like this? Anything to worry about (e.g. reciprocity failure etc.)?

Many years ago, I tried pushing some Ektachrome 64 (just one stop to 125) and wasn't really happy with the results. Nasty grain, blocked shadows and muddy highlights. I honestly don't know if this would still apply to more modern emulsions and haven't tried it since.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[Steve B]

I've pushed velvia 50 one stop and thought the results were fine. Actaully I think I remember reading that Galen Rowell used to push velvia when shooting with a big lens as there was a slight shift towards red which helped to conteract the atmospheric haze that tends to render long lens shots a little bluer. And of course with the long lens he probably wanted the extra stop anyway. It could have been a different film though but I think it was velvia 50. I'll bet its worth a test roll though.

 

[wtl]

as the traditional suggetion would go: shoot a roll @200 and develop at your regular lab, then see for yourself.

i have done (not on velvia but on provia and astia) at one stop and two stops push. they both are acceptable but i was much happier with one stop push. with two stop push, i lost blacks. i think that's the main problem with pushing slides in general.

 

[kaiyen]

Well, try it yourself, sure, but I will tell you that contrast will go very intense at 100 already. It will be high enough that there really won't be any point in scanning at all - shadows and highlights will be completely blocked up. I would not bother.

Velvia doesn't go stale for a LOOOOONG time, in terms of color shifts. If it's been kept cold, then it'll be fine for probably 3-5 years after expiration. I have some left from 1998 that still shoots fine.

allan

 

[ch1]

Well, try it yourself, sure, but I will tell you that contrast will go very intense at 100 already. It will be high enough that there really won't be any point in scanning at all - shadows and highlights will be completely blocked up. I would not bother.

Velvia doesn't go stale for a LOOOOONG time, in terms of color shifts. If it's been kept cold, then it'll be fine for probably 3-5 years after expiration. I have some left from 1998 that still shoots fine.

allan

Allan,

Thanks for the info. I really don't want to push it if I can avoid it - I got it BECAUSE it is slow and pushing would defeat that purpose!

I'll hold off - keep it in the freezer. After all, there are also still a half dozen rolls out in Tucson that I won't get to play with for five months too.