Pushing TMAX400 to 800

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N.delaRua

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Does anybody have any experience/examples of this?? I think 400 is going to be too slow for my next project. That is only one stop, so I would guess that Tmax 400 easily has enough latitude to do that???

Is there is anything I should tell my developer other than I pushed the film to 800? Thanks!
 
I used it a couple of times pushed to 800 and liked the results. They did turn out a bit contrasty, but I liked it.

4041531738_a8f9bfa0e4.jpg


Bojan
 
IMHO Tmax400 needs no extra attention for the one stop gain. Whether printing in wet or scanning. Just shoot it at 800 and develop as 400. I've done so many occasions and the results became quite workable when printing.
 
By "developer" in that context I'm assuming you mean "lab tech". Ask him/her for an opinion. I've never liked Tmax. Tri-X is easy to give a one stop push, or just soup it in Diafine. Trying to work with a one stop underexposed negative after the fact doesn't make much sense.
 
I use mainly TMAX and I develop it in DDX and initially, TMAX developer. If you check the instructions on the bottle (TMAX developer), the timings for 400 and 800 is the same. So basically you can shoot at 800 and process at 400 (assuming you are metering correctly).
 
OK good to know. I usually shoot the 100 speed Tmax which I really like, but I am shooting a project that will be inside of a dark church and also a supermarket so I think I might need the extra stop (400 to 800).

Unfortunately, I have never developed my own roll of film, but that will change very soon. So all the language about chemicals and development time is pretty meaningless. However, a couple of you suggested that the development time is identical for both 400 and 800. So it sounds like I should just tell my Lab to develop the film as if it was exposed properly at 400. Thanks.

P.S. All the negatives will be scanned. I doubt I will make any real prints.
 
Don't tell your lab anything except "Here's a test roll I shot of pairs of pictures, one at 400, one at 800. Develop half the roll normally and adjust the time on the second half as you think best".

Yes, you might get decently printable or scannable negatives at both speeds. Decent doesn't mean optimum.
 
I'm scanning a roll of TMAX 400 that I pushed to 1600 in TMAX developer (diluted to 1+4) and I am quite impressed. My recipe was TMAX dev 9.5 minutes @ 18.7 degrees C with 3 agitations every minute (I lengthened the time to adjust for the cooler temp and the push).

My negs have much less grain than Tri-X pushed to 1600 (DDX 1+4) and the contrast is less than bojanfurst's example (which still looks great - I'm fine with contrast). But my negs are starting from a more neutral, useful point than I expected. Happy.

One thing about labs and BW: ask what chemicals they are going to use on your film. My local lab, which is great, runs their BW all through the same stuff, and that can yield disappointing results depending on the combination. My TMAX experience so far is that it loves the TMAX developer - part of the design no doubt.
 
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Well, "optimal" will be a stretch under any conditions unless you are in a studio. If you look up the fact sheet for the new TMax 400 (TMY-2), Kodak recommends the same dev. times for tmax shot at 800 as 400. I've gotten acceptable and even pleasing results with tmax @ 800. Your results will probably depend more on the lab than on the care you take shooting at 800.
 
just push it to 1600. You get two more stops of shutter or aperture over exposing for 400. There is no point in extending development time for one stop.
 
Ok, some results. I just happened to be shooting similar combinations when this thread originally popped up. Note that my negs were more nuetral, with more midtones and shadow detail, than my finished images - this is a good thing and normal for how I shoot. So pay the least attention to the "blackiness" and highlights and more attention to grain, detail, and overall feel when judging these images for your own purposes.

Visit the set if you want to see larger versions; there are differences in the three films and, when I look at the negatives, the TMAX 400 pushed to 1600 performed the best, even though some of my best subject matter was shot on other combinations.

TMAX 400 at 1600 in TMAX Dev:





Tri-X at 1600 in DDX:





TMAX 3200 at 3200 in TMAX Dev:



 
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Great info. I will ask what developer they use, Its kind of funny because my lab usually have to make up a batch of chemicals just for me when I drop off my B&W film because no one else is shooting that anymore!
 
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