Response to Did I push properly?

If what you mean by thin is that the shadows do not have enough density, that sounds correct. Presumably, you underexposed the film by rating it at a higher speed. That means the shadows are underexposed and nothing really helps much here. The highlights are underexposed too, obviously, but since the density in the highlights is also proportional to developing time and you developed longer, the highlights will gain density. Pushing allows you to extract extra speed out of the emulsion (and may be the only way out in a number of situations e.g., handholding in low light etc) but it works best when crucial areas of the picture lie in the midtones and highlights. Nothing really saves the shadows (short of other techniques like cooking the film in peroxide fumes etc). The characteristic curve of a pushed film will have the shadows underexposed and the highlights overdeveloped i.e., you will be developing the film to a higher gamma as well which will increase the local contrast in the midtones and highlights. Cheers, DJ.

[ Previous | Next ]