Tri-x 400 exp. 1600

On 8 Mar 2006 13:21:10 -0800, "UC" wrote:

The shows I shot used high-intensity spots on performers. Local bars
may not be nearly as bright.

Sometimes, there is simply not enough ambient light to take good
photographs. There is no solution but flash. Pushing is not going to do
what you need. The contrast is already too high.
When you say that, what exactly do you mean? Sorry for my ignorance,
but this has always been something I've struggled with.

Paul Mead a écrit :
On 8 Mar 2006 13:21:10 -0800, "UC" wrote:


The shows I shot used high-intensity spots on performers. Local bars
may not be nearly as bright.

Sometimes, there is simply not enough ambient light to take good
photographs. There is no solution but flash. Pushing is not going to do
what you need. The contrast is already too high.

When you say that, what exactly do you mean? Sorry for my ignorance,
but this has always been something I've struggled with.

Pushing a film, i.e. increasing the development time, does increase its
contrast. By increasing the contrast the mid grey and, specially,
highlights zones will be more dense giving the impression of a film
speed increase but the low neg density areas, the shadows, don't see
their density increase that much.
More than this, it's pretty common to have highly contrasty scenes under
available light, pushing a film will increase this effect and the negs
may be very difficult to print.

So, pushing is not that magical tool many beginners believe ...

Claudio Bonavolta
http://www.bonavolta.ch

Paul Mead wrote:
On 8 Mar 2006 13:21:10 -0800, "UC" wrote:

The shows I shot used high-intensity spots on performers. Local bars
may not be nearly as bright.

Sometimes, there is simply not enough ambient light to take good
photographs. There is no solution but flash. Pushing is not going to do
what you need. The contrast is already too high.

When you say that, what exactly do you mean? Sorry for my ignorance,
but this has always been something I've struggled with.

Back in the late 1960s and early 70s, I was doing photography for my
college yearbook, The Makio (Ohio State). Many big acts (Yes, Joan
Baez, Simon/Garfunkel, Sly/Stone, etc.) came to St. John Arena. I got
to shoot many of these acts. High-intensity spot-lights were installed
or brought in. These lights are almost point sources, and give very
high contrast. This means, that the lighted side was bathed in intense
light, but the shadow side was very dark. You could NOT get shadow
detail on the dark side unless there were multiple sources. As a
result, you had to expose for the bright side and forget about the dark
side. The illumination level was adequate for that.

I imagine that bars have much less intense light than commercial
spot-lights, but unless the lighting is even or uses a lot of sources,
the light will still be harsh. Pushing is nothing more than a way of
increasing the contrast of underexposed negatives by extending
development. It can be effective if the scene is low in contrast, but
high-contrast scenes are hopeless. Pushing will simply make the
situation worse. If there's not enough light to stop the thrashing
guitar players, there's nothing you can do. Forget about taking photos.
Sit and listen.

"Claudio Bonavolta" wrote
So, pushing is not that magical tool many beginners believe ...

In summary, pushing works very well if you are taking pictures in the fog.

Speaking of which, 'flashing', or slightly fogging the film before or
after exposure, can increase shadow density/decrease contrast.

Has anyone tried pushing flashed film?


--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Consulting Engineer: Electronics; Informatics; Photonics.
To reply, remove spaces: n o lindan at ix . netcom . com
Fstop timer - http://www.nolindan.com/da/fstop/index.htm