- This topic is empty.
Developers for pushing film
-
Only new to developing my own film (about 20 roles experience:-))
Can anyone recommend any developers which are good for pushing film?
Mostly using Neopan 400 and Rollei IR film at the moment.
Developers i have been using are Rodinal (for Neopan) and Rollei RHS (for Rollei IR)Have searched the web but you get mostly information on why you push film not how to actually process it. Allot of contradicting information say for example Rodinal in that some says its fine for pushing others say its not etc
I wont generally be pushing film, its just for the od time that i might have to due to lack of light etc, Have two roles at the moment that i want to push 2 stops. Developed 1 role in Rollei RHS and added about another 30% in time on and the negs are still very underexposed (was shooting a holga indoors with Neopan 400 which was probably a bad idea to start with :oops: )
Any help would be great
Thanks
MHave you had a look at the Massive Dev Chart over at DigitalTruth? There’s a section there on push processing giving information on suggested starting points.
Thanks for that Thorsten. 2 stops looks like double the time i only gave an extra 30% which might be why the negs are almost clear. I have another role that i want to push 2 stops so i’ll multiple the time by 2.25 and see what it looks like
Seems to mention TMAX as a good developer for pushing film, says its a Compensating Developer. Might pick up a bottle of it, presume gunns sell it
Thanks again
MartinHi Martin,
don’t know much about this myself but I know you can use Kodak HC 110 for pushing. We use it in college, seems to give good results. I bought some so I could process films at home but just haven’t got around to using it yet.Sinead.
Oh, we use the massive dev chart as well.
I used to use Rodinol Special for neopan 400 (gives a finer grain than regular Rodinol). I have pushed neopan from 400 to 1600 and 3200 before. 1600 was ok but 3200 was a bit too far to push it.
TMAX developer is good but won’t give as fine a grain on neopan. If your looking to push film, Kodak T-MAX 400 can be rated up to 3200 (I’ve pushed it to 6400 before) and used the Kodak TMAX developer with it.
If your looking for a higher rated film I’d recommend Delta 3200 (I’ve pushed that to 12,800 before succesfully) using the TMAX developer.
Hope you get some good results!
Pete.
Hi Martin,
As suggested, Tmax developer is good for push processing and will last a long time after opening the bottle, which is something to consider if you won’t be using it often.
I’d try adding 70% to the development time if pushing two stops.
Peter
Martin, I didn’t notice your second post till now. If you under exposed two stops and developed 30% extra but your negs are “almost clear”, then I would think you are under exposed by more than two stops. The 30% extra development you gave the film should have recovered roughly one stop which means you should only be one stop under. Thats not the case if the negs are almost clear.
Just thinking about Tmax developer again. It may not be such a good developer for the Rollei IR film as it is a hard working developer and I have found it to cause spots and marks on the Rollei film, possibly due to its thin base. You should have no problem with the Neopan film though.
Peter
Hi Martin,
|I used to push film quite a lot, Delta 3200 pushed to 6400 or maybe 12800, Kodak tx 400- 1600, ect, I found the Kodak T-Maxx (i think) developer great to use, If you enquire in gunns about specific development times for specific films, they are really helpful that way.
I would defiantly recommend the Kodak developer though.Was in Gunns at lunch time and picked up some TMax Developer, so will give it a go tonight, hopefully i will be able to get some pics from the 2nd role as the first is unusable. Will be a good learning experience anyhow
Thanks all for your help much appreciated
MAs a general rule, add 1/3 cumulatively to the developing time for every stop you push the film.
So for example if you’ve pushed 2 stops and it was a 10 min developing time, add 3:20 for the first stop bringing it to 13:20, then add on another 4:16 to that time to give you a total time of about 17:20. I’m sure you’re prob aware of this but I know from experience theres nothing worse than getting your negs not developed right! They’ll prob come out a little more contrasty too.
A good tip when push processing is to have a large “bath” of water at the correct developing temp (20 degrees nromally) that you can sit you developing tank in between agitations. Due to the longer developing times the temperature of the chemicals can start to cool down towards the end of your developing time and the “bath” helps to keep the temperature up where it should be. The last thing you want is your negs underdeveloped because the temp dropped a degree or two.
Louise in Gunns really knows her developing times/chemicals so if in doubt she’ll put you straight!
Thanks all for the info.
TMax for Neopan 400 is generally 1+4 for 6 minutes
I tried TMax 1+4 for 12 minutes hoping to give me around 3 stopsBelow is one of the shots from the role. Still looks way underexposed still. Think i know why
From what i can work out i think the film should have been pushed 5 stops. How i got this was. A holga would have exposed at 100th of sec at F8. I set this on my manual camera and the light meter was saying an iso of 12800 was required under the lighting conditions i was using. As this was a 400 speed film thats a 5 stop difference
Not to worry i think i learn t a bit about push processing which will be handy in the future :oops:
Thanks again all
M
Bit late coming to this one but no one mentioned D76 or ID11, two standard developers. Both are good for pushing film, You do get a more grainy negative as you would expect but you don’t lose any image sharpness. Works especially well with HP5 up to 1600asa.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
