Black and White Reversal Processing Update and Questions

[Existing Light]

For those who were keeping up with my reversal processing / magic lantern thread, I've got a bit of an update.

I developed 5 or six rolls of FP4+, screwing up most of those working on getting my exposure and processing figured out. I've found that my EI for FP4+ is around 32. That's about a two stop increase in exposure (I say "about" because I havent quite perfected the EI).

I shot a test roll of Arista.Edu 200 yesterday and developed it earlier today (well yesterday now, I guess ). I havent projected any of those shots yet, but it seems like it's best shot around EI 100. Some did look a bit better at 50, but most looked best around 100.

my exposures were based on the meter in my Pentax K1000, which is why I havent perfected the exposures on FP4 yet, but I'm very close. I used my in-camera meter to get a reading, exposed at that reading then +1 and +2.

I know the in-camera meter isnt the ideal meter, but it has gotten me really close. There's an Indian Festival this weekend, and I'm gonna shoot a few rolls of each there and see how well my exposures are in a real world application. I'll be using my in camera meter and my handheld incident meter and taking notes. By then, I should have my exposures perfected or be pretty damn close. Hopefully I'll get some good shots in the process as well


I do have a few questions. I noticed that the FP4+ looks best with about two stops overexposure and the Arista.Edu 200 looks best with about one stop of overexposure (from what I've seen so far). I assumed all films would require about the same ammount of overexposure for reversal processing, but that idea seems to be debunked. Ilford's PDF on reversal processing says the slower speeds are more suitable for reversal processing because they're more contrasty. Does overexposure have any effect on contrast? If so, how? Wouldn't overexposure lower contrast while underexposure increase contrast?

Obviously I'm going to keep researching this matter further, but I'd like to hear from anyone who has more experience in the matter than I

 

[Existing Light]

Well, I got around to mounting and projecting some of my Arista.EDU slides. I was wrong when I said they looked best at 100. After projecting, I saw they looked better at 50. When I first looked at them after I developed them, it looked like the highlights were slightly blown in the EI50 shots while the shots at 100 were slightly dark, but seemingly useable. After projecting them, I noticed the highlight detail in the EI50 shots were pretty much perfect except for one blown out one and the EI100 shots were too dark. Obviously I shouldnt be making decisions when I'm tired

The one that had slightly blown highlights was a picture of a building made of very light grey stone. It's only slightly blown out, and I think perhaps shooting similar subjects around EI80 would get the highlights perfect. (also, using a spot meter instead of the in camera meter would be a good idea ).

I do have one kinda stupid question: If I wanted to make the sky dark, I would use a yellow, orange, or red filter, just as I would if I was shooting the film as a negative, right? Or would I do just the opposite and use a blue filter. I dont have any filters at the moment, but I think the first filters I get will be to darken the sky because I loathe the white, featureless skies