Disaster! But can I recover with push processing?

[Jakester]

I took out a my new (second-hand) camera and new meter and didn't realise that I was using the meter incorrectly until I had shot a roll. I had left the incident light incident light dome on the meter (a Gossen Digipro F) but was using it like a reflected light meter.

The result is that I was using much slower shutter speeds than I ought to have been (e.g. 1/250 instead of 1/1000). Is it worth telling The Darkroom, who I'm planning to send the film to for processing, to push the film by two stops?

The film is a roll of Tri-X 400.

 

[keithwms]

So you typically overexposed by two stops? Then if anything you need to pull process, not push. But two stops overexposure will not be a disaster at all. Maybe pull one stop.

 

[Ian Grant]

Tell them what you've done.

Get them to process in Perceptol or Microdol-X (or similar) which drops film speed by 50% anyway and then your closer just a stop over exposed.

Tri-X at 100 EI isn't so bad many use it at 200 EI

Ian

 

[tkamiya]

That shouldn't be too big of a deal. Many people PULL a film (over expose) by one stop as a matter of routine. Unless your scenes were VERY contrasty with extreme lighting, you *should* be able to reduce the development time by about 20% and get a reasonably good results.

 

[Jakester]

Many thanks indeed for the advice. I'll ask them to pull process by a stop.

 

[MaximusM3]

Wip out some Rodinal 1:25 and go for the mighty Ralph Gibson look

 

[c6h6o3]

The result is that I was using much slower shutter speeds than I ought to have been (e.g. 1/250 instead of 1/1000).

How do you know? Did you realize your mistake and go back and meter properly? Using an incident meter as a reflected light meter will not yield 2 stops overexposure in all cases. It depends upon both the ambient light and the reflectance of the subject. A reflected meter accounts for both. An incident meter only measures the ambient light falling on the subject.