Hi out there,
sometimes my negatives turn out a bit flat, and i would like to get more contrast.
Now here comes the confusion:
Some people advise me to OVER-expose the film and then develop it regularly.
Other people say, more contrast is reached by UNDER-exposing the film and then push-processing it.
So where does the truth lie?! Or is both correct?
Regardless of how you expose, more development time generally means more contrast. If you're using published development times, I would not change development time and instead look at exposure, but, if you're generally OK with the exposure (i.e. no large areas of the image with no real detail), then don't change anything and just add development time.
1. The most common thing is film that is just under exposed, and If you generally have lots of image area in the shadows and reflected blacks that look flat because they have no detail in them, then you just need to add exposure. If you're using camera auto exposure and your camera can do exposure compensation, then bump it up to plus exposure in either 1/3 or 1/2 stop increments (depends on the camera) until you're happy with the results. If it doesn't have that, then add more exposure by lowering the ISO that you use by either 1/3 or 1/2 stop increments until you're happy. You shouldn't need to change the development time until your shadows and reflected blacks actually have detail in them, and once that is accomplished, the published development times are generally OK, but sometimes you may want to deviate from them for specific cases.
2. Less common is film that is over exposed, and if you generally have lots of image area in the highlights that are flat looking with no detail then you can either give less exposure, OR reduce your development time, OR, do both, depending on how the rest of the image looks. If you're using published development times, then start with reducing exposure in 1/3 or 1/2 stop increments until you're happy, OR until you start to get no detail in the reflected blacks. Once you hit no detail in the reflected blacks then bump the exposure back up by that 1/3 or 1/2 stop increment and start reducing the development time in small increments. I'd start by taking the number of seconds of development time and multiplying it by 0.8 and develop for that new time. That should net a noticeable difference in the contrast and bring the highlights down enough that you start to see detail there. If you still don't see enough detail there, then take the original development time in seconds and multiply it by 0.7 or 0.6 (depending on how much detail is still not there). As you reduce the development time, you may start to see the reflected blacks lose detail. If that happens, increase the exposure time by 1/3 or 1/2 stop increments to compensate. This adds exposure to the highlights which feeds into the flat looking highlights problem, so requires less development time to bring them back down again.
The two options above are a delicate balance and should be done in relatively small increments and only change one thing at a time until it's dialed in to your liking.
3. If both the shadows, reflected blacks, and highlights are generally good and you just want more contrast, then start by making sure you're using the official published development time with the correct temperature and agitation. If that's all good and you still want more contrast, then take the time you're using in seconds and multiply it by 1.25. That will net you a pretty noticeable change in the contrast. If you still want more contrast, then take the original development time in seconds and multiply it by either 1.4 or 1.6 depending on the amount of change you want. If the time in seconds multiplied by 1.25 results in too much contrast, then take the original time in seconds and multiply it by 1.19. If that is still too much, then take the original time in seconds and multiply it by 1.12. If that is still too much, then 1.06, but in all honesty, you're already down to barely noticeable changes.
Again, I cannot stress this enough, only change one thing at a time, and if you're using published development times, start with your exposure and ensure that you're generally exposing so that you have detail in all the parts of the image you care about before changing the development time. If you're not using the published development time and temperature, then start with doing that first.
