Help

[vintagerollei]

Hi,

I've only recently started developing film. I've always shot only with Tri X and developed in D76. Recently, I've decided to branch out a bit. I bought some Rollei 80s and 400s and some HC-110 and Rodinal. My problem: I forgot I had the 80s and loaded it and shot thinking it was ASA 400. So, I'm thinking I'm off over two stops. Is there any hope? Some people have recommended doing a stand development and someone else told me I should develop with Rodinol 1:25 to save the highlights (he said the shadows are a lost cause). I'm hoping for a miracle. It was a very important shoot.

Thanks, Chris (vintage_rollei on Instagram)

 

[Brian C. Miller]

If it's really important, then what you need to do is experiment with some more Rollei 80 and see what works best. Then develop your important film.

Your film may be OK with a 2-stop push, but you won't know until you experiment.

 

[Rudeofus]

You can push film, but shadow detail can't be saved. Whatever you do, you will recognize what you tried to shoot and maybe save some memories, but your images will not look like what you intended. You can try improving things a bit with some speed enhancing developer (Microphen, Xtol, ...), but it may be easier and better to accept that this film is lost and redo it. We've all lost a few rolls when we started, and even more when we thought we knew it all.

 

[Jim Jones]

Back when many people were shooting Kodak Tech Pan at an Exposure Index of about 25 for high resolution normal contrast images, I was exposing it at EI 200 or 400, and developing for maybe four minutes in print developer for high contrast. As noted above, shadow detail was lost, but subject texture was great! However, bracketing the exposure or very precise exposure calculation was necessary.

 

[AgX]

Furthermore the whole film speed and metering thing depends on standardized luminance and film latitude. So in case the luminance range of the object was small enough you might have ended with a mean density loss, but no loss of contrast or shadow detail.