Missing something in my developments.

[Bill Burk]

So overexposing won't lose highlights, but do I compensate in the developing of it or just, develop like I should?

Right. Don't change the developing on account of the exposure (not talking about underexposure with push processing - that's a different train of thought and one that I feel risks too many shots)...

You change development on account of the subject brightness range. When brightness range is normal, you can develop normal. Bright sun alone is less than normal. Normal also includes and expects you to have some part of your subject in open shade. An abnormally contrasty scene is where there's bright sun and deep shade too - when your important subject is partly in bright sun and partly in deep shade. Then you have a situation that calls for less time in developer or compensating development.

A foggy day is another situation where the subject brightness range is not normal. And there, if you have a spotmeter, you might find that the black subject and white subject are only a few stops apart in readings. Then you can consider developing longer to give you a richer negative than you would otherwise get.

This advice is for black and white. For color negative film, the development is to a standard because otherwise you mess up the color balance.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

It's a common misconception that a filter like a yellow one will increase overall contrast. While a yellow filter will darken blues it will also lighten yellows. The only way to increase overall contrast is to increase development or print using a higher paper grade.