Pulling E100G and E100VS

Hello,

some time ago I was advised by a smaller lab (they have their own development machine and develop only slide film and they do a very good job to my experience) that if I want to handle higher contrast with slide film I should use either Kodak E100G or E100VS and expose them at ISO 50 - 64 and then they would do pull development. It should result in large latitude of the films. I was also explicitly told that this does not work with Fuji films.

I have not exploited that possibility much yet, but consider to give it a try. As I will not be able to do a side-by-side comparison I was wondering whether you have any experience on pulling E100G or E100VS.

Not the exact answer to your question, but I've pulled Velvia 50 and found that pulling gives some extra latitude to both shadows and highlights, so the lab is probably right. Example scans of my experiment are available at http://www.students.tut.fi/~alhonena/velviapull/ .

thank you - the samples indeed do show a difference. How was the pulled Velvia developed? All sameples -1 stop or each separately. It seems that all pulled results are darker than normal @ ISO50

I usually rate those films at 125 so one could consider this a pull situation based on normal development time.

I prefer the colour when shot with 1/3 stop underexposure from box speed, however a 2/3 or full stop pull might increase this effect. I might try it next time i shoot E100VS (maybe this weekend!)

Pulled version was developed 2 minutes less than normal in FD. This is called 1 stop pull.

I agree that the pulled ones shot at EI 20 are closer match for normal EI 50.

Only way to know how a particular film reacts to the combination of overexposure&pull processing is to try it out.

andrewkirkby said:

I usually rate those films at 125 so one could consider this a pull situation based on normal development time.

I prefer the colour when shot with 1/3 stop underexposure from box speed, however a 2/3 or full stop pull might increase this effect. I might try it next time i shoot E100VS (maybe this weekend!)

Click to expand...

Underexposure is not the same as a full pull development based on Zone System. You are sacrificing a bit of shadow detail in favour of more highlight detail.

If you overexpose and under(pull)develop, you can potentially improve both shadow and high detail, and capture a much wider EV range.

Here is a nice example of an overexposed and pull developed BW neg (about a 10 EV range here):

Your lab is correct. You can most certainly pull (or push) E-6 films, and quite a bit. It is one of the main reasons that I choose to use them over negative film. They are a color medium with which you have much of the control you have when using black and white film. Usually, they maintain perfect color within a one stop range from 1/2 stop pull to 1/2 stop push, with some exceptions holding perfect color at more extreme pushes and pulls better than others, and a few doing it worse. Outside of that range, you get minor, correctable color changes, with color usually being acceptable/correctable down to about a 2-to-2-1/2 stop pull.

What you do with exposure is entirely independent of what you do with the process. You don't need to push or pull just because you exposed a certain way. Just like with black and white, your exposure determines largely how your low tones are rendered, and your development determines largely how the high and mid tones are rendered.

In any case, I would not re rate the film. I would simply manually over or under expose it as needed.

Using sheet film, or dedicating entire rolls to the same subject, are helpful with these methods.

G and VS are very films, so the first question would be what appearance you are looking for that the films don't give in normal use. VS is my personal favorite film, with wonderful colors, razor sharpness, and good latitude with both great shadow detail and subtlety in highlights. It gives pretty much perfect fidelity in outdoor scenes under natural light. I can't imagine trying to make it "better".

G is a much softer film with subdued colors and contrast. So between the two you get quite a difference in appearance.

I find it much more useful to push the film. I've shot Provia 400 pushed two stops and gotten great results. A 1600 speed color slide opens whole new possibilies.

Marco B said:

Underexposure is not the same as a full pull development based on Zone System. You are sacrificing a bit of shadow detail in favour of more highlight detail.

If you overexpose and under(pull)develop, you can potentially improve both shadow and high detail, and capture a much wider EV range.

Here is a nice example of an overexposed and pull developed BW neg (about a 10 EV range here):

Click to expand...

Sorry Marco, that should have read differently.

I've shot a roll of E100G at 50 today. Will try it with a pull

Beautiful image, by the way. HUGE dynamic range.