Pulling Velvia 100- shot at 50

Hi Guys-

I was recently out shooting 4x5 sheets of Velvia 100, and had Velvia 50 in my MF camera, and forgot to switch my meter from 50 to 100 for the Velvia 100. Luckily I noticed after a couple of sheets. But I was wondering...Has anyone had any luck pull processing Velvia 100 shot at 50?

Thanks,

Patrick

Pulling slide film works a lot less well than pushing it, in my experience (I did exactly one roll of 35mm, for much the same reason as you did above). I'd accidentally shot part of a roll of Provia 100F at EI50 instead of EI100, so I had the lab pull 1 stop (which they were willing to do), however highlights were blown anyway. The slides were (barely) usable. I'd certainly not make a habit of pulling slide film.

Underexposing and pushing, however, now that can work, up to 2 stops or so (my lab will push 3, but by the time you get to 2 stops with Provia 100F, contrast is quite high; I can only imagine shooting at EI800 and pushing 3 stops, contrast would probably be insane!) I do have the lab push 1 or 2 stops just because I have the need for speed faster than EI100 on a semi-regular basis, and that does work pretty well. Not as well as having a native ISO 200 or 400 film, but certainly good enough for personal use.

I will be brutually frank: none of the Velvias respond well to either pushing or pulling with the consequences just about stuffing the entire dynamic range, certainly not gaining anything more of it. Pushing increases the fraility of already timid highlights while pulling will dramatically intensify an over-saturated palette (in the case of RVP100). Really, Velvia 100 with its hyper-saturated palette is the least likely of any of them to enjoy the experience of compromised processing, but that should not stop you from taking the sheet(s) in and processing 'as is' at 100 and another at 50 — assuming you have two sheets to make a comparison. This can be a valuable learning experience and an object lesson in making sure ISO is checked/reset each and every time another film is used.

Provia is entirely different and can be pushed or pulled 4 stops, and this is frequently done (with care!).

Thanks for the suggestions. I will probably end up having a sheet pulled, and the others developed as normal. We will see what happens...