Pushing film VS higher ASA??

[davetravis]

Has anyone ever compared the grain/sharpness/resolution of the same film that was pushed up 1 stop to that of the next higher speed?
EX: Velvia 50 pushed to 100 -VS- Velvia 100 as is?

 

[2Ldude]

Dave,

I have been wondering the same thing this week. Spent some time going thru some photo books at the local book store and after seeing alot of images from the sixties I noticed that most were shot with tri-x at 200 and then pushed one stop. Wouldnt this be the same as shooting at 400? Wouldnt development times be the same?

 

[roteague]

Has anyone ever compared the grain/sharpness/resolution of the same film that was pushed up 1 stop to that of the next higher speed?
EX: Velvia 50 pushed to 100 -VS- Velvia 100 as is?

I know a lot of people push Velvia, but I have never done it, nor found any reason to do so. When I need a faster film, I use either Velvia 100, or Provia 400F.

It really is hard to compare pushing Velvia 50 against the new Velvia 100. Velvia 100 already has finer grain than the older 50 (rms 8 versus rms 9) and doesn't suffer reprocity effects as readily as the 50 version does. FWIW, If I needed something faster than Velvia 50, I would just shoot the 100 version (and the 100 version is designed to be pushed up to +2 stops, unlike the 50).

 

[Paul Sorensen]

The issue with pushing, or at least one issue, with black and white, is that you are getting significantly increased contrast along with density. Most films, certainly Tri-X, can handle a stop with no issue. In fact, you can just underexpose it a stop and just get negs that are a little thin but still print okay. I think that the contrast can really become an issue at higher rates of pushing, if you have a contrasty subject, say you are shooting at night, then you can run into problems with being able to make an acceptable print from the negative.

 

[kaiyen]

I pushed Velvia 50 once by accident. As Robert said, it's hard to compare with the new Velvia 100, but I can say that the contrast went up, but I did not notice any significant increase in grain or decrease in sharpness. I didn't do critical analysis of it, though.

allan

 

[roteague]

The issue with pushing, or at least one issue, with black and white, is that you are getting significantly increased contrast along with density. Most films, certainly Tri-X, can handle a stop with no issue. In fact, you can just underexpose it a stop and just get negs that are a little thin but still print okay.

This is all true Paul, but the question was about color transparency film; in this case Fuji Velvia. It reacts much differently to pushing one stop than does any black & white film - you may have to live with a bit of green tint.

Here is a good article on Velvia 100 you may wish to read: http://www.kenrockwell.com/fuji/velvia100.htm

 

[Paul Sorensen]

This is all true Paul, but the question was about color transparency film; in this case Fuji Velvia. It reacts much differently to pushing one stop than does any black & white film - you may have to live with a bit of green tint.

Here is a good article on Velvia 100 you may wish to read: http://www.kenrockwell.com/fuji/velvia100.htm

Indeed, I kind of figured that out once I had already answered. The question doesn't explicitly state that it was only in reference to transparency film and the first answer was another related question regarding B&W, so I was thinking of that. I do realize that there are significant latitude differences and other issues to contend with when pushing transparency film.

I did accidentally shoot Velvia 50 at 100 a couple of years ago and had the local lab push process it for me, I was pretty happy with the results, but I didn't systematically compare them to unpushed 50 or 100 speed film.

For me, with the example given, the question would be why? You aren't going to save that much and you are giving up some quality, even if not much, so why do it?

 

[Rick Haug]

I have pushed 35mm Velvia 50 one stop on two occasions, one accidental and the other a planned experiment. I found a noticeable increase in contrast, objectionable for many of the subjects I shot.

One 35mm transparency film I have successfully pushed one stop with quite a few rolls is Provia 100F. I wanted to gain a shutter speed to combat subject motion. No discernable adverse effects from the push and I doubt I would be able to tell the difference between identical shots on this film, one normal and the other pushed a stop.

I have not done this myself, but I know of animal photographers who rate Provia 100F at 320 and push two stops in processing. They prefer the results over Provia 400F.

 

[roteague]

I believe that all of Fuji's F series films, as well as Velvia 100, are designed to push +2 stops.