Pushing TMY-2 to EI 6400?

[B&Wpositive]

Anyone try this?

What developer?

What developing methods?

How were the results?

 

[2F/2F]

If you rate it that way, and expose it correctly, there is only so much you can get no matter what you do. It is underexposed four stops. It has received 1/16 of the light that it should have.

IME, the best option is a stand development followed by a push development. I would normally use HC-110 for both, but I have been known to experiment ))...maybe Rodinal for the stand and D-19 for the push???

 

[fschifano]

Never tried it and don't think I would. For me a two stop push is about as far as I'd like to go. After that my results have been, at best, difficult to print. More often they've been impossible to print. Even TMZ, which is considerably faster than TMY, can be difficult at 3200.

 

[df cardwell]

PUSHING simply means giving extra development to compensate as much as is possible for underexposure.

Sometimes it is like a good tool to use, like a Sawzall or a Backhoe.

Here is what happens: the longer you develop a negative, the more contrast it gets. AND what CONTRAST means is How Many Steps in the print do you have between Black and White.

Photographic prints normally have 10 steps: Black, White, and 8 tones of gray. Think of it as an octave in music.

A one stop push (400>800) gives you a 7 tone scale. A two stop push, a 6 tone scale, and so on. White stays in the same place, and black walks closer as you climb the scale.

If you do it just right, you can get Black, White, and 3 shades of Gray from TMY, and THAT is EI 6400. I guess that if you do it just right, that is like having 5 notes on a guitar, and if you do it right you can get a C#, and you can rock down to Electric Avenue. Just bring your groove. We don't need 8 or 10 or 12 tones.

The trick is that the harder you push, the less room you have for mistakes. If you underexpose 1 stop on a Push, you don't get 5 notes, you get 4, and maybe you can compose in those 4 notes, maybe not.

A good musician doesn't need ALL the notes, you just need the right ones. And when you push, you are pulling keys off the piano, or taking frets off the guitar. Be sure you figure out what you want or you end up with junk.

PUSHING takes practice, and is a cr*ppy way to salvage once in a lifetime pictures.

If you have to use TMY, try 16 minutes in Xtol 1+1, agitate it every minute, at 68•. Remember, when you go close to the edge, watch your step.

 

[Puma]

I want to learn to push TMY-2. When I expose and develop normally I have to rate the film at 200 to compensate for a slow shutter speed so does it stand to reason that I should pick the starting point for development of 3200 (9 1/2 minutes) and expose the film at 1600. In other words; are the values that I'm using in ideal conditions and speeds translatable to higher speeds?

My current N development is much shorter than Kodak's published time. ISO 200 for N= 5:30 at 70 degrees, kinda near the bottom end. I wonder how my system will affect using the film at 1600?

Sincerely,

Puma

 

[MattKing]

I want to learn to push TMY-2. When I expose and develop normally I have to rate the film at 200 to compensate for a slow shutter speed ...

Sincerely,

Puma

It seems to me that in order to compensate for a slow shutter, you would normally need to increase the EI you use for metering (to 800?), not decrease it.

 

[Puma]

I guess I mistakenly said that with juxtaposed thinking, either way I have to rate TMY-2 to 200 to get excellent shadow detail.

-Puma

 

[tkamiya]

I pushed TMY-2 two stops and it came out wonderfully. Good tonal range, grain not bad.... I just used XTOL full strength and published dev time. If I have to do it over again, I'd reduce the dev time a bit. It was contrasty (more than expected) and dense.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

Pushing always reults in poorer images than normal development. The more you push the worse the negatives become. At 6400 there will no shadow detail. Pushing is a trade-off for poor lighting situations, a bad negative being better than no negative. Speed increaing developers help a little bit and so does latensification. A faster film is always better than a slower one pushed.

 

[Puma]

When I can score some stolen I'll give it a whirl. Should I infer that tmax developer isn't suited for pushing?

 

[Puma]

Predictive text from my smartphone changed Xtol to stolen. Because tmz 3200 isn't sold in bulk rolls and here it's upwards of nine dollars a roll I see it as prohibitively exspensive. I'd rather learn how to make the most of one film and explore the possibilities of it in depth before I resort to another. I do sincerely appreciate your valuable insight and may have to resort to another film if the result doesn't suit me.

Thank you,
Puma

 

[hrst]

Should I infer that tmax developer isn't suited for pushing?

Why should you infer that? If you read the specs, the Tmax developer is especially meant for push processing underexposed film.

XTOL and Tmax dev are very usually recommended for push processing. Both are somewhat speed increasing developers. (OTOH, there is also a wing of people who like to recommend dilute Rodinal as a stand development. Rodinal is speed-decreasing if something, but apparently they find that the compensating effect of stand development helps to bring shadow detail.)

 

[Colin Corneau]

Why not? It won't be ideal but anyone who knows enough about photography to know what EI 6400 is already knows about the drawbacks.

Maybe it'll work, maybe it won't to your liking...but a speed increasing developer or one suited for pushing -- Microphen, TMax even DD-X -- is where to start.

Hoping you can post the results here...

 

[Gerald C Koch]

Predictive text from my smartphone changed Xtol to stolen.

Years ago when I worked for NASA the new word processing software kept changing NASA to nausea,

 

[Jeff Kubach]

I would guess be kinda grainy.

Jeff