i went out once with hp5, on a protest, it was dark and i rated it at 1600, developped in ID-11. for a protest in night photo, it was punchy gritty and overall really nice contrast. i would definitely doing it again.
The shoot at 13:26, I know that it's not accurate as you say, but it's a really cool look. Really cool look really impressive results. Looks like an album cover. Especially for HP5, which is is really the wonder bread of B&W.
Another fantastic video, not only explaining the terms "push" and "pull", but also showing some images (and zooming in on the details) illustrating the effects. And HP5 sure was a good choice, as it seems to take a lot of abuse pretty forgivingly. I would have liked to hear a few thoughts on how you arrived at the decision which developer you'd use for the various rolls - but I generally appreciated the video, giving a good introduction to what you were trying to show in the first place. Thanks Noah for the time and effort going into this highly educational video - just enough detail to make it understandable, withstanding the temptation to go off on one of the numerous tangents to the subject.
I pretty much shoot HP5 at 800 all the time, with my developer, Adox FX-39 II, it really works well for me and I like capturing misty mornings with it, the grain suits the mood and I still get excellent sharpness.
I've been getting good results shooting Kentmere 400 in low light with my camera's meter set to 1000, but pushed two stops in development. It seems to give better margin for error in the shadows. The highest highlights are going to blow out either way when pushed that far.
I was thinking of trying this, recently I shot a 120 roll of Arista 400 at 1600 (+2 stops) although I’m unsure on how I should develop it, I use Arista B&W chemicals and usually the standard developer time is 8 minutes, how can I find the right developing times for it?
I like HP5 for the exact reason that you get a handful of ISOs in one film. I haven't met a high ISO b/w film that looks good with HC-110 so pushing HP5 or Tri-X is kind of my go to.
THIS VIDEO IS SOOOOOO DAMN GOOD! VERY INFORMATIVE AND UNLOCKS THE ABILITY TO BE CREATIVE WITH FILM!!! I'VE ALWAYS WONDERED ABOUT PUSHING AND PULLING...BUT SEEING IT VISUALLY, IT MAKES MUCH SENSE! I GOT ILFORD HP5 120 ROLL AND CAN'T WAIT TO TRY THIS EXPERIMENTATION!! I LOVE DARK N GRITTY GUTTER LIKE IMAGES. SEEING THIS VIDEO WILL HELP ME (HOPEFULLY) GET THE RESULTS I'M LOOKING FOR...MOS DEFINITELY WILL MORE HAVING AN UNDERSTANDING! THANKS FOR THE DOPE VIDEO!🙏🏾🙌🏾👊🏾 - THE BLACKMAN ARMED WITH A CAMERA
HC-110 isn't really the best for pushing, since it's a relatively high contrast developer. Using Xtol will give you a much smoother, lower contrast result when pushing 2 or 3 stops. HP5 still looks good at 3200 in Xtol, and does not have more grain than Delta 3200 or T-Max 3200. But of course, you're gonna get a lot of grain at any speed if you don't meter for the darkest shadows. My favourite b&w look is Kodak XX at ISO 1600.
I'm late to the party, but thank you for this video. I recently dusted off my old Nikon F75 and an old rangefinder since my son needed to borrow my DSLR for school. Number 1, I forgot how much I enjoyed film. Number 2, film and film development is far more expensive than it was when I used to shoot. So, I'm finally at a point where I want to learn how to develop my own film instead of running to Downtown Camera to have someone else do it (especially since my bank account doesn't like it when I go to the camera store 😂). My next goal is to figure out the Cinemax 8EE I picked up off of Kijiji recently since I have never used a super 8 before, but have always wanted to make short films on one when I was a kid.
one other point about this push/pull, it only makes real sense for Medium and large format film, where you shoot less film, aka 10-15 on roll film, or individual sheets on LF, where this indepth control of the shot is viable, you don't have to shoot an entire 24/36 exposure roll of 35 and importantly have to push/pull the whole lot (esp. if a lab does this!), you can pre-visualise a scene, expose a sheet in the camera, esp. for the scenes' conditions, then develop that sheet specific to how you want it to look, or what you & the lab tech discuss is the "look you are after", a far safer way, instead of with the whole roll, over or under may NOT be the best for every shot on the roll, but once you set asa on the dial, you are stuck with it, for the entire roll, as the entire roll is loaded and spooled onto the same bobbin and developed all together.
I think usually 2 stops is the max for pushing/pulling, I used fomapan at 400,800, 1600 and 3200, the best results i had were with 800, and max with 1600, that's prob the best for most b&w films
Massively pushing hp5 via 120 gives you better results. I once developed a 6400 pushes hp5 and got great results, it was really annoying to develop the film for the required 30 minutes though! I personally happily push hp5 to 1600! Have a nice week!
I’m trying to understand film density to begin experimenting with salt paper printing. From what I’ve been reading, it’s recommended to have a “dense” negative for this printing process. At the ~16 minute mark of this video you say that the effect of extreme pushing is increased density, but to me it looks like the negatives are less dense than the pulled negatives. Am I misunderstanding what is meant by “density”? I used a roll of Kodak 400 and took a series of 7 exposures of the same scene under the same lighting, but I started the sequence at 3 stops under exposed, increasing exposure 1 stop for each subsequent exposure until reaching 3 stops over exposed. After developing the film (normal development time for box speed of the film) it is quite apparent that the overexposed shots resulted in denser negatives, while the under exposed shots resulted in thinner negatives. I read online that push developing results in greater density and higher contrast, so I headed to YT to see if I could find an example of this and that’s how I found your most excellent demonstration here! But if anything I think I’m just more confused now lol. I plan on making my first salt prints using 4x5 dry plates rated for ASA 2, so I’m trying to figure out how to ensure I expose them to achieve the appropriate density for this printing method. I don’t know if I should simply over expose the plates and develop normally, or if push/pull developing would yield the best result. Perhaps I’m just overthinking this whole thing?
Thank you for all your in depth explainers. I‘m just getting into film and still habe some questions i can’t wrap my head around. If i understand correctly you can overexpose single images without pushing/pulling. If you push/pull it’s always for the entire roll, since you develop it as a whole. When would i push/pull instead of just under/overexpose? If i have a low iso film and want to shoot in a darker scenario i would want to overexpose it. Can i achieve that by pushing or am I just increasing grain and contrast here?
I used to use Perceptol and I found it removed a lot of grain, to the point where I didn't realize how bad kodak trix from 1981 was. Might be worth seeing how much work the perceptual, as an ultra fine grain developer, is doing verse the HC110.
I have a roll of HP5 in my fridge that I still haven't shot because I personally find it kind of boring at 400. I will probably try pushing to 800 next time.
Hey thanks for the nice video! I really like how you explain developing stuff, your other b/w video convinced me to develop my own films :) I got 2 questions after watching this video: 1) I usually am using expired b/w film, just because it usually is cheaper to get online if i‘m a bit lucky and analog photography is expensive enough :). Since I oftentimes don‘t know when the film expired, i just overexpose it by one stop, since, as far as I read, doesn‘t really harm and, so far I haven‘t made bad experience with this. However, my question is: If I expose Hp5 like this at 200, and still develop it at box speed, did I technically push it or did I just develop it regularily? Bc to my understanding, the overexposure is just to compensate for the expirery of the film, by which the developement should be unaffected, right? So in order to do your tip to expose hp5 at 400 and develop it at 800, do I have to shoot my expired hp5 at 200 and still develop it at 800? Or am I thinking this completely wrong? Sorry if my question is confunsing or convoluted, but I don‘t think I can but it in better words. 2) could you do a video on preflashing still photography film? Thanks a lot, keep on doing this great videos!
I was VERY surprised that HP5 was so tolerant, I can easily push to 1600 using a point-and-shoot that has no exposure adjustment (Late Model Canon SureShot Owl)... I could get away with this surprisingly well, and my photos are just fine even in bright daylight conditions, AND with the flash on!
which films can be pushed most? which can be pulled most? split per type (b&w / color, etc.) - is there a centralised source of information on this anywhere?
wow, that 12800 asa grain, looks simmilar to my Nikon D700 sensor noise at 1250 iso!!, not quite as usable as the others, but nice, if it is an artistic choice!
I wouldn't have compared the graininess between 400 and pulling and put it down to pulling. Perceptol is designed to reduce graininess. Hc110 isn't much of a solvent developer. I would have used microphen for pushing as that's what it's for.
I'm still just as confused as before. Let's say you're pushing from 400 to 800. Do you leave your camera set to 400, or change it to 800? If you change it, and then develop it as 800, aren't you really pushing two stops?
no , only 1 stop, you don't even have to change the iso on the camera, this only calibrates the meter. You can leave it at say iso 400 and underexpose your images by -1 using the meter as a guide on a manual camera. so the image recorded is 1 times darker than it should be. You then develop for longer which brings back the exposure. On a point&shoot camera you would need to change the iso. I suppose for tracking and remembering what you are doing changing the iso is the most practical thing to do on all cameras but as pointed out not essential.
best film photography channel on youtube
i went out once with hp5, on a protest, it was dark and i rated it at 1600, developped in ID-11. for a protest in night photo, it was punchy gritty and overall really nice contrast. i would definitely doing it again.
After years, I finally decided to give push/pull a try and it took me a bit to wrap my head around it. I appreciate how comprehensive this is.
The shoot at 13:26, I know that it's not accurate as you say, but it's a really cool look. Really cool look really impressive results. Looks like an album cover. Especially for HP5, which is is really the wonder bread of B&W.
Dang. Every time I search for a film related subject, you pop. Subscribed.
Best video about pushing/pulling development i've seen yet.
Another fantastic video, not only explaining the terms "push" and "pull", but also showing some images (and zooming in on the details) illustrating the effects. And HP5 sure was a good choice, as it seems to take a lot of abuse pretty forgivingly.
I would have liked to hear a few thoughts on how you arrived at the decision which developer you'd use for the various rolls - but I generally appreciated the video, giving a good introduction to what you were trying to show in the first place.
Thanks Noah for the time and effort going into this highly educational video - just enough detail to make it understandable, withstanding the temptation to go off on one of the numerous tangents to the subject.
Thanks you for all your hard work producing such a comprehensive and informative presentation.
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I pretty much shoot HP5 at 800 all the time, with my developer, Adox FX-39 II, it really works well for me and I like capturing misty mornings with it, the grain suits the mood and I still get excellent sharpness.
I've been getting good results shooting Kentmere 400 in low light with my camera's meter set to 1000, but pushed two stops in development. It seems to give better margin for error in the shadows. The highest highlights are going to blow out either way when pushed that far.
I was thinking of trying this, recently I shot a 120 roll of Arista 400 at 1600 (+2 stops) although I’m unsure on how I should develop it, I use Arista B&W chemicals and usually the standard developer time is 8 minutes, how can I find the right developing times for it?
One of the best explanation of the process. Well done.
I like HP5 for the exact reason that you get a handful of ISOs in one film. I haven't met a high ISO b/w film that looks good with HC-110 so pushing HP5 or Tri-X is kind of my go to.
I don’t understand why people don’t usually consider the benefits of pull processing for scenes with hight contrast. Great video!
brooo, those 3200 shots are kinda lit
THIS VIDEO IS SOOOOOO DAMN GOOD! VERY INFORMATIVE AND UNLOCKS THE ABILITY TO BE CREATIVE WITH FILM!!! I'VE ALWAYS WONDERED ABOUT PUSHING AND PULLING...BUT SEEING IT VISUALLY, IT MAKES MUCH SENSE! I GOT ILFORD HP5 120 ROLL AND CAN'T WAIT TO TRY THIS EXPERIMENTATION!! I LOVE DARK N GRITTY GUTTER LIKE IMAGES. SEEING THIS VIDEO WILL HELP ME (HOPEFULLY) GET THE RESULTS I'M LOOKING FOR...MOS DEFINITELY WILL MORE HAVING AN UNDERSTANDING! THANKS FOR THE DOPE VIDEO!🙏🏾🙌🏾👊🏾
- THE BLACKMAN ARMED WITH A CAMERA
HC-110 isn't really the best for pushing, since it's a relatively high contrast developer. Using Xtol will give you a much smoother, lower contrast result when pushing 2 or 3 stops. HP5 still looks good at 3200 in Xtol, and does not have more grain than Delta 3200 or T-Max 3200. But of course, you're gonna get a lot of grain at any speed if you don't meter for the darkest shadows. My favourite b&w look is Kodak XX at ISO 1600.
I'm late to the party, but thank you for this video. I recently dusted off my old Nikon F75 and an old rangefinder since my son needed to borrow my DSLR for school. Number 1, I forgot how much I enjoyed film. Number 2, film and film development is far more expensive than it was when I used to shoot. So, I'm finally at a point where I want to learn how to develop my own film instead of running to Downtown Camera to have someone else do it (especially since my bank account doesn't like it when I go to the camera store 😂).
My next goal is to figure out the Cinemax 8EE I picked up off of Kijiji recently since I have never used a super 8 before, but have always wanted to make short films on one when I was a kid.
this is so amazing. Thank you for the effort and dedication.
Fantastic, exhaustively
Great job!!! Another clearly explained video!!!
one other point about this push/pull, it only makes real sense for Medium and large format film, where you shoot less film, aka 10-15 on roll film, or individual sheets on LF, where this indepth control of the shot is viable, you don't have to shoot an entire 24/36 exposure roll of 35 and importantly have to push/pull the whole lot (esp. if a lab does this!), you can pre-visualise a scene, expose a sheet in the camera, esp. for the scenes' conditions, then develop that sheet specific to how you want it to look, or what you & the lab tech discuss is the "look you are after", a far safer way, instead of with the whole roll, over or under may NOT be the best for every shot on the roll, but once you set asa on the dial, you are stuck with it, for the entire roll, as the entire roll is loaded and spooled onto the same bobbin and developed all together.
I think usually 2 stops is the max for pushing/pulling, I used fomapan at 400,800, 1600 and 3200, the best results i had were with 800, and max with 1600, that's prob the best for most b&w films
I needed this!!!
Massively pushing hp5 via 120 gives you better results.
I once developed a 6400 pushes hp5 and got great results, it was really annoying to develop the film for the required 30 minutes though!
I personally happily push hp5 to 1600!
Have a nice week!
(halftime comment)
That rug really ties the room together... ;-)
thanks for sharing your knowledge~~!
I’m trying to understand film density to begin experimenting with salt paper printing. From what I’ve been reading, it’s recommended to have a “dense” negative for this printing process. At the ~16 minute mark of this video you say that the effect of extreme pushing is increased density, but to me it looks like the negatives are less dense than the pulled negatives. Am I misunderstanding what is meant by “density”?
I used a roll of Kodak 400 and took a series of 7 exposures of the same scene under the same lighting, but I started the sequence at 3 stops under exposed, increasing exposure 1 stop for each subsequent exposure until reaching 3 stops over exposed.
After developing the film (normal development time for box speed of the film) it is quite apparent that the overexposed shots resulted in denser negatives, while the under exposed shots resulted in thinner negatives.
I read online that push developing results in greater density and higher contrast, so I headed to YT to see if I could find an example of this and that’s how I found your most excellent demonstration here! But if anything I think I’m just more confused now lol.
I plan on making my first salt prints using 4x5 dry plates rated for ASA 2, so I’m trying to figure out how to ensure I expose them to achieve the appropriate density for this printing method. I don’t know if I should simply over expose the plates and develop normally, or if push/pull developing would yield the best result. Perhaps I’m just overthinking this whole thing?
I've shot HP5 and Kentmere 400, at 400 iso. Looking into pushing them to shoot at 800, expecting to have more contrast
Awesome content
Atget used stand development. He was using large format film and Hubl paste, which minimizes bromide drag. 35mm isn't great for stand development.
Thank you for all your in depth explainers. I‘m just getting into film and still habe some questions i can’t wrap my head around.
If i understand correctly you can overexpose single images without pushing/pulling. If you push/pull it’s always for the entire roll, since you develop it as a whole.
When would i push/pull instead of just under/overexpose? If i have a low iso film and want to shoot in a darker scenario i would want to overexpose it. Can i achieve that by pushing or am
I just increasing grain and contrast here?
I used to use Perceptol and I found it removed a lot of grain, to the point where I didn't realize how bad kodak trix from 1981 was. Might be worth seeing how much work the perceptual, as an ultra fine grain developer, is doing verse the HC110.
I have a roll of HP5 in my fridge that I still haven't shot because I personally find it kind of boring at 400. I will probably try pushing to 800 next time.
Great channel.👍
Hey thanks for the nice video! I really like how you explain developing stuff, your other b/w video convinced me to develop my own films :)
I got 2 questions after watching this video:
1) I usually am using expired b/w film, just because it usually is cheaper to get online if i‘m a bit lucky and analog photography is expensive enough :). Since I oftentimes don‘t know when the film expired, i just overexpose it by one stop, since, as far as I read, doesn‘t really harm and, so far I haven‘t made bad experience with this. However, my question is: If I expose Hp5 like this at 200, and still develop it at box speed, did I technically push it or did I just develop it regularily? Bc to my understanding, the overexposure is just to compensate for the expirery of the film, by which the developement should be unaffected, right? So in order to do your tip to expose hp5 at 400 and develop it at 800, do I have to shoot my expired hp5 at 200 and still develop it at 800? Or am I thinking this completely wrong?
Sorry if my question is confunsing or convoluted, but I don‘t think I can but it in better words.
2) could you do a video on preflashing still photography film?
Thanks a lot, keep on doing this great videos!
Oh, I forgot, good vid - you answered my questions develop pushing/pulling.
I was VERY surprised that HP5 was so tolerant, I can easily push to 1600 using a point-and-shoot that has no exposure adjustment (Late Model Canon SureShot Owl)... I could get away with this surprisingly well, and my photos are just fine even in bright daylight conditions, AND with the flash on!
What do you think about infosol 3/hp 5+
which films can be pushed most? which can be pulled most? split per type (b&w / color, etc.) - is there a centralised source of information on this anywhere?
wow, that 12800 asa grain, looks simmilar to my Nikon D700 sensor noise at 1250 iso!!, not quite as usable as the others, but nice, if it is an artistic choice!
I wouldn't have compared the graininess between 400 and pulling and put it down to pulling. Perceptol is designed to reduce graininess. Hc110 isn't much of a solvent developer.
I would have used microphen for pushing as that's what it's for.
I'm still just as confused as before. Let's say you're pushing from 400 to 800. Do you leave your camera set to 400, or change it to 800? If you change it, and then develop it as 800, aren't you really pushing two stops?
no , only 1 stop, you don't even have to change the iso on the camera, this only calibrates the meter. You can leave it at say iso 400 and underexpose your images by -1 using the meter as a guide on a manual camera. so the image recorded is 1 times darker than it should be. You then develop for longer which brings back the exposure. On a point&shoot camera you would need to change the iso. I suppose for tracking and remembering what you are doing changing the iso is the most practical thing to do on all cameras but as pointed out not essential.
Butt what happened if you pull the film from 400 Asa to 100 Asa and develop with the time for 400 Asa or higher
Pull don't Push. Ilford HP5+ is a 160 asa film despite what it says on the box.
you talk/explain too fast for a newby