Topic: Pushing Kentmere 100 to 400.

[SLVR]

Hey all. I recently had the daft idea to push my Kentmere 100 to 400 to see what it would be like. Im aware that kentmere does have a 400 speed film but i have an abundance of 100 and no 400. Anyways I thought id give it a try as something different. I got my dev time from a D-76 recipe that i found online. Though i used Xtol i found that for ilford products the dev times between D76 and Xtol are very similar if not the same.

the instructions called for 18 min at 20*. Invert every 30 sec for the first 10 min, then every 1min for the last 8. Here are the results. I think they are a little too contrasty for my liking when shot in sunlight. Though i could pull the contrast back a bit when im scanning. Indoors and with fluorescent and artificial lighting though Im a fan. There seems to be more greys coming from the film. I also found that the film was a little more unpredictable. As in the shots that i would have expected to turn out a certain way had a completely different look than if i were to shoot box speed i guess.

I havent pushed film in a LONG time so this is my first go at it in a while. Looking for some feedback. Whether im killing the highlights by agitating too much or if i should have pulled back some contrast when scanning id love to get some sort of direction.

All were shot on an Olympus XA

On to the results.
Daylight




Shade




Indoor/Artificial/Semilit




I also want to congratulate myself on 50 posts! now im a real person who can see the buy/sell/trade!!!

[byron]

Looks fantastic. I've always been a big fan of the look of pushed film...I'll be pushing Provia 100F two stops soon just to try it!
Something about the contrast looks strange in the second shot, though.

[jojonas~]

cool! It's def an interesting look. I've shot a lot of kentmere 100 but have never tried to push it myself, now maybe I will! I've only got rodinal though, I hear that is better for pulling?

[Lund]

Looks great. Been thinking about trying out the kentmere 100 for a while. Being able to push it with nice results is always a bonus.

[charles binns]

These are very nice, and I think you got it just right exposure & contrast wise.

One question.  What is your friend doing?  Whatever it is, it looks illegal 

[SLVR]

Looking through a viewfinder?

Im glad that it looks like the project was a success. I was worried for a second that the film would have a weird look or something. Something an experienced eye would see that i wouldnt, you know?

Not sure what times would be for rodinal. But for d76 and xtol 18 min is the sweet spot at 20 degrees!

[SLVR]

Something about the contrast looks strange in the second shot, though.

I agree. I threw it in there to see how much it stuck out. Thats straight from the scanner. I think that in backlit situations or very bright situations the film comes out super contrasty.

Does that sound like something common with pushed film?

[LT]

Tintin  -if you are pushing film, you are going to lose shadow detail, because you are underexposing it. 100-400 is only 2 stops, but it is quite on the edge. Given the contrasty light in the trees shot, and that the meter will be underexposing anyway as it is backlit, you are going to have to sacrifice shadow detail unless you use a speed increasing developer.

Pushing in a non-speed increasing developer will only stretch the contrast - more development = higher highlight tones. So, yes, you will get a more contrasty result.

This is not too much of an issue these days as most people scan negs, which gives much greater control over contrast.  If you were printing these, I would imagine much of the shadow detail here would be unprintable without some crafty darkroom workarounds.





 

[SLVR]

Leon thanks for the response, this is what i was looking for.

I did a quick google search on developers with the speed increase. I'll do more poking around on the forum as well. I didnt know that they existed so i have some reading to do! 

[Francois]

Personally, I tend to shoot for easy to print negatives.
If the information isn't recorded, it can't be printed.

Few people know that medium speed films (in the 100 ISO range) are much higher in contrast than high speed films. That's why it's easier to get printable results from pushed 400 ISO film than from pushed 100 ISO emulsions.

I once exposed 400 ISO film at 1600... lucky for me it was a fairly overcast rainy day. Had it been sunny and I'm pretty sure nothing would have come out of it.

[Matt Davis]

I've push HP5 to 3200 before and developed in Iford DDX.

Mind you I've only ever scanned the negs, I would image that with the lack of detail it would be almost impossible to print.

[Francois]

That pretty much depends on what you aim for. Usually, when you go to such extreme speeds, you don't really care much about the smoothness of the tonal scale. And obviously don't care about fine grain either.
You can also forget about shadow detail since everything is pretty much "in the shadows". But one thing you do get is mood.

[SLVR]

Im definitely feeling that pushed look. I'll just have to watch the lighting conditions and take the shadow detail into consideration when shooting