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Should I pull development of a roll of Portra 400 I accidentally shot at 100?

mediumformula

By mediumformula
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mediumformula

mediumformula

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Hi.  I shot a roll of portra 400 with the light meter on my Rolleiflex 2.8F accidentally set at 100.  I am wondering if I should have the lab pull the development a stop or two in order to compensate for over exposure.  Or is Portra 400 so tolerant that it might come out fine with a 2 stop overexposure?  I was thinking of pulling 1 stop just to be safe?  Any suggestions?  Thanks.

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adan

adan

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Not a great idea to pull (or push) color films.

Reason being they are not one emulsion layer of gray silver like B&W films, but three stacked emulsions, each creating one of the three dye colors.

________  V developer
________          V developer
________                   V developer

Since the layers are stacked, the processing chemistry starts working on each layer with a progressive time delay, because it takes a non-zero amount of time for the developer to percolate through the layers one after the other, from the top down. That is why color film development times/temps are so ultra-critical in the first place (±0.25°F).

The factory chemical balance of the dye layers is "calibrated" for the known delay with the standard developing time. If you use a shorter time to "pull" the film, the cyan and magenta dye layers will be disproportionally underdeveloped, since the developer will not have been in them long enough. Result will likely be color shifts and crossovers (red shadows and green highlights, or something similar).

In an emergency, it can be (and has been) done, but at the cost of extra work straightening out the color problems later when printing or scanning.

Overexposing color negative film, up to 2 stops, with normal development, actually has a couple of advantages. 1) Less grain, as the dye clouds (rather than specks of silver) get bigger and blend together at the edges. And 2), punchier color saturation.

A lot of people, including me, overexpose color neg film about a stop most of the time (e.g. 160 shot at 100), for just those reasons. Or at least bracket to the overexposed side.

...............

Another factor - how old is your Rollei lens? If it's from the 50s-60s, it probably is a fairly low-contrast, low-saturation lens to begin with (older coatings). If you pull the development, your pix will be even more flat and desaturated.

..............

But do talk to your lab and get their opinions and reasoning and find out what they suggest, in any case - it's their rodeo.

Edited by adan
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grahamc

grahamc

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This will probably look really nice developed normally as long as you didn't purposely over expose it too much further when metering .  Plenty of people shoot 400 @ 100.  I found 200 to be more to my taste (developed normally), but I also generally over-expose further when shooting so won't be too far off what you will get here  

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Kl@usW.

Kl@usW.

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200 is my standard speed for Portra 400.  If you shot 100, some negatives might come out a bit dense, but will be fine anyway. Andy explained it in depth-pulling CN films is no good idea. Different from @adan ´s experience, i have the feeling that Portra looses contrast if "overexposed"; you'll get "pastel" mood. 

If you should come across a roll of the discontinued Fuji 400 H: it needs to be exposed at  200 or 160.... 

Edited by Kl@usW.
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Kl@usW.

Kl@usW.

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FYI

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Portra 400 @200

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adan

adan

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If it is any help, I was shooting color in my Hassy SWC today, and intentionally made a shot on Kodak Gold 200 Pro 120 at box speed and at 2 stops overexposed (effective EI 50).

Here are scans from the two negs - the first is shot normally, and the second shot at 2 stops over. Both on the same roll, so both developed identically for normal time - the EI 50 shot naturally had to be darkened to match the ISO 200 shot.

About the only difference I see is that the EI 50 overexposure shows a tad more shadow detail in the shop interior, and actually slightly better greens in the sign over the doorway and slightly smoother gradation in the sidewalk tones.

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Edited by adan
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mediumformula

mediumformula

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Here is my favorite photo from the reel.  I didn't adjust anything on this just exported as a Jpeg from lightroom.  The exposure on the other photos looked good too, I just blew focus on most of them cause I was shooting at 2.8 and my model was moving around. 

 

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grahamc

grahamc

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On 10/28/2022 at 8:55 AM, mediumformula said:

 

Here is my favorite photo from the reel.  I didn't adjust anything on this just exported as a Jpeg from lightroom.  The exposure on the other photos looked good too, I just blew focus on most of them cause I was shooting at 2.8 and my model was moving around. 

 

glad it worked out.  that's a really nice look for this style shot :D

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