m & h: In Yo Face

Monday, February 21, 2011

In Yo Face

35mm | XP2 Super pushed to 800

2 comments:

Jon said...: Exposing my ignorance and nerdery: What do you mean "pushed to 800"?

It's a great picture, but the fancy Talk eludes me.; Tue Feb 22, 10:07:00 pm GMT-7
Mike said...: “Pushed” is referring to push processing.

Ilford XP2 Super is a 400 speed chromogenic b&w film (which means it can be processed in C41 chemistry the same as color negative film). Pushed to 800 means that I metered and exposed as if the film was 800 speed, thus underexposing the film by one stop. Then, upon development, it was processed again as if it were an 800 speed film (longer development time), thus overdeveloping it.

That is the “what and how”

The “why?” - a few reasons. First, shooting at 800 gives you more leverage than 400 when shooting in low light, action, or with long lenses and no tripod. Of course, everybody knows this. But! What everybody doesn’t know is that when you do this it decreases the mid-tones creating a more high contrast image. It also increases the grain and makes you famous.

In this particular case, it was all a matter of aesthetics.

[fade to black; cue G.I. Joe music]; Wed Feb 23, 01:50:00 pm GMT-7

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