Kodak Ektar +2 Push
In all my years of shooting film, I’ve never tried shooting a roll at a different ISO than the intended sensitivity. I decided to give it a shot with a roll of Kodak Ektar 100.
For those who don’t know, the ISO sensitivity on a film camera is typically set to the same sensitivity as the film roll’s intended speed; however, the camera’s ISO dial can be adjusted so that the exposure options (i.e. the shutter speed and aperture) assume the film is a different speed/sensitivity.
On its own this might result in over- or under-exposed images. The magic happens during development. If you’re using a lab to develop your film, let them know to “push” or “pull” the development to match your settings. If you’re developing the film yourself, you’d want to adjust your chemical bath time.
The Darkroom has a handy chart to help identify the level of push/pull necessary, based on the film’s ISO rating vs the camera’s settings. Keep in mind that this can also be used to intentionally under- or over-expose images, as well.
Why do this? Well, pushing film (shooting it at a higher ISO sensitivity than intended) can result in increased contrast, as well as better low-light performance. The trade-off is typically increased grain, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Pulling film can soften colors and reduce grain.
Black and white film is a really good candidate for testing this out, and I’d tried to test this out on both a color roll and a black and white roll; unfortunately the Olympus camera I’d loaded the black and white roll into didn’t properly advance the film, and the entire roll was lost. Well, never used to begin with. Le sigh.
Equipment:
Camera: Canon AE-1
Lens: Canon 50mm f/1.8
Film: Kodak Ektar 100
Shot at ISO 400 (+2 Push)
