A Question about

[Mackay Valentine]

hi all,

I'm a cinematography student about to shoot a short 16mm film with Kodak 5218. Originally I had planned to shoot the short with 5217, but unfortuanltey I wasn't able to get it in time. Now I have no choice but to shoot with the 5218, which I'm afraid will be too grainy.

 

I've heard that film stocks can be rated at different ISOs, though I'm not sure how to go about doing this, or what the results will be. I'd love to get a sharper image with the 5218, and any advice on how to achive this would be much appreciated

[Troy Warr]

Hi Mike,

 

It sounds like you're asking about pull processing. It's literally the opposite of push processing, and it involves rating your film at a lower ISO, with the intent that a lab will "pull" the film from the chemistry earlier when developing, to compensate for the overexposure.

 

7218 is a good quality modern stock, so it should handle the process reasonably well, but it's always a good idea to shoot some tests if at all possible, since there can sometimes be unexpected or unwanted results. Pull processing will generally give you less noticeable grain and lower contrast than normally exposed and developed film.

 

The process is fortunately simple - just expose your film as if it's rated at a lower ISO than it really is, and be *sure* to indicate clearly to the lab that you're asking for pull processing when you send in your film. Some labs don't offer the service (while most do offer push processing, which is more popular), so be sure to check in advance. It's generally not a good idea to go more than about 1 stop unless you've tested and the stock can handle it - and a lot of labs won't do more than that anyway.

 

As an example, if the manufacturer's rating is 400 ISO, expose the film as if it were 200 ISO. This will overexpose the film by 1 stop, but the lab will then compensate by removing it from the chemistry earlier.

 

Hope that helps - best of luck!

[John Pytlak RIP]

hi all,

I'm a cinematography student about to shoot a short 16mm film with Kodak 5218. Originally I had planned to shoot the short with 5217, but unfortuanltey I wasn't able to get it in time. Now I have no choice but to shoot with the 5218, which I'm afraid will be too grainy.

 

I've heard that film stocks can be rated at different ISOs, though I'm not sure how to go about doing this, or what the results will be. I'd love to get a sharper image with the 5218, and any advice on how to achive this would be much appreciated

 

5218 has lots of latitude for overexposure. An extra stop of exposure (rating the film EI-250) will give you a very "solid" exposure with lots of shadow detail and a finer grain structure. Pull-processing will reduce contrast, and is not needed unless that is the "look" you want.