making it ugly

[Matthew Poliquin]

Recently for a project that I shot, I needed to make Los Angeles look hot, dirty, dingy, and gross (a real stretch, I know). We had a limited budget, and couldn't do a supervised transfer (we finished to DVcam) so we opted for a one light. I decided to shoot Kodak 7245 - 50D. I overexposed the film 3 stops, then pulled it 2 stops in the soup. The pulling opened up the shadows significantly, overall - it reduced the contrast giving everything a dull look to it, and gave the film a slight yellowish cast (especially in the highlights). The overexposure of 1 stop (3 over in camera, with 2 pull in processing) gave the picture a wonderful "hot" look.

 

I am going to be shooting another similar project - but would like to try something a little different. If I shot a 100 speed tungsten balanced film uncorrected, over exposed it 3 stops in camera, then pulled it 2 stops in processing - what would happen? I know that the 100 speed film won't hold up quite as well to the 3 stops of overexposure, but what sort of image degredation am I going to be looking at. Because it is uncorrected tungsten balanced film, the daylight would expose fairly blue on the film, but with the pulling and yellowing of the film, would this then produce an image closer to green than blue?

 

 

 

 

Thank You,

Matthew Poliquin,

a young DP

Santa Monica

[Nate Downes]

Recently for a project that I shot, I needed to make Los Angeles look hot, dirty, dingy, and gross (a real stretch, I know). We had a limited budget, and couldn't do a supervised transfer (we finished to DVcam) so we opted for a one light. I decided to shoot Kodak 7245 - 50D. I overexposed the film 3 stops, then pulled it 2 stops in the soup. The pulling opened up the shadows significantly, overall - it reduced the contrast giving everything a dull look to it, and gave the film a slight yellowish cast (especially in the highlights). The overexposure of 1 stop (3 over in camera, with 2 pull in processing) gave the picture a wonderful "hot" look.

 

I am going to be shooting another similar project - but would like to try something a little different. If I shot a 100 speed tungsten balanced film uncorrected, over exposed it 3 stops in camera, then pulled it 2 stops in processing - what would happen? I know that the 100 speed film won't hold up quite as well to the 3 stops of overexposure, but what sort of image degredation am I going to be looking at. Because it is uncorrected tungsten balanced film, the daylight would expose fairly blue on the film, but with the pulling and yellowing of the film, would this then produce an image closer to green than blue?

 

 

 

 

Thank You,

Matthew Poliquin,

a young DP

Santa Monica

Might sound a bit strange, but for "dirty" I've had good luck using Double 8mm. Very gritty on it's own, don't need much tweaking to get a very grimy-aspect to it.

[Luke Prendergast]

You overexposed a 50D stock three stops? As in you were working with an effective film speed of 12 ISO? Crikey!

[Michael Nash]

I'd say it was the overexposure that opened up your shadows, not the pull-processing. I mean, think about it: you gave the shadows THREE STOPS of extra light, and even after processing your shadows were still one stop ABOVE a normal exposure. How could that NOT look "opened up" ? ;)

 

In what way do you think 100 speed film wouldn't hold up as well to 3 stops overexposure? The ASA has nothing to do with exposure latitude. But three stops is a bit much for any film stock, enough to introduce some of the artifacts you're looking for. You'd have to test to see what differences there are in grain, gamma, and detail in the shoulder.

 

Regarding color, such extremes of exposure and processing produce slightly unpredicatble results, in that you never know EXACTLY how it's going to come out. The only way to find out is to do it. Different stocks behave differently when pushed and pulled. For instance, Fuji tends to color shift much more dramatically than Kodak with push or pull processing.

[Jarin Blaschke]

Three stops would actually be a working speed of ei 6. Still a very workable speed, though, for outdoor, daylight shooting. I remember rating '45 at 20 and then shooting at a 45 degree shutter with a polarizer. I was still shooting at a T2-2.8 split. Sometimes even the ND3 went in.

[Mitch Gross]

I shot an entire film with 7245 rated one stop over with a Pola (2 stops) and an Enhancer (1 stop) on at all times. That's an ISO of 3. It was fine as most of the film was daytime exterior, but it was no picnic when we got to the one night interior and one night exterior. Thanks goodness for T1.3 lenses.