pushing film - in the lab or in the DI

Albion Hockney · November 2, 2015

Hi, I haven't shot much film and don't have extensive knowledge like some about what can be done in a lab and such and was curious about where it is best or the difference in results between lifting film in the grade (after doing a scan of it to LOG) or pushing the film stock in the lab.

I read an interview with a DP I respect who shot a video on 5218 and needed to rate it at 1000/2000 ISO and said that they pushed in the Grade instead of the lab because they didn't want the added contrast/grain that pushing in the lab would give them. I was curious if this is true...that pushing in the grade will result in less grain/contrast?

Kenny N Suleimanagich · November 2, 2015

I think the one negative factor of push processing is that you can't go back - you're forced into living with the grain, along with what results to mostly a shift in gamma (as necessary or desirable that might be). Compared to lifting the luma or gain in a scan, the actual difference in grain might not be much in the final result, but you have a lot more space to work with a cleaner negative as a starting point. The huge upside to '19 is how incredibly forgiving it is. Rating at +1 or -1 stop and processing normal will still yield a very acceptable result, especially in a scan. I recently worked on a video shot on 7207 and at magic hour we grabbed some shots that were reading as much as two stops below our exposure setting. Thanks to the great scan we had very little discernible difference in the grade.

Edited November 2, 2015 by Kenny N Suleimanagich

Bill DiPietra · November 2, 2015

Hi, I haven't shot much film and don't have extensive knowledge like some about what can be done in a lab and such and was curious about where it is best or the difference in results between lifting film in the grade (after doing a scan of it to LOG) or pushing the film stock in the lab.

I read an interview with a DP I respect who shot a video on 5218 and needed to rate it at 1000/2000 ISO and said that they pushed in the Grade instead of the lab because they didn't want the added contrast/grain that pushing in the lab would give them. I was curious if this is true...that pushing in the grade will result in less grain/contrast?

I guess you mean 5219, because there is no current 5218 stock. I've been shooting on 7219 for my most recent project and rating it at 2K. So with a 2-stop push in the lab, you definitely get increased grain & contrast, which is exactly what I want. But obviously, that look may not be what a lot of people are going for. I haven't played around with trying to get a push-process look in the grade, but if you were to expose 5219/7219 at its native ASA (500,) you would probably have all the latitude you need to get a more "customized" push-process look to suit the project.

Hope that makes sense.

Tyler Purcell · November 3, 2015

If I'm very careful with my metering and are forced to shoot one or two stops under, I will fix it in post. Much more then that and you're really pushing the imager's capability on scanner. You'll start to get digital noise, rather then just film noise. Anything over 2 stops, I'd absolutely push the stock to make up for it. Anything under and you'll probably be OK in DI.