Positive Aspects to Ektachrome 64

[Alessandro Machi]

I'm real curious what would happen if Ektachrome 64 is pulled 1/2 stop to 2/3 of a stop, will that make the image less grainy? Might it begin to take on more of the properties of how Kodachrome 40 looks?

 

This would open up an interesting option for Ektachrome 64. Tight grain at normal exposure, less grain if the stock is pulled and in effect has the same sensitivity as Kodachrome 40.

 

Also, super-8 cameras that might not be able to read the Ektachrome 64 setting might be prime candidates for having the film pulled one stop to make up for the overexposure, perhaps making the ektachrome look a bit more like kodachrome???

[David Mullen ASC]

The limited exposure latitude for reversal film means that it is difficult to benefit from overexposure and pull-processing back to normal density -- because you quickly lose high-end (bright) detail by overexposing. The other issue is that pull-processing creates lower contrast and pastel colors, which hardly describes Kodachrome. The third is that Super-8 processing is already somewhat expensive per minute, who knows what they will charge for E6 processing anyway, and pull-processing would add to those costs.

 

So I don't see it as a likely solution but it would be worth testing. For telecine transfer, a low-contrast reversal would be better than the contrast of normal Kodachrome or Ektachrome. On the other hand, color negative would probably be even better.

 

Also, reversal is a somewhat odd process so I'm not sure that there are the same grain benefits with the overexposure / pull-process technique as with color negative.

[Sam Wells]

Certainly some E6 emulsions can push easily, pulling reversal I don't know either but...

 

Why not get a roll or two of the still film and try it ?

 

I don't know if the grain is an issue with this stock anyway, I imagine it's pretty fine grained like the E100 stocks and Provia or Velvia -- (I've had 16mm film titles output on Velvia).

 

Surely it must be way closer to Kodachrome grain-wise than to 7240 !!

 

Of course it then may not resemble Kodachrome so much, but if it worked like a sharper version of the old ECO I suspect it might blow up to 16mm or telecine reasonably well.

 

You know, if you're getting into it on this level - half stop pull processing etc etc, it seems to me it's time to get serious about metering and not rely on notch systems and old in-camera meters - just a thought....

 

-Sam

[David Mullen ASC]

I suspect overexposure and pull-processing has fewer benefits for slow-speed film because I don't think they have a fast and slow layer, so in essense, you already are exposing the small grains at normal exposure -- there aren't many smaller grains to get exposed.

 

Remember that processing can't alter the fact that in ANY film, the largest (fastest) grains are the first to get exposed, so the grain size is built into the design of the film and cannot be altered. All you can do with pull-processing and overexposure is fill-in the gaps between the big grains with more of the smaller, slower-speed grains and "tighten" the grain structure, giving the appearance of a finer-grained image. But the big grains are still there.

[Sam Wells]

Out of curiosity I called a local (and very Pro) E-6 lab and asked about pull processing E-6, EPY in particular.

 

They said yes, you can loose some contrast this way - hmm how much ? - we agreed better to try it than define it on the phone !

 

-Sam

Edited June 6, 2005 by SamWells