pushing ektachrome

[Jorge Castrillo]

Hello friends!

 

For a project we are going to shoot in 16mm in reversal color I was wondering if its possible to push the negative or if someone has any experience with it and can share some examples or test it would be very helpful!

 

Thank you very much in advance!

[David Sekanina]

7 minutes ago, Jorge Castrillo said:

if its possible to push the negative

Do you want to cross-process it as a negative like for the show Euphoria? Have a look at Lewis' video:

If you want to develop it as a positive, there are several photographers who pushed the film 1-3 stops and have shown the results on YouTube.

[Jorge Castrillo]

hello david,

 

thank you so much for this article! I´m not finding these videos of the photographers you mentioned,  do you mean still photographers? Can you help me with these links or with the name of them?

 

thank you very much in advance!

[David Sekanina]

1 hour ago, Jorge Castrillo said:

 do you mean still photographers? Can you help me with these links or with the name of them?

Yes, stills photographers.

 

Edited October 27, 2022 by David Sekanina

[Karim D. Ghantous]

I had a look at a couple of those videos. E100 can handle a 2 stop push, but the image usually ends up looking heavy and muddy. Shadows are non-existent. Graininess doesn't seem to be affected too much. But still, it's a 100 ISO slide film, and it looks best at that speed.

[Phil Rhodes]

I think this is what people actually want out of film.

The newest neg stocks (which, to be fair, aren't that new anymore) are sort of flat and gutless. This has the contrast, the deep shadows, the grain, while simultaneously benefiting from the nice warm highlight transitions. It looks like film.

Whether that's actually a good idea or not in a world of h.264 compression is another matter, but I think this is what the people want.

[Mark Dunn]

A shame 16mm. (well, film) is so staggeringly expensive. About £120 stock and processing for 100'.

I occasionally hanker after using my proper made-of-metal-in actual-Japan camera (Canon A1) but FIFTY PENCE just for the privilege of releasing the shutter is too much.

When 16mm. K40 bowed out it was £30 process-paid, and that's not much over a decade ago.

One of the stupidest things I did was not use a roll of 120 K40 before K14 went away. (Kodachrome was always process-paid outside the US, if you recall). It's still in the freezer, useless.

Edited October 30, 2022 by Mark Dunn

[Phil Rhodes]

Well, there have been experiments around figuring out a way of doing the Kodachrome process in the modern age. In the end, it's just chemicals.

(It's a shockingly complicated and intricate series of chemicals, but it's probably possible.)

[Ernest Kabashi]

Hey Jorge 

I have shot a lot of 16mm ektachrome and just make sure your over expose it and over light it

Obviously since its reversal it just has no wiggle room you pretty much have to get it like you want it 

if you want a more esthetic look then embrace the darkness of the shadows 

[Doug Palmer]

3 hours ago, Ernest Kabashi said:

Hey Jorge 

I have shot a lot of 16mm ektachrome and just make sure your over expose it and over light it

Obviously since its reversal it just has no wiggle room you pretty much have to get it like you want it 

if you want a more esthetic look then embrace the darkness of the shadows 

 

I usually tend to post-flash Ektachrome to knock down the contrast.  So more detail in the shadows, although maybe not wanted always.

[Karim D. Ghantous]

13 hours ago, Phil Rhodes said:

The newest neg stocks (which, to be fair, aren't that new anymore) are sort of flat and gutless.

I'm surprised you think that. I'm also surprised that anyone likes pushed E100! But hey you'll never get a 100% consensus on anything.

[Matt Figler]

10 hours ago, Ernest Kabashi said:

Hey Jorge 

I have shot a lot of 16mm ektachrome and just make sure your over expose it and over light it

Obviously since its reversal it just has no wiggle room you pretty much have to get it like you want it 

if you want a more esthetic look then embrace the darkness of the shadows 

Reversal stocks have a much less highlight latitude, I would recommend the opposite. Ektachrome would prefer a slight underexposure / or as close as possible to what you want it to look like. You can pull out quite a bit of shadow detail, once the highlights are gone they are gone with Ekta. 

Edited October 31, 2022 by Matt Figler

[Robert Houllahan]

Well... the problem with a 2-Stop push is slowing the linear film processor down enough to get the timing right in the developer tank(s) we run our Allen (35/16/8) processor at 26FPM for normal process. So a 2-Stop push is about 8FPM which is pretty slow, so we only really offer a 1-Stop push. We can also alter developer temp but because E6 is pretty complex it would be very time intensive to setup for both mechanical and temp to get that.

I agree with rating Ekta down and giving it more light I think the 100D looks nice at 80iso.

[Karim D. Ghantous]

4 hours ago, Matt Figler said:

Reversal stocks have a much less highlight latitude, I would recommend the opposite. Ektachrome would prefer a slight underexposure / or as close as possible to what you want it to look like. You can pull out quite a bit of shadow detail, once the highlights are gone they are gone with Ekta. 

You are not completely wrong. However, some reversal stocks are actually over-rated by 1/3 of a stop. E.g. Velvia 50 is really ISO 40. Or, can be treated as such.

And 1/3 over is actually not a bad thing to do. Even with iPhone JPEGs you can do that, and the result is surprisingly good. At worst, overexposing E100 a bit will cost some highlight detail, but it will roll off nicely anyway.

[Matt Figler]

You are totally right, I just re-examined some E100 still film & some s16mm Ektachrome I shot. I support that notion of a 'marginal' over exposure, my errors with Ektachrome were treating it with a blanket 1+ stop over exposure like a negative film.