Different kind of films. Exposure & Push/Pull Guide

Fuji Acros (Neopan 100): A relatively contrasty film when shot according to the...
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Different kind of films. Exposure & Push/Pull Guide

Fuji Acros (Neopan 100): A relatively contrasty film when shot according to the meter and developed normally. However, in flat light, prints can be slightly flat as well. Acros has a decent amount of exposure lattitude, but overexposing or pushing too much will completely darken portions of your photo and send you crawling to the shadow/highlight tool. Acros can produce wonderful results when there are heavy shadows and/or bright light, especially if you want a lot of contrast. Tips: Try shooting a half-stop slower (ISO 64) and developing at 100 for very sharp, dark shadows and lots of contrast. Try not to shoot reflections or towards sunlight, as this will definitely overexpose (more than you'd like) and blow out parts of your photo. Another tip, which is a great way to increase the exposure without losing detail in the darker portions of your image, is to shoot half a stop faster, and push half a stop during development.

Agfa APX100: This film can produce abnormally contrasty results when shoot in very bright sunlight, even when shot and developed at/for ISO 100. My recommendation: If you need or want to use this film in bright sunlight, shoot at one half to one stop faster. Correcting the exposure during enlargement is better than trying to work with a negative that has lost detail in the lightest and darkest parts.

Ilford PanF (ISO 50): This is one of my favorite black and white films. It performs beautifully under normal conditions, and has a deep, smooth tonal range. It is, however, slightly sensitive to mildly reflective surfaces, and can in some instances blow out light areas when shot in bright sunlight. Under bright sun: IMHO, shooting this film faster and developing for ISO 50 tends to flatten the image and lose some of the detail than PanF is known for. If you need lots of contrast, shoot at 64, push a half stop. If you need to equalize the effect of the sun, shoot at 50, pull half a stop.

Ilford Delta100 & Delta400: The Delta line is often recommended to beginning photographers because they produce very even shots and tend to be quite forgiving. In short, it's difficult to shoot a poorly exposed roll. Compared to other Ilford films, such as HP or FP (but certainly not PanF), the Delta line also tends to have noticeably finer grain (until you get up into the high speed range). While producing such even tones may be a god-send for beginners, the results often tend to be relatively flat. So what's the upside? The fact that it's hard to poorly expose a roll is the same reason why the film is forgiving when playing with the exposure. I'd say just about anything is fair game with these films except for very heavy overexposure. However, when it comes to the Delta 400 (as with any moderately fast film), too much pushing during development can bring out grain that you never even imagined could be present in Delta. You definitely have more leeway with the 100.

Fomapan 100: This is an interesting film. It's manufactured in the Czech Republic. You'll notice that the negatives tend to have a distinct blue tint to them, sort of like Plus-X. The tone is relatively even, if slightly on the contrasty side. The grain tends to hold up quite well to pushing and pulling, but overexposing can quickly send the contrast level too high. If you want lots and lots of contrast, i'd say Acros would probably be a better choice, but this is definitely an interesting film to play around with. Over-exposing and then pulling FPan (not to be confused with PanF) IMO can yield some relatively mediocre results. In sum: when working with this film, you should be doing more playing in the darkroom than with your shutter speed.