Charles asks: > Today a friend of mine asked something I couldnīt answer ... he said: > > "Ok, I understand the advantages of pushing up a film to a ISO higher than > itīs nominal rating ... but what is the advantages of doing the contrary, > pushing the film down to a ISO lower than itīs nominal rating???" > I sometime push Neopan 400 to ISO 200 to get a fine grain or do the same > with other film to get more contrast ... but I guess there are another > advantages I donīt know too ... anybody can help us??? rating a film higher or lower than it's stated speed merely results in less or more overall exposure, leaving a stronger or weaker latent image - it's when the film is developed that the benefits (or failings) are seen ;-) Overexposing as you say increases saturation on colour on C41 films and reduces grain on B&W films, but coupled with modified development it can also be a lifesaver in some situations. In Oz we seem to have much harsher light with correspondingly high contrast - the subject brightness range being beyond the capabilities of the film, the _only_ way to compensate is to overexpose and underdevelop to compress the tonal range... so maybe that's the other advantage' you're looking for. Of course this has limited scope, it's not something that works very well for colour neg film and I certainly wouldn't suggest E6 has much potential for pulling development, but for the humble black and white it's perfect I hope this helps karl
