Tried pushing a roll of Kodak Portra 400 to 1600 for a dim concert, and the grain is so chunky it looks like static.

I figured the extra stop would save me in that dark Philly venue last month, but my lab scans came back looking like a sandstorm, which taught me that some films just can't handle that kind of push without losing everything. Has anyone else had a film stock completely fall apart when you tried to push it too far?

3 comments

3 Comments

craig.grace2mo ago

Ugh, been there. Pushed some Ultramax 400 way too hard once and it just turned to mud. Grain so bad it looked like texture on a video game from the 90s. Some films just have a hard limit. For dark stuff now, I just bite the bullet and use a faster film from the start, like Delta 3200. Pushing color film that far is almost always a bad time.

gracecarr1mo ago

Tbh that's exactly what happened to me with some Superia 400 last year. I figured one stop would be fine but two stops pushed just wrecked the shadows into this ugly greenish brown sludge. Learned my lesson the hard way. These days I'd rather just shoot a roll of Delta 3200 at box speed, even if it costs more, than deal with that muddy pushed look. Color negative film past 800 is basically a gamble every time.

rileybarnes2mo ago

Pushing Portra that far is a rough lesson to learn. It really does turn into a noisy mess past its limit.