{"id":40501,"title":"An experiment: pushing vs. underexposing colour negative film","author":"Kemaneo","permalink":"https://www.reddit.com/r/analog/comments/1mwdlk4/an_experiment_pushing_vs_underexposing_colour/","description":"I wanted to test the theory that push developing doesn't actually make a very significant difference and that underexposed photos developed normally are equally usable. I shot two rolls of Portra 400 metered at 1600 on two recently CLA'd and calibrated Pentax 67 bodies with the exact same lenses (55mm f/4 and 105mm f/2.4). The first roll was developed normally, the second was pushed two stops, both by a reliable lab. The negatives were scanned with a mirrorless camera and converted with NLP. No sharpening or additional post-processing outside of NLP was applied.\n\n1. There is, in my opinion, no obvious increase in shadow detail. However, it's interesting that the shadow areas *seem* sharper and more detailed because of the increased grain, even though the recorded information is the same. The tonal separation seems to be slightly improved.\n2. The pushed images had significantly more contrast, which was brought back inside NLP for the non-pushed images. If one were to darkroom print these negatives, the difference would be a lot more pronounced.\n3. As expected, there are slight colour shifts. The pushed seems to lean colder, especially in the highlights.\n\nI'm curious to read what everyone else thinks!","caption":"A gravel path leads through a park with green trees and bushes under a cloudy sky, with two wooden benches visible on the left.","score":435,"nsfw":false,"grayscale":false,"timestamp":1755788879,"created":"2026-10-15T05:25:38.038891Z","updated":"2026-10-15T20:49:49.339963Z","sprocket":false,"camera_make":"pentax","camera_model":"67","film_make":"kodak","film_type":"portra 400","film_speed":400,"focal_length":55,"aperture":"f/4","images":[{"resolution":"low","url":"https://i.analogdb.com/dfedd4ac284c21a0e473ab0d-low.jpeg","width":540,"height":720},{"resolution":"medium","url":"https://i.analogdb.com/dfedd4ac284c21a0e473ab0d-medium.jpeg","width":810,"height":1080},{"resolution":"high","url":"https://i.analogdb.com/dfedd4ac284c21a0e473ab0d-high.jpeg","width":1080,"height":1440},{"resolution":"raw","url":"https://i.analogdb.com/dfedd4ac284c21a0e473ab0d-raw.jpeg","width":1500,"height":2000}],"colors":[{"hex":"#1e2e1a","css":"darkslategray","html":"green","percent":0.19270833},{"hex":"#131b12","css":"midnightblue","html":"black","percent":0.16908693},{"hex":"#7a796b","css":"gray","html":"gray","percent":0.16132973},{"hex":"#314425","css":"darkslategray","html":"olive","percent":0.15324331},{"hex":"#525e3f","css":"darkolivegreen","html":"olive","percent":0.1151749}],"keywords":[{"word":"path","weight":1},{"word":"park","weight":0.9286},{"word":"tree","weight":0.8571},{"word":"bush","weight":0.7857},{"word":"sky","weight":0.7143},{"word":"bench","weight":0.6429},{"word":"landscape","weight":0.5714},{"word":"cloud","weight":0.5}]}