my name is Raditya Aditama and you can call me Adit for short i'm from Jakarta, Indonesia. i usually make color wedding photography and recently i begin to work with b/w film, i very enjoy it and intend to more expert to deal with it. here are some question i'd like to ask you :

recently i got a kodak t-mex 100 and use it to make a wedding photography..because i don't like to use flash in b/w photography and the occasion held in indoor room i pushed the film to 3-stops (iso 100 to iso 800). I did the same way when i use iso 400 (kodak t-mex 400) i pushed it to iso 3200 because i didn't get a proper lighting ....i photographed jazz concert.

when i took the film to the processing lab, they said that it's very risky to push the film until 3-stops..... my question is : what is the difference beetween using film pushed or not pushed? is it true that it will cause bad picture if i pushed the film till 3-stops? exp: ISO 100 to ISO 800 or ISO 400 to 3200. because when i saw the photo after i processed them, i didn't find any weird.....

thank you very much and i look forward for your respond as soon as possible......i appologize for my bad English.

-Adit-

-- raditya aditama (radittama@england.com), February 16, 2000

Answers

Adit - Don't appologize for your English, it's infinitely better than our Indonesian would be.

In my opinion, if you're going to be pushing, you'd be better off using Tri-X than T-Max. T-Max is a quite demanding film in terms of processing, and is also produces much flatter looking images.

Although a 400 ASA film, Tri-X can be shot at 800 without making any adjustment in processing. It will be a bit thin, but quite acceptable. Tri-X can easilly be push-processed to 800 or 1600, and if you're desperate, can go to 3200. On the other hand, there is a 3200 T-Max film, and Ilford 3200 B&W film, which is really rated around 1200, is designed to be pushed to 3200 and well beyond.

Good luck!

B. D. Colen

-- B. D. Colen (bdcolen@a-day-in-our-life.com), February 17, 2000.

Try out ilford high speed products developed in "Ilford microphen" I do mostly black and white myself and I found that this combination works for me-my preference is 'Ilford delta 100'. Also, when developing prints-try 'edwals ultra black' you might like! Oh! Oh! Oh! don't use stop bath because of the chemical explosion on the surface of the paper...use water. Check-out my site at empiricalphotographicarts.com---It still needs a little tweaking but for the most part is fully fuctional. By the way, what is the weather like? I have many relatives in England.

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-- D'Arcy mcneil (epa@sympatico.ca), December 26, 2002.