Can tmx100 be pushed two stops?

[Mike Buehler]

HI, Here's my situation. I would like to try some portraits of our 6 mo old with my 4x5 view camera. I only have a readyload holder and use TMX100.

With available light for headshots I'm at 2 sec exposures and theres no way he'll stay still for that long. So my question is:

Can I push the TMX100 2 stops to 400 with acceptable results?

Has anyone tried this? Are there any examples on the web that I can see?

I have searched and can find nothing.

Thanks for your expertise!

Mike

[Frank Filippone]

Why not use TMY? Tri-X, HP5+, Arista 400, or some other nominal ASA400 speed film? Yes, we all understand the demands of a constantly moving wiggle worm!

[Mike Buehler]

Thanks for the suggestion, but none of those come in readyloads and I don't have any standard film holders yet. mike

[Leonard Evens]

You can certainly overdevelop and attain reasonble densities for flesh tones. But the resulting negatives will be very contrasty unless you arrange carefully for relatively flat lighting. You may have to experiment to get it right.

[Gem Singer]

Hi Mikeb,

You need to add more light. Place the child in front of a window, with plenty of natural light. Bounce a floodlight or an electronic flash off of the ceiling or an adjacent wall. With careful placement and exposure, it can still look like total natural lighting.

You can probably suceed in pushing TMX 100 one stop (to 200), but overdeveloping TMX 100 by two stops (pushing to 400) will result in loss of shadow detail and burned out highlights, in my experience.

[Ken Lee]

Isn't it true that "pushing" is something of a misnomer ? When you under-expose and over-develop, you merely lose details in the shadows - because they never get onto the film in the first place. Depending on the complexion of the baby, this may or may not matter - but the image will still tend to look "starchy".

Many LF people shoot TMax 100 at around 50. If you're going to the trouble of using 4x5 instead of something much easier and faster (like a point-and-shoot digital), wouldn't you feel better doing things right ?

[bob moulton]

Another possibility exists thart may allow you to create better negatives. I would try to make certain I can get as large a dynamic range in the subject though lighting as I can. So let's say that you can get a 3-4 range between a shadow area where you want detail and a highlight area where you want detail. Now expose the film at an EI of 100-200. Process it for the normal development time multiplied by 1.3. Example: XYZ developer at 70--10 minutes. You process the film for 13 minutes.

After film is dried try printing the negatives. If the images are too flat and you want to avoid high contrast filters and/or graded paper then selenium tone the negatives. You can find the recipe for this online or in Adams The Negative. You will increase the contrast since the selenium toner affects those areas of the negative denser than middle gray. So skin tones--assuming a caucasian skin tone-- should be ok. I think you would find this better than increasing developer time a lot.

If you can get the dynamic range of light higher then i would soup the negatives normally and use the toner after you see if it is needed. Good luck. Bob

[Joe Smigiel]

The lack of high speed emulsions in Readyloads is the reason I have never used them. The TMX in Readyloads is about twice as expensive as TMX or TMY sold in regular boxes. You would be better off picking up a couple of used holders (maybe $10-15) from a camera shop or eBay and buying normally packaged film with the money you will save.

I don't think you would be happy with the results of TMX pushed two stops for a portrait, especially one of a baby.