Push Processing Shanghai 4x5?

[Tim Meisburger]

I would like to shoot some kids sports under lights at night, and wonder if I can push Shanghai 100 ASA to 800 or 1600? If so, where would I find data on development times? Is Shanghai comparable to another film like Ilford 100, etc?

Thanks, Tim

[Brian Stein]

I like Shanghai but given its nature you are pushing uphill. Ive seen recipes for eg FP4+ going to EI 400 eg in the Darkroom cookbook with peroxide intensification, but that is generally for the situation where youve stuffed your exposure. Getting 800 or more out of a 100 ISO film is not going to happen without some big tradeoffs.

For 800-1600 Try tri-X, HP5, or one of the T grain films. See eg the massive dev chart (http://www.digitaltruth.com/devchart.html) for details on times and chemicals.

Now if you only have shanghai and still want to go ahead you will need some trial runs. I would start by rating it at EI 800 and use the massive dev chart for FP4+ as a starting point: there are times there for pushing that film to EI 1000 with xtol

[Tim Meisburger]

Thanks Brian. Right now I've only got Shanghai, and only D76 to develop it in. I looked at the digital truth site and they didn't have specific information for pushing Shanghai, but did have a rule of thumb for pushing anything. Essentially it is multiplying development time by 1.5 for one stop, 2.25 for two stops and 4.5 for three stops.

So, I'll give it a try and see what happens. I visualize the images I want, gritty little athletes under the floodlights, as as grainy and contrasty, so if that is what happens it will be perfect!

[Brian Stein]

Thought there might be something like that underlying the question. Id be interested to see/hear how it turns out.