Since I tried an experiment last month and “pushed” the EZ400 film to ISO 1000, I figured this month I’d do the opposite and “pull” the film by shooting it at ISO 100.

While pushing film involves shooting it at a higher speed than box speed (therefor underexposing it) and making up the difference by developing it longer in the chemicals, pulling film is shooting the film at a lower speed (overexposing it) and developing it for less time in the chemicals.

That sounds easy enough, but remember that EZ400 (Foma 400) film doesn’t have a lot of latitude, so overexposing creates a potential risk of blowing out highlights and never getting them back in development. Anyway, risks be damned. I loaded a roll into my trusty F80, set the ISO dial to 100, and took it with me on a trip into the heartland of Ohio to visit the old PPG glass factory site in Mt. Vernon, then on to Marion to visit the tomb of President Harding.

The weather was near perfect for an August day in Ohio - mid-70’s temperature with clear skies in the morning changing to partly cloudy skies in the afternoon. I shot the entire roll along with a few other rolls on this trip.

The next day, I developed the Frugal Film roll in Rodinal - a mix of 1:50, for 8.5 minutes @68F temp. After fixing and washing, I pulled the roll out to see that it looked good!

After the film dried, I scanned it with my Nikon Coolscan V. Below are some of my favorite images from the roll. Click on the first image to bring them up in a new window to view.

Pulling the film definitely reduced the grain. I really like the look of these. The images needed very little editing once scanned - just a little dust removal here or there. The image of the Harding tomb with the skies above it show where the limits of the film is - the clouds are definitely blown out, and that’s because I was metering for the shadows. If you don’t have such a dynamic range to capture, it does just fine as witnessed by the many other images from the day.

In the future, I’ll definitely consider pulling this film if I’ve got good light and don’t need the extra speed.

What are your thoughts? Have you pulled EZ400 before?

As always, thanks for reading!

Jeremy