Pushing film in the 1950s

[HomagePhotos]

Hi all, I am wondering if films from the 1950s were able to be pushed as we often do today?

I see photographs from around this era taken indoors and obviously without a flash and often wonder how this was done. For example, Dennis Stock’s photo series on James Dean has many indoor photos and seem to not have used a flash and the photographs are quite grainy. Does this indicate Stock would’ve pushed the film to be able to use it indoors? Or did films from this era and before not have the latitude we associate with many films?

 

[Dralowid]

In the early '60s I remember doing things with Tri X and HP3 up to 1600 ASA (also look up Kodak Royal X). I used to take pictures of groups in clubs, 1/20th at f2 and 12/1600 with HP3. lots of very thin negs but grain could be spectacular.

I don't think 'latitude' has anything to do with how easily a type of film can be pushed in processing, surely 'latitude' should be seen as a film's ability to record a useable image when incorrectly exposed?

 

[Tom R]

I wonder if some of these images (that people are thinking of as obviously pushed, gritty, etc.) weren't made with Kodak 2475 Recording Film. I used a fair amount of that in the late 1970's. I don't recall when it was discontinued, however. Of course, one could "push" 2475, but I think it was about 1600 ASA out of the box. You could also get excellent results with a two-bath Tetnal developer (they, too, went out of business) with 2475 as well as 5063 (Tri-X, then)... .

I also processed Tri-X from that era with a 2 +1 dilution of D-76 to water ... about 12 minutes, if I recall correctly, rating the film at about 1200 ASA.

Either process produced grainy, but distinctive negatives that (mostly) printed without too much trouble.

 

[xayraa33]

For 4x5 press cameras Kodak Royal pan film could be pushed to 8000 ASA by the middle of 1950s ...for 35mm film users if you needed high speed films, you could use, AGFA Isopan Record, which was rated at ASA 640 and Ilford HPS which was ASA 800. In 1954 new Kodak Tri X film was rated at 200 ASA but many photographers rated it higher with little effect on grain and shadow detail. The real work of getting usable film speed for miniature camera users was in the 1930s... with fast film being 32 ASA or 28 ASA , Alfred Eisenstaedt talked about this and in the in his era things like fuming unexposed film with mercury to make it faster was not unheard of for Leica or Contax camera shooters despite their Xenon or fast Sonnar 50mm lenses.

 

[Dralowid]

I'd forgotten about HPS and also D76.

I found some of these old negs the other day, scratched and dirty but it is surprising what a cheap flatbed scanner can do with them.

 

[markjwyatt]

For 4x5 press cameras Kodak Royal pan film could be pushed to 8000 ASA by the middle of 1950s ...for 35mm film users if you needed high speed films, you could use, AGFA Isopan Record, which was rated at ASA 640 and Ilford HPS which was ASA 800. In 1954 new Kodak Tri X film was rated at 200 ASA but many photographers rated it higher with little effect on grain and shadow detail. The real work of getting usable film speed for miniature camera users was in the 1930s... with fast film being 32 ASA or 28 ASA , Alfred Eisenstaedt talked about this and in the in his era things like fuming unexposed film with mercury to make it faster was not unheard of for Leica or Contax camera shooters despite their Xenon or fast Sonnar 50mm lenses.

Here is a good article on Royal X Pan.

https://www.mikeeckman.com/2020/03/kepplers-vault-57-kodak-royal-x-pan/

 

[Halftrack]

Pushing film was a common technique in the 1950s and long before. For 35mm, the most popular high-speed films were Ilford HPS and Kodak Tri-X, Super-XX, and Plus-X. Standard developers such as D-76 were sometimes doped to boost their activity. One example was D-76F, which is D-76 with 10x more borax. It was a bit too powerful for 35mm, better suited for medium-format film. Another example was SD-19A, which doped Kodak D-19 standard developer with Kodak Anti-Fog No. 2 plus hydrazine. This stuff was so powerful that only medium- or large-format photographers could use it, because the grain was huge.

A very popular push developer for 35mm film was Promicrol from May & Baker, a British company. It was considered almost magical because it could push the film a couple of stops with minimal blown highlights and relatively fine grain. My understanding is that Promicrol can no longer be formulated because it requires a chemical no longer available.

A good source for pushing film in the 1950s is the book "A Guide to Available Light Photography" by Sid Latham (American Photographic Book Publishing Company, 1955). Latham was an experienced photojournalist and darkroom wizard. This book remained in print into the 1970s. He liked Promicrol for big pushing and Kodak D-23 for mild pushing.