Colorado on Film! - Garden of the Gods, or: What to do when you underexpose a 50 ISO film by 3 stops!

Hello! If you're at all familiar with my blog, you might know that I post semi-weekly "Philly on Film!" photo essays that explore different parts of the city of Philadelphia through the medium of analog photography. Well, I spent the last week on vacation in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and wanted to share some of the images I shot while I was there.

I'm in love with this part of the country, and I intend to move out there in the next couple years. In the meantime, occasional visits will have to suffice. I knew I'd be shooting mostly nature and landscapes while I was there, so I wanted a film with a lot of detail and fine grain. Ilford's Pan F+, a slow-speed 50 ISO film, seemed like the obvious choice. I've used this film before and gotten beautiful results in locations far less majestic than the Colorado Rockies, so I was confident I'd get some lovely shots.

Unfortunately, the last roll of film I'd put through my camera was a 400 ISO film, and I'd neglected to change my meter settings when I loaded the Pan F+. I only discovered this on the 28th shot, meaning I'd just underexposed almost an entire roll by 3 stops. Specifically, I'd underexposed a 50 ISO film, designed with very little exposure latitude, by 3 stops. I panicked. I was devastated.

After some consoling by my partner, I decided I would do what I could in development to rescue the roll. When I returned home, I commenced my internet research to see what the community had to say about such a predicament. Unsurprisingly, there was very little information about pushing Pan F+, because it's just not something you do. I eventually decided to try out stand development.

Stand development is a development technique in which you mix a very dilute developer solution (I used Iloftec HC at 1:119) and soup the film for quite a long time (anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours) with little-to-no agitation. Agitation usually serves to move fresh developer to the more exposed parts of the film (the highlights), as developer exhausts itself on those parts much faster than in less exposed areas (shadows). So, the idea of stand development is to increase detail in the shadows without blocking out your highlights. Pan F+ is already a very contrasty film, and pushing it by 3 stops would only increase that effect, so I knew I had to do something to control it. The results are the images you see in this post!

Much to my delight, the stand development seems to have done the trick. The highlights aren't blown, and though the dark areas are quite bold and thick, there's still detail there. Some images definitely show increased grain, and the shots taken in the lowest light situations reveal some natural film defects (see below). All in all though, I actually really like the effect I achieved. There's plenty of detail, plenty of punch, and a healthy dose of moody, grainy, filmic strangeness. Hope you enjoyed!