Picking up from my original Provia 100F review, I’m going to talk about how we can experiment with this film and the kinds of results you can expect.

In this article, we’ll be talking about pushing, cross processing and then pushing and cross processing this film, so buckle up and enjoy the ride!
 
 

Experimenting with Provia 100F

If you need the extra speed, Provia 100F will reliably push two stops to EI 400. If you need a lot more light and don’t mind getting an aged effect, you can go ahead and shoot it at EI 800, too. This film won’t fail you very often but you need to be slightly more careful than with Kodak’s E100VS, or E200. Like most slide films, it’s exposure latitude isn’t exactly broad but in my experience, it is more forgiving that Velvia forgiving, especially in strong light.  You’ll have half a stop over or under to make your mistakes.

Like all Fuji film, be a little careful of very high contrast scenes and shooting heavily shaded subjects, as there’s a high chance that your images will be left with a grey-blue haze over them.

Let’s have a quick look at what you can expect from pushing and cross-processing this film.

Pushing Provia 100F

I’ve pushed this film two, three and four stops and was amazed at how well it pushed to EI400 whilst maintaining its fine grain.  At EI 800, surprise, surprise, it failed. More on that later, in the meantime let’s start by taking a look at how it pushes to EI 200:

Not bad.  I decided to average my metering from the darkest to brightest spot.  Although the petals on the foreground cherry blossoms came out a little darker than I wanted, I’m very happy with the results.

It was so tempting to edit the image to get the 45° look I was going for but I guess I’ll just have to get it right next time in real life.
 
Pushing Provia 100F to EI 400

Surprised?  I was. Push this film two stops in good light and it keeps on giving. There’s little loss of detail and the film just feels sharp and crisp.

Here’s the image featured in the main Fuji Provia 100F review. Pushed and overexposed in one shot.  Remarkable results considering this is at the limit of what Fuji recommend for this film.

Pushing Provia 100F to EI 800
Let’s take it a step further and see what happens when we shoot this film at EI 800. This is one stop beyond Fuji’s recommendation and to be honest (SPOILER ALERT), it shows.

Take a look below:

Ignore the TIF preview that came out on the top left of the image above, I was in a rush to complete the article and promise I’ll do better next time.

Shot at EI 800, this film goes a little brown, a little gray and a little “old”.  I won’t be pushing this film to EI 800 very often in the future but it’s good to know I can get these kinds of results.  I kind of like them! My gut tells me that I could probably shoot the film at EI 640 and push process it two stops to get better results.  A warming filter would be even better.

So there you go, Provia 100F at EI 200, 400 and 800 respectively.

Not bad, eh? I’m sure that if I wanted to, I could spend a little time in Photoshop, or Lightroom to make the final example above a little better but it still has some charm in it’s “natural” state.

If you’re stuck, there’s definitely no problem pushing this film to EI 400 (given appropriate light). In fact, I prefer this film pushed to 400 than shooting Provia 400X – more on that hate/hate relationship in a future review.
 

Cross processing Provia 100F

Now we’ve seen how Provia pushes, let’s take a quick look at the results of cross-processing this film in C-41 chemistry (the stuff used for color negative film).

As with all slide films, you get a color-shift when cross-processing and in the case of Provia 100F, it’s a shift to blue/green depending on the light conditions. Shoot expired stock and this effect will become much, much deeper and you might find some pinks and grays along the way.

As I mentioned above, Provia will tend to shift to the blue and green ends of the spectrum, so if you’re shooting a scene bursting with these colors, you’ll see them pop even more.  Just have a look at these:

Already blue boats became azure, the sea becomes turquoise and the trees have turned somewhere between myrtle and teal.

Reds and yellows pop and although the clouds in some shots shifted to the pink/brown, iI like it.

I love cross processing this film.  Its colour-shifts are much more reliable then Velvia (which I’ve had shift blue, red and even orange) but that said, I find myself nearly always processing in E-6, or CR-6 because the results are so natural. 

All done

I’d like to do one more test, pushing this film two stops, as well as cross processing it. I have a feeling it’ll end up going completely blue but the fun is in the doing, right? You can read the original review right here, or take a look at some of the images featured in this guide using the links below.

~ EM

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3 responses to “Experiments: cross processing and push processing Fuji Provia 100F (RDP III)”

  1. I just shot a roll of Provia at a mountain bike race. I stuck to 100 pretty religiously even when 200 or 400 would have been a wiser choice for the shutter speeds I was hoping to use. I have never had solid luck with slide film and losing detail at different exposures due to narrow latitude. A question: Did you meter it for 200, 400, and 800 and then develop accordingly, a.k.a 200 developed at 200, etc… Or, did you shoot it at 100 and then push it in development alone?

  2. I say Yo to Provia Xpro!

 

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