Developing Adventures – Pushing Fuji Neopan Acros II 100 to 400

In this Developing Adventure I wanted to try pushing Fuji Neopan Acros II 100 to 400. It was recommended to me by Ted Viera to give it a try. He takes beautiful night pics out in Las Vegas that made me want to give it a go myself. Now I don’t take pictures of anything like the Vegas strip, so I was interested to see if the dramatic look of this film suited my everyday photos.

Developing the Film

I processed these rolls of Acros in Kodak HC-110 dilution B (1+ 31) for 10 minutes and agitated the first minute and then for 5 seconds every minute after.

I don’t think I agitated this roll enough because the development was uneven. There were large stripes of faded areas within the real deep blacks. I don’t think you can see it here, but to describe what I am talking about it looks like when you print black ink on a piece of printer paper and some areas are dry and some aren’t. That is the best way I could describe what I encountered on the roll of 35mm.

My Results with Pushing Fuji Neopan Acros II 100 to 400

This film usually has a wide tonal range allowing for wiggle room when adjusting your exposure in post. For a 100 speed film, that smooth, low contrast look is expected. Therefore, I knew that pushing it to 400 might change that look pretty drastically. In fact, I hoped for it. I personally love that look and I wasn’t dissapointed.

You can see in the two photos below of Kelsey and Frank, that at box speed, this film really is in want of contrast. Pushed to 400, it’s already there. You do lose some of the tonal range, and maybe a tiny bit of detail, but they end up looking like two different films.

Also, I found that the 120 format retained more tonal range when pushed to 400 than the 35mm roll did.

In moderate lighting situations, pushing to 400 holds up pretty well. However, in lower lighting indoors the blacks become very dark, and shadows muddy.

Final Thoughts

This is a really nice film stock that has its own unique features that I really love. The price tag isn’t great, but if you’re looking for that high contrast, dramatic film noir look, it’s worth it. Especially at box speed when it gives you so much ability to adjust exposure, contrast, etc. to your taste in post.

Check out my previous article on shooting this film at box speed here.

Until next time, stay motivated and keep shooting.