Tried pushing Fuji Superia 400 to 1600 and got a grainy mess

I was in Portland last week and wanted to shoot some night street scenes without a tripod, so I pushed my Superia 400 three stops. Developed it myself and the negatives looked thin, the scans came out super grainy with muddy colors. I learned that pushing cheap consumer film just makes it look like garbage, not cool and artistic. Has anyone else had better luck pushing a specific film stock?

2 comments

2 Comments

parkernelson1mo ago

Used to think pushing cheap film was a good way to get that "look" but this experiment straight up wrecked that idea for me. The negatives were so thin I could barely get a decent scan, and the colors looked like someone poured muddy water over the whole thing. Gonna stick with a stop or two max on consumer film from now on.

grant.margaret1mo ago

yeah i tried that once with superia 400 and got the same results, total waste of time honestly. what worked way better for me was pushing ilford hp5 plus to 1600 or even 3200, that stuff actually handles the push like a champ. i shot a whole punk show in a dim basement with hp5 pushed to 1600 and the grain was there but it looked intentional, not like muddy crap. also you gotta really overdevelop it, like add an extra minute or two to the dev time depending on your chems. for color film i've had decent luck with portra 400 pushed to 800 but anything past that and the colors go to hell, so i just stick to b&w if i need the extra speed. what developer were you using?