Working the Shot

I tried this several times with my Bronica - my results were mostly blurred. Probably I'm really jittery ... Did he get the shot ?

I never try a shot with MF unless I can do it at 125 or greater with a normal lens. So, how are you liking HC-110 with HP-5?

Fred - at least 1/2 the shots from the roll were blurred. Frank also pointed out the decreased dof w/ the longer MF glass making sharpness a hit or miss affair. I'm sort of resigning myself it'll have to be small format to work w/ people in motion. Although rather masculine looking, I think this lady probably got her shot, but I didn't ask or stop to compare notes. The area she was pointing at wasn't as interesting as her effort & concentration. Col ! I'm a bit conflicted w/ the HC-110. Tones look significantly more flat, needing more contrast, separation. 'Could be dilution H isn't the tip for what I'm chasing, could be HC isn't the hot tip for me. I think the most likely is that yours truly is fouling something up in the process. 'Trying to get precise measurements for dilution, but that could be what I'm failing at. Too many superb shooters get great results, so I'm looking to find & eliminate my error. I'll prob. try a less dilute version for the next roll.

Oh, the determination that face... HiHo, when i don't use Perceptol, due to inconvenience of batch size to films needing developing, i use DDX with my HP5 and FP4, one shot. I have been studying APUG on HC-110 lately and variations on a theme of Paganini, mostly for the "staying power" of HC-110 in bottles being a real waterless syrup. I am still in the one film one developer camp in my stage of maturity of the craft, as the other recent thread expounds on. But it sounds like, given your results, since i know what DDX looks like, i will stick to it. I have now resorted to recycling emptied (not before going in the darkroom, of course) bottles of red vino, spent a few bucks on vac-u-vin to pump air and seal corking, for keeping developer, and now i keep DDX and stock perceptol in evacuated wine bottles, suitably painted and marked (including the rubber stopper cork) and warehoused in a far corner of the house. Mind, developing large format, especially 8x10 which will never be enlarged, i don't have to make some of the same developing trades as MF and 35 users do. So, i can do more aggressive developing for speed/contrast without making grain obnoxious. I already made my trade with working a format that demands high f/stop numbers and slower shutter speeds than i am comfortable with. All i have read says that using HC-110 is the best thing, and most flexible to make developing trades for dealing with the highest and lowest contrasts matched to the paper used in printing. I do not have my enlarger on-line yet, and have failed to get my 8x10 contact prints to come out, so some time in my future may be HC-110. Still ain't no silver grain bullet...

Michael, thx for the tip on DDX. I've really only used D76 in the past & it seems to haul the freight pretty well. I hesitate to try a 3rd dev. just 'cause I want to get more familiar and skilled w/ one. Everyone seems to like HC-110. They're not dumb or unskilled, so I can only guess I'm doing something wrong.

See my comment to After Meet'n about the tones in your HC-110 developed result. Looks terrific to me.