Best BW film for street photography

Nicola Moscelli · Apr 11, 2016

Hi everybody,

I apologize if this topic has been already discussed in the past but I am new to the community and was not able to retrieve a thread related to this.

I have been shooting street photography with film for quite a long while, and right now I have mainly sticked to Kodak T-Max 100 in order to get really fine grain. However I feel the 100 ISO limits the range of possibilities in the street when the available light is not enough and one relies to zone focusing or needs a fast shutter speed in order to capture the moment.

That said, what are in your opinions the black and white films for street photography with a good compromise of ISO sensitivity and fine grain? What are your findings?
Thanks in advance for sharing!

Cheers,
Nico

bvy · Apr 11, 2016

It's going to be a trade-off to some degree. Faster film comes with more grain. Tri-X is probably what you want. In the right developer, you can shoot at box speed and not have thick grain. But it's much more versatile than that, if you're willing to give up the fine grain requirement. For example, you can shoot in a range of lighting conditions and develop in something like Diafine. Or you can rate it at 800 or higher and push-process it. Personally, I like a little grain in my street photography.

Svenedin · Apr 11, 2016

I would use Ilford Delta 400 or Kodak T-Max 400. The grain you get does depend on the developer you use but I use Ilfotech DD-X with Delta 400 (or T-Max) and I have not found grain to be an issue even with considerable enlargements. To my mind even a more traditional emulsion like HP5+ does not have bothersome grain but again the developer has an influence as does personal preference.

JW PHOTO · Apr 11, 2016

Ilford XP2 is very fine grain(actually dye) and flexible in the ISO department, but it's C41 processed. You didn't say whether or not you home-processed your film? Otherwise TMY2 from Kodak should give you what you say you are looking for in a more conventional film.

Ko.Fe. · Apr 11, 2016

Which street photography? Like tripod, release cable and architecture? ISO 100 @50 fine grain film like TMAX, Delta, Acros is the ticket.

Oh, wait, OP is talking about fast shutter and zone focusing. In this case he isn't into film street photography, yet. Where grain is nothing special to be avoid of. Do not treat it like digital.
Read, look and learn about street photographers from the past. Look at two thousands of Winogrand's prints available at on-line archive. Print instead of scanning crap. With scanning grain is ugly, because this is what scanners do, picking up all of the crap, while enlarger gives much less grain and film scratches are not so big problem.
With printing, masters of street where taking it on classic TriX @1000, to have enough DOF and shutter speed 1/1000.
I'm using HP5+ because it has huge latitude, anywhere between 800 and 3200 and it is not scam priced as modern TRIx.

Ilford HP5+ @1200. Agfa Brovira #4 5x7 FB paper print.

Ilford HP5+ @3200. Ilford heavy textured #3 5x7 FB paper print. Sorry, for crappy scan, it is white border on the print, not grey.

NickLimegrove · Apr 11, 2016

The best film for street photography, as for any other application, is going to be the one that you
choose,
buy a huge chunk of (so you don't get tempted to try out anything else),
stick to,
and get to know inside-out until you know, blindly, what to do to it to get the desired results.

Obviously, as has been mentioned, a film with an official EI of 400 might be a good idea. If you feel familiar with the TMax 100 already, you may want to go for the 400 version. Just be sure to do a proper test using your ›street‹ camera and lens to see what should be your ›personal‹ EI.

flavio81 · Apr 11, 2016

Nicola Moscelli said:
Hi everybody,

I apologize if this topic has been already discussed in the past but I am new to the community and was not able to retrieve a thread related to this.

I have been shooting street photography with film for quite a long while, and right now I have mainly sticked to Kodak T-Max 100 in order to get really fine grain. However I feel the 100 ISO limits the range of possibilities in the street when the available light is not enough and one relies to zone focusing or needs a fast shutter speed in order to capture the moment.

That said, what are in your opinions the black and white films for street photography with a good compromise of ISO sensitivity and fine grain? What are your findings?
Thanks in advance for sharing!

Cheers,
Nico

TMAX 400 is as close to a "perfect general purpose film" there is, so try it.
Or you can try Delta 400 as well, which is also a very good film.

Gerald C Koch · Apr 11, 2016

It's street photography. Things are going to be moving and lighting conditions constantly changing. You need Tri-X for its speed and latitude.

John Bragg · Apr 11, 2016

HP5+ gets my vote. Versatile in all sorts of developers and great latitude. That or Tri-X are probably the most forgiving emulsions in existence and there is no wonder that they were beloved by photojournalists.

Sirius Glass · Apr 11, 2016

Gerald C Koch said:
It's street photography. Things are going to be moving and lighting conditions constantly changing. You need Tri-X for its speed and latitude.

John Bragg said:
HP5+ gets my vote. Versatile in all sorts of developers and great latitude. That or Tri-X are probably the most forgiving emulsions in existence and there is no wonder that they were beloved by photojournalists.

Kodak Tri-X and Ilford HP5+ provide the grain and speed needed for necessary film versatility.

Ricardo Miranda · Apr 11, 2016

Fomapan 400
Kentmere 400
A few more options for you.

Tim Layton · Apr 11, 2016

That's easy... Tri-X or HP5+. Both are very flexible and forgiving with exposure and development. It would be helpful if you talked more about your fine grain requirements. Are you creating darkroom prints, scanning and going digital, ?? What are your creative requirements? You want a long tonal scale, open shadows, etc... Make it about your creative vision and then find a film and development combination that meets your creative vision with as few tradeoffs as possible.

Tim

Nicola Moscelli said:
Hi everybody,

I apologize if this topic has been already discussed in the past but I am new to the community and was not able to retrieve a thread related to this.

I have been shooting street photography with film for quite a long while, and right now I have mainly sticked to Kodak T-Max 100 in order to get really fine grain. However I feel the 100 ISO limits the range of possibilities in the street when the available light is not enough and one relies to zone focusing or needs a fast shutter speed in order to capture the moment.

That said, what are in your opinions the black and white films for street photography with a good compromise of ISO sensitivity and fine grain? What are your findings?
Thanks in advance for sharing!

Cheers,
Nico

Peter Schrager · Apr 11, 2016

Find a street photographer you admire. .study their prints. ..see how they did it..simple no??
Stealing is the highest form of flattery...take lots of pictures..develop proof and print yourself. ..try 400 tmy...but you must develop it properly. ..otherwise all the above advice is already great...oh and have fun!!!

Anon Ymous · Apr 12, 2016

If you want fine grain, then TMax400 is the obvious choice, marvelous film.

Fixcinater · Apr 12, 2016

Tmax 400 seems to be what I'd recommend outright but if that's expensive enough to limit you buying/shooting it, get something cheaper and learn how to really get the best results out of whatever you can afford.

darkosaric · Apr 12, 2016

As other already stated: any iso 400 film is good. Important is that you have iso 400 (not iso 50) because you need to have higher shutter speed in many lightning situations. Keep the shutter around 1/125 - 1/250, f stop from f5,6 to f16 and you will be fine . Of course this is a starting point - maybe you want street photos like Titarenko (Dead Link Removed) - in that case you need tripod and some other shutter speeds .

And welcome to APUG !

baachitraka · Apr 12, 2016

May you need to find a developer that don't loose speed.

Anon Ymous · Apr 12, 2016

baachitraka said:
May you need to find a developer that don't loose speed.

D76 and Xtol will give full film speed and are easily obtainable.

baachitraka · Apr 12, 2016

I don't really say it D-76/X-tol gives box speed but it should bring very close to it.

Murray Kelly · Apr 12, 2016

Nicola, greetings to the group. Hope you get what information you asked for. Some here have many years experience.

My immediate thought was Kodak Hawkeye Surveillance film which comes up on the bay from time to time. It is very pliable - look at the Kodak site for development suggestions, and you have film with characteristics mid-way between PlusX and TriX. They don't mention Diafine or Hypercat etc so there are many other possibilities.

I found the long rolls were easy to use for reloading but I don't know if you contemplate doing that.

Good luck with the street photography.

paul ron · Apr 12, 2016

any 400 T grain film is fine for the job. How large are your prints going to be that you are so worried about grain?

Most modern fine grain MF films aren't as grainy as their grandfathers were in the past.

canuhead · Apr 12, 2016

If I'm shooting 'street', grain is the least of my worries. For some, a bit of grain adds to the aesthetic of this kind of work. and another Tri X vote here...

ColColt · Apr 12, 2016

I've always thought an ASA 200 speed film would be ideal but since none exist that I know of, I opted for either Tri-X or HP-5, both do very well with HC-110 for me at ASA 250.

Ricardo Miranda · Apr 12, 2016

ColColt said:
I've always thought an ASA 200 speed film would be ideal but since none exist that I know of

Fomapan 200
Rollei Superpan 200

Now you know.

ColColt · Apr 12, 2016

From what I've read about Fomapan I'd rather stick to Tri-X and HP-5 at ASA 250 instead of having to rate Fomapan at 100 or less.

Best BW film for street photography

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