Best film for above-negative masking (primarily unsharp)

Thank you Ralph! I love this book!

If you plan on masking color film as well as B&W, you'll need a pan film. I highly recommend TMY 100 sheet film dev in highly dilute HC-110. FP4 would be my second choice. Unless you want to go blind, get a precise punch & register kit.

DREW WILEY said:

If you plan on masking color film as well as B&W, you'll need a pan film. I highly recommend TMY 100 sheet film dev in highly dilute HC-110. FP4 would be my second choice. Unless you want to go blind, get a precise punch & register kit.

Click to expand...

Hey, Drew! Welcome back. We've missed you, buddy. Are you all caught up with the remodeling?

I haven't even gotten to interior remodeling yet. It was a record winter and I'm still doing exterior repair & painting. During the time of the day it's too cold and windy for that (and it sure is today!), I do darkroom sessions, including, yep, masking! There are always new fun tricks to learn.

DREW WILEY said:

...I do darkroom sessions, including, yep, masking! There are always new fun tricks to learn.

Click to expand...

I think I know how you feel, I really hate having big projects to do outside and the weather refuses to cooperate.

Back to masking, I've been thinking of getting into that topic and am researching the mechanics of it, and I'd like to tap into your experience at this point. I'm asking here so others might benefit from your response(s). I’m glad to see that you’ve recommended developing the mask in dilute HC-110, as that’s the one I use all the time.

The big question: Is there any benefit to be seen by masking 5x7 and/or 8x10 negatives in addition to 4x5? Several reasons for asking.
1) Checking out the availability of Ilford Ortho film, I find that it can be had in 4x5 and 8x10 but 5x7 is only made to order.
2) B&H only offers Ilford Ortho in 4x5 and 8x10 (haven’t asked if they’ll do a 5x7 special order).
3) B&H and Freestyle only offer TMAX 100 in 4x5.
4) B&H offers FP4 in 4x5, 5x7 and 8x10; this seems to be the best choice for all three formats.

Lastly, is it possible to somehow use the same punch/register kit for all three formats? How best done?

AT&T dropped cable service here; so all I have is a Dumbphone and need to be brief. Once in awhile clean matched Condit 4x5/5x7 kits come up for sale; but you need the punch, pin glass, and contact frame all to match - originally made all at the same time. 8x10 kits were different. You could have a good machinist make one, but it's hard to find the correct glass. You can obviously get new rigs for 4x5 and smaller work. As far as film goes, if you are a pyro addict like me, you essentially do have a colored original from the pyro stain itself, so a pan film gives you the most flexility over mask manipulation. But I mask a lot of color images too.

I should add that Tmax 100 has the very best sensitometric characteristics for this kind of work, but is rather slick, so riskier for Newton rings, even emulsion to emulsion, so I reserve it for MF and smaller originals where it's finer grain is valuable. For sheet film originals, I prefer FP4, which is more affordable too.