It's the combination of film choice, developer choice, exposure (effective EI) and development time.
Ian
What's the best combination you use for low and high contrast scenes?
That's kind of the whole point of adjusting development time. Admittedly, lots of different development times are not needed these days as much as in the past if we are using modern VC papers (or scanning...). Still, for getting extremely flat or contrasty scenes to a place where they print well on an intermediate paper grade, different development times are often the best approach.Adjusting development time only gets one to a different paper grade. If that is what is needed, fine. Otherwise, not needed.
Extending or reducing development time controls contrast, fact. Does the subject brightness range and contrast in a scene affect your film choice?
For example would you choose Ilford xp2+ for a 7 stop sbr high contrast scene or Ilford panf+ for a low contrast 4 stop sbr low contrast scene?
Is it a rule of thumb that low asa films are high contrast and high asa films are low contrast?
Which films do you use for low contrast scenes/ high contrast scenes?
Do you stick with your favourite film that you are familiar with and control contrast by adjusting the development time and exposure?
Do you have the same film loaded in 2 film backs or two camera bodies, one for high, one for low contrast?
How do you approach contrast control?
Are any particular films such as, Fomapan, Rollei,Tmax and panf+50 more contrasty than say Hp5+ ?
My easy rule of thumb:
In a low-conrast scene (cloudy or rainy day) I use low speed film. My favourite is FP4 in XTOL: very nice micro-contrast, tight grain, good separation of mid tones
In a high contrast scene (sunny day) I use a medium speed film; they have a lower contrast than low speed films. My favourites are Delta400 or HP5 (Kodak are too expensive to me), even if I like them less than the FP4. Medium speed films have a greater latitude pose, they can manage high contrast scene more easily than FP4 or other low speed films.
My 2 cents
I use exposure/development time to control contrast, regardless of film choice, and I have many to choose from. Depending on the subject brightness range, I may employ a Pyrocat-HD 2-bath. There are certain films where I'll always use the same developer, Pan F and D-23 1+3, XRAY and Pyrocat-HD 1+1+200, for example they have inherently more contrast.
I do not often choose the contrast of a film for situations. I choose a film that I like or that I want know better. But I do watch the contrast in situations to adapt my development time if necessary. Multigrade paper however is quite forgiving and scanning with digital pp even more.
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