Downtown Today

With all the comments and questions about HC-110 lately I decided to go downtown today and do some street shooting. I took my M2 and two lens, the 50 f2 and 90 f2.8 Elmarit along with a roll of Tri-X and HP-5 that I rated at 250 due to the contrasty conditions today. I did get some good shots. I quickly saw the need to have had a 35mm lens and in many conditions I wish I had one...next on my agenda.

I'm anxious to try out the HC-110 Dilution H with the HP=5 and see what sort of results I get. I'll probably develop the Tri-X roll in ID-11 1:1. With the new Plustek 8200i scanner I'm chomping at the bits to get the film developed and try out that as well. Should be an interesting evening.

Good luck David and I look forward to seeing your photos. As you know, I like both those emulsions very much and although HP5+ is my favorite, I have shot what seems like miles of Tri-X and have a fondness for it too.

Tri-X and HC-110 seem to me to be a match made in heaven.
Never cared for HP5 in HC-110.

I got one of the rolls developed this afternoon, HP-5 with the Dilution H. I'm not sure if I like it or not and welcome critics. I used 6ml of concentrate with 350ml water, agitated first 15 seconds and three inversion every two minutes thereafter for 10 minutes due to the water temperature being 76 degrees.

some of the shots I liked and others I didn't. Here's a few of them for some eye candy.

This fellow I had seen many times before today. He use to be on the Market Mall area, about 75 yards from the building I worked in, and I hadn't seen him since I retired and wasn't 100% sure it was him...turns out it was. He's the real deal and not out there trying to con anyone. He sells those papers to make money for the rescue mission and to have some pocket money. He told me he and his wife had gotten kicked out of the low income apartment they were in because they couldn't come up with the $25. He said he'd made $5 selling the papers. I asked if if he was kicked out over $25 and he said yes. I gave him $20 and told him to tell his wife, who was on the mall reading a book with all their stuff in rags wondering I'm sure where the would stay tonight. That $25 puts them back in the apartment for another week.

I told him there was a catch to that $20 I gave him...he had to pose for me. He did.

Dntwn+002a by David Fincher, on Flickr

Dntwn+007 by David Fincher, on Flickr

I ran across a couple of former co-workers and after we chatted awhile I got a shot of them close to the entrance of where I once worked.

Dntwn+004ab by David Fincher, on Flickr

Some shots of the Market Mall area...It wasn't hot at 82 degrees but very bright all day.

Dntwn+009a by David Fincher, on Flickr

90 f2.8 Tele-Elmarit wide open.

Dntwn+011a by David Fincher, on Flickr

...and at f4

Dntwn+012a by David Fincher, on Flickr

Dntwn+015a by David Fincher, on Flickr

Nothing looks the same downtown. I have more of the street and building on the Tri-X roll coming up.

Dntwn+010a by David Fincher, on Flickr

Good work David. I like the way it has handled contrasty light with ease. Skin tones look very authentic and pleasing with the newspaper light grey as it should be. I find that this combination produces negatives that have plenty of shadow and highlight detail and are capable of interpretation just how you want them to be. I would be very pleased with these results ! What temperature did you develop at ?

I was a bit surprised at the look of the scans. The Plustek did a great job, much better than the V600. I had to use about 74 degrees for the developing, stop, fix, etc., and wash with what the tap would allow which was 77 degrees. I'm waiting for cooler weather where the tap water will be even colder than 68 degrees and much more manageable.

I have the roll of Tri-X to develop today and think I'll use the same dilution as I did for HP-5 but cut the time back maybe half a minute and not agitate that final few minutes as I did yesterday.

$20 well spent ColColt! If everyone could act as you did...

It was well spent to get someone from having to sleep behind a downtown building and possibly in the rain. No family should have to spend a night like that.

I finished the development of the roll of Tri-X and did so in the same developer/dilution as the HP-5 roll for comparison. Here are a few of them.

DntwnTX+035a by David Fincher, on Flickr

DntwnTX+021a by David Fincher, on Flickr

DntwnTX+019a by David Fincher, on Flickr

DntwnTX+018a by David Fincher, on Flickr

This fellow looks like a mannequin but was for real.

DntwnTX+023a by David Fincher, on Flickr

I talked with this fellow a while and found he was in Viet Nam in 1967-about the same time I was in Germany. I picked a great day to test film for sure. I don't think I could have picked a worse day for contrast.

DntwnTX+031a by David Fincher, on Flickr

You can surely tell how the old Tennessee theater changed over the years. This shot from IIRC, 1983.

img016a by David Fincher, on Flickr

This one shot yesterday from about the same place.

DntwnTX+028a by David Fincher, on Flickr

Once again, good results David. I think the HP5+ is ahead by a nose for my tastes, simply because it handles the contrast better and shows more bite, but that is very marginal. You have confirmed my findings that these films are pretty much interchangable in terms of dev time. I know that HP5+ has less of a shoulder in the curve and perhaps that provides better separation in the highlights ? As I said very close run thing and I would be happy with either.

ColColt said:

I was a bit surprised at the look of the scans. The Plustek did a great job, much better than the V600. I had to use about 74 degrees for the developing, stop, fix, etc., and wash with what the tap would allow which was 77 degrees. I'm waiting for cooler weather where the tap water will be even colder than 68 degrees and much more manageable.

I have the roll of Tri-X to develop today and think I'll use the same dilution as I did for HP-5 but cut the time back maybe half a minute and not agitate that final few minutes as I did yesterday.

Click to expand...

Hi David

Does the HP5+ dry flatter?

Noel

My V600 is better than any Plustek. It scans darkroom prints.

You need to join RFF, great forum for scans shows.

It's a close call but from what I've seen the margin would have to go to HP-5. I think I need to be a bit more aggressive with my sharpening. The negatives looked much sharper with a 10x loupe than those scans. Part of that could be the curl of the negative. The HP-5 negatives do dry flatter. My scanning expertise may be lacking a little as well but the Plustek has an edge over the V600, IMHO for negatives.

Hi David

Thanks
Think you need to shower more then.
Maybe try Kentmere 400?

Noel

Shower? That only happens on Saturday night. I probably will stick to Tri-X, HP-5 and FP-4. Those have been my old standbys for years.

If the second set of pictures is the Tri-X this looks much better to me than the first. When I saw the first and hadn't seen the second at that point the first set looked very grey and lacking in contrast. The second set are somehow "brighter" and I don't mean in the sense of being taken in sunshine

It seems that I am in a minority if I have got the right films in the right order

pentaxuser

I think they look better as well. I haven't been scanning negatives very long so that could have something to do with it. I do much better in the dark room than with the scanner but I'm improving...I think.

David, are you using dust removal software such as ICE ? If so disable it and the scan will be sharper. It works against you by trying to smooth out the grain.

I don't know that VueScan has that feature or not. I know the software that comes with the V600 has it built in but I haven't been impressed with it. The Plustek I just bought is much better for scanning but, I'm still using the VueScan software instead of the SilverFast as I've read it's a real pain.

I only know Silverfast and it works ok for me.

That came with the Plustek scanner...version SE Plus, I think it's called.

ColColt said:

Shower? That only happens on Saturday night. I probably will stick to Tri-X, HP-5 and FP-4. Those have been my old standbys for years.

Click to expand...

Hi David

Not for you - instead to increase the humidity so the film dries slowly
Silver fast is ok.
But you could get your enlarger out of storage?

Noel

A bucket of water under the drying film will raise the humidity.

I dried the roll before this one(Tri-X) in the shower after running it about five minutes. It took longer to dry, of course, but wasn't quite as curly.,

The Besler is still under the stair case in storage. I can't bring myself to bring it out and spend all that time again. I get caught up in there and can spend hours.