Film and Developer for MAXIMUM grain ?

[david b]

I am looking to do some photos in the mid-day sun and I am looking for maximum grain.

Where do I start?

 

[clogz]

Fast film and paper developer, I have heard. Never tried this myself.

Hans

 

[Ole]

Monobath processing (developer and fixer in one) gives massive grain - enough to see grain in a contact print from a 5x7" negative. 35mm 400 ISO film, developed in monobath, should be worth a try. I would gave said 3200 ISO film, but not in midday sun!

 

[Markok765]

What about 3200 in rodinal?
you could use ND and colored filters

 

[Ole]

Rodinal gives lots of grain, but it doesn't come close to monobaths!

 

[Peter De Smidt]

TMZ in Dektol.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Tri-X and Dektol is a classic grainy combination. Fomapan 400 and Dektol should be even grainier.

 

[matti]

Doesn't Dektol gives very high contrast? (Never tried it, though.) It might be a problem in mid day sun. What about cropping?

/matti

 

[jim appleyard]

You can also shoot your subject from a more distant spot, shoot with a wide angle lens and then crop the snot out of the image. That always brings out the grain.

3200 film might be too fast for midday sun, unless you put your subject in the shade.

You have lots of options, actually: 3200 film, 400 film, cropping, overdeveloping, Rodinal, Dektol, pushing film, etc.

I would try test rolls if this is something important.

 

[Eric Rose]

Back in the days when we were all trying to be David Hamilton wannabes (except using gals of legal age) Tri-X in Dektol was the trick. That some back light and a chunk of black stocking and you were set LOL.

 

[david b]

Was the black stocking for you?

 

[Gerald Koch]

Doesn't Dektol gives very high contrast? (Never tried it, though.) It might be a problem in mid day sun. What about cropping?

Most people today are unaware that D-72 (Dektol) was originally thought of by Kodak as a universal developer. Developers of this type (Ilford ID-62 is another example) are used as papers developers when diluted 1+2 or 1+3 and as film developers when diluted 1+7 or 1+9. At higher dilution, Dektol will not produce the contrast that it does when used as a paper developer. Usually these universal developers were used with MF and LF films.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Back in the days when we were all trying to be David Hamilton wannabes (except using gals of legal age)...

Dear Eric,

Doesn't that sort of remove the point? A bit like Norman cooking without cream and calvados...

The younger sister of a girlfriend, 30 or so years ago, vouchsafed that she loved Hamilton's work. As she was a more than fitting subject, maybe 14 or 15 years old (as I say, it was decades ago), I lent her a couple of Hamilton books.They turned out to be the last two I bought, for reasons which will become obvious.

Her response is with me to this day: "You see one picture, and you think, wow. The second and third are pretty good too. But by the tenth or twentieth, you're saying, "OK, what else can he do."

And that's why I never shot any Hamilton-style pics...

Cheers,

R.

 

[Black Dog]

Kodak Recording film in Rodinal used to be great, as is Forte 400-print devs as noted above are great though (overexposure also increases grain).

 

[Ole]

Back in the days when we were all trying to be David Hamilton wannabes (except using gals of legal age) ...

Back in the days when I tried to be a David Hamilton wannabe I used girls my own age. No, they weren't legal, but neither was I.

Should I block Marko from seeing this?

 

[Markok765]

Too Late, Ole!

 

[Ole]

Too Late, Ole!

Aaaargh!

 

[MattKing]

The worst grain I can think of was actually colour film. Does anyone remember GAF high speed slide film?

UGH

Matt

 

[Markok765]

Ewww!
I HATE color grain!
But he was asking about Maximum grain.
Ole, I googled that photographer..his photos are blurry

 

[MMfoto]

Grain is easy to achieve in the high speed films. But if you want big grain AND an attractive tonality I would recommend Fortepan 400 developed in Rodinal 1:50, or maybe 1:25, with the latter possibly being very contrasty.

Have fun!

 

[donbga]

The worst grain I can think of was actually colour film. Does anyone remember GAF high speed slide film?

UGH

Matt

GAF high speed color film was a wonderful film, IMO. It had wonderful grain, could have a soft pastel color pallete when exposed for that effect. It was an often misused and misunderstood film. I miss it a lot. Unfortunately all of the slides I made with HS-GAF disappeared years ago in a long distance move.

Sarah Moon's 1972 Pirelli calendar,

Dead Link Removed

is probably the best example available that demostrated the beautiful characteristics of that film.

 

[Stephanie Brim]

TMY pushed in Rodinal is an interesting thing.

Sorry for dirty scan. But you can see what I mean by interesting.

 

[livemoa]

Shoot on 110 film then speed up dev by using a higher temp....

Then crop

 

[Peter De Smidt]

Another idea would be to use FX-1 and a faster film with minimal agitation. This will not only give you very large grain, the grain will be accentuated by pretty massive edge effects. Whether or not this is a good thing, only you can tell.

 

[DBP]

Here's a recipe from the August 1954 issue of Photography:

"...fast pan film...with an exposure index of 500, developed in D-76 with a few drops of Hydram and ten times the normal amount of borax. Developmet time was 30 minutes instead of the normal 17. He enlarged small areas of the negative to boost the grain size still further."

This was just before the introduction of Tri-X, so 'fast pan film' probably meant something like Super XX.