Film / dev combination for big grain in 120

jnanian said:

hi paul

i am not sure what kind of camera you are using but
you can always use a wide angle lens and enlarge the image to
suit your needs. you can also use caffenolc mixed with a little
stock print developer like dektol and under expose your film a little bit
and over develop it a little. i tend to like to over expose my film and over
develop it a little and i get really nice grain with 120 format. not sure how big you want it
but when you start hearing stories about golf ball sized grain using print developer like dektol,
don't believe it. dektol / d72 / ansco 130 will give you a nice smooth toned negative without giant grain.
usually the people who say that dektol or ansco 130 &c are your answers to golf ball sized grain
might not have done what they suggest you to do.
good luck with your experiments !
john

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I was just providing a suggestion, but I shoot TLR, SLR, and Mamiya Universal, I have 4 lens kits for both the Kowa SLR and Mamiya with a 6X9 back. Because of the larger than 35mm negative depending on the size of the print OP intends to a make he.she need golf size grain to make a difference.

hi paul
sorry for the confusion,
i was talking to paul, the OP.
your system sounds nice ...

do you have print examples of the film you got the grain from ?

attached find images from plus x? or tmy processed in dektol
the film was exposed sunny 11 ( a little over exposed/processed normally )
1:6 for about 8ish minutes @ 70ish degrees processed 1 full min 10s/1min
i think this was dektol out of the bag, my self-mixed d72 gives the exact same results

Delta 3200 would have the most grain of any era's 120 film. To accentuate the grain in the print, use a higher contrast paper, or filtration. Like #5. Lith printing also will emphasize the grain.
For maximum grain, use high speed film, small format and lith print. Here is a lith-print Minox.

jnanian said:

hi paul
sorry for the confusion,
i was talking to paul, the OP.
your system sounds nice ...

do you have print examples of the film you got the grain from ?

attached find images from plus x? or tmy processed in dektol
the film was exposed sunny 11 ( a little over exposed/processed normally )
1:6 for about 8ish minutes @ 70ish degrees processed 1 full min 10s/1min
i think this was dektol out of the bag, my self-mixed d72 gives the exact same results

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I would have look over the past 50 or years of prints to find one that I developed for grain, I did a commercial job in the late 70s where the art director wanted a let of semi nudes for ad, do not recall the product, but seem to recall using TriX and developed in diluted Dektol. When i get time I will see if I can find the work prints I made or the negatives and reprint. Modern TriX is much different from TriX from the 70s so will not be much help as examples.

Paul Howell said:

I would have look over the past 50 or years of prints to find one that I developed for grain, I did a commercial job in the late 70s where the art director wanted a let of semi nudes for ad, do not recall the product, but seem to recall using TriX and developed in diluted Dektol. When i get time I will see if I can find the work prints I made or the negatives and reprint. Modern TriX is much different from TriX from the 70s so will not be much help as examples.

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thanks for posting your experience,
i know what you mean about tri x, and i think your suggestion of foma might be the closest thing to old-tri x there is nowadays..

I have always read that you don't develop films in paper developer because it gives you grain the size of golf balls, never tried it myself though.

hi harry

i was always told the same thing but i tried it myself and realized
that it isn't always the case. i first used GAF UNIVERSAL developer which is
a print developer ( i was never able to figure out which of the gas/ansco/agfa developers it was )
and loved it so much that i started to use ansco 130 ( formulary 130 paper developer ) and when i
ran out of $$ and thought i couldn't afford to keep using 130, i started using dektol, first in the pouch
and then mixing d72 myself ... i've used these developers quite a bit and have never gotten golfball grain
that i was warned about ... i used gaf universal in about 1995 or maybe 94 ... and found ansco130 ( thanks jc welch ! )
in the late 1990s or 2000 ... so its been a long stretch.
i've used these things alone in hand tanks,and open trays, hanger/tank, stand developed always similar negatives without massive grain.
also used them with caffenol either as an additive ( 20cc/L ) or as part of a divided developer situation where i develop 1/2 the time in dektol
or ansco130 and half the time in caffenol ... i get grain when i do that sometimes, but it is usually because i massively over expose my film
and / or use film past its expiration date, and maybe not because the developer. i've gotten nice smooth toned film with split developer too ...

hope the OP grabs some of the suggestions offered up and posts some results from his experiments !
( seeing that everyting is a suggestion and often times developing methods, exposure methods, type of light, shutters and fstops all change results )

ymmv

Until Kodak ceased production if you wanted GRAIN you used Royal-X Pan.

I would suggest pushing hp5 in Ilford Microphen for the best com ination of shadow detail and grain.

jeztastic said:

I would suggest pushing hp5 in Ilford Microphen for the best com ination of shadow detail and grain.

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Hp5 in microphen at 1600 in 120 format gave very fine grain, the OP is looking for coarse grain.

I think Delta 3200 is a great suggestion.