Film/Developer Combination for Portraits

Merg Ross

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I have been asked to do some outdoor (open shade) portraits and was wondering what would be a good choice of film and developer. These will be on 120 black and white. Years ago I used the Beutler formula with Plus-X with good results; also T-Max but can not recall what developer. I was thinking of perhaps HP-5 or something with a similar ASA.

Thanks for any thoughts.
 

fhovie

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Portraits often need finer grain and more contrast - I like a slow film for this - ASA 100 or less will deliver both better expandability and finer grain. I would likely use XTOL or p-cat depending on how much enlargement was required. For less enlargement - the p-cat will have better sharpness and nice tonality. For lots of enlargement, XTOL will be crisp and smooth. Last run with PanF 50 was great but I would not hesitate to use FP4+ or Agfa 100 or Pan X. Developing will need to be for expansion - N+2 maybe. I would opt for semi-stand processing to keep from blowing out the highlights. It makes it easier to get a preferred DR of 1.25 out of a flat 4 stop scene using semistand and as a bonus, more film speed keeps good details in the shadows.
 

Mark Pope

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You could try the following:
HP5 plus, rated at 200, developed in Perceptol 1+2 for 12 minutes at 24 degrees C.
You'll get lovely negatives that are a dream to print.

HTH
 

Thomas Bertilsson

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Tri-X 400 in Pyrocat-HD

This is indoors, but by a window. Tri-X 400 at box speed in Pyrocat-HD.

- Thom
 

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Roger Hicks

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XP2. Stunning in 35mm; even better in 120. Remember that overexposure gives FINER grain.

Cheers,

Roger (www.rogerandfrances.com)
 

raucousimages

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Plus-X or Tri-x (depending on light) in D-76 great classic portrait combo.
 

df cardwell

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If this is a bit different from your normal technique,
I'll second Roger's suggestion, Ilford XP-2.

Use an incident reading, and for safety's sake use half the ISO,
shoot at 200.
 

jim appleyard

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It's hard to go wrong with almost any combo, but I would recommend fill flash. If done properly, it makes the portrait jump off the paper.
 

aldevo

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jim appleyard said:
It's hard to go wrong with almost any combo, but I would recommend fill flash. If done properly, it makes the portrait jump off the paper.
Click to expand...

I'd echo what Jim said; lighting is far more significant than film/developer choice.

Having said that - I'd stay the you-know-what away from Pan-F+, Efke 25 or similar. Too sharp and not smooth enough.
 

George Collier

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I would try FP4 and Pyrocat HD, but on a test subject first to tweak the time. I also did some with 35mm TMax100 in TMax developer, slightly minus developement, they were very nice, and the guy was bald, the shine remained under control!
 

arigram

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I am very happy with Ilford FP4+ and Ilfosol-S and also with HP5+. Next to try PanF+ for portraits.
 

fschifano

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Tri-X 320 (TXP) in either D-76 or XTOL. Man, that's hard to beat - especially if you're going to do the job in medium format film. You might want to add a little bit of fill flash, but maybe not directly head on. Try a few frames with the light angled off to the side and diffused a little bit. You don't want a lot here. About 1/2 stop over the ambient light levels should do the trick nicely.

Stay away from the really slow films for this one. They tend to be too sharp and have too much contrast than faster films. The last thing you want is for all your subject's blemishes to stand out.
 

Ole

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arigram said:
I am very happy with Ilford FP4+ and Ilfosol-S and also with HP5+. Next to try PanF+ for portraits.
Click to expand...

I'm with Aristotelis here. I haven't found any film/developer combination that comes even close to FP4+/Ilfosol-S for portraits.
 

Steve Smith

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Ole said:
I'm with Aristotelis here. I haven't found any film/developer combination that comes even close to FP4+/Ilfosol-S for portraits.
Click to expand...


I'm pleased to read this as I thought I was the only person using Ilfosol S!

It is not usually rated as highly as it deserves to be.


Steve.
 

PepMiro

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HP5+ or FP4+ in Rodinal or XTOL

I attach 2 outdorr portraits without filling flash. First one is done in HP5+ exposed at 400 and developed in Rodinal 1+50, and the second is done in FP4+ exposed at 125 and developed in XTOL 1+1.
In my expirience, XTOL is very good if you want a soft look while Rodinal is better if you need sharpness and contrast.
Otherwise, Both FP4+ and HP5+ are excellent films for portraits. If you don't need to make big prints, HP5+ is my preferred por portaits because it has a little better tonallity.
 

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wfe

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DBP said:
What look are you trying for?
Click to expand...

I will second this question and suggest that you run some tests with various combinations to determine exactly what it is that gives you what you want. Off topic a bit but I would also suggest a reflector to bounce some fill light in and get catch lights in the eyes.

Regards,
Bill
 

catem

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XP2 Super - smooth and creamy
Tri-Ex, Ilford Delta 100 or 400 - punchier, more dramatic
Neopan 400 or 1600 - good range of tones, 'feels' good...
So many ways, film is only a very small part to get the effect you want. I haven't experimented enough with developer to suggest different variations, but Xtol suits all the film I use (as above).
Note about grain - if you use medium format grain is often hardly noticeable anyway, even if you use a 'grainy' film - depends what you want, how you want to shoot etc (i.e. available light or not), how you expose the film (i.e.tonal range you're after)

Cate
 

TheFlyingCamera

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I'd also suggest a chromogenic negative film, but I like Kodak's T400CN. This is an old bias which perhaps I need to revisit, from the early days of XP2 which had a problem with pinholes in the emulsion. For portraits, I'd say shoot the T400CN at 200. For general-purpose, shoot it at 100. Lack of density, as they say, is NOT a problem. However, you'll get negs that even in 35mm will enlarge without showing grain up to 16x20. If possible, shoot the portraits wide open, to have a nice round aperture to give your backgrounds a smooth OOFE (Out-Of-Focus-Effect, aka bokeh).
 
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